Track meets and soccer games

Alex had her first track meet last week at Nooksack.  She competed against Lynden & Nooksack.  She had an amazing first meet.  She does the 800m, the 1600m, and the 4x200m relay.

There are not a lot of girls that participate in the longer runs, but she loves them!  That also means there is not a lot of competition.  In the 800m, there was only three girls.  Her coach told her to pace with the Lynden girl and then pass her in the last lap and sprint to the finish.  After the race was over, she told her coach, "Well, that was a nice warm up run!  The Lynden girl was so slow!"   

She came in first with a time of 2:48.  She is going to try and get 2:35 in her next meet (tomorrow).  

In the 1600m there were only 4 girls running so they got to run with the girls.  Alex doesn't like that because the 4x200 relay is RIGHT after the 1600m and she gets a little tired doing the two back to back.  However, she loves them both and keeps doing them!  She does love running with the boys because it gives her some competition and makes her run faster!

She especially loves it when she beats the boys! :)

Coming in first for girls with a mile time of 6:16!  Not her personal best, but very close! Her goal this year is a 6 min mile.  I know she can do it!

This is her relay team.  They are amazing!  They came in first.  They have great handoffs and Alex and Paige have amazing speed.  Alex runs the third leg and catches up to the first place team and then Paige runs the final leg and passes everybody to come in first.  So much fun to watch!

The second meet was at Blaine (last night!)  

This is Alex coming in first for the 800m.  She didn't try very hard, but she said that at Thursdays meet, she is going to try for a 2:35 800m.  I am excited to see if she can!

I love this one of the start of the 1600m.  I love that I caught the smoke from the starting gun.

Again, there was only one other girl so they ran with the boys.

The two Vista boys in front of Alex are pretty fast and she kept pace with them the whole time!  

This is the final lap and they pulled ahead a little bit, but she didn't give up!

It was a photo finish!!  The Blaine boy was not about to get beat by a girl and gave it his best shot.  (Alex did beat him by .02 seconds but he went in front of her anyway.  She let him because they were so close and she still came in first for girls and he was still 3rd for boys and it was so close!  If it was a girl behind her, she said she would have run faster to make sure she beat her!)

She finished with a time of 6:03!!!  She almost beat her goal!  She is going to try to beat 6 min tomorrow.

This is the hand off during the relay

She came from far back to pass this girl and the girl in front of her.  She caught the team up and handed off to Paige and Paige ran like the wind to get even farther ahead.  They came in first with a time of 2:05!  The record they want to beat is 2:02.  We shall see what happens on Thursday!!

Now for the soccer!!

GU14 Blue Rangers April 2014

This is the before the game shot.  They are in the Challenge Cup.  They played four game and the teams with the highest points goes to the quarter finals.  They made it!  This was the quarter final game.  It was a nail biter!  Each team wants to win to advance to the semi finals and both teams played so good!

The other team had a corner kick and if you look closely, you can see that Alex blocked the ball with her head.  Actually, it was with the side of her face! OUCH!!  Our goalie was ready for the ball in case Alex missed it, but she knocked it out of the way!

As a defender, Alex does the throw ins.  I love her expression in this picture as she is telling her team to get into position and open up for her to throw the ball.

I love watching her play.  She has such intensity and determination.  And she sticks out her tongue! :)

The game was tied 0-0 at the end.  Since it was a quarter final and the winning team advances, there had to be a winner.  So......overtime!  They played 20 min of overtime.  They played 10 min, switched sides and played 10 more min.  At the end of overtime the score was still tied 0-0.  There still has to be a winner, so that means the dreaded PKs!! 

 They are so stressful to watch and even more stressful for the players and the goalies!  

Our goalie made some amazing saves!  Each team gets 5 shots.  Only the players on the field at the end of the game get to participate.  They line up according to who gets the first shot, second shot, etc.  If after the five shots are taken and they are still tied, they let the sixth person shoot and then the seventh, until there is a winner.  Thankfully, we didn't have to go that far.  

Alex was number 6 in line.  She is watching and praying that Jordyn makes her shot and we win and she doesn't have to shoot!

I love this shot!  Right after Jordyn made the shot and we WON 4-3!!!!!  all the girls ran up to her laughing and hugging her!  And then they did it to the goalie too!  It was an amazing game!!  This means they go the the semi finals this weekend (Sat) and then if they win that the finals are on Sun.  It will be a busy weekend for sure, but also exciting!

This is the team picture I took after the won the game!  I love that they are so excited and happy!

Go Rangers!!

The tulip pictures

Here are some of the pictures from our tulip adventure!

I think this is my favorite picture of the two of them.  I love the colors and the smiles!  I didn't even have to bribe them to like each other!!  We had such a fun day.  The girls were patient with me and my camera. :)  They didn't whine and ask to leave.  They kept posing when asked.  Great day!!  (OK, I may have bribed them a little!  I told them that we would go to Red Robin after the tulips!  We did have to have dinner!)

The tulips were beautiful!

We love this frog!  We always get our picture taken with the frog.  It wouldn't be a trip to the tulips without the frog picture!

On our way out of the garden, I was looking at this very cool tree.  I loved the crooked branches and the moss growing all over it.  As I looked up toward the top, I saw tulips growing out of the tree!!

This is my second favorite of the two of them.  I call it "Texting in the Tulips"

They also had all of these fields of daffodils and there were random tulips scattered throughout.

Tulips!

We made it to the tulip fields today!!  I wasn't sure if we were going to make it today because of the weather, but we went for it anyway! 

(These were taken with my phone.  I haven't taken the other pictures of my camera yet.)

The weather was overcast (which is great for pictures!) and windy (which is not great for the hairdos!) and it was a little bit chilly.  There were quite a bit of people, even for a yucky day, but not a ton like it would have been on sunny day.  Last weekend we drove by on our way to soccer and the traffic was TERRIBLE!!!  There was hardly any traffic.  The tulips were beautiful.  So many pretty colors, I am excited to see how my pictures turned out! :)

After our tulip tour, we went to Red Robin to warm up and eat dinner.  Yummy food!  The girls splurged and Alex had a freckled lemonade and McKenzie had a root beer float! 

After we came out of the restaurant, it was POURING rain.  We timed our day just right!!

We had a great day and had a ton of fun.  

Knock knock jokes & brain teasers

Tonight when the girls and I were in the livingroom (they were doing homework (sort of) and I was working on my computer) McKenzie found some brain teasers and knock knock jokes.  No, that was not part of her homework!

Q:  What do you get when you eat yeast and shoe polish?

A:  When you wake up, you rise and shine!

We got to laughing so hard, we were all crying!

Q: What do you call a fake noodle?

A:  An Im-pasta!

****

Q: What always goes up, but never comes down?

A: Your age

****

Q: What has a head, a foot, and four legs?

A: A bed

****
Q: What is the longest word in the dictionary?

A: Smiles.  It has a mile between each S.  :)

***

Q:  What do you call a guy who doesn't fart in public?

A:  A private tooter.

McKenzie had a whole list of them and we read them for about 20 minutes!  It was even funnier when she read the joke wrong or forgot to read the punchline! :)  We had such a good time!

In other news...

I am getting closer with my pictures.  I am in 2013 photos now, I have finished with the 2012 photos.  I have also finished two more games and uploaded them to share with the other parents.

Easter is Sunday!!  I can't believe it is almost here!  I knew it was going to be near the end of April, but since April JUST started, I knew it was still a long way away.  But...nope!  It is on Sunday.  The girls were asking what we are doing this year and I think we are going to stay home and just not go anywhere or do anything.  There is no soccer because of it being Easter (yeah!!)  and I have sooo much I want to get done here at home.  I am hoping for nice weather to get some outside work done, but I have lots of inside work to do if the weather is not nice.  I will hide some eggs for the girls to find (I have tons!!) and we may pop over to see Alyssa and family if they are home, but I think not going anywhere sounds good!

Off to bed!  Long day tomorrow.

Busy soccer weekend and hanging out with the grandkids!

The weather this weekend was fantabulous!!  Sunday was the nicer of the two, but Saturday was also beautiful.  We went to Renton on Saturday for Alex's soccer game.  They ended up with a tie (0-0).  We played better than the other team and had control of the ball more, we just couldn't put it in the net.   We ended up with three ties and a shutout win, which still gives us enough points to move on to the quarter finals.  I am not sure where we play, but the game will be on the 26th.  All of my pictures are still on my camera from the weekend games, but I will get them done soon.

McKenzie played today.  It was a home game and they lost.  They played Seattle United (who were very good!) and they fought very hard and did very well against them.  Our goalie had an own goal to give Seattle their first point, and then she let three more go right by her without even trying to stop them in the next 3 min.  Thankfully it was then half time and they got a chance to get a pep talk and regroup.  They played the next half really well again only giving up 2 goals for a final score of 6-0.  They have one more game (on the 26th) and then their season will be done.

This is the before and after picture of my front yard.  It was getting a little long :)  It seems to go from a little long to super long overnight.  When we left for soccer yesterday, our whole neighborhood had long grass.  Apparently they also had a lawn mowing party, because when I came home last night, all the lawns were nice and short except for mine!  I ran to the gas station to get gas for the mower, but it was too late last night to mow.  After we came home from McKenzie's game though...I mowed it all down!

Such long grass!!

Now to keep up on it!  It grows so quickly during the spring and the first part of summer, with the sun/rain/sun/rain that we have.  Once July hits, it usually turns brown and I only have to mow the weeds down a little bit.  The problem I had with mowing the yard and having my grass all nice and short is that now my flower/weed beds look terrible!!  Another project for another day! :)

Ryan and Maximus!  

Ryan just loves his kitty! (yes, Maximus is asking to get down!)

Alyssa and Richard had softball practice tonight so I got to hang out with these cuties tonight!  McKenzie came with me to hang out with them and Alexandra went to youth group with some friends.  

We played with chalk in the driveway.  Rode scooters.

We went for a walk and found noisy things to jump on.

We came back to the house for a juice break and I couldn't resist taking a picture of Maximus all curled up on the chair.  It looked like he was posing! :)

We went for another walk.  Aiden rode his skateboard for a little while.  (yes, he did go get his helmet!)

The dirt pile.  Boys and dirt.  Cars, rocks, sticks, and dirt.  Very happy little boys played here for about 20 minutes.  They loved every minute of it.  The only reason they left was for a water break!

I love it when they play nice together!

We also found a house that hasn't mowed their beautiful yellow flowers.  It made these two very happy!

Aiden loved to throw rocks over the fence into the water down below.  He was a pretty good shot!  I was surprised at how far he could throw.

It was a great weekend.  Lots of sun and fun.  (We even got a little sunburned this weekend!)  Time to stock up on the sunscreen again!  AND rememeber to put it on!!!

Off to get ready for the week ahead!

Thursday

This week has just flown by!  I can't believe that tomorrow is Friday already.  We have been so busy.

Alex during hurdles last year

Alex started track on Monday.  She is doing the 800m, 1600m and possibly the 4x200 relay.  They might have to do the 4x100 relay instead, but she wants to do the 4x200.  They had a great relay team last year, but two of the girls are not participating this year.  One is not doing track this season, she is doing basketball and soccer, the other got transferred to Horizon.  Alex and Paige are still doing it and they have two new girls joining them.  It will be fun to see how this team does.

Her coach wants her to do the long jump, but she is not sure she wants to.  Her coach told her she would be great at it because she has powerful legs and could jump far.  She said jumping hurts her knees and ankles.  I guess we just have to wait until the first track meet to see who wins that argument! :) (Personally, I think she would be fabulous at the long jump!  Her leg strength is amazing!!)

Beautiful sunrise picture from fall 2013

McKenzie is still just doing soccer.  She informed me the other night that she will never, ever, ever do school sports.  EVER. Not going to happen.  I told her it was required by law and she had to pick at least one after school sport to participate in.  She only believe me for a second.  ;)  I did say that she might want to try middle school soccer next year, but she is pretty set on not ever, ever doing school sports.

This Saturday we are going down to Renton for Alex's soccer game.  Right now they are in first place in their flight for the Challenge Cup.  The team they are playing on Saturday is in last placed in their flight (out of 5 teams)  The top two teams from each flight will go on to the quarter finals.

Mt Baker - fall 2013

Sunday will be McKenzie's game.  They have a home game at Civic.  Yeah!  I love close to home games! :)

I still have to get ready for this weekend.  I am driving a van load of girls down to the game (the more the merrier!) and I have to figure out when to leave, what order to pick up girls, what snacks to bring, when to fill up on gas (probably Friday night!) and where I lost my mind! ;)  Also don't forget the camera and make sure the battery is charged and the card is empty.  We are also having a team lunch/treat, so I have to figure out that too!

I hope you enjoy the random pictures I posted!  I have been going through all the photos on my computer.  I am trying to condense, upload, delete, and sort all the pictures on my computer.  HUGE job!  I always say I am going to keep up on it, but I always let it slip.  I promise that THIS time, I will keep up on it!  As soon as I get caught up! ;)

Sunday - A day of rest

Today is a day of rest.  We are catching up on homework (the girls (actually Alex!)) catching up on housework, planning meals for the week, and I am still going through my photos.  The photos are a never ending job!!  I am trying to find a better system for my photos and keep up with it.  

These are from about 4 years ago when Aiden was a baby.  I think that was the last time we went.  I know it has been awhile.  I remember one year was so rainy that we never made it.  A couple of years we had so many soccer conflicts, that we never made it then either.  I am hopeful that this year we will get a chance and the weather will cooperate with us.  

My little family :)

Alyssa with her new mommy yawn! :)

Aiden :)

I love all the colors of the tulips in the fields.  They make beautiful backgrounds in pictures and they are gorgeous to photograph by themselves.  I have been playing around with manual settings on my camera these last couple weeks.  I am getting more keepers than not.  I am still deleting a ton of photos that are not turning out how I want, but I am keeping more and more each time!  I am hoping to be able to post some this week, but I still have a ton of photos to go through on my computer first.

I am off to enjoy the last few hours of Spring Break!  I may even mow my lawn :)