January Snow Day

 We had snow in the forecast this week which was great news because it's been an unusually dry and warm fall/winter so far.  I was skeptical that we'd get any moisture.  I was pleasantly surprised when the snow started yesterday afternoon and quickly started to accumulate.  The temperature dropped and an email from the school district indicated that today might be a virtual learning day if the weather continued to deteriorate.  Then the state offices closed at 4:00 pm so that we could all get home (that RARELY happens!) and we settled in for a chilly night.  

 

Short hair dogs love fluffy blankets. 

The phone rang at 5:05 a.m. apparently (I slept through it) but Glenn woke me up and I checked the messages and schools were closed for in-person learning but it was time to fire up the Ipads for virtual class.  State offices were open but our agency got permission to work from home for the day.  This level of detail is probably unnecessary so I'll jump ahead to the highlights.  It was like March 2020 again - wheeee!  Reina tackled her classes and needed help from time to time with technology and algebra.  Thankfully she handled her health vocab list on her own (estrogen, pituitary gland, puberty, etc. etc.).  Will was pretty independent but wanted help with a sports marketing project and how can I resist the words sports and marketing?  I squeezed some work into the day but ended up taking some vacation time because it was hard to juggle everything without losing what little bits of sanity I have left.  

We ended up with a good amount of snow (7 to 10 inches in town) and some crazy temperatures - negative 3 this morning and right now it's back in the 30's.  

This girl captures my energy today.  Also, she kept sitting on my laptop whenever I stepped away.  Cold and hungry.  It's me!  

Snow Days

I have to say, I'm a little tired of writing about historic events that we are experiencing from the confinement of our house, but here's another one.  We are digging our way out of the biggest snowstorm our community has experienced since 1979.  We officially had 36 inches of snow from Saturday to Monday.  The kids have Snow Day #3 tomorrow.  Government offices are closed but Glenn and I are working from home.  It's wild to see how much snow is on the ground.  

Reina on top of the pile from cleaning off the driveway. 

Reina sledding down our street before the plow came through.

Will helping Glenn shovel on Monday after the snow started to taper off.

Glenn taking on the sidewalk. He shoveled a path and took on the driveway and then our neighbor came over with his snowblower and helped finish it up.  We are taking him a gift card as soon as we can get out! 

I've had to teach an online class this week so I've missed some of the shoveling and clean-up.  This afternoon, Glenn sent me a message while I was in my class that our grocery store pharmacy was giving out COVID vaccines to anybody who could make it there.  When my class finished up at 3, I put on my snowboots and walked about 2 miles to the store.  On my way there, I kept telling myself not to get my hopes up because there were a lot of people who could easily get to the store because the roads were opening up.  Most of the roads have been plowed but there's just been about an 8 foot wide path cut so only car can get through at a time.  I was able to walk on the road for most of the route, but I did have to slog through some big drifts.  I made it to the store and stood in line behind one other person.  I was handed a clipboard, filled out some information, waited a few more minutes and got my first vaccine.  I knew it was real when the clerk handed me my vaccine passport with a note to come back in April for round 2.  And yes, I got a little teary-eyed.  I'm so glad I can stay healthy and help keep everyone else healthy too.  Even better?  Glenn shoveled a little path to get his truck onto our road and came and picked me up so that I didn't have to walk back home.  It's mostly uphill on the way back so I was happy about that.  Plus, I did a little post-vaccine celebration grocery shopping and stocked up on some items that we were running low on.  All of the roads have been closed in and out of town so store shelves were pretty bare but I grabbed some goodies to tide us over until things open up for good.  

Definitely not Spring yet

We are on the tail end of an epic snowstorm, even by Wyoming standards.  As of about 4 pm today, the National Weather Service reported that we had 30 inches of snow in Cheyenne since yesterday morning.  That's more snow than we've had in a 2-day period since 1979.  Yikes!  At our house, we've lucked out a little bit.  Our power has stayed on so we've had heat and been able to cook.  Glenn shoveled a path for the dogs to go outside and do their (ahem) business.  He also made a path to the chicken coop after I waded through waist deep snow to take them food this morning.  The chicken girls are warm and snug too, and not interested in venturing outside of the coop, thank you very much.  

The dogs, while appreciative of Glenn's hard work, were confused because they usually don't take bio breaks in the front yard.  

Before the shoveling.  

Reina working on a diorama about ancient Japan.  Yes, those are pajamas and yes it was the middle of the afternoon.  Snowy days have different rules.  

The literal calm before the storm. I took this picture Saturday morning.  The storm arrived a little later than forecasted so I took the dogs to the field for one last run to tire them out.  An inordinate amount of my time is spent figuring out how to tire out the dogs.  

School is canceled tomorrow.  Glenn and I don't get a snow day but we do get to work from home.  We'll both probably have to take a little bit of time off to shovel the driveway.  Roads are pretty impassable right now but we'll have to get out eventually.  This moisture will certainly help our drought situation but wowzer, I wouldn't have minded it being spread out over a few more weeks.  

The rest of the month

We had some really cold temperatures last weekend.  At one point before I went to bed on Saturday night, it was -18 and that was without the wind chill.  We made it through with lots of extra blankets for humans and inside pets and hot water bottles in the chicken coop.  The temps have warmed up to normal 20s and 30s this week but we have spring on our minds, even if we have months to go.  

We grow cotton in Wyoming! In February! 

Trigger loves his Glenn. I took this picture on Valentine's Day and thought it was especially fitting. 

Here's the COVID update.  I'm still working from home with chickens who want to come in the house.  Numbers in Wyoming are as low as they've been since last Fall and that's reassuring.  Glenn and I and the kids are still pretty far from getting a vaccine but we're glad that more and more people are getting it.  We were reminded this week that COVID is still an issue when we found out that a few boys from the basketball team are quarantined because of positive tests.  Will isn't quarantined but he sat by one of the boys on the bench the day before the quarantine started but everyone was wearing masks.  I'm keeping a close eye on Will this weekend which he adores (sarcasm.)  He loves when I remark on every cough and sneeze and ask him how he's feeling every few minutes. The team is pretty disciplined at wearing masks during the game and especially on the bench so I'm hopeful that Will is going to be okay.  The end of the season tournament is next weekend so we are all hoping that no other kids get infected and the team can finish out the season.  Will had his best game this week against their cross-town rival.  His team lost but Will made two free throws and played some really good defense.  I didn't scream when he made his free throws which is a win-win for everybody.  

 

Day 128

Has it really been almost a week since I wrote about rotting potatoes?  The next day, I was convinced that I'd lost an entire rotisserie chicken somewhere in the house (it's really not that messy, I promise!).  I'd searched the car a couple of times, check random cupboards and weird places for it to be hiding, but no freshly cooked chicken was found.  On Friday, while driving to Casper for baseball, I had an epiphany that I'd actually left the chicken at the self-checkout at the grocery store. I hope somebody had a delicious lunch.  

Will played a tournament in Casper this weekend.  Reina and I and Grandma H drove up for Friday's games.  Glenn, Will and Pop-pop stayed in Casper for the duration.  Back at home, Reina had a birthday party and a sleepover so I had one of the rarest of the rare events - a night at home ALL BY MYSELF.  As usual, I had big plans but mainly cleaned some random areas in the house, watched murder mysteries, missed everyone and went to bed early.  

Is Frontier Days week without Frontier Days and it feels strange.  I"m glad we aren't dealing with massive crowds and stupid traffic for Cheyenne but it also highlights just how weird everything remains.  I'm still working from home mostly, Glenn is back at the office and we don't have any concrete plans for school.  Baseball winds up in a few weeks and then we await word on football or fall baseball.  

Tonight, Will had a doubleheader starting at 4:00.  Despite storm warnings, it only rained a few drops and was a little windy at times.  Until about 5 minutes before the end of the last game.  You could see the clouds rolling in from the north and they just looked ominous - that weird purplish gray that means something bad is probably going to happen.  We made it to the car just as the big drops started.  We had a little hail but nothing damaging on our side of town.  Other areas were reporting ping-pong sized hail and broken windows.  Oh Cheyenne.  

Day 103

Oh hail no.  

Our Friday afternoon was buzzing along.  Reina was finishing up her week of online art class (so much fun that I signed her up for two more sessions), I was getting work done, Glenn was getting work done, Will was doing who-knows-what and the skies darkened and giant balls of ice fell from the sky.  Okay, so maybe that's slight hyperbole but the hail was big.  Right as it started, I made a mad dash outside to cover my tomato plants with laundry baskets and I got pelted a few times and man it stung.  We stood in the house to watch the storm pass over but it hailed and hailed and hailed.  The size was anywhere from pea to slightly small golf ball but it was relentless.  Somewhere in our county, someone gets a storm like this every summer and I guess it was our turn.  The garden is shredded.  The laundry baskets have holes in them and the tomatoes are no more.  Some of the garden was protected by hail guards but one of those collapsed under the weight of the hail.  The new camper is dented.  But all of those can be fixed, replaced or composted for next year's garden.  We may have to do more shopping at the farmer's market but but with everything that's going on in the world right now, this ain't nothing.  (For the record, these were not the exact words I was saying a few hours ago while I was sobbing (SOBBING) about little baby beets but what can I say, I'm growing.) 

So that rounds out our week.  Will had two nights of baseball and his team went 2-0 the first night and 0-2 the second.  Reina loved her art class.  Glenn and I both had trips to the office but still not plan to go back full time.  Tomorrow we are doing some yard work and then piling everyone into the truck to go to a lake for the afternoon.  Picnics and swimming are just what we need.  

COVID update.  Wyoming's case numbers are up to 1368 but about 1000 of those people have recovered.  That's good  news but unfortunately the numbers keep climbing.  I just read that we might have some new health orders on Monday.  Wear those masks people!  

Day 89

It's been a busy week and most nights I've been too tired to blog about it.  Okay, one night I got super busy watching old murder mysteries on tv....  Let's see - we had crazy cold weather earlier in the week.  Laramie received 8 inches of snow but we didn't get anything beyond a little bit of hail.  It did come pretty close to freezing so we had  cover up all of our plants but it looks like everything survived.  

Will had a baseball scrimmage last night and he came within about 3 feet of hitting an actual over-the-fence homerun.  It was so exciting!  He really smacked the ball.  Next time, that sucker is going over the fence.  He has a double header today and it'll be fun to sit in the warm weather and watch some baseball. 

Reina has been hiking with Aunt Vicky twice this week and had a playdate too.  She and I are reading The Ickabog together at night and I'd say her first week of summer vacation has been pretty good.  She's misplaced her cell phone in our house, which doesn't speak highly of the cleanliness situation but we are making it our mission to track it down this weekend.  (I just zipped through her room and filled up a bag for the trash can while she was hiking shhhhhhhh..... don't say anything!) 

Glenn and I finished up the bathrooms this week.  Just like with all projects, we still need a few finishing touches like towel bars but the project is done!  Okay, we are also waiting on the shower door so we are four sharing the shower in our bathroom but the rest of it is done!  

I'm taking the afternoon off to chauffeur Will to baseball and get my game face on.  Let's bring on the weekend!  

Day 85

Day 85 was another Monday, but at least this time there was no kid schoolwork involved.  I'm working on a project to collect resources for people who are very stressed and even suicidal so my work life has been a little heavy lately.  I did have kids coming in from time to time to ask about snacks, lunch options, how much more electronic time they had and hey-mom-check-out-this-dance-I-just-made so those were nice diversions. 

Will is digging school being out and he finds ways to stay occupied during the day (watching old sports highlights, reading about sports, looking up statistics about sports and practicing sports in the backyard.)  Reina is a little tougher. Once she ran out of electronic time today, she was as the kids say "all up in my business" or my little 'butt barnacle' as I fondly refer to her during quarantine.  I suggested art projects, reading, cleaning her room (oh mom, you are so funny) and she finally agreed to spending some time playing with my make-up and drawing.  I'll sacrifice a few eyeliner pencils if it means I get 30 minutes of total silence.  She spent her time drawing the character Cher from Clueless, a bonafide teen movie that she watched with her big cousin last week.  Since Clueless is in fact based on the Jane Austen book Emma and it's also one of my favorite 90's movies, this is a project that I can fully support.    

We had a good old fashioned busy (but lovely) weekend.  We got to watch Will play his first baseball games. He had some good hits and drove in a few runs.  When he was playing third, he had a liner glance off his glove and bonk his head but he bounced back up and stayed in the game.  I did not run on to the field after he hit the ground and I'm not sure he fully appreciates my restraint.  I did ask Glenn and the other people around us "did that hit his head" about 50 times but he's fine. The coaches and umps checked him out thoroughly and while he didn't appreciate me gazing at his pupils the rest of the day, he felt fine.  At the ballpark, ti was fun to watch some games with the grandparents in attendance and little cousins running around.  It felt like summer - especially when the weather went from chilly, to sunscreen, back to chilly and get out the umbrella.  Oh Wyoming.  (It's 37 degrees as I type this and so far we've had rain and hail tonight.  There's snow on the summit but let's hope it stays there.) 

Reina is back at dance class a few days a week, with social distancing and mask wearing.  She had a class on Saturday morning and then she played with the cousins during baseball. In the afternoon, she went to a little birthday for our neighbor's granddaughter.  She and Reina play about once a week and on Saturday, the other grandkids were there too so Reina had a gang of girls to run around the backyard with, it was good for her mental health and they all get along well.  

One of our on-going projects lately has been to paint the vanities in the kids' bathrooms.  We spent a big chunk of Sunday getting that done and hanging up new light fixtures.  I'm happy to report that Glenn and I did that (it was mostly Glenn) without arguing or electrocuting anything.  Victories! 

Besides tonight's hail, this has been a good start to another week.  

Post-Holiday weekend

I'm at the stage of Christmas break where I'm not quite sure what day of the week it is but I do get to sort-of sleep in tomorrow because I'm taking the day off and that's all I know.  Oh and Wyoming plays in a bowl game tomorrow so it must be Monday.  Reina asked me how many more days of vacation she had left and she still has six.  SIX DAYS! 

Our weekend was a hodgepodge of fun activities and chores and winter-y weather.  On Saturday, Glenn went duck hunting, Will had batting practice and I baked a bunch of cookies for church.  The weather was frightful so it was a nice day to stay in.  Reina beat me in several games of Trouble - her new favorite. 

On Sunday, the weather cleared up a little bit and Will and I headed down to Denver for the last Broncos game of the season.  We (mostly) took Glenn's advice and bundled up in snowpants and carhartts so we stayed warm.  Will decided to forego his snowboots and his feet got pretty cold.  He's going to love that memorialized that little tidbit on the blog.  The Broncos won, we had fun. 

Obligatory mom/son selfie

 Today, we made hamburger out of the moose, elk and antelope that Glenn and Will shot this hunting season.  It was a long day of meat grinding but we got it all done.  It's nice to start the new year off with a freezer full of meat ready for dinner. 

Glenn had a little stalker checking out his handiwork.  

Sick days and snow days

We've had a wild week at the Pauley household.  (How many times have I started a blog post with that sentence?)  Last Wednesday as I was getting ready to head to Laramie for a presentation, I had a call from the school nurse.  Reina had a sore throat and wanted to come home. I zipped over to pick her up, took her home, went to Laramie, gave my presentation and drove home in the snow.  Glenn was keeping an eye on her.  She didn't have a fever so I thought maybe she was just having an off day.  About 10:30 pm, she barfed.  I thought "well maybe it's just the pain medicine I gave her that upset her stomach."  And then she barfed again and again and again until 8:00 a.m.  She's usually very stoic about being sick but this one hit her hard.  I would doze off only to be woken up by "MOM I NEED YOU I BARFED" many times. I should clarify, I'm happy to be there for her and I know these days won't last forever but boy did we both need some sleep when morning came.  Long story short, she had all of the symptoms of influenza or strep but she'd just had the flu shot and the strep test was negative and she slowly started to feel better.  So far, no one else in the house has caught it and we are hoping it stays that way. 

The day after Reina came home sick, Glenn had to endure one of those events that happens when you turn 50.  The big colonoscopy. I think it's safe to say that the days leading up to the test were harder on him than the actual procedure.  As someone who likes multiple fruits and veggies every day, being on a low fiber diet was tough.  The last 24-hours when he could only drink clear broth were even more brutal.  I knew he was hungry when he picked giant burgers for dinner the night after his colonoscopy.  He's happy to report that all of the tests came back normal and his dr (supposedly) told him that Glenn had the cleanest, most magnificent colon he'd ever seen. 

Yesterday, the weather took a turn and we started to get quite a bit of snow.  As I was driving home from work, I had a call from the school - this time with the automated news that classes were canceled for today.  There was much rejoicing from the younger members of the household who know get a 6-day break for Thanksgiving.  Just when I was wondering how I would juggle my work day and their extra day off, I received a text saying that State Offices were also closed.  I didn't necessary 'rejoice' but I was happy to not burn a vacation day.  Glenn was already sleep so he didn't find out the exciting news until 6 a.m. 

We had a fun snow day.  Glenn and I did some extra chores.  Reina played with a girl next door.  Will ventured outside for some fun in the snow and we all watched a movie.  It was a nice relaxing way to kick off this fun week. 

We built a Lego gingerbread house for Christmas decorations this year.  I mostly put it together but Will helped with the tricky parts.  At one point, I couldn't figure out where a piece was supposed to go and Will took a look at it and told me in a serious voice, "wow Mom, these really are big boy Legos." 

The snow out our front door this morning.  

The dogs' idea of a perfect snow day

Soxy's too 

Out big kid laying face down in a snow drift.  He wanted to jump off of that shed but Glenn put the kibosh on that before I even heard of the plans.  Phew.  

Reason #350 why this isn't a food blog

While finishing up dinner tonight, Glenn pointed out that just about everything in the soup pot was something that we had harvested.  With the exception of one Yukon gold potato, the carrots, onions, purple potatoes, tomatoes and moose meat were either from our garden or from Glenn's recent hunt.  Okay, the salt and spices were from the cupboard because we aren't that hardcore (yet?). 

Moose stew - by all accounts, it was delicious!  My food photography on the other hand.... 

This year, we had a lot of gardening ventures happening.  Besides our shared plot at the community garden, we also carved out more space in our backyard for a raised bed.  We had pots of peppers and tomatoes, too.  The community garden was one of the best ones we've had.  We had more cucumbers than we could handle, spaghetti squash, potatoes, beans, peppers, peas and tomatoes.  Oh and beets!  At home, we grew pumpkins, more cucumbers, beets, onions, carrots, two cabbages and one magnificent kohlrabi.  Our summer started off extra chilly but we had good moisture and heat as the summer wore on.  We finally hard our first frost last week, so the season is officially done.  

Pie pumpkins - I think they are called Connecticut field pumpkins?  They went crazy in our small spot.  Any that grew outside of the fence became victims of our curious chickens.  

I didn't thin the carrots and so I ended up with a bowl of pinky-sized carrots.  They are really sweet and crunchy but have a slightly-disturbing finger vibe. 

 I should clarify that while the gardening season is done outside, inside the house, we are still working away.  Vicky and I picked these tomatoes (and more!) a few days before the frost and brought them in to try to ripen.  Vicky has at least half this much at her house.  These are more tomatoes than we've ever grown but we needed just a few more weeks to get them ripe.  I checked on mine today and some are starting to ripen but I'm also looking at recipes for green tomato pickles.  Yum? 

Baseball season again

I'm so behind on posting.  I took these pictures almost a month ago.  Notice the long sleeves and warm jackets?  In Wyoming, that could realistically be any night of the summer but the first few weeks of the season were particularly chilly.  Chilly enough to turn on the seat warmers when we got back to the car and fought over who got the first warm shower when we got home.  Will is having a really good baseball season.  This is his last year in CJL - next year he wants to try out for a travel team or he'll move across the street to the Babe Ruth League.  We have loved watching him play baseball. 

Lined up for the National Anthem - Glenn has been helping coach this season too. 

My friend came out to take some professional pictures of Will but in the meantime, here's my shot through the fence.  

I might've told him to smile.  

Getting ready to pitch. 

The baseball season wraps up next week with a single elimination tournament.  We've had more rainouts this year than in previous seasons and I've yet to be at a game and feel too hot.  What a weird summer. 

Snow Day #2

For the first time in decades, we had another snow day!  The sun came out but we have at least 14 inches of snow on the ground and the wind is still blowing so everything is shut down.  Here's a lazy blogger's recap of the day. 

Will needed a pie for school today because it's PI day (3.14) and he doesn't like regular pie so I found a recipe for a chocolate chip pie.  It looks less than edible but hopefully it tastes good! 

Trigger is feeling much better and he takes a lovely selfie.

We were all out shoveling and didn't want Coco to miss out on the fun.  She stood on the porch for about 15 seconds before she wanted to go back inside. 

I call this The Reluctant Shoveler.

Less shoveling and more climbing on the giant snow pile.

He asked me to take this picture.  Reina was outside too, but she managed to avoid the camera. 

Glenn wearing a neck warmer on his head instead of a stocking cap because why not.  While I was on a work call inside, one of our neighbors offered Glenn their snowblower and Glenn TURNED HIM DOWN.  When I came outside, I had no qualms in asking to borrow it back.  Glenn wants me to memorialize that he was trying to build character for our kids.  I was hoping to not spend all day shoveling the driveway.  Plus, I'd never used a snowblower before and it was quite fun! 

The view to the chicken coop.  Our girls are warm and dry inside the hen house. 

Inside the coop it looks very disaster-movie-ish.

Glenn shoveled everything out because he is a good chicken Dad. 

The front walk after reluctant shoveling, the neighbor's snowblower, Glenn's brawn and a little bit of sunshine. 

Back to work tomorrow, which most of us are happy about. 

Snow Day

For the first time since I think ... 2009?  we all had a snow day.  Schools have been canceled a handful of times over the years but the State rarely shut down.  Glenn or I would usually have to take a vacation day to stay home with kiddos in the snow.  When I picked up the kids from school yesterday, the temperature was near 50 and the sun was shining when my phone rang announcing the closure for the next day (today) because of an expected blizzard.  When Glenn and I woke up this morning, it had been raining on and off all night but there wasn't a hint of snow on the ground.  I came downstairs to check my phone and to my surprise, there was a text message announcing that state offices were closed.  Almost simultaneously, the snow started falling and the wind started howling.  It is blizzard city around here.  

The view from the phone window.  We've rarely had snow build up on the windows like this.  

The view from the back window.  We have some crazy drifts in the backyard and it's still snowing.  

 Glenn snuck in to work for a few hours this morning.  I had a nice leisurely jog on the treadmill, did some work online, watched old mystery tv shows with Reina, watched another Hunger Games movie with Will, cooked, baked, cleaned up the kitchen, got our taxes ready for the accountant and watched basketball. 

Will needed a pie for school tomorrow (3.14 day).  He doesn't like regular pie so I found a recipe for a chocolate chip pie.  Yum!  Hopefully! 

A few minutes ago, we got another message that school is cancelled tomorrow also. I feel like I ran through all of my fun activities for the kiddos today.  Tomorrow I'm strapping them to the treadmill to burn off some energy.  Maybe they'll learn cursive.  Stay tuned. 

A few weeks ago

I've had these photos sitting in my draft folder for a few weeks now and I have a bunch of new football photos to upload so the October theme of the blog is FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL and also Reina's Halloween costume. 

Will's last regular season game was a few Wednesday's ago, on one of the high school fields under the lights.  It was a lot of fun.  Will had a good game and the team won.  It was also cold enough to be an adventure but not so cold that it was painful. 

Will's out there somewhere. 

Post-game dancing.  

Listening to the last post-game speech from the coach.  Look how old that kid looks!  

Slow down time, just slow down a little bit.  

That weekend we also had our first snow of the season and it wasn't just a skiff.  It felt strange dusting off the snow shovels when I still had blooming flower pots but that's Wyoming for you.  

It was cold enough for all three pets to sorta snuggle up on the same bed for an extended period of time.  

So that was an earlier October weekend.  Since then, we've had a little bit more football, some hunting for Glenn, lots of work on Reina's Halloween project (to be unveiled soon) and a bunch of other stuff.  Party, party, party!

Will's Track Meet or a Bunch of Pictures of Will Looking Serious

Last week, on a gorgeous sunny Tuesday, Will had his school track meet.  Last year's meet was one of those days were it started off sunny and then got colder quickly and I was woefully under dressed and unprepared.  This year, I packed everything from hats to windbreakers to sunscreen and it actually got a little toasty.  But enough about my comfort.  Let's talk about our track kid. 

Will did three events again this year - a relay, hurdles and the long jump.  His relay was up first.  

Will was the first leg of the relay and here he's getting ready to run.  

Still getting ready to run....

Totally waiting for the starting gun.  Will ran a great leg and his team got second place.  It was very exciting!  

Next up was the hurdles.  This is my least favorite event to watch because of all of the jumping and chances of tripping and bonking beautiful faces and heads on the track.  So there are no action shots here either.  Just Will looking pensive and ready to hurdle stuff. 

The boys ran in heats and Will's was up third.  

Waiting for the starting gun.  Will won his heat and finished seventh overall!  

The last event was the long jump.  Will was looking forward to this event - he'd been practicing it a lot at school. I'm just amazed that a descendant of mine can jump - either forward or high.  He wasn't happy with his score - he ended up 7th.  His first jump was his best but he had better scores during practice. I think this will be one event that he'll be itching to try again next year. 

Waiting in line and getting ready to glare at me and send a silent message of 'stop taking my picture Mom.'  

It was a great way to spend a Tuesday. I love watching my kids have fun and compete - even when their competitiveness is even more than I can handle.  Net year, I'll get to watch both of them in track.  I'm already looking forward to it!