Family visit

This weekend, we had family in town for a visit. Papa & Kari came to see us as well as Adam and family. We had so much fun having family here. One of the highlights was going up to Duke, Jeff's alma mater, to show them around. We went through the gardens, around campus, and to the K-ville. We did a quick basketball tour and got to see the hall of fame (I think that's what it's called) museum there where they feature all of their superstar athletes and accomplishments. Was pretty awesome. We also went over to the track where Jeff spent a lot of his Duke time and the kids ran some laps. (Note: Jeff, I think you have more pix on your phone to add to this post)

More track

More from the track season.

Emily running the mile, playing with the slow motion feature. Good form.

Kids running series

Back with the kids' weekend running series, Aaron ran another 50 yard dash and Emily ran another mile. And Kyle joined this week. Aaron had fun again doing his "speed mission" as he called it. Emily bested her time from the previous week and remained unbeaten in the girls division. Kyle took to the course for the first time this week because soccer was cancelled due to field conditions and came in 2nd to a very fast kid with some height and stride on him (which I think surprised the other kid because in previous races he had been so far out in front of everyone). This has been a great intro to cross country style runs for Kyle and Em. Great job Kyle, Emily & Aaron!

Kyle hot on his heels

The sprint in

Go Em!!

The homestretch

Kyle & Emily track and field

Kyle and Emily had a few more track meets. They had wanted to do the javelin in the first meet, but could only do 2 events so it was the mile and 800. For the rest of the season, they switched to the mile and javelin. And to clarify, the kids use what they call a "turbo javelin" which is basically a much smaller and soft javelin. Yea, could you imagine a bunch of 9 year olds running around with giant spears?!

Emily's javelin

Kyle's javelin

Bike ride

We finally all have bikes now (Kyle's was stolen before we moved, Emily outgrew hers, and we only had 1 adult mountain bike) so we hit the forest for a ride. Well, first, Jeff took Emily & Kyle for a nice ride to test it out. 

We got Aaron in on the action with his Weehoo trailer that we picked up right before we left for San Diego. It. is. AWESOME! He can sit back and pedal and he could even fall asleep if he so chose. And it's 1 wheel versus the other trailers that are 2 and enclosed which would be too difficult to handle on these paths. He loves it. And so do we. Except on uphills because man is it hard to haul an extra 50 pounds (part Aaron, part trailer) uphill on gravel!! It's a beast of a great workout that's for sure! And with the pedal, Aaron can actually help to a small extent. 

Track season has started

Kyle and Emily decided to run track this season after having fun with running at school. In this first track meet, they both decided to run the mile and 800 meters. And both have started off to a successful track season. Kyle set the time to beat in both the mile and 800 for the boys. Em set a great time to work off of with each meet. 

In the first lap. Kyle employs the "go out conservative" start and then just turns it on and gets stronger and stronger as the race goes on. 

Aaron & Emily run

Aaron and Emily started participating in a fun kid running series. Aaron's age group runs a 50 yard dash and Emily's age group runs 1 mile. It's a cute little mob of mini-runners (and unfortunately some parents behaving badly). Regardless, the kids had a lot of fun. The girls mile was certainly a smaller group but Emily enjoyed it and was the rabbit of the group. Great job Em!!

Box

Kyle, Emily & Aaron found an Amazon box that was to go out to recycling and decided that it would be the most fun thing ever. And they proceeded to play with it, draw on it, make a car out of it and who knows what else for hours. Seriously. Yet another example of kids not really needing loads of toys and "stuff" because some days a box is serious entertainment. 

Miko song

Jeff and the kids heard the song "7 years" while we were in San Diego. There is a part of the song that says "my mama told me go make yourself some friends..." Now it is said quickly enough that "me go" sounds a lot like "Miko", Kyle's beloved monkey. So this song is known as the Miko song in our house. And Aaron likes to sing along with it. A little snippet of him singing it in the car.