At the Races

We spent this week at the races.  First up was the Raingutter Regatta at our local cub scout pack meeting.  I'm almost old enough to be a cub scout.  But mom gets to work with the cub scouts now and so she invited us to race in the regatta in the "friends and family" bracket.  Dad helped us build our boats, we decorated them, and dad came along to help and watch.  Here I am racing my boat.  

Here's Sam racing.  We had one other friend in our bracket.  He was fun to race with.  

I won first place and Sam won second place.  I also got an award for "best sail".  We had so much fun!!  We can't wait to be cub scouts!

Then on Saturday it was the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival 1 Mile Kids Run.  The race was happening rain or shine, and sure enough it was a nice rainy day.  We actually quite enjoyed running in the rain.  Here we are getting ready for the start.

We are about the second and a half row back - this is just as the gun is going off.

And we're off.  Sam is hidden behind that parent's arm.

Here's Sam running hard.

Here's a quick video of me running past.

Here I am at the finish.  I finished 24th overall.  My mile time was 8:35.

And here's Sam finishing - see him down there behind the bigger kids.  He finished 35th at 9:22 for a mile.

Interesting story about Sam's run - he decided to stop and take a water break part way through the race. He stood in line, politely let other kids go first, and then got his water, carefully tossed it in the garbage and then started running again.

There were just under 200 kids running and we were really really happy with how we ran.  

Sam ended up finishing first in his age division.  He was about 40 seconds faster than the next kid in his division - and that was with his water stop.

I finished 4th in my division.  We were so happy - our first big road race and we did so well.  Even on a nice rainy day!  And we had sooooo much fun.  We're ready to find a local kid's track club and start racing more.  

We had some errands to run after the race and we decided to stop at a "new" sporting goods/outdoor store.  It had been open for quite awhile but we had never stopped to look around.  They had lots of fun things to see and do.  First in - this giant wooden moose.  I had to stop for a quick picture.

This big giant grizzly bear was also waiting to stay hi.  (Dad is holding me up in the air, in case you think that this is just a little bear.)

There were also these cool picture areas with electronic animals that you could move the boxes around and the animals appeared on the screen, even though we couldn't see them.

Here I am with a big old bass.

 And here's Sam up in the air with the bear.  Bears sure are big!

Finally for this week - I present to you a video of me and my animals.  Enjoy!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - We were picking up our race packets on Friday night and reviewing our race course with mom.  We found the "Art City Donuts" truck parked just along what would become our race course the next morning.  Mom had been dying to try these donuts.  So after we finished previewing the course, we went right back and had ourselves a donut dinner - oh my!  OH MY!  These were the ultimate in donuts!  So light and airy and yummy and delicious!  

We shared a bowl of Raspberry Crumble donuts.  Oh my!  We loved them!  So much for our dinner, but sooooo worth it!

We also got to see the movie "Bears" this weekend.  It was fabulous.  Isn't it funny that we had already planned to have salmon for dinner that night.  It was a super great movie!

All in all - we had an amazing week!  Sam out - until next week.

Spring Break Adventures

Ah - we've been waiting so long for Spring Break to arrive, and it finally did.  We had decided to stay around home this year and do some fun local activities.  The activities did not disappoint!  It was a great week filled with lots of fun!  Put your seat belts on, be ready for some picture overload and . . . here we go!

First up - we went to the zoo.  It had probably been about 2 years since our last trip to the local zoo and we were excited to see some of the changes that had been made.  

First stop - the elephants.  They have 3 elephants including a "baby" - she's probably about 3 years old now and is sure cute.  We were truly surprised at how giant elephants are!

Here we are with the elephant statute.  No water or music on this day.

We got to ride the conservation carousel.  Sam chose a polar bear.

And I chose the snake.  

Here we are with the rhinoceros statue.

And in the newest area they have some bald eagles.  We tried getting adopted by them, but they seemed to be occupied with their own eggs.

Aren't these just the cutest faces you've ever seen!

Ah - sunning ourselves on the big log.  

We also quite enjoyed the seal and sea lion enclosure.  They were so much fun to watch.

Another group of animals that we just loved were the giraffes.  We got to see one of the trainers working with this giraffe when we first got to their enclosure.  Giraffes will do almost anything for a treat.  But boy, these giraffes sure are tall . . . we had no idea!

A harbor seal - so cool!

And us with the infamous gorilla statue.

Another day's activity was the bouncy place.  We got lots of energy out and enjoyed some races. Watch this video to see one of our races.

Sliding and climbing and bouncing . . . makes for a great day.

Here I am bouncing - trying to bounce Sam off his perch.

We slept well this night - a great way to spend a spring break day!

On another day we went to work with mom for a few hours.  Then we tried finding something fun to do but I guess everyone had exactly the same idea.  Every single place we went to was completely overflowing with people, including the lunch places.  So we came home and just played around the house.  I perfected a basketball shot from my "sweet spot" - behind the basket.  Enjoy!

Another day of fun was had at Thanksgiving Point's Farm Country.  We rode the ponies.

We had a wagon ride pulled by these very strong horse.

And our favorite part - feeding the goats.

We happened to be there on the same day the veterinarian was and we enjoyed watching the workers help gather all the animals for their shots and medicine.  It was quite the event.  

Dad took a day off and we headed to Delta to the Trilobite quarry.  This is truly one of our most favorite activities of all time.  On our drive up to the quarry we found this snake on the road.  We were more than a little hesitant at first, but dad talked us in to petting him.

Here we are with the snake before we continued on our drive up in the mountains.

We spent a great day in the quarry looking for "bugs" (trilobites).  I was the "Trilobite boy" of the day and found some of the biggest and best fossils.  

Here's Sam working hard with the rocks.

Here's mom and Sam taking a selfie.  Mom really was present for all these fun activities - just behind the camera.

We ended up with a collector fossil this time.

And we really enjoyed ourselves!  If anyone wants to come to the quarry with us sometime, just let us know.  We'd love to share a fun day with friends.

On our drive home I decided to wear every hat in the truck - all at the same time.  

We had an Easter egg hunt at Grandpa and Grandma L's house one day.

Here I am finding some eggs.

 A bunch of our cousins were there.  I had a lot of fun reading one of our favorite stories to everyone.

Sam got in on the reading - one on one with Grandpa L.  

It was also Grandpa L's birthday.  He is 85 years old.

We did some Easter egg coloring.  Always a fun time!

And the Easter Bunny didn't miss our house this year.  He was very kind to us.  I left a picture scavenger hunt for him to do and Sam left a real egg hunt for him to do.  We hope he loved it!

Here we are inspecting our Easter baskets.  

Books, a video each, more than enough candy to last until next Halloween, and a few fun toys.  What a great morning!

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - isn't this a great picture of us?  Easter morning on our way to church.  We clean up nicely, don't we?!?!

We enjoyed a wonderful spring break!  So much fun and some great times.  Now we can start dreaming of spring break 2015.  

Sam out - have a great week.