I dropped Logan off to the potluck party on Friday for cross country.  He immediately sat down on a chair to play with a few friends.  When we picked him up, he was hanging out with Maxim.  Logan and I quickly said bye to the main coach; she encouraged Logan to join the team again next year, and Logan seemed thrilled with that idea.  This wrapped up Logan’s first school sport team; we thought Logan did a great job participating and had a very positive attitude toward everything.

      Lisa and I had been talking about going up to Mount Umumhum since last year, and we finally decided on last Saturday.  We were worried about the limited parking up on the hills, so we asked Stuart and John to give up rides; however at the end, it turned out that Stuart had to drop off and pick us up.  Stuart dropped us off at the Bald Mountain parking area.  From there, Lisa and I hiked the 3.7 miles up to the summit.  The trails were very nice and shady part of the time with beautiful trees; the hills were not too bad to hike at all.  The summit had been recently built with a nice parking lot, well constructed 156 steps and a shaded seating area with some visitor information.  There was a ranger up there who talked with us while we waited for Stuart to pick us up.  Next time we could totally do the round trip (7.4 miles) back down to the Bald Mountain parking lot instead.

    I was happy that I got picked to be one of the chaperones for Connor’s field trip last Wednesday.  The location was the Mission which I did not get to go when Logan went as a 4th grader.  I met up with the class at the beginning of the school day, and waited for the bus.  Connor chose to sit with me in the bus and we played “chopsticks” and talked until we arrived to the mission.  We were split into groups and I was assigned to total of 5 boys.  We were assigned to go visit the mission and the shops on our own first before lunchtime, and we would have our tour by the guide afterward.  Our group ended up spending our time with Connor’s buddy Neil’s group.  We walked around the garden and the church, and the 9 kids were more excited when we arrived at the shops.  All of them spent quite a bit of time looking for souvenirs at the rock shop; Connor bought a rock necklace and a nice piece of rock for choker as well.  Some stopped by the ice cream shop for some candies too.

    We rushed back for lunch and we could only have 15 minutes to eat.  Then we met with the tour guide for an hour of tour.  She took us around the mission and shared lots of very interactive information.  The kids were attentive and the parents as well during this tour.  After the tour, we had a few minutes and my kids chose to get a small treat at the shop before we hopped back onto the bus to return to school.

    The third meet (#3) two weeks ago was cancelled due to extreme heat, so the kids ran the hills last Tuesday as their last and final meet.  I decided that I would like to watch Logan’s run the entirety, so I left work a bit earlier.  I was happy that I made it there on time and saw all the kids in the Open group lining up.  Logan spotted me too and waved to me.  It was so thrilling seeing the kids took off, at the whistle and I totally saw Logan sprinting.  He was proud and told me later that he was leading the group for some time at the beginning.  The group disappeared into the hills for awhile, then I started seeing some, including Logan, start crossing back to enter that big steep hill.  Most kids were walking up that hill, and afterward they were preparing the downhill finale to end the race.  Logan showed up not really that far behind the top runners.  I saw him trying to cross another runner, but that runner kept blocking him and Logan ended up crossing the finish line behind her.  Logan ranked #36 this time which was better again compared to the meet #2, so Logan was very excited.  He was exhausted and had to sit down to wait for Maxim finishing up.  The top runners from each grade would be representing the schools at the County Champion meet next week, but for the majority of the kids, this was the last meet.  Both Logan and Maxim enjoyed this season and both told me that they would do it again next year.  They will be having an end of season gathering next Friday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_shuyxMhHU

   The boys had outgrown their bikes and we really needed a bigger one for Logan.  We found this well reviewed old bike shop where they sell used bikes but service them for you before you pick them up.  We browsed around and found a cool looking bike that is still in good condition.  We had Logan tried it out; he immediately seemed comfortable with it, and liked its cool look too.  We bought it and sent it for service, and on Friday Stuart pick it up.  Logan seems quite happy with his new bike.  Now Connor could inherit Logan’s previous bike and try it out.

   I took some time off to spend with the boys after they returned from SoCal.  We did some random things. Logan had a routine eye exam, and the exam went well this time.  While we were at Kaiser, I took the opportunity to take them to get their flu shots.  I waited until after the eye exam and while driving over to another building to tell the boys.  They both were whining about it and worrying how painful it would be.  Once we arrived, luckily we did not have to wait at all.  When the staff asked who would like to go first, Logan volunteered; Connor also said he wished he could go first.  Logan showed a lot on his face when the shot was in, but he did not complain.  Connor was next; he looked nervous but took the shot well without saying much either.  This was the easiest trip for flu shots ever.

    One day I took them to watch the Abominable which was a great movie.  We stuffed ourselves with popcorn too.  The boys also had some time on their own when I went in to work for a few hours and the other morning they spent with Maxim at their house. I took the boys out for a walk one afternoon and Logan chose to run the Bronco lap around his school like he did with the cross country practice.  Connor claimed that he could keep up and wanted to go with Logan, so Buddy and I just walked the loop on our own behind them.  When I finished one round, the boys were resting on the lawn waiting for us.  Logan said he took the wrong turn but still ended up having a nice run, and he had to wait while Connor had to stop.  Connor said he was super tired.  All in all, all four of us had good exercise; so we walked over to T4 for a treat afterward.   We also sneaked in a haircut for Logan this week too.