What a Race!!

 Warning: absolute, total picture overload coming

 So if you thought there were a lot of laps in a 3000m, just wait till you see a 5000m!

 Did you find Drew?

 Pictures from the front are red and white uniform with WSU.

 From the back it is gray and red.

 Drew ran the first mile mixed in with the last four in his heat of 32 men.

 I knew he was running with lots of guys with amazingly fast times and he had not run this race on the track since his junior year of high school, so I was not too surprised to see him there.

 There were 5 heats of 32 guys though out the day.

 Drew was in the second fastest.

 Many of the guys in the first heat were not college athletes, but professionals.

 At the beginning of mile two Drew made a sudden move that moved him up to 16th place.

 He sat there for the next mile comfortably.

 I say comfortably, but he does have an assortment of spike holes in his legs from this race!

 So I started to wonder if there was more of a plan to his positioning.

 I also noticed his coach standing on the corner where Drew made his move.

 So was there more to his racing tonight then met the eye.

 Then with about a mile to go--at the same place.....

 ....another surge to about 12th.

 OK---I will admit that I was getting pretty loud at this point.

 And with 800m to go he surged again.

 See the pain as he surges to 7th!

 He closed with a 61 second final lap!

Drew ran over a minute PR!

He broke 14 minutes!

He ran 13:59!

That puts him in with the big boys legitimately!

Congratulations Son, we are so proud of you.

You can watch it here if you are so inclined!

A Retry...

 On our second try to the science museum we got it right :)

It was fun to see where each of the kids landed with their favorites.

The girls both walked up and played with these mirrors a couple of minutes, but Caleb...

He spent quite a lot of time her seeing all the different ways he could 'fly'!

 Rachel is very athletic and she loved this room with tested strength and agility.

We came back a second time to this room.

 Then there was the lesson in team work.

 Rachel tried this alone.

Then with just Hannah helping.

But they relized they needed all three of them to make it work.

 Caleb also loved this spinning disc that tried to get the smaller discs to spin on.

It was the only thing he really wanted to do in this room.

 Rachel in the tunnel bubble.

 Caleb in the tunnel bubble.

 Caleb's tunnel bubble popping!

 This was Hannah's favorite room, but not a good room to get pictures.

 I have always known Caleb loves science  and figuring out how things work, but it was amazing watching him spend so much time at certain exhibits trying to figure them out.

 Did you see the floating ball move through the hole in the yellow post?

All with a blower and directional movements.

 Another test of strength and there is Rachel :)

There were three chairs with different #'s of pullies.

 Caleb liked the hardest one, just to prove he could do it!

We had a good time, till they all got very hungry :)

Being Flexible!

 Our plan for Tuesday was heading out to the local science museum...

Oops---Mom forgot to check to see what days the museum was open!

So off to be flexible.

 Park day!

And Rachel saw the sand and thought we have to take a picture like we are at the beach to send to her family.

She thought it would be very funny since they were at the beach.

Hence three little kids  in short sleeves playing in the sand in the 50 degree weather with a slight drizzle to pretend they were at the beach :)

 Then they played at the park till we were all frozen.

 Hannah has totally enjoyed her time with Rachel.

We have enjoyed watching her come out of her shell and do a lot of interacting.

I love this sweet pea!

 So after the kids were thoroughly  exhausted we headed home to make peanut butter cookies and chocolate chips cookies!  Yum!

Then Hannah and Rachel headed off to TOPS soccer and Caleb and Dad worked on their ping-pong game.

Then an amazing game of  Ticket to Ride.

Rachel picked that up fast :)

Us...plus one....

 We are enjoying the added blessing of an extra child this week.

And we took her cross country skiing for her first time on Sunday afternoon.

By the smile I think she enjoyed it :)

 Off Rachel and Caleb go.

With both of them in all black they look like one person here.

 David said Rachel was a good sport, even when she kept landing in this position!

 But as the coordinated athlete she seems to be, she picked it up in no time.

 Boy was it snowing!

 Rachel and my handsome husband, who went with the kids and taught her, since we were down a set of skis, Hannah and I went.....

 Sledding!

 This day taught me more about the importance of going farther for my kids.

I had a busy day planned and skiing was not involved in that plan.

But....

Can you tell by these smiles that it was worth the effort?

 Rachel on her way down the hill.

 Caleb getting some air over the bump!

Ouch!

And we have sore backs to prove it.

 What snow day is finished without snow angels?

 And yes, a snowball fight.

And yes, I started it!