x-country life...

What is this x-country I keep referring to? First, it's new to Altona this year. Second, Jaiden has always been interested in it. Third, I had no idea how exciting it was!

X-country is an individual and team sport in one. The team runs "invites" or meets and gets scored for their times, but at the same time, you run on your own to improve your endurance, pace or maybe just boost your ego knowing you can finish. Middle schoolers invites are typically 1.5 to 2 miles. His longest invite was 2.4 with over 900 boys running!

For Jaiden, he loves running. He prefers distance running, in fact, these invites just might be a little too short for him. 

These photos are from this week's meet and was a much smaller race, maybe 100 + boys but this photos captures the craziness of the start... and yes, you can catch a glimpse of Jaiden behind one of the boys in a green jersey on the far right!

I have yet to actually capture fully. This was a good attempt and would have been great if I hadn't cut of his shins and feet!

 After awhile the crowd disperses as they settle into their own pace. 

 And then the final sprint to the end.

I am not sure what his time was on this one but he seems to average a 7 min mile so it was probably around 10-11 min. I did the math once and tease him that I have driven an hour to an invite to only catch glimpses of him on the course and to have him run for less than 12 minutes! He thinks that is funny, and I think he is awesome for trying something new and really doing so well at it! 

george washington returns

If I had a little more time, I would go back and find the original story and link to this one, but I told myself I would try to get more stories up here and not get hung up on details like that.

Yesterday, Jaiden had another x-country meet and he did awesome (photos ... yay, maybe later!). He placed 8th on his team but we don't know the overall placement against all the other teams. On the way home though, we needed to swing by the CSA, collect our veggies, head home to drop them off to then turn back out and get Alyssa at volleyball.

Of course, Jaiden was starving and he found this amazing huge watermelon at the stand for $5. He paid for it and we headed to the car. 

By the time we got to the car, he had named it George Washington and as I opened the slider door for him, I caught him buckling George in...

very carefully...

... and one more photo before I pulled out of the parking spot because this makes me laugh remembering when he was in 3rd grade/ Alyssa in 1st and the first summer they did this, naming the watermelon George Washington, buckling it in and giggling the whole way home!

As for this year, he's in 8th grade, still names the watermelon George Washington, buckles it in and we joke on the way home.

The best part? 

After bringing Alyssa home, she walks in, sees the enormous watermelon and says "Yay, George Washington!"