The Accidental Boilermaker

 Evelyn had her third cross country race. She finished 25th overall and in 3rd place for second grade girls so she gets to run in the city finals on Monday. Her 1 km time today was 5:53.  Nate actually took her so he could have a chance to watch her run, but on their way home he called me and asked “am I supposed to pick up pizza for dinner?”  We pass a bar on the way to the race with a sign that says Best Pizza Ever, so I told Evelyn last week, if you qualify for city finals maybe we will get pizza. They did stop and got a pepperoni pizza and it was really good.   

 Evelyn’s second cross country race was yesterday. The weather was drastically different than a week ago and honestly Jameson and I weren’t dressed warm enough. Thankfully it didn’t rain while we were there, but I did luckily have an umbrella in the car just in case.  Evelyn did run faster this time but I also think there were less runners overall. She got 2nd place out of all second grade girls with a time of 5:48. The girl who got 1st was the first runner out of all first and second grade girls and boys. 

 Sunday morning after breakfast we went on another hike. Jameson really wanted to climb Mount Randal. We drove this time to a trail head to shorten the hike a little.  He also really wanted to run down the dune, but we made him and Evelyn walk down to the beach again and hike back to the car. It’s important to get some exercise in before you pack up and drive home.  We had a small fire back at the campsite and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for lunch. Then it was time to pack everything away and say goodbye.  A sleepy Jameson on the way home. 

 I'm finally getting around to posting about our camping trip at the Warren Dunes.  We left right after Evelyn and Jameson got off the bus and arrived at our campsite in time for dinner.  My dad, mom and Mimi got to Sawyer a day earlier so they were waiting for us. Saturday morning we went on a good hike up and over the dunes, down to and along the beach, and then back over to the campsite. Evelyn and Jameson had lots of energy at the start for running up and down the sand. But that started to wane after a little while, but they did a good job overall. Finally we made it to the beach.  There were lots of big waves, but the water felt so nice. Back at the campsite we had lunch and then got ready to go swimming.  Evelyn was so excited to get in the water after 12 weeks of no real swimming. Jameson didn't want to swim; he wanted to climb the dunes. And then once we ran down, he wanted to climb the dune again.  So we did and then he was ready to go swimming....

 Evelyn has the opportunity to participate in 3 cross country meets, today being the first. First and second grade girls and boys run a 1km course together.  The doctor gave her permission to run on Tuesday, but we did wonder if her endurance would be somewhat diminished after 12 weeks of mostly no running.  She did great! Evelyn came in 22nd overall and 3rd place for second grade girls. Her time was 6:24. 

 Evelyn and I went to Indianapolis and Riley hospital for children for her 12 week follow up. The doctor said her neck was healing just as it should be and she could be done with the c collar.  We were so excited and so thankful. She has to go back one more time in another 12 weeks for more x rays to make sure everything is still doing ok.  Nate had taken a few hours off so he could get Jameson from the bus stop.  But we were home in time so we all picked him up. Jameson kept looking at Evelyn like you look different without the collar. The first thing Evelyn wanted to do when the collar came off was go in the hot tub.  Then we got dinner at Culver’s. They each have been chosen as leader of the week and each received a coupon for a freebie from Culver’s. Evelyn’s coupon was for free cheese curds which were pretty yummy. 

Evelyn and Jameson got their flu shots Saturday morning and then we got a treat - cake pops and coffee - because they were so brave. Later in the afternoon Nate and I painted the front porch and it looks so much better. Today we went to the Monarch festival at Eagle Marsh. There were lots of activities. Evelyn and Jameson planted a plant, not milkweed, something I can’t remember, that butterflies like.  Then they each got to tag a butterfly and we watched them release a bunch of monarchs. We learned that there are people in Mexico that look for tagged butterflies and then they know where that butterfly migrated from.  They pretended to be caterpillars emerging from their chrysalis as butterflies and played a game very similar to the Oregon Trail where they were butterflies migrating to Mexico. And they made it! There were lots of crafts in the barn and fun places to take pictures. We also brought home some milkweed seeds so we can try to attract monarchs next summer. 

We had a relaxing, but productive long weekend. We caught up on some work around the house, but we made time for some fun stuff too. Saturday we went to a car show.  Jameson didn’t want to go at first, but once he was there he loved it and wanted to look at every car. The nice guy who owed this Ford T-bucket let the kids climb in for a picture.  My favorite car, a Thunderbird.  Jameson’s favorite car.  Sunday afternoon we went to the zoo. Nate took Evelyn and Jameson on the sky safari and we saw the new baby wildebeests.