The Accidental Boilermaker

 Another fort4fitness fall festival has come and gone. The kids marathon was last night.  They each had a good final 1.2 mile run. And they ran by themselves! Nate and I along with Oma and Grandpa just watched and cheered. We hadn’t collected any of the kids marathon materials over the summer. We were just too busy to attend any of the events. So it was quite a surprise to see Evelyn (and kinda Jameson, Nate and me) on the cover of the log book.  My race was this morning. It was so foggy! A little on the warmer side than I like but that ended up being ok. I had a really good 10k and then slowed down some and then the last 3 miles were hard. But I finished with a new PR - 2:04:05.

 Cross country city finals were Monday evening. Evelyn and Jameson looked great and had great races. Jameson finished 4th overall out of 60 1st and 2nd grade runners and 4th for 2nd grade boys. He ran a 4:11; 12 seconds faster than last Monday. He was disappointed again that he wasn’t top 3 and didn’t get a trophy. Next year he moves up to the mile run. Evelyn was just excited to find her friends. She ran 7:57 and placed 32nd out of 90 3rd-5th grade girls and 10th for 4th grade girls. 

 Sunday morning we packed up and headed to the beach at the inn to watch the annual sea plane splash-in on Lake James. We saw several of sea planes on Saturday too but Sunday was the main event. It was pretty neat. We watched for about an hour and then the pilots had lunch.  Evelyn and Jameson weren’t finished watching, so we went for a short hike. Then came back to watch more planes take off and land in the water.  Jameson rested his eyes on the drive home. 

 Saturday the weather was perfect. A little cool in the morning but it warmed up nicely for our hike. We parked at the inn and hiked up to Hell’s Point, the highest part of the state park. Sometime we want to come back and do the Hell’s Point challenge which is a 8 mile hike through the park. The whole hike ended up being about 4 miles.  We saw a little garter snake on our way back.  Before heading back to the campsite for lunch, we stopped at the nature center for animal Olympics.  We made a small campfire and had hot dogs for lunch.  After lunch, we set up the hammocks and everyone read for a while. But I wanted to go on another hike before dinner, so we did.  Jameson found a cool feather.  And we found Lake James. Dinner was hobo pies with plenty of time left to relax again around the campfire (Jameson took this picture).  

 Our new tent is more of a three season tent than our last one and Jameson didn’t have a soccer game this weekend so we said let’s go camping. Evelyn and Jameson thought it would be pretty cool to be camping on the first day of fall too. Nate left work a little early on Friday, we picked up the kids from school, packed up at the car and left. Pokagon is such a nice state park and it’s only 45 minutes north. It had been three years since we last visited.  We arrived, set up camp and made dinner - foil packets with sausage, potatoes and green beans. Then it was just a relaxing campfire before bed. 

 Second cross country race was tonight. Evelyn and Jameson both qualified for city finals next week. Jameson was 2nd overall and 2nd for second grade boys. He ran the kilometer in 4:33. Evelyn was 10th overall and 3rd for fourth grade girls. She ran the mile in 7:55. They both looked fast. 

 First official cross country race is in the books. Jameson took third overall out of 1st and 2nd grade boys. He also placed third out of 2nd grade boys. Turned out the two boys ahead of him were 2nd graders from Croninger. I don’t know the total number of boys who ran. Evelyn had a good race too. They both pace well, but Evelyn starts way back of the pack and then slowly passes other runners. She had a really good finish. She caught up and passed a friend from school and then almost passed this other girl but couldn’t quite do it. I only got the one picture of her running because I was too busy cheering for all the girls I knew.  Evelyn took 19th out of 3rd-5th grade girls and 6th for 4th graders. I also don’t know the total number of runners. 

 Fall soccer has begun. Jameson had a good game today. He score a few goals. His coaches encouraged him to practice passing because he had scored enough goals. He let one goal in as goalie. His team has three coaches which is great, two are the same from in the spring.  And he has several friends on his team from last season too.

 Last day of camping is always hard. We had breakfast and packed everything up. Then we took once last trip to the beach. We decided to the climb the dune again but this time go up the longer, less steep side. So much easier! My watch said it was 10 flights up. The water was the warmest it had been all weekend which made it extra hard to leave. Of course Jameson fell asleep on the drive home. 

 Sunday was another beautiful day. Jameson started, with a little help, a small morning campfire.  After breakfast we went for a nice long hike. We found the lake.  Then we actually found the lake.  Eventually we found Mount Randall too. The trails are not super well marked at Warren.  After lunch it was back to the beach. It was so busy. And the water was still cold, but one degree warmer than Saturday. There were more waves in the morning during our hike than there were in the afternoon which everyone found a little disappointing. We did some swimming and lots of playing in the sand.  After the beach and quick showers, we visited the Beach Bucket for ice cream.  We relaxed at the campsite for the evening. We read books, played catch, and ate lots of snacks.  We ended the night with a nice big campfire for hobo pies and s’mores.