Cross Country 2019

I'm a year and a half behind so I don't have any fun stories or videos from Noah's cross country meets, but I know he improved...maybe because he grew so much? Look at those legs! 

I do know this was his first meet which is always at Douglas. August 30th.

I think this one was away. In Spearfish? September 6th. 

Custer on September 19th. I love going up there. The weather is always so nice and it's such a beautiful drive and location. 

Cheerleader Evie always encourages Noah. 

This one is tough because there are lots of big hills. 

The final sprint.

Sturgis on October 3rd. 

Good job Noah!

 

starting school 2019-2020

When we returned from our Colorado vacation on August 13th, we had to jump into homeschool pretty much right away. 

Okay, I might have had time to admire my dahlias which hadn't started to bloom until like the week before vacation.

And of course we had to visit the library for new books so we would have reading material. I can't remember if we planned to go with the O's or not but there's Abigail with Evie - bff's. 

Our neighbor was having a garage sale and we thought it was a good opportunity for Evie to set-up the  lemonade stand she'd been wanting all summer. We also made up some cookies to sell. She's excited because she's adding the magic ingredient of marshmallows - those make everything more special in her eyes. 

They did pretty well for themselves!

We also had some last of the summer smores.

Yep, Trouncer too.

Then, a week after returning home, on August 19th, we had our first day of school.

Jumping for joy?

Nope, definitely not joy. Just being silly.

No one wants to start school ever, especially in August.

In 2019 Evie was in Faith's Classical Co-op class all day on Mondays. This was her first day, August 26th, and I attended all day with her. Noah had his cross country stuff all ready to go too because he had his Biology lab class there in the morning. Afterwards Terry picked him up, took him to church for lunch, and then drove him to RCC for practice.

 

Vacation 2019 part 5: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

This was the best zoo we've ever been to - Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. It was Monday, August 12, 2019. 

The scenery was amazing too. 

First up were the giraffes. 

A BABY!!!

We spent the money to buy lettuce to feed them.

Meerkats! "Dig a tunnel, dig, dig a tunnel!"

Elephants!

We felt so lucky that day. We actually saw an elephant submerging and washing itself! 

Lunch time. 

There were some elephant games like this one. The littles also painted.

Our lunch area overlooked the lion enclosure. 

Parakeets. 

Alligators.

Again luck struck and we saw the bears swimming in the water. 

In fact, the bear in the water was sitting on the drain which caused all this water to come out of their tank. The peacock was just walking around outside the bear enclosure. 

Bald eagles I think?

Sloth?

Monkeys.

Indoor giraffes. 

More lions. They're our favorite.

All done. 

The following day we left but stopped at Krispy Kreme first. 

They gave us free donuts right off the line! We also bought some. The kids still remember this fondly a year and a half later.

I had a video all prepped but it's not working anymore. Bummer.