Run, Madi, Run!

If it seems like Madi is always on the run, you would be correct. Not long after track season, Madi started conditioning for Cross Country. As her first season in Cross, we weren't sure how she would do, but she surprised us all again. She took 2nd in almost every race, broke school records and was the first and only person to qualify for state at her school. Where did she come from? Here are a few highlights from her season...

This was at sectionals, where she qualified for state. If you cant find her at the start, she is the one with the L O N G stride near the front of the pack.

Coming into the finish at second place. She got pretty frustrated by getting second all the time, but she broke her record almost every run. Her PR for the season was 18:38 (for a 5K...that's 3.2 miles in case you didn't know). 

Madi and her amazing teammate, Dani. This girl is so supportive of Madi and comes to all of her meets, whether she is running or not. She is a senior this year, and although Madi knocked her out of the top spot, she is still one of her biggest supporters. She will definitely miss her next year.

 The state meet ended up being on Halloween, so the kids chose to stay home with friends and go trick or treating while Ryan and I drove 3 hours to go support her. We ended up staying in Wisconsin Dells overnight because of a lack of hotel space where the meet was in Wisconsin Rapids. I have to admit, it was nice to have a get away with just the two of us. We went out to dinner, went cosmic bowling and soaked in the hot tub.

The day of the state meet was cold and rainy. Our posters didn't hold up too well, but it was the thought that counts.

We put "Run angry" on this one because she always runs faster when someone gets her mad during the race. Can you say...competitive?  

Madi had the 5th best qualifying time for the whole state, so we expected her to place in the top 20 at the worst. After the 1st mile, that's just where she was placed (5th), so all was looking good. 

Something happened after that which we still cant explain, because we couldn't see her and she doesn't remember much. Whether it was due to stress, hunger, fatigue, dehydration, the cold, wet weather...we don't know. But she came across the finish in 63rd out of 200.  

She was devastated to say the least. Of course, Dani came to cheer her on and cheer her up. Its still a great accomplishment for her first time as a sophomore and we are chalking it up to good experience so she can know better for the next time. We are all super proud of how far she came.

Just listen to what her coach had to say about her at the cross country awards banquet...

Receiving her medal for girls top runner. 

The whole team 

Madi and Dani 

Some of the girls.  

Girls and Boys top runner award recipients (Jacob is a Senior as well. It really is amazing for Madi to finish as top runner as a sophomore).  

She is blessed to have amazing supportive coaches who have become mentors to her and helped shape who she is.  

Just because the cross country season is over, it doesn't mean she is going to stop running. Her goal is to get a scholarship from BYU, so the coaches told her to compete in a couple non-school races. The first was a battle of the border (Wisconsin vs. Illinois). I don't think anyone from Illinois showed up, and there were few Wisconsin runner compared to how many she is used to running with. Nevertheless, she finally took first!

The next race was a much larger one on Thanksgiving weekend...the Foot Locker race. This one was a regional race with runners from all over the Midwest. There ended up being well over 200 runners for the girls.  

Of course, Dani showed up to support her again. :) 

And Dad, her #1 fan!  

I stayed home with the kids this time. It ended up being another cold and very packed meet.

Unfortunately, something happened again and Madi ended up falling in the first mile and not being able to remember much. We are researching into calorie intake and we think we need to get her on a better diet plan and make sure she is well hydrated. These early morning meets are where she is struggling to compete. Hopefully as we learn more we can figure out how to get her better prepared to do as well as the late night meets in the future.

Finally, she is taking a break for Christmas. Most of her team has already started conditioning for track, but since she had these two extra races, she got a later break than the rest of them. She is already missing her daily running routines and going crazy without it. Crazy girl.

Halloween

 As usual, we rang in Halloween with a trip to the pumpkin farm. The kids favorite part was running on top of the hay maze.

 

They are all getting old enough to do a good portion of their own pumpkin carving. Brylee loves the small pumpkins while everyone else tried to compete for the biggest!

 Zack carved the hulk, and even painted it green.

Brylee chose a dolphin 

 Alissa's was a winky face.

 I think you might recognize this one.

(Mike Wazowski)

Madi is still all about Harry Potter

On to the costumes:

Madi was Iron Man (woman).

Brylee: Captain America (America Woman)

We found out our friend was thinking the same thing...in male version.

 

 Zack was the blue ninja (from Ninjago)

Katelin and her friend made these Mario and Luigi costumes. 

And Ryan decided to be a 39 year old man. Only for realsies!

Couldn't be a successful birthday without some new BYU gear. 

And because he is getting older, he needs a little support in certain areas. He loved the idea of the "squatty potty", so we accommodated. Potty time is much more efficient now. What a relief! At least he is keeping his sense of humor with his old age.

 

Happy Hallobirthday!

Homecoming

Madi's first order of business as a 16 year old was to go to homecoming. Luckily for us, it didn't include a boy this time. She got to go with a group of friends from young women's. That didn't mean that she didn't want to look the part though. We officially had our first experience of shopping for modest dresses, and failing over and over again. After searching all of the stores around Kenosha and the entire mall, we turned to Amazon and found a dress that would work. It was a little plain, so we added the ribbon and flower to the waist. She also borrowed Alissa's grey cardigan sweater to wear over it, because finding a matching cardigan was just as hard. But as you can imagine it was a bit small on her, and with the warmth inside a high school gym, I don't think she ended up wearing it at all. Still, she turned out looking beautiful and had a great time with her best friends.

Another birthday

Another birthday and all of a sudden Alissa is 11. Didnt she just have one of these? Good thing for me, this was a family birthday year, so it required little planning on my part. Can I just say though...I love that Amazon Prime supports my mad procrastination skills and allows me to order last minute gifts that will still get here in time. Its not that we didnt try to to get her gifts earlier, its just that they ended up either being too expensive or out of stock. We ended up getting her a bunch of small things, but I think she loved them all. I also discovered this cool feature on my phone this morning that put her gift opening pics. in slide show format. Why didnt I discover this sooner?

So, when you have unemployed children, they just claim gifts that Mom and Dad buy as their idea. Brylee wanted her name on the giraffe. Of course, Alissa cant have too many stuffed Giraffes. Madi picked out a scarf and headbands, Katelin chose the watch and Zack came up with his own idea. He wanted to get her some earrings and candy. (He didnt care about picking them out though.) Ryan and I were left with giving her some boots, a skirt, and a boggle game. Story behind the Boggle...Alissa kept randomly coming to me and asking if I knew what Boggle was for the past couple weeks. Turns out she saw a Studio C clip about it and thought it was a funny name. I surprised her with it and she thought it was hilarious! 

The next night, Alissa chose to go to an old forgotten favorite of hers: Rainforest Cafe. It was Brylee's first time and she loved it and wants to go back for her birthday. (She made friends with the Elephants)

When we got home, we celebrated with cake, although Alissa was so full from school treats and the restaurant that she couldn't really eat much. Katelin has cookie dough and Madi has Oreos, but Alissas go to treat is Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. 

Even though its sad to see them grow so fast, its always good to see your kids become responsible, happy, smart and successful. Alissa is all of these things and we couldn't be prouder of who she is becoming. Happy Birthday Alissa!