Latest Engineering Project

This giant thing was given to us by Grandpa and Grandma Mike and used to be Uncle Mike's.  What is hard to tell is that when it was delivered to us this was a mound of pieces that was about two feel tall and took up our entire living room rug.  It's probably got 4000 pieces to it and these guys spent three strait days putting it all together using some of the most worthless instruction pages I have ever seen.  Essentially they had to look at the finished product pictures and figure out how to build it all.  Gavin and Gage dove in and spent hour after hour getting this monster together.  At the end it allows you to drop a ball into the top and depending on how some switches are flipped it follows three or four different paths down to the bottom where a conveyor belt brings the balls back up to the top and drops them again.  I am honestly amazed at how they were able to get it together.  This is also the best babysitting present ever invented as there were essentially zero fights while this thing was being constructed.  We love it!

Pumpkin Carving

Tara always leads these pumpkin carving adventures, as I tend to think they are too messy to get involved with.  The chilly weather wasn't about to deter these guys from ripping out pumpkin guts all over the porch and carving things with huge knives.  I think at least there were no injuries this year and everyone had a great time.  Gavin went more traditional in his carving, while Gage put like six eyes on his.

District Mile Cross Country Meet

Gavin decided to join the school running club this fall at Mountain View Elementary school.  They met two days each week to run laps around the larger soccer field before school started.  The club is only open to fourth and fifth graders and what was best is this was Gavin's own idea to join. After five to six weeks of training, the top several kids from each grade got to go to the District meet to compete against the other schools.  Here is Gavin looking pro before the race.

After walking the course with his Coach and getting all warmed up, the boys took the line for a one mile run through grass, over hills, dirt paths, and the finishing straight.  Gavin is on the right hand side of the picture in the front row.

There were probably 100 or so kids with four to five from each of approximately 20 schools.  After the gun went off it was pure pandemonium, but Gavin is looking good in the first 20 meters.

This about half way through coming down a dirt path.  Gavin was looking strong in the middle to front of the pack.  We cheered for him as he went by and then ran to the finish line across the field to catch him there.

Here is Gavin coming home to the finish line.  He's looking strong in this picture and you can tell from some of the faces in the picture that the boys were all giving it there all!  Gavin came across in an impressive 7:03 for his mile time which put him in about 15th place overall. 

I am so very proud of him for putting himself out there and doing something like this!  It is hard to decide you want to compete and go put in the work to train and then line up on race day and give it your all.  Surely these are life lessons that go far beyond just running a one mile race. 

Pumpkins!

I love this picture of Gavin in the middle of the pumpkin patch looking for the perfect pumpkin to bring back home.  If you go to the patch during the middle of the week, it's not even a zoo!

I think we have some winning pumpkins here to bring back home.

The best part of the pumpkin patch is all of the extra things to do there like run on a maze of huge hay bales that make up the hay maze for the younger kids.

Feeding the goats is almost always a favorite stop.  I am sure if it was legal, Gavin would try to bring back a goat to our backyard to live at our house.

They both just love animals and playing outside at places like this.  It really brings out the best in them as they just laugh and run and involve each other positive experiences.