Sydney Fuller

Landshark

At the school, they have a group called Landsharks Run Club that some parents volunteered to run. Kids practice a couple days a week and then have a track meet on the weekend. Kind of a way to introduce kids to running and track before the sports become available at a middle school age.

I saw the invitation laying on the table at home and left it alone. I didn't want to be the guy that pushed my kids into something. Anyway, weeks went by and I went out of town. Came to find out the girls signed up and were at practice. Guess its on! Apparently, doing pretty well at it. We have raced before so its not new but definitely haven't trained for anything. The school stuff isn't hard core training of course. But its something regular.

The first meet was today at Boulder High School. This was right after a blizzard so the track had to be shoveled days prior. Kids had their choice of 400m, 800m or 1 mile. That's 1, 2 or 4 laps for you non-track folk. I am a non-track folk -- never raced on one in my life. So its new to me. But I know a few things so I spent time teaching them to run the tangents and such.

Told them that if they won, I would love them. And if they lost? Yep, I won't claim them. They knew the answer as they told me out loud -- this while other parents are telling their kids they are winners for just being there. Right.

Ready?

Working in with a pack of boys. They race together. Bogus! Oh well. Gives them something to chase I guess.

Run the tangents? Not so much. I was screaming at her while she passed by.

Got in front of that girl.

I told both kids that if they aren't hurting or puking on that final stretch, then its not hard enough. I think they both got the message. Sydney looked like she was working hard on the final stretch. We have raced enough to know that you don't die after the finish line. It gets better instantly.

800m Finisher! Great job. Not really sure where she finished as all eyes were on her. But it was a solid performance. She has some work to do before next weekend's follow-up meet. TANGENTS!

Both my racers! Boulder High School was originally a University of Colorado campus building. Later it became the first high school in the state. Maybe one of these girls will represent the Buffaloes on the track someday?

Live action video taken by Kim. See the race unfold!

Pierced Again

The parents gave in.

Ironwomen In Training

Brave

We have bows too!

Copper

After a season of skiing only at Ski Cooper, we headed over to Copper Mountain. So much more expensive. But the kids had a great time running bigger terrain. They were definitely wore out from the 2 days prior of skiing. The season is coming to a close. We have had a great season. Most ski days ever for all of us.

Powder Day

We have been sort of spoiled this year with fabulous sunny warm ski weather. But the downside is that you don't get a lot of snow with those conditions. Well, Aunt Natalee came to visit and on day one we had our first powder day of the year. Snowed pretty hard. We weren't really sure how to ski in this deep stuff. Its a different sport. But we enjoyed every minute of it. Even though we couldn't see our own skis most of the day.

Avi @ RMCA

A best-selling children's author named Avi visited the kid's school as a special guest. The kids all enjoy his books so having this local talent stop by the school and give a talk was exciting.

College Daze

For whatever reason, we talk about college from time to time with the kids. Kind of telling them there will be a more fun school experience someday where you don't live with your parents and stuff. Living in Colorado, I feel like the public university choice is clear with the University of Colorado. Plus, its close! I am a fan of "going away" to school but I like Boulder a lot.

Anyway, the girls scout troop attended a CU Woman's Basketball game today. My kids don't see sports (other than running) that often. Its not our deal. So this was going to be a fun and exciting adventure for them. I tried to turn it into a mini-school visit by letting them experience some campus on the way.

We went out for lunch at The Sink in Boulder. Its next to campus. Its been there since the 20s. Robert Redford worked there. Its more recent claim to fame is that Obama stopped there to eat on one of his many Colorado trips last year. Being he is the POTUS and all, this a is a cool deal to kids. So we found his signature on the wall before we ate.

There is many years of customer-driven art on the walls here. The girls walked around and checked it all out before sitting down to eat.

The manager grabbed the girls and gave them a big Sharpie and put them up on a table. He wanted them to sign the ceiling. Just like Obama! 5 star treatment! So they did and the resulting signatures can be seen below. They are in the room in the back by the TV in the wall if you ever try and locate them. We will have to return to see if they are still legible sometime.

It was off to the game! I taught them what college was like by making them walk from The Sink to the event center. Its a mile or so. In the cold. But we cut through campus and saw huge bike racks, buildings with interesting subjects on them, kids going in and out of dorms, and lots of people out on the lawn playing various sports. Looks like a fun spot, eh?

The game started out slow but the excitement built once they figured out which team was Colorado and how to tell who was winning. By the end, I thought they would die if we lost. We did not.

On the way out, we picked up some goodies. I don't think they have taken these sweatshirts off since they got them.

Go Buffs!

Out Of My Hands

Syd likes her runs like most like their coffee. BLACK. We skied them all day. She is nutso. She even sings the Avenged Sevenfold song of the same name while descending this one. Be afraid.

Poles

Reagan was sick so Sydney and I went solo today. I think it was a good opportunity for Sydney since she is usually having to wait on Reagan these days. This allowed us to explore some other parts of the mountain and pick up a little more speed. Sydney picked up some poles this week so we was excited to try them out. I am not really sure when kids cut over but she was ready. I was sick of watching her struggle in lift lines or at weird flats trying to get momentum with her hands like a bird. We hit 2 black diamonds today. Her first. No big deal.

The first run of the video is entertaining. Watch! The rest is us just doing some speedy bombs down various runs.