Celebrations!

 I'm trying to creatively incorporate all the good from the past week, especially since I didn't update my blog last weekend. It was an extremely busy weekend! 

The first thing to celebrate was Kade's astronomy class's successful viewing and photos of the moon! They went to a dark park, and Kade was able to take these pics of the moon through the telescope. Stunning! He really loves that class!

(And, Kade buzzed his hair!)

We'll see him live at his haunted house job next weekend. Pray for me to not pee my pants!

Next thing was Erik's completion of his 2-mile race against East, coming in first place! His time was 12:10, another PR for him. His soccer team had a great game on Saturday with some excellent plays. They ended up winning that one. 

The front runner!

Erik also got to perform at the 8th-grade band night at Plymouth HS's HOCO game with the HS marching band. He really enjoyed playing the game music with friends and even the halftime show music, even if he didn't really approve of playing the Minecraft Steve's Chicken song.

His little head is in there in the middle. 

Halftime show!

(I figured out my video issue!)

Austin wowed us all again by securing a 3rd place win at the Wayne County Championship meet. He ran a 15:45, not quite a PR, but more importantly, he worked harder than I've ever seen him in a XC race at the finish line. He's been beating one kid from Plymouth for most of the races by a few seconds. This kid is a senior and is continuously ranked one slot above Austin. He was on Austin's tail the entire race. With only about 175 meters left of the race, Austin was about 15 meters behind, so not really a great place if you want to beat someone. That's what Coach and Jason saw. I was a little further up, and I could see Austin's body contract, ready to blast off, which is why my recording of the moment got messed up. I was overly excited in anticipation! This was about 20 meters from the finish line, and Austin was only 5 meters back. Austin's teammate got a better recording than I did, but even he missed the final .01 second on the finish line when Austin beat LaPointe. The final results didn't include the 10th of a second time, but says they both finished 15:45; however, Austin's name is in third and LaPointe's in 4th because Austin had him by .01. Our whole team was amazing and came in first for Varsity and JV! They also came in first at the dual meet on Tuesday, which was against Canton and Plymouth only. Canton, Plymouth, and Salem make up the 3 schools on our campus, which we call The Park. Salem is now the Park XC champions of this season. Austin came in 2nd that race, behind the guy that we knew would beat him because he was 2nd in the state last year. LaPointe wasn't at that meet, so we didn't get to see that rivalry again. 

This was the very start of the race. Austin is on the far right in the shadows. None of the guys pictured here with him finished in the top 5.

Wayne County Champs!

(This was recorded by Austin's teammate. The first guy running here is also the guy who came in first at the Park Meet.)

Austin's buddies and he celebrated last weekend, after winning the Wayne Co Champs, at the Plymouth HOCO dance (the team didn't go as a whole, but some members of the team were there, and some old friends from elementary school). And then even fewer of the group attended Salem's HOCO dance last night with dates. 

Crazy boys!

They clean up nicely, though. Austin has known most of these guys for most of his life!

I really like taking pics with the girls, too. 

Finally, we celebrated Victoria's birthday, which was yesterday. We talk to her on Mondays, and since last Monday was her official first Monday out in the mission field, we weren't sure what to expect. Austin was around when Jason and I realized that we didn't know about the rules on her birthday, so we sang to her with him. A mission office elder called me last week to have me send some pictures for a surprise slideshow for her. Hopefully that turned out well. I'll know tomorrow when I talk to her again. We were pleasantly surprised when she called us at 9am yesterday, on her birthday. It was only 7 her time, so nothing had happened yet, but she was able to talk for 15 minutes and tell us that the scheduled baptism of the young girl went well, she was going to eat lunch with her family that day (the family makes piñatas, so I'm sure they made one for her), and her companion made her a cake. Our conversation was glitchy and disrupted since we had literally just arrived at our church building to clean it, but it was so nice to see her on her birthday and know she was already being well celebrated. Can't wait to talk to her again tomorrow!

MTC companion.

Mexico!

First field companion!

Our conversation on Monday!

These celebrations were highlights over the past two weeks as we supported and mourned with our friends who were in the Grand Blanc church shooting. We know many people affected by it. Even our community here, an hour away, not in the church, felt the effects of that tragic incident. 

Two weeks later, and things are settling down again. Celebrate the good things!