Every fall, my dad and Mary Lou have come to visit. They didn't disappoint this year! Usually, they don't come over General Conference weekend, but they did this time. And usually, there's a XC meet on General Conference Saturday, but there wasn't this time. While we really wanted them to have a chance to see Austin run, they only got to see Erik run at the dual meet on Tuesday. Austin doens't usually run in the dual meets because Coach wants to save him for the invitationals on Saturdays where he gets the biggest bang for his buck.
At the dual meet Erik had a great race to showcase for Grandma and Grandpa. The race was a combination of Varsity and JV runners. Erik came in 6th for our team at 18:28 and 18th overall. After Grandma and Grandpa left, I attended the Portage meet with Austin, 2 hours away and the bigeest meet in the state of Michigan, even bigger tha States since that one requires qualifying for it, where our top 7 guys ran with the fastest runners in the state, including the fastest guy in the nation, who's not in Austin's division, but faster than every single highschool runner in the US. It was a hot, tough course and unkown to our guys. Austin didn't run his best, though 15:46 is still crazy fast. He placed 13th and won a medal. Meanwhile, Erik and Jason were at the Wayne County Chamionships, which our team hosts. The rest of our Varsity and our JV went there. Jason was the mc. Erik had a great race, winning 2nd place of the JV with a 18:06 time and a PR for him.
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| Tuesday's dual meet. |
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| Big fans! |
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| Saturday's meet |
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| Lots of fast runners here. |
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| Erik's Saturday medal. |
Aside from XC, we had fun with Grandma and Grandpa attending the cider mill, shopping at Kohl's (only I am privileged with that trip!), walking around Downtown Plymouth, enjoying General Conference, playing games, seeing Austin off for HOCO, and going to lunch (for Jason and me) and breakfast (for Kade on the way to the airport with them). The weather was about as nice as it can be, though I think they wanted some rain. We got no rain, but had beautiful, sunny fall weather in the 70s, mostly.
We're so happy they could still come and see us, even as they are aging!
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| We ate dinner outside a few times because it was so nice! |
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| Plymouth Apple Orchard for cider and donuts! |
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| HOCO! |
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| The guys |
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| Erik went to a different HOCO a week earlier and he didn't want much fanfare. |
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| General Conference. We also watch Ellie, our neighbor's dog, during part of their stay here. |
 | | Ellie is good at begging! |
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| At the Downtown Plymouth pumkin/scarecrow display. I loved the tributes to Dolly. |
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| And this was a new, fun display. |
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| Lunch with Dad and Mary Lou. |
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| Outside the restaurant. |