Triathlon

When all is said and done, what really matters to Sam is the medal.

So on Saturday, September 19th Sam entered his first triathlon. It was held in Kirkland at Houghton Beach and there were about 57 participants ranging from the ages of 12 to 4. We were so thrilled Ashley called and told us of this event. Her 3 oldest Selah (8), Nina (5), Rollin (3) all participated. We were especially grateful that Nina hadn't quite grown into Selah's old bike and that it was a perfect fit for Sam. There are few things better in this life than an actual 10 speed bike. Sam loved it. We borrowed the bike on the Thursday before the race and he rode it non stop. In fact, on Friday morning Dave and I were coming home from our run and at 7:02 a.m. there he was in his mustard colored Jackson Hole sweatshirt, blue athletic shorts and his rain boots riding down the road. He claimed he was coming down to greet us. Likely story, I think he was trying to make a getaway to the nearest trail to ride and possibly ditch school altogether. It's actually rather heartbreaking for Dave and I, this bike matter. Sam loves to ride his bike. We really do get our moneys worth but just a few weeks earlier we told him he had to "earn" the new bike with 100 of his chore tokens. 100! Crazy talk actually, that's like 100 days. So for 2 weeks we've been trying to see how we could save face and still lower his payment in tokens to possibly 50. If Dave were out of town I think I may have even lowered it to 25. He does need a new bike after all and his birthday is still 6 weeks away. Not nearly enough time to learn the tricks of the new bike and really enjoy it before the dreadful 9 months of a Seattle winter weather set in. Just the morning of the triathlon Sam's prayer consisted of 3 things: He prayed for the rain to stop for the triathlon and Micah's birthday, that he would be the best and that he could keep Selah's bike forever. Well 1 1/2 out of three ain't all that bad. It did stop raining for Micah's birthday so they were able to play outside on the princess bouncy house, He wasn't the best but he was darn close. He came in 8th out of 57 (and as Aidan with his positive outlook and non-competitive spirit would say--only 7 guys beat him!-- Jason too echoed this sentiment, however, his reminder was a little more shall we say sarcastic. But Uncle Jason really is a little more competitive and in all honesty rarely if ever had 7 guys beat him in a race--hows that for your ego boost for the day J.D.?)

Here it is pre--race. I love this picture, It actually looks like he's a getting in the zone.

These two pictures are also pre race. He is freezing in the one to the left and getting a little impatient with his mom and the non stop picture taking. The picture on the right is a bit silly but the woman behind Sam is carrying a backpack obviously from the Seattle Art Museum (in which SAM is the acronym)

The kids started out swimming 50 yards although it wasn't really a swim and it was no where near 50 yards. It was a splash through water and I would judge the distance about 25 yards. But they're young yet and we're still learning the ropes of this triathlon gig. After the splash/swim they run to their bikes for a mile ride.

Sam looked good, getting out of the water but couldn't find his bike. Once he found his bike he put on his helmet and then started running at full speed out of the bike area without his bike. Dave's yelling "Go get your bike!" Fortunately the ear tubes put in as a child worked, he heard his dad, ran back, got his bike and rode. Here he is below with Selah right in front. Can you see the coveted bike? I'm actually surprised he didn't covet Selah's new bike as it is red.

He rode well, parked his bike and turned on the speed for the 1/4 mile run. He was focused. So focused it seems he forgot to take off his bike helmet. His time was exactly 13:00 minutes. Look at the form! :-)

We are very proud of him not only for doing so well but really for doing his best. Unfortunately his mother has a slight competitive spirit and thought his coming in 8th when all the other kids ahead of him, except one, were older, was pretty grand! And I called all friends and family to tell them about it.

I love this picture.

And now this picture below is for Jaclyn. She may think she's a pretty good volleyball coach but the Novelty Hill Ward volleyball team pictured below only lost all 3 games to Sammammish 2nd ward (who I might add all of their players I think competed in the Olympics at one point in their lives) by small margins of: 25 to 20, 8 to 25 (yikes!) and 13 to 25 (ouch). Just a thought about the uniforms. Why is it that when the men play basketball they can wear actual playing shorts but when the women play volleyball we have to practically dress in winter wear? Anyway--Go team--next week Redmond 2nd. We may just have to fly Jax out to coach.

Whew we're tired...and a little cranky maybe

Well we haven't taken any pictures which is a shame because this kid is pretty cute. School has been pretty good although I think it wipes him out. He is always a little bit weepy and a bit impatient. As Sam is now in the 1st year (as Montessori refers--not grade) he has homework. for 10-15 minutes a day Sam must do some math, he has a spelling list and do some reading. He hates it. In his defense he gets home from school at 4ish and then that's pretty close to dinner--then it's close to bedtime. Yet another thing he hates. Nevertheless, we stick to our assignments and this week our spelling words are: cat, fat, flat, sat, can, pan, plan, man. On only our second day he didn't need to cheat at all. He spelled without looking! Yea...

We had Stake Conference on Sunday so we had Rachel her family, Cydney and Bart and the Berretts over for dinner. The Berretts brought the new Beatles rock band. I haven't ever played the rock band but this was fun. I knew Dave wouldn't dig it too much--that's a given, but I thought Sam may. He got to play the drums but he got a little bored and got up and left. That was a big surprise for me. Berkley who is just a few months older than Sam played that game all day. We're going to have to stop the sports and get him into some music appreciation apparently. Maybe he would just rather be the one guitar in Juke box hero???

Yesterday I was taking Sam and Maverick to school and we were talking about skiing. Now there are few families out there that can ski better than the Thompsons. I brought up that Sam could learn from Maverick maybe this year to ski with poles. Maverick piped in that yes indeed he could as he had been skiing since he was 3 years old. I said Sam had started when he was 4. Then Sam said "Well actually, I've been skiing since I was 1." I joked and asked who had taken him skiing and he said "My birthmother." Well it's good to know he does internalize some information after all. Maverick on the other hand had a very difficult believing that Sam was adopted. I tried to explain that adoption is all about love and I hope Maverick understood but that's a lot to comprehend. Lori was mortified that Maverick acted that way, but I could care less and Sam didn't seem to care either.

We had FHE last night and tried to learn about talents. We tried to teach that most talents need to be developed and some come naturally. We went around and asked each family member what they thought a talent might be that they had. We then asked other family members to then say what talents they thought this person had. When we got to Sam it was kind of funny. Of course he is very certain he is the fastest person in the whole wide world, which I'm quite certain he'd have to fight his Uncle Jason for those bragging rights. But then the cute part was when Dave said he thought Sammy had many talents, so many in fact that they were too numerous to name them all. Sam then replied--try! Dave did try and Sam readily agreed with all stated.

Well FHE was a bit of a failure because what I really wanted to say was that sometimes even though we don't think we're good at something we need to keep trying too---say for instance---tying a shoelace. That went over like a lead balloon. Patience is not a virtue for Chach. Seems like next FHE will be on patience.

So today we're coming home from Soccer and Sam asks if he can have a play date. We said no as it was dinner time but maybe another day. I then asked who he wanted to have over. He said he wanted to go over to someone else's home. Dave and promptly said that wasn't they way things really worked but then asked who was this person who's home he wanted to go play. He then said "I would like to go to Wendy's". It turns out that Sam is in love with her dog and wants a play date with Koda, the dog. Maybe he is more like his dad and not a people person after all.

1st week of 1st grade

There's a song in the Veggie Tales movie of "Jonah" where all the little veggies are singing about the 1st grade.....and on and on through the other grades as well. It's a catchy, happy tune and one that against one's better wishes gets stuck in your head and try as you might...you just can't shake it. And so it is every time I think of Sam being in his first year, which is every day I take him to school so needless to say that song is in my head now going on two weeks!

This is not my first time sending my sweet boy off to school for an entire day. He did it last year and so I thought I would be "over" the tears of yet one more year of independence under his belt. I had been talking to Kolette telling her it will be fine and gosh after about the first semester it's quite nice to be able to get some things done without worrying whether the kids are entertained. Independence goes both ways I guess. However, as solid and as brave as I thought I was feeling, when the morning of Monday, August 31st came, I was a bit shaken. I was appointed to say the family morning prayer and I burst out in tears and had a difficult time finishing it. Poor Sam just loving his mom and giving ME the comforting words of "it'll be OK...I'll be fine mom...etc...etc" As I see it Sam is a little too comfortable with independence.

But the day came and went. As you can see from the picture above Sam's combing his own hair nowadays, he loves red and he now has big teeth.

Sam's requested breakfast was pancakes from the oven (Danish Pancakes) and we started out the school day lunch with Miso soup, veggie sticks, chocolate chip cookie, box juice drink and a love note which he claims he never reads. I don't care he's getting one even if it's on the bright pink sticky heart paper.

When he grows up he wants to be a professional snow skier. I told him he's going to have to get used to poles then which totally bummed him out. He is still never going to leave me and I'm still his number one girl in the whole universe. I know Nina was running a close second as she grows plums and that is pretty impressive and maybe in another year could pull his heart strings away from me. Fortunately for me now however, his heart belongs to momma.

All in all Sam loves school. He walked in and gave Nik Osborne a big hug and as he's his only friend right now they play every day. I like Nik, he's a great boy and so I have no problem with this. Sam's teachers are LeAnn Brown and Alexa Plunkett and he's in the Spruce class. Mercedes say's that's the smart class. I WANT to believe her but I wonder :-). We still give Maverick a ride every day except Wednesdays. And every day they play "action fingers". Just use your imagination on that one. I couldn't do it justice with a description.

I can't imagine my life without Sam. He is my world. I love the mornings with him. He slips quietly down the stairs, tries to scare me and laughs as he thinks he does. His hair is reminiscent of Albert Einstein's and as he hates jammies his cute little six pack body sports his transformer underwear. He'll curl up under a blanket right next to the fire place 1st thing and lie there until breakfast is served. It's peaceful and an incredibly loving time for us. After breakfast well that's another story---the rush begins..........

And so it seems it is with life.....it just rushes by. Because of my impatience I sometimes think I want it to rush so I see the man that Sam will be, hoping he'll be good and true and brave......but then I step back and remember I don't want to see it now I think I just want to be involved in the process of how he'll get to good and true and brave. That should hold me for awhile. I have a lot of learning to do yet of my own.