1st Cross Country Meet

 Yesterday was Alex's first Cross Country Meet. Selfishly, I would like to see him love this sport! All the guys I knew in school that ran cross country were very kind, smart, and dedicated students. Qualities I'd like to see in my son too! Above shows that the guys were just below the setting sun. Hard to take a good picture.

 All the middle schools competed at once.

 That is a lot of boys!

 The weather was awesome! A great day for a run.

 Alex is running on the sidewalk to the left of the picture. He finished in the top 75 (but other boys who didn't cheated and took his 'ticket'!) Anyone after that, basically ran for fun. Next time he needs to be 10 seconds faster! And hopefully everyone else will be 10 seconds slower!

 Track man.

 You would have to zoom in, but this IS cross country and he did walk away covered in mud on his backside.

7th and 8th grade team. Alex didn't come home too excited. 3 more meets for him to give it a try.

Halloween etc.

 It is Halloween. Pumpkins at Kroger? No.

 Pumpkins at Wal-Mart? No.

 Over-priced fund raiser pumpkins at Methodist church? Yes.

 But look at this great photo op.

 Serious about gutting this pumpkin.

 Serious about stenciling this pumpkin.

 12 years old and still seriously grossed out about pumpkins in general.

 Rainbow Dash, John Cena (don't ask, once they start it is hard to stop them) and Kirby.

 Lakitu. Not one of my finer costumes, but it will do.

 Princess Peach. Super cute little racing queen!

 Waluigi and a Gamer.

 This is them very embarrassed but doing it anyway because there could be candy on the other side.

 Love this look on Ryan's face! The gorilla (Jospeh) is eating his turtle shell!

 Negotiations.

 Apparently there are note fairies that visit Macey's classroom. She built a house for them in the playground after school.

 Pajama Day. Also Oliver's bday, so we sent that Penguin Lover this cute picture for his birthday greeting.

 Our spooky tree just got creepier. Ugh, time to be chopped down.

 Stretch!

October from another perspective

 Alex and Dan went to a Texas Rangers game. They had suite (pun intended) seats!

 This was written in response to a note on Ryan's door that said, "No Girls Allowed".

 Here is the 15K again.

 Alex wrote him this Congrats card...

 Trunk or Treating.

 Yep, he is wearing these glasses. He is now in the 'where are your glasses phase.' Hoping that he gets used to them and wants to wear them to see better.

 Macey got a mega full bucket of candy at Alex's Halloween band concert. When I asked her for some she handed me this little starburst. 'Here, you can have this.' Nice sharing.

 Macey and Rainbow Dash.

 Mario and Waluigi against each other.

 Family fun. I embarrassed the kids by making them trick or treat in our neighborhood before dark. But we were meeting up in the Old Neighborhood and had to get a move on early! We only went to houses we knew or were decorated for Halloween.

 Family shot. I look much better without the mullet.

 Russell Creek friends. L-R Sawyer, Gabe, Kellen, Joseph, Ryan.

 L-R Sophia, Macey, Alex, (Bones), Mia, and Nico.

 A lot of candy!

 The last game. Alex says he is glad it is over. He is glad he played. He is glad to not have to play again!

 The only close up picture we have of Alex in uniform; not even complete uniform!

 So, we have a repeat of runnin' man. This weekend he went for the half marathon. He has severe knee pain. He managed to finish this race, but will have to rest up his leg before he starts training for the full marathon in February.