Music and Jon's birthday.....

Weekend before last Cody played in a "Talent Show Fundraiser" for the Hopewell church. Cody played his djembe. His "group" practiced for several weeks prior to the performance. They were awesome!
Below: Cody's friend Jared on the left and Cody on the right.


The next evening we (Lorelei, Cody and I) traveled to Portland to watch Adam perform in the Fall Recital. Adam practiced for weeks on a very difficult guitar piece that his instructor assigned him. Adam in the front and his teacher Yas in the background.


What a great couple of days of music and getting to visit with Adam!

Yesterday Jon turned 18! Wow.....it's hard to believe the "Bear Man" is 18. We tried to take him out for dinner over the weekend but commitments with his friends took priority (oh well).
So, Lorelei stopped by the store and last night when Jon got home from basketball practice we had waiting for him a steak, salad, onion rings, his favorite bread and lots more.





That's about it for now!

Glynn Jr.

State Cross Country meet and more......

Sorry for the delay. Things are a bit "bumpy" right now so I have neglected the blog. The economy has affected my job to the point of needing to make some tough decisions.
Enough of that.....what about the State Meet?

On Friday the 6th of Nov. I traveled with the team to Eugene Oregon. We stopped at the State Meet course at Lane Community College.



The boys did a combined course jog\workout. Out of the 5 boys on the team, all have been here before except 1.



We dodged rain drops and a cold west wind and then loaded back on the bus to go and find our motel room for the night. We found our rooms and unloaded the bus. After a short rest we again loaded back on the bus for a trip to Mazzis Italian restaurant. It's a tradition with the team to eat at Mazzis. The place was PACKED with people so we elected to order our food to go and went back to the motel for the evening. The boys played guitar hero in their room and it was lights out at 10 p.m.
Saturday morning we were up at 6:30 getting ready for the big day. The boys devoured food from the "continental" breakfast. Oatmeal, fruit, bagels and such were consumed in quantities only 5 distance runners could. On to the meet for our 10:30 start time. The boys like to be at the race about an hour and a half ahead of time so they can prepare.
Over a hundred runners from the top 3A schools in Oregon lined up for the race.

Can you spot Jon?


Jon's back problems continued to plague him and he finished back of the front runners. An overall disappointing season for him.

Below, Jon obviously in pain as he fights his way up the hill.


Below: With 300 meters to go in Jon's high school cross country career he puts the pain aside and passes about 5 runners at the finish.



The Amity boys ran well overall, to finish 6th as a team. Aaron ran to a 7th place finish and stood on the awards stand with the top runners in the state! All of the pictures of the meet can be found HERE

In the past 5 years I have traveled thousands of miles with Jon to watch him run. He has a gift. He is graceful and powerful. We have ate on the road at nearly every fast food place there is. We have talked with excitement after good races and sat in peaceful silence after not so good ones. We have stood in the pouring rain and wind of the Pacific Northwest and basked in the sunshine and sweltering heat of the east coast. It's hard to put into words how I will miss these times. One more track season to go and Jon's HS running career will be at an end. Thanks for the memories son!


Glynn Jr.

Weekend at Eagle Crest......

So like I said below, after the meet last Friday Lorelei and I headed over the mountains. Being the end of October you never know what weather you will hit traveling over the nearly 5,000 foot mountain pass between the Willamette Valley and eastern Oregon. There was little traffic and we made good time. We were approaching the summit around 7:00 p.m. pitch black outside and the car suddenly "stumbled" and the "maintenance required" light began flashing? I backed off of the accelerator, Lorelei says something like "oh great". The car was still running and I got back on the gas and we kept going! The car ran great the rest of the night and the next day although it did "stumble" again on the way home. I guess with a 185,000 miles on you, you should be able to stumble once in a while.

We had great weather and a very relaxing time just setting our own schedule. We stayed at Eagle Crest.



No we didn't win the lottery......we have a friend that owns one of the Challet's and gave us a great deal on using it for the weekend. On Saturday morning I woke up early (as usual) and put on a pot of coffee. As I sat there figuring out what I was going to do for the next hour or so....Lorelei surprised me by getting up and saying...."what do you want to do today". Wow....so we got ready and headed out. First thing we did was to do what most any couple would do that is on a trip away from home at a resort location.........we checked out the second hand stores in Redmond! We found Lorelei a pair of shoes and I found a good gortex rain jacket for $7.50!

Wow all that shopping made us hungry so we stopped for a burger on our way out of town to see some sights. The first stop was a cool spot along Hwy 97 that we first visited years ago when we had all the boys with us. Peter Skene Ogden Viewpoint is NOT a place you want to visit if you are afraid of heights or if you have children along and a wife that has a heart attack easily. You park your vehicle and proceed past 124 giant signs that warn of danger and cliffs ahead.



Walk right up to the 3 foot high man made wall and peer over and look 300 ft. down to the river.......cool!


Lorelei was not as excited as I was, especially when I found that if you walked out to the edge of the park that the wall ended and you could actually walk along the rim of the canyon with nothing between you and the river below.....even more cool!
Please excuse the poor photography in the next couple of shots. The midday sun was way too bright!
So I walk over to the ledge and hang my feet over so Lorelei can take a picture.


Then I asked her to walk near the edge, and by golly she got pretty close!



Next we headed to Lake Billy Chinook which was only another 20 miles down the road. We pulled out our camera gear and had a blast! Very neat place to visit and photograph.
Lorelei took this beauty!







We hurried back to town and went out to dinner. Sunday we got up and had a leisurely drive back over the mountains. We had a great time!
All the pictures from our trip are HERE

Glynn Jr.

Amity Boys XC win District Title.....

On Friday the Amity boys won their 4th consecutive District Title! Blowing away the competition. Jon is still suffering back pain and finished 9th in the race. He is having a difficult season and he will likely have the same pain this Saturday when the team runs with the best teams in the state of Oregon! We are currently ranked 6th in the state. What a great accomplishment for these guys.



Below: Aaron and Jon get mentally prepared for the start of the race.



Lorelei took pictures too.....Hey...you are suppose to be shooting the runners!



The girls ran well also, but their season ended with this meet.



All the pictures from this meet can be found HERE

After the meet Lorelei and I had dinner with the team and then we (just Lorelei and I) headed east over the mountains for a couple of days for our belated anniversary. More on that next time. Also stay tuned for the exciting conclusion of Cross Country!

Glynn Jr.