The Rarest Pokemon

On the way home from the bus stop sometimes Van and I play Pokemon Go. There is usually nothing around. So Van and I were both thrilled when on Thursday, he caught this

It's our strongest Pokemon so far. I coached him through it, even though I really wanted to take the phone and catch it myself to make sure it didn't get away (ones like that can disappear if you take too many tries), but I restrained myself and was happy when he caught it.

We pulled up a chart from the internet showing which Pokemon were the rarest

You can see the Lapras we caught is in the 'mythical' category. Pretty good.

Today I put Jon on the bed while I went into my closet. Van was talking baby talk to him and I heard him say, "Who's the rarest Pokemon? You are, yes you are."

A Walk with Esther

A walk around the neighborhood with my best helper.

Flattop at 4 weeks

Jon and I hiked Flattop today, my first post baby hike. It was pretty good. A gorgeous day. I felt good on the way up, tired, but I started feeling my hips on the way down so I had to take it easy.
It was just me so lots of selfies.

At the top!

Giving Jon a little snack at the top.

sweet baby hiker

A baby in the fall colors

Running Jamboree

Luckily for us Svea called on Saturday morning and asked if we were going to the Jamboree. At first I said no, we had completely forgotten, but then decided we should try it.

Van's race was at 10:15, Kindergarten and 1st grade boys, 0.5 mile.

Here is our athlete, walking to the field

Once he got his bib, maybe a little nervous

Standing at the start with his friend Paitin

And Sam

Running trio

A view of the start

One of my cheering companions

A video of the start

It's hard to see Van but look for the orange, he comes up on the right side of the screen. And the video continues after he goes by (when I yell 'go Van' he has already gone by but I couldn't see anything in the mass of children)

The finishers starting to arrive, one of the first kids was Van's friend Ethan

Then we saw our neighbor Sam

His mama was a x-c champion so he has running in his blood.

But right behind him is Van the man! Bright red, just like his mama when she would run.

 Go Van Go!

Van loved his 'gold' finishers medal

 He said he was too tired to smile

 But he made an effort

He did fantastic and had fun. He said he ran the whole way even though other boys stopped to walk. I'm so proud and can't wait to watch more running races.

Reading

One of Esther's favorite books these days, from Saige.