First day of 5th grade, Anna is back to school

It was back to school week in our house this week. Anna went back on Monday and Jude on Wednesday. It was a big deal for Anna because 5th grade at Ricks is the start of middle school so she had to have a computer (we bought a Dell early in the summer) and there is a more rigorous academic program.

A quick selfie before Jude was out the door on his first day of 7th grade

Jude entered 7th grade and his second year at ISD. He liked his new home room teacher as well as many of the kids in his class. He seemed to be looking forward to going back and he said he liked the first three days. Sports start this coming week and he is signed up for both cross country and soccer.

Anna pouncing on the ball in her first competitive soccer game

Last season Anna played soccer in the Skyline recreational league. She decided she wanted to step it up a notch and play in the competitive league this season. She is up to three practices a week now and they have been going at it since early August. Yesterday was the first game of the season and we were up bright and early to make the hour drive to Fort Collins for her first game. She played well against a good team and they lost 5-2.

Anna transitioning from the swim to the bike in the Stapleton triathlon

This morning was the Stapleton kids triathlon. The kids have entered this a couple of times but it has been about three years. They wanted to do a triathlon again this year so we signed them up. After doing a training swim Jude decided to pull out because he felt like 100 meters was too far and he has not been swimming laps at all this summer. So, Anna was our sole entrant and we all went to cheer her on. She did great on the swim and the bike but the run was a bit of a struggle (she had forgotten to take her inhaler). But she finished strong and was glad she had done it.

At the summit of Mt Evans (and yes, we hiked it from Summit Lake)

Jude has been wanting to do our annual 14er and given how great the weather was supposed to be today I thought we could do Mt Evans given the late start we were getting. So, we headed from Anna’s triathlon to Mt Evans, or more accurately to Summit Lake a couple of thousand feet below the summit. We did the Mt Evans-Mt Spaulding loop which was surprisingly challenging, particularly the route down off Mt Evans. We started just after 12pm. Jude was a rock star, he is so much fitter than me now so he carried the back pack on the way up and I carried it on the way down. The 5.3 miles took us just under 4 hours of actual hiking time. Then we stopped at Echo Lake Lodge for dinner on the way back, we were starving and exhausted but satisfied after this strenuous hike.