State Bound!!

In May 2006 and May 2007, Zack was a member of the state championship Bel Canto choir. In May 2008, Courtney was a member of Bel Canto as it won its third straight state championship. This fall Jake was one of three freshmen boys selected to be a member of Bel Canto. This week was the fall concert for Bel Canto. Courtney was sick, so she could not sing, but Jake dressed in his new tux clothes and stood on the top row, far left corner -- exactly where Zack stood throughout his last couple of years in the choir. He looked and sounded great!

We had a great time carving pumpkins. Jake was excited to light them all.

Ghoulish glow.

Today was the Greater Oregon district cross country championship. It was held in Ontario. The course was fast and the weather great -- about 50 degrees. Jake is shown above in his Under Armour as the teams readied for the start of the race.

La Grande, in blue, had a stacked team with six seniors on the varsity team of seven. They didn't disappoint as they won the boys' district crown. The Baker girls won the girls' title.

Jake went out hard from the beginning . He and Mitch pushed each other and finished 4th and 5th for Baker's second place team. This place earned them a right to participate in the state championship next week in Eugene.

Jake didn't feel well before the race and threw up afterward. But he gave his all during the race. Here he is enjoying a smile with his good friend Ivan after the race.

The course was VERY fast. Jake was anxious to check the board to learn just how fast he and his teammates had run the race.

Jake crushed his personal record by two minutes as he ran 3.1 miles in 18 minutes and 25 seconds. His teammate, Trevor, won the district race with a time of 16 minutes and 29 seconds. Trevor was over 30 seconds faster than the next runner. Small wonder Jake didn't feel too well. He shaved almost 40 seconds off of each mile he ran. Way to go Jake!!!

Jake's 15th birthday and 5th place medal

Jake turned 15 on Tuesday and life is going GREAT for him!! This afternoon he helped Baker obtain a perfect score in cross country by passing an Ontario runner in the last 600 yards of the Baker Invitational for 5th place. He received this 5th place medal. He ran another personal best by running 3.2 miles in 20 minutes 23 seconds at the Baker golf course.

The team wanted "Baxter" to hold the 1st place trophy and all five medals.

We always hide birthday presents in the living room. Jake is showing off his new strength and jumping skills as he finds a present hidden on top of the closet. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday because Karen and I had to be out of town during his birthday.

Opening one of his presents. Friend Pattie came over to celebrate with us. Jake hopes to be driving soon!!!

Karen made Mississippi Mud Pie so she and Courtney placed the candles in a zucchini.

Mississippi Mud Pie and Jake are all smiles!!

Jake is warming up by lengthening his stride just before the race began.

Jake ran most of the race with his sophomore teammate, Mitch. They really helped each other hold off some Burns and Elgin runners. Finally, Mitch told Jake to go after the Ontario runner. Jake had to overtake the Ontario runner three times before he finally passed him for good.

Jake sprinting to the finish!

The medal winners: Jake, 5th place; Jake P., 4th; Joe A., 3rd; Eric R., 2nd; and Trevor F. 1st place in 18 minutes and 23 seconds.

The 2009-2010 Baker Cross Country team.

Cross Country Update

Courtney took this picture from on top of a hill at the golf course in Milton-Freewater. It was a beautiful setting but made for a hard race today. This is the start of the race where the boys are bunched together. Jake has come to realize that he is a good runner and has begun to push himself more in practice and we looked to this meet as the one that would help Jake know where he is as a cross country runner. He didn't disappoint.

There are 7 runners on a varsity cross country team. Jake ran varsity today. His goal was to run with some of the faster, older boys. As they started out, the oldest five Baker runners were bunched together. Jake was a few seconds behind them -- much closer than he has been in other races. About halfway through the race, they had to run up a steep hill. By the time he got there, he had passed one of the older Baker runners so he was in 5th place. Jake is the boy in the middle of the two white-shirted runners.

Staying close to Joe, a senior.

Starting downhill.

Shortly after this picture, Jake passed Joe to take 4th place among the Baker varsity runners. This was while they were on top of the hill.

Jake was awesome in this race. Though he thought he was going to die a couple of times, he gutted it out and had a personal best in a tough, tough course. He placed 4th among the Baker varsity runners and 15th overall. There were about 50 runners in the race. Not bad for a freshman!

Jake's hard work paid off and it was recognized by his teammates and coach. Last week and this week he was elected the most inspirational runner in practice by his teammates. Trust me, he is really working hard. And, as a result, he was named the male runner of the race for his team today. Way to go, Jake!! Oh, he was so sweaty and had little bugs stuck all over his neck.

On the 10th of October, Saturday morning, it was so cold in La Grande as the boys ran. They ran only 1.8 miles. Jake showed then that he was making great strides as he placed 4th amongst the Baker runners while 3 or 4 of the top runners were gone.

Jake was staying warm in his Under Armour.

Jake had a great race.

Celebrating Cameron's 18th birthday with many friends.

Just two days before the La Grande race, Jake ran in Ontario at the future site of the district meet to be held on October 31st.

Jake liked this race. He thought is was a pretty fast course. He placed in the top 7 for Baker.

Gutting out a great race. Neither Karen or I got to see Jake run in this race.

This is an additional picture from Jake's first race in the mountains outside of Elgin. These pictures from La Grande, Ontario, and Elgin were given to us by one of the moms whose son runs on the team. We are grateful for her generousity.

Homecoming Game and Dance

It was freezing the night of Baker's homecoming game against a high school from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (and by the way, we creamed them!). Princess Courtney wore her dress, Under Armour underneath her dress, wool coat, gloves, and a blanket, and managed to still be beautiful and smiley.

Right before halftime the homecoming princesses got into several convertibles (Courtney's was a 1957 Plymouth--at least we think that's what it was) and rode around the football field.

Courtney and her friend, Mallory Bailey, rode together in Lee Swiger's car. Right before they pulled up in front of the spectators in the stands, the girls yanked off their warm coats. The announcer read a prepared statement about each girl. We are so proud of Courtney and what she stands for.

Although it was literally freezing outside, the girls braved the cold while their dads escorted them down the middle of the football field. When Courtney's name was announced, she got a huge cheer from the crowd. Let's hear it for all our friends and supporters. It was a magical night. I (Karen) still have people talk to me about Courtney and her beautiful dress. The Lord blessed us to find a dress that could be made modest, and not only was her dress the only modest one, it was also stunning in color and style.

Here are most of the homecoming princesses and their dads. Before halftime I noticed that a dad had a large bouquet of flowers. I thought the school had given them to him to present to his daughter, so I figured they'd give Greg some too. I was wrong. Tori Wirth's dad talked with Greg just before the half. He had received a phone call right before the game and was told to get his daughter some flowers. So he drove to the store and got a dozen roses. He realized that Greg hadn't received the call so he immediately handed over 6 of his dozen roses. He even cut the ribbon around the bouquet in half. Greg was so grateful, but then he noticed that a single mom of one of the girls didn't have flowers and was feeling bad about it. Greg gave her two of his flowers. She saw another father without flowers, so she gave him one of hers. Tori's dad noticed that another father didn't have any flowers so he gave him two of his remaining six flowers. Out of a dozen roses, Tori's dad ended up with four, but more important than that, there were several grateful fathers, a grateful mother and some happy daughters. I am so grateful for good people on this earth, people who give from their hearts.

I love this picture. I couldn't be prouder of these two. Courtney represented our family, our church, the community, and the Savior well. She kept her standards high and was rewarded with an exceptional experience. Dad was proud too!

Courtney and Jake are very close. They decided to go to homecoming together with a big group of their friends. Didn't they look great!

This is a good group of kids. They had so much fun together.

Belles of the ball.

They started the evening with dinner at the Hindman's house. We moms helped prepare the meal, but Chrisanne went all out with the table decorations and ambience. After dinner the kids went to the dance for a while, then half of them came to our house to change clothes and watch a movie. At midnight they all went home so they could get up for church the next morning. This was a busy week for the kids, but it leaves behind a great memory.

Homecoming Court and Pep Night

Courtney was a beautiful homecoming princess. Her dress was modest and stunning. I am still in disbelief that our little girl is a senior. We were very proud of her.

Courtney with her good friends, Annika, Tori, and Melissa. Melissa was chosen as the homecoming queen. She wore her grandmother's dress from 1957. Such pretty girls.

The Homecoming Court

Weston Anderson escorted Courtney. He is in my (Karen's) seminary class and is a great young man.

Pep Night is crazy loud and there is so much spirit in that gym. Jacob is somewhere in the sea of red-clad freshmen. The poor freshmen won nothing in the spirit competition, but they had fun anyway.

The senior class' theme was "Top Gun" and it was clever, especially the way they did the spell-out. I couldn't begin to describe it with justice, but the letters for "SENIORS" flew down a zip line and a senior boy was on a ladder waving glow sticks. It was like the guy on the ship in the movie "Top Gun" when he waves batons so the pilots know where to go. A few more notes about the Bug Collection and Virtue Flats pictures below. Bug Collection: this was the fifth and final bug collection that our family has had to do for Biology. We have collected bugs since May, put them in Ziplocs, and into a shoe box that we kept in the freezer. I am no longer stinking scared of insects. Jake had some huge bugs. We got some in Florida when we were there, and some friends who went to Southern Utah brought one from there that we don't have here in Oregon. Virtue Flats: This area is a few miles east of Baker. I told Jake as I was driving him out there, that it was cool he was able to run so close to the actual Oregon Trail. It's definitely not the pretty mountainous side of Baker, but it has history.