Mt. Hood Conference District XC Meet

The day has arrived. Very fortunate that the weather took a break from the wind and rain for the day. Still cool, 56 degrees with high clouds. Sierra was sooooo nervous for this day.

The meet was held at Centennial High School. I had to pay $6 per adult and $4 per child to see my daughter run. It was totally worth it!

Gresham Varsity XC Girls: Haley, Kennedy, Sierra, Diana, Hannah, Moriah & Laura
They introduced each runner before the race

The sound of the gun... all 45 Varsity girls from 7 schools take off

Sierra kept a good pace.. clearly ahead of her personal best

She sprinted the last 100 yards...

As her Mommy, I couldn't be more proud! Sierra ran so hard, she threw up after her race. Nerves probably had something to do with it too.

Sierra ran it in 21:08!!!! She came in 17th over all and 3rd from Gresham. They take the top 2 teams to State. They combine the place that the top 5 runners from each school come in, to get the score.

St. Mary's took 1st place- 23 pts

Barlow High School took 2nd place - 75 pts

Gresham took 3rd place - 76 pts....

Can you believe it we lost out by 1 point!!! 1 stinkin' point! Soooo disheartening. To add to the disappointment, the 8th girl that had ran Varsity all season (A freshman) ran the JV race and ran it in 21:54.. her time was faster than 3 of the upper class that ran Varsity. With her time we would have taken 2nd place by 3 points and would be going to state.

I suppose at this point there is always next year!

Again, I just want to say How proud I am of Sierra and her continuing improvement throughout the season! It has been so much fun to watch!

My Sierra and her world!

Nike Pre-Nationals Invite @ Portland Meadows Sept. 25th, 2010

A beautiful sunny day. A little too warm to run in though. Over 3000 participants in this meet. 350 in Sierra's 11th and 12th grade Varsity Race She was hot and exhausted when she finished. Grandpa Lindhorst was right there for a shoulder to lean on
A few of Sierra's fans that came to cheer her on
Syd, Maddy, Presley, her Daddy, Grandma Judy and Cole
I hung up our snuggies to get a little shade for the team

Saturday October 2nd, 2010 Gresham hosted the meet at Rooster Rock State Park along the Columbia River Gorge

There were 12 teams at this meet. Sierra ran so well.

Getting more aggressive in passing other runners

Here is a group picture of all the JV and V Gresham Girls

The Varsity girls took 3rd place with their combined places!! Woo hoo!! Sierra came in 3rd from her team. Set another personal record of 23:08

Third Place! Dang!!

Westlinn XC Meet Oct. 6th, 2010

5 teams at this meet

This is one of those meets where the girls literally run into the woods and then reappear after 10 minutes. Sierra said a chipmunk ran in front of her on the trail. It was very narrow and made it difficult to pass when in the wooded area

Here she is coming out of the woods and her coach Kylee Hutchins(in the black to the right) telling her to go catch the girls in front of her

And she did just that she finished in 15th place over all, 2nd for her team with her new personal best time of 22:37

I am soooooo proud of her!!!

From what all of the coaches say this is one of the hardest courses to run! And she PR'ed!!

Sierra and Cassie!
Wednesday October 13th, 2010

Field trip to Pioneer Courhouse Square

A class trip to observe society for an Anthropology Report

took the Max

Downtown Portland has some interesting art....???

It was a gorgeous fall day full of sunshine

Then that afternoon Sierra had a XC meet at Fernhill Park in portland hosted by Central Catholic High School

I love her Coach kylee.. she is right there cheering for the girls and telling them to go pass the girl in front of them. Great motivation!

Sierra was lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Merrill here to see her run. Grandpa took a picture of her on every corner and turn... well almost every one.. he missed a couple

Sierra tied her person best at this meet.. despite her left spike coming untied at the beginning of the race and having to run the whole 5k with it untied.

Sydnee's Volleyball Game

I gave my camera to Sierra and asked her to take pictures, this is one of them

Monday October 18th, already time for Grandma and Grandpas visit to end. Sierra walked in the door just as we were headed to the airport. I snapped one last picture

XC Meet @ Barlow High School 10/20/10

It is only one week before the District meet and their coaches do not want any injuries so she had them run together as a team for the first 2 miles of the course then finish strong the last mile. Surprisingly they all had decent times... Sierra still ran it in 23:26. poor girl has huge blisters on the arch of her feet and caluses on her toes and even a missing toenail. Her feet are pretty beat up to say the least.
As her parents we couldn't be more proud of her!!!

Yeah.. still sunny and 70 degrees and october 3/4 over!

LOVE IT!!

Faces of Cole (when we can get 'em)

Cole is a difficult kid to get a picture of. If he actually looks at the camera he pulls a face. As you will see in most of these photos.Example #2
his back is too me so he doesn't mind me taking a picture. He is doing his Parade wave to all that are watching as we go by.
This is Cole with Morgan Benson. Sierra and her group got together at our house before going to Homecoming(Cole did not go) however he decided to do a muscle pose... random.

I will take any picture I can get of Cole, it is not easy.. Steven took these with the telephoto lens. He had no idea

Here he is cheering for Sierra at her XC meet @ Rooster Rock

Cole on offense. Gresham vs Reynolds a win 33-6

Cole running the ball. Cole averages about 15 yds a carry

Gresham current record for 2010 season is 5 wins, 1 tie, and 2 losses

their toughest loss was to Central Catholic last week. They played under the lights at Hilsboro Stadium. Grandma and Grandpa Merrill were here for that game. Cole was upset that they lost. He refused to get a picture with them after the game. He played a great defensive game. in this picture below he is making a dive tackle on #30

So the next day at Syd's Volleyball game I had Sierra take pictures. She got a couple of him

example #3

This is about the best I can get of him at Maddy's softball games

Oh here is another of him that he had no clue was taken

This is what i usually get when I try to get one of him!

THE HAND

So I made him a deal! He wanted a blizzard from DQ, I agreed to TCBY! He had to sit by me and get his picture taken without pulling a face.(BTW we are at Barlow High school cheering for Sierra at her XC meet)

By looking at him it appears that it is torture!

Dang I love this kid! He better! I bought him a triple scoop waffle cone!

Cole on kick off for their game against Barlow

This game ended in a tie 21-21 unfortunately they do not go into overtime for JV because varsity soccer has games immediately afterwards on their field.

Coles #1 fan! Presley. She talked her daddy into buying her a cup of hot chocolate at the game.

Coles other #1 fans MOM and DAD! one game left of a great season!