The Amazing Math Race

Hunter's Math Club concluded their current session last night with the Amazing Math Race.  They broke into teams and competed a scavenger hunt style race solving complex math problems to win prizes.  There were two ways to win.  Solving the problems correctly and being the first team to the finish line.

This is Hunter's team.  Hunter, Austin and Brogan.  Brogan is a 5th grade genius that was allowed to be with the 6th graders because he is so bright.  The real bright one in this group is Hunter.  He hooked up with Brogan to create his team.  He and Brogan solved all the problems correctly to win the team prize for problem solving. (Hunter got 2 and Brogan got 3)  They got third for the fastest time.  They were the only team to place in both categories.  Austin was along for the ride. He was a great cheerleader.

Here are all of Hunter's Math Buddies and their Coach, Tracy in the Mathlete shirt.  They start their new math challenge Dec. 12th.  They will sit for a statewide test in March.  This time they sat for an 8th grade test.  The goal was to score between 7-9. Hunter met the goal with a 9.
Hunter is in the back row wearing the white shirt.

Turkey Shoot Out

Hunter plays for the Clippers basketball team.  This is his first year in basketball.  They played in a tournament this weekend.  They got 2nd place.  Here he is with his trophy. 

Turkey Trot 2012

Thanksgiving Day was the Turkey Trot again.  Blake won our pumpkin pie for dinner again this year.  We had a great dinner and went to the ISU game Friday.  Wed was 70 degrees so we took in 9 holes.  It was a bit of a shock when we ended up sitting in 32 degrees Friday.  It was also tough to watch our team lose.

Disney on Ice

Tonight we went to Disney on Ice and Landon got a special visit before the show.

 

Awww, Mickey

 

See ya real soon!

 

 

After seeing Mickey and Minnie we went to the Festival of Trees, Landon rode the train...

Whoa! No seat belt!

 

 

...and sat with Santa and Mrs. Claus. We couldn't get him to say what he wanted for Christmas, dang.

 

"I love cheesy pretzels, but that light is SO bright"

 

"All right dad, stop taking my picture!"

 

Landon really enjoyed the show and clapped to the music with everyone else and bounced to the beat of the music.

 

A Hug for Santa

 

from Landon.

Living History Farms 2012

On Saturday Shana, Erik, Anja and Milla came to visit us in Des Moines. Shana and Adam ran the 7 mile cross country race, known as "the largest cross country race in the United States". The registration is capped at 7500, while only about 7000 people actually finish it. That is more than enough people for a trail run.

Later the kids took part in the kids trail runs.

After we all washed the mud off we met Amy and Hunter at Panera for a cousin lunch. We sat and chatted for nearly 2 hours before saying good-bye.

 

All the runners at the beginning of the day.

 

The start of the 7-miler. There were many bottlenecks throughout the run but it was still fun.

 

Though they have very different paces, they stuck together for the whole run.

 

(second) cousins having fun

 

In the enlarged picture you can see Adam to the right, Shana's hat to the left by the clocks.

 

After the race. Adam took on most of the mud struggling to get out of the last creek crossing.

 

 

Landon running his race.

 

Milla with her finisher's ribbon.

 

All the proud kids with their ribbons. Anja proudly wore her running shirt and bib to lunch at Panera after the race.

Lego Landon