This week in NY

What we've been up to this week...

Micaela has been busy with school and cross country.  I'm impressed that these middle schoolers go out and run around the track every afternoon and then once or twice a week race other schools running 1.5 miles each time.  She seems to like being part of a team, and what a good way to get in shape and be outside enjoying the fall weather.  She's in one of the gold uniforms sort of in the middle.

Every once and a while Jon stays home with Kurt.  And he usually says something cute like, "Dad, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  "I highly doubt it, but go ahead, what are you thinking"  "I think that we should make the biggest tent ever!"  And then this happens:

I've been doing lesson plans/preparation, some triathlon team assistance, and some Dirt Skit directing (I'll save the explanation for another blog).   And in the mean time I take pictures of pretty trees.  Two days after I took this picture all the leaves fell.  With the hurricane approaching I'm sure a few more will fall next week.

Kurt has been working a lot on the house and every room is looking really nice. This is probably our favorite place we've lived so far (just missing our W-burg neighbors).   One new addition was a small play place for Jon behind the couch in the living room so we can watch TV in peace while he plays.

And these are berries.  We read somewhere that they are supposedly "happy food" so we have them for breakfast.  We've also added ice cream to that list, it make us happy.  :)

5 Things...

I finally downloaded all my iPhone pictures and realized that since we've moved to NY, almost everything we've done can fit into the following 5 categories:

1. House / Yard work
2. West Point
3. Triathlons
4. Football
5. NYC

It kind of sums up our life.  It's a pretty good life.  Here are the pictures:

1. House / Yard work

2. West Point

That's West Point in the background. 

I think this is called the Thayer Room, they do awards and ceremonies here

That room in the back is where the academic board meets for a variety of reasons.  The chairs in it are very heavy (in case you were wondering).

These are the Freshmen (plebes) marching back from summer training to start their first semester.

This is Dirtman greeting the freshmen marching back.   The class we teach is Physical Geography, but the cadets call it "Dirt", so they created a Department mascot and named him Dirtman.

Parades are cool.  They do it before every home football game.  That's the building I work/teach at in the background

The cadet parachute team is awesome, they practice every afternoon when the weather is good enough.  I think these are actually the Golden Knights though, the Army parachute team from Ft Bragg.

3.  Triathlons

This was when we went to Placid over the 4th of July

And the pictures below were two weeks later for the actual Ironman.  There seem to be a lot of food pictures that accompany the Triathlon pictures... hmmm.  

Triathlons are complicated.  This is me laying everything out before doing my first one at West Point.

I volunteer with the West Point triathlon team and go with them to some of their events.  This is a race they did at Lake George.  It was a small race, I just spectated and cheered them along.

Lake George was also a cute vacation town, so we had fun after the race was over.

After Lake Placid, Kurt decided that he didn't want to waste his training, so he signed up for a Half-Ironman in the Poconos.  It was a nice event, but nothing like Placid.  While waiting for Kurt, the kids and I found this: 

This is LTC Allen, the Officer in Charge of the Triathlon team.  I basically work for him when I volunteer for the Tri Team.  He placed 4th in the Poconos Half-Ironman.  He's pretty good.

Triathlons tucker everyone out!

 4.  Football

The thing I've learned out Army Football is that Tailgating is more important than football.  No one cares if they make it to the stadium for the kickoff, but they tailgate before, at half time, and after each game.  It's serious business.  I guess you have to make it about the company and camaraderie when your football team has a record that is not so great.

5.  NYC

I've been to NYC twice now, once with my Department from West Point (with Micaela) and once with Ranj.  Between the two, I've seen most of the highlights.  Someday I'll take Kurt with me.

Ranj's iPhone took really nice pictures of the artwork at the Met

 Okay, I think this post is long enough.  It might take a couple hours to upload as it is.  I'll try to be more punctual next time!