Trip to the zoo

A few weeks ago, Megan and I went to the zoo.  It was one of the 70 degree days that we had.  It was packed!

 The otters were very active!

 As many times as I've been to the zoo, I don't think I've ever seen the porcupine up in the tree before.  Megan was not nearly as entertained with this as I was.

 Megan liked studying all of the maps.

Mid Winter band concert

The boys had their mid winter band concert last week.

End of year 7th grade tourney

Jonathan's end of year basketball tournament started yesterday.  They played Dickinson first.

 Tyler misses this shot

 Jonathan got the rebound

 He throws up a nice hook shot for 2.  Didn't get that on film because I had to cheer.

 I think Jonathan is gaining on #50.  He used to not quite clear his shoulder

The boys won this game.  They played Horizon next, and lost on a buzzer beater after fighting back to tie it.  It was a great, hard fought game by both teams.  Play for 3rd on Monday night.

Students of the Month

Waaaaaay back in November, Eric was awarded Student of the Month.  I am only aware of this because the Middle School puts in on their fb page.

Jonathan was named Student of the Month for January.  I also only know this because of fb

Megan's news story

Megan wants to be a journalist when she grows up.  At least that is what she wants to be this week.  Here is her first article.  I did make a few corrections, but if she writes more articles, I will copy them as is.

By Megan LaFleur.

I had fun at the swim meet.  It was scary, but I had fun. My Grandma and Aunt and cousin, mom and dad were there.  My couch Matt was there. He is so funny, and the best couch in the world. He  is fun.  I swam the 50 back and 50 breast stroke.  I was going to do the relay freestyle race, but they did not do it!  I got a large milkshake!  It was great.

Swim meet

This weekend, Megan participated in the 1 mandatory swim meet her mean parents make her do.  We chose the Bismarck instead of the Mandan one to be held in February
a) to get it over with
b) because we secretly hoped she would just magically love it, and then want to do the one in February in Mandan
c) It was a convenient weekend since we have Monday and Tuesday off of school.

There were a lot of nerves, and some tears because of the nerves.  There was the promise of ice cream based celebration when it was all done (She chose McDonald's, stating if she completes all 3 events without a disqualifying penalty she would get a large chocolate shake.  If she did DQ...she'd settle for a medium shake, PLUS an apple pie.)

The Aquatic Center is a chaotic place, so we didn't have the best seats for pictures.

 getting a pep talk from Coach Matt

 The 'rub it in to Aunt Amy' picture

 Lining up for the 50m Back

 She is right under the 7 flag

 Her official time was 1:11:34, placing her 62nd out of 173 entries (not sure how many actually competed-there are always a few no shows)

 She did not have  a registered time for her 50m breast stroke.  She says she touched the wall, but it didn't register.  From the angle we had, it looked like she finished 6th in her heat.  It might be few days before the manual times are updated.

 Yes, she got the large shake, on a day with windchills of 20 plus below zero.  She got an apple pie, too.

This is how the kids know when they swim:, event #, Heat #, lane #, stroke.

Well done, Megan!

Archery

Eric started his Archery League on Sunday.  They alternate each week between shooting 3D targets and square targets.  He was most successful at the 20-25 yard range (targets were placed between 10-30 yards).