Fast and Furious Fun!

Man, this is bad. I just got a kick in the pants when someone said they visited this site today and I realized I have not been on in so long that I forgot the password!

Here are some updates!

Connor: Ended up being totally green from head to toe after helping us make our scout Troop 113 float for the parade. This year the theme is "Go Green" and Connor took that literally...and to a new level. Funny, he loves John Deere and the tub looked like an OS series model by the time he was done in it. We took him to the John Deere 2 Cylinder Expo 2 weeks ago and he was in heaven! We did chores for our neighbors so they could enjoy the week down at the expo and give them a break from the farm. Connor was a huge help! He made me goals for the summer: telling time, tying his shoes better, and writing a book. They could be mine, too.

Colin: Was privileged to be invited to the Easter Regional Elite Running Camp at the Olympic Training Center. He calls each night under threat of having to finish his own laundry upon his return!! LOL! Just kidding. He is having a blast hiking a few of the high peaks, attending clinics, meeting other athletes, and apparently jumping off cliffs into water. Tony and I are so jealous!!!! He finished the school year with a 94 GPA, so we are pleased. He is working on trying to balance a social life, school and sports. It's going to be a fun ride.

Coming Up: Tony and I are leading the Troop on a High Adventure from August 7th - 12th through 5 lakes and climbing a mountain in the ADKS. We are so excited. It has been fun watching the boys have to plan this trip and read canoe maps. We have the parade this week and a fun year ahead! We can't wait to see our family. Karl and Jenn in the middle of August and my family toward the end. I will post pics from those visits as they happen. Love to all!

Blue Mountain Lake

As you can tell by the date, work has been crazy. Now that my CSE's are almost over, I can breathe a bit and blog! Unfortunately, the boys are in school this week and we are not; hence the weekend trip to Blue Mountain Lake. We stayed at Blue Mtn. Rest, a cottage that loves dogs, so the whole family could go! We had a fast and furious blast! How many families can say they climbed a mountain, canoed the perimeter of a lake and trout fished at Buttermilk Falls all in one day? The scenery was gorgeous and God blessed us with a wonderful Saturday. At the base of the mountain it was 60 degrees. At the summit ( 3,759 ft) it was less than 30 degrees. The last 1/2 mile of the climb was steep and had at least 3 feet of snow and ice pack. In spots we had to use ropes and the boys learned fast! We were so proud of Connor. He did the whole way by himself, and this was the toughest out of all we had done ever before. It was 2 1/2 hours on the way up and 2 hours down. We saved time when we had to slide on our butts down the rope on the descent! Milo was a blast. He ran circles around us the whole time and was really good at scouting the best path ahead! Colin kissed the summit when we got there! On the way down his legs were jello and he was laughing so hard once we had to stop for him to catch his breath! The canoe ride was fun. On the way back across Blue Mountain Lake the boys were hauling a red hippity hop ball bopping along the water behind them! It looked hilarious. They found it and brought it back as a memento! Tony and I thought of Garrett and our senior AP English Project! Tony and Connor tried the trout stream at Buttermilk Falls to no avail. Maybe next time with the Troop! We scouted out the entire trip for the summer from Blue Mtn Lake, through Eagle and Utowana Lakes to the Marion River through Racquette and up to Forked Lake and Buttermilk Falls. Just a beautiful area and the locals were super nice offering us places to park our vehicles when we come with the 14 scouts next time. The DEC and Ranger were awesome help and gave us great pointers. All in all a great weekend! Wish we had the boys all week to do this!

March Madness

March madness has taken on a new definition in the Kerr Krew household. How many projects can we start? Wallpapering John Deere calendar pages onto Connor's wall (a borrowed idea from my mother-in-law. I remember one of the boys' rooms plastered with poaster in a cool effect like that.), the pirate ship is almost done, and Tony fixed all the light fixtures in the basement. It has been nice the last 2 weekends getting some projects taken care of now that Indoor Track is over. However, outdoor begins tomorrow. Connor has been taking daily hikes with us in the back woods trails. We love watching Milo get on a deer or bunny trail! Connor has been riding his bike next to me while I run a few times this week. He gets further each time. He is learning so much so fast! Colin has done a great job in school this quarter, and we are proud of him, too. He now has his own email account that we monitor, as well as a Facebook account we monitor as well. It is so much fun watching him grow into a young man. His Confirmation in June fast approaches, and I feel old! We are all very excited that we will get to go to Timmy's birthday in NJ the weekend of March 28th! We have not seen them in over a half a year!

Happy, Birthday, Connor!

The U tube videos are of his birthday party in school and from the Daytona 500 at Freewill. Each student and parent could run laps. Their goal each year is to reach 500 miles in one week! Connor's birthday party will have a Star Wars theme at home. The kids will have a Jedi training obstacle course, a hunt for asteroids, and a detonator game along with dinner, cake and ice cream. After dinner we will have the Clone wars where 2 teams will compete in different skills such as dart gun target shooting, bean bag throwing and Star Wars Bingo. We are looking forward to the fun tomorrow!

Colin did well at Sectionals and may be competing at the Meet of Champions after the break. After that, Outdoor track begins. He had a bit over a 93 avg this 2nd quarter with a ton of homework and projects. He did fairly well trying to juggle that and indoor for the first year. Aahh...growing pains.

We were thrilled to learn Garrett has a dog! We welcome Mac to the family and can't wait for Milo to meet him. He is a boxer! Speaking of Milo, this break he will undergo being neutered...the boys flinch at the mention of it! Hope everyone is healthy out there! Love to all!

Brrrr....

Well, now that the NYS ELA's are done taking over our house, we may have time to
blog! This week Connor tried his first snowshoe race. All he cared was that his bib# was bigger than Colin's! At 5 degrees and after waiting too long for the start, he did not want to do it and just needed rest. He had great intentions and then was so cold he didn't care. Who could blame him! He hopped in the truck and played with Milo instead. He wants to try another soon, and hopefully it will be warmer! He has been reading to us everyday and we are just so impressed with how quickly he is picking up language. Colin is stressed with midterms and has put in many hours studying. He can't wait until they are over after this week. He did qualify for the Empire State Games in Lake Placid on February 22nd for snowshoeing. We don't know if he will go yet or not. It depends on his track schedule and if it is really something he wants to pursue...it will be the last of these games for a while due to Patterson's budget cuts. I will get some snowshoe pictures up later!

NYS 8th grade Runner of the Year!

We found out 2 days ago that Colin is the NYSPHSAA's 8th Grade Runner of the Year!
His coach told us of the news in an email and Colin found out in practice that day.
He is enjoying this moment tremendously as he knows as he gets older accolades as such are much harder to come by. It gets quite competetive! He owes a tremendous amount of thanks, gratitude and respect to his coach and his teammates who push him to do well and accept him for who he is. His newest thing: matching in one complete color from head to toe...including hat and gloves for each practice. He cracks us and his teammates up. I have added the link to go to the website to see the write-up!

Connor and Colin loved Christmas in the North Country. Aunt Jackie and Uncle Louie let us use their trails for skiing, snowshoeing, and 4 wheeling. We also sledded at Whitakker and had a great time. I got to run with Colin and go on walks with Dad. One day I got up to 8 miles! It was so nice to have time in the day to just relax and do anything. Late night scrabble games and a chance to work on my sewing skills were a blessing with mom. It went by too fast, and here we are again...back into the thick of things. Scouting's Klondike Derby fast approaches us.

The last 2 weeks we have taken Connor (during Colin's practice time) out back to either sled or snowshoe or ice fish each day. It has been a true winter and we are really enjoying it! Connor will be quite the Outdoorsman!