Labor Day Olympics 2015

For Labor Day we made the annual trek to Cleveland this weekend for the Labor Day Olympics. We always make the logistics of getting there harder than they should be, but this year was especially tough. I had a work trip to Mexico the week before so I spent 4.5 hours in a plane, 1.5 hours getting through immigration, got home at 5:30pm, packed up our stuff and we set out for a 6 hour drive at 8pm.  Carlos was on the tennis courts at 9:30am the next day. Despite the rough start the whole weekend ended up a lot of fun and I think it was the first year the kids were really into the competition.
Charlie was sizing up his competition in swimming and running. Unfortunately for him he was in the age group of the son of legendary Rip Esselstyn so he placed 2nd in both sports - but that was good enough for a ribbon so no tears!  Charlie's most impressive performance was in the three-legged race with cousin Eli. They were an amazing duo. He and big Charlie also did a stellar job at the egg toss.   

Diego won his ribbons in a variety of ways....not all of them related to his own victories, but avoiding tears is priority #1.  One blue ribbon was well earned in a collaborative cousin vegetable sculpture competition entry which depicted the Pepper Ridge Community and which took up half the table.  I loved that early on in the weekend they went foraging for items and ideas for a joint sculpture.  It didn't even seem to cross their minds to do individual sculptures.

Another well earned ribbon came from Diego's fishing performance.  Somehow he always catches a fish - whether we are off the dock by Nats park or at this (well-stocked) pond.  He also had a sweet softball performance as third baseman.


Sofia wouldn't do any races, but she made her presence felt in other ways. She insisted on taking off her bathing suit and swimming naked constantly, lying to everyone about her age ("I Fofia; I five") and following nice females around calling them 'mom' (I'm mommy - I think she sees other women as some one else's mom so that's their title).

Despite a grueling ride home in which they didn't sleep for the first 5 (of 6) hours, they woke up happy and were still enthusiastic after school.  I used to say we need a Pepper Ridge West Coast, but now I'm thinking Pepper Ridge East Coast 2nd home version....