Cadbury World...

Our October half term break was spent in the UK. We flew into northern London because Veronica was supposed to go to drama camp. Unfortunately, the camp was cancelled, so she came with us to Ashlynn’s friend Ellie’s cottage for five nights. We had a several hour drive to get to the tiny village of Bridstow, in the Midlands near Ross-on-Wye. Along the way, we pulled off the freeway for lunch and saw signs to Cadbury World. A lot of the girls’ friends are crazy about Cadbury chocolate, so we decided to take a spontaneous detour. We’d hoped for a full factory tour, but as that’s not offered, were happy to see the packaging plant in operation. Photos were only allowed in the demonstration area where you see this fellow making a giant chocolate soccer ball. Despite a lot of corniness, it was a fun and tasty detour.

European Language Village...

An exciting day for new middle schoolers is getting to visit the European Language Village for the first time. International reps set up booths with activities and foods from their countries in an effort to teach the kids some new vocabulary. As the American rep, I’m not invited to participate, but I’d heard about it for years. Veronica forgot something that day, so I dropped by the school and got to take a walk around. It is truly impressive! I was surprised by how elaborate the booths were and can now understand how the school has managed to win awards with their efforts.

While I didn’t see either girl when I was there, Ashlynn’s French teacher was nice enough to send me a few photos. Here is Ashlynn with Sophie and Ellie, her closest friends in her class.

Check Out That Smile!

Check out Ashlynn’s official time! At only 11-years-old, she came in 215th woman and 809th overall out of 3,532 runners with a pace of 8:32 minutes/mile. 

That’s one proud Dad! Jimmy really enjoyed running with Ashlynn and watching her pass thousands of adults. Click here to see the great video that Veronica made.

Ashlynn Finishes Her First 8K!

How exciting it was to sit in the Olympic Stadium built for the 1928 games in Amsterdam and watch the runners come in. What a shock it was to see 15-year-old David come in 7th out of 3,525 runners! Of course, Ashlynn came in much later, but her actual time was much better than the time on the clock as shown above because she crossed the start line so late (you should be able to spot her in the orange shirt between the two clocks). The bottom photo shows how crowded the chutes were when she came in.

An 8K in Amsterdam...

 Bright and early one Sunday in October, we journeyed to Amsterdam so Ashlynn could run her first 8K as part of the Amsterdam Marathon. Jimmy didn’t want her to run that distance alone, so he registered to run with her.

While David made sure that he started near the front of the race, Jimmy intentionally held Ashlynn back so that she wouldn’t be stuck walking in a big pack, but could run freely at the start. Ashlynn hadn’t done much training, so I was worried that she might not be able to run that long distance. I needn’t have worried as she kicked butt!

One Dedicated Captain...

Ashlynn was also a team captain. This year her Green Team played in an under 12s category so they were finally not the smallest team. The down side was the playing field was much smaller, which led to a lot of out of bounds throws. Unfortunately, during the first game she fell onto her wrist and had to go to the first aid station to get her arm iced and wrapped. She was supposed to sit out two games, but she just couldn’t resist going back in after just one game. They came in 2nd, losing to an even younger team from their school. Ashlynn was excited to bring home the trophy as the captain. Her team also won the Spirit of the Game, which is quite an honor as it is voted on by the other teams.

The Gray Lionesses...

In early October, it was time to head to another Dutch Junior National Ultimate Frisbee Tournament near Utrecht. David and some of the other older guys were on a school trip, so for the first time, the school entered an all-female team. Lucky for Veronica, the team is made up of her closest friends. Not only did the girls make their own team shirts, but Adelina brought delicious team cupcakes. The weather held out until the last round, which was played in the rain. Veronica was the team captain of the Lionesses and they came in 5th out of 16 teams in the Under 15s category.