Terror on Tillson St

In the little village of Romeo, about 10 miles NE of us, there is a street of old Victorian houses that puts on the most amazing Halloween displays!  It is just incredible!  It is totally free, and each person does their own decorations.  Here are just a few of the houses:

Pirate ship in the front yard

Creepy clown house

Whole castle front added to the house

This one was hilarious, a vet clinic waiting room!

This was at a football-themed house, listing the names of all of the teams Romeo HS football team has beaten and the dates

This wedding house has a sign, "Say yes to distress"

A real Zamboni at the hockey house!

The whole side yard of this double lot was a hockey rink!  Complete with blind referee!

Another view of the hockey house, with ticket sales, concessions, penalty box ("sin bin"), blind ref, and Zamboni

Really creepy doll playground

Biggest spider and cobwebs ever!

If you're ever visiting in the end of October, we'll bring you to Tillson St to see it - it's so amazing in person!  The details, sounds, motion, etc just can't be appreciated in pictures!

Detroit Half Marathon

Chris had to miss his favorite fall races, Dances With Dirt and the Brooksie Way Half-Marathon, this fall because they BOTH fell on the weekend of Joe & Steph's wedding.  (which was definitely worth it!)  So he signed up for the Detroit International Half Marathon a few weeks later.

On Friday night we went to packet pickup at Cobo Center.  It's serious business due to the two international crossings.  Everyone has to keep their passport on them for the race!  The race starts in Detroit, then goes over the Ambassador Bridge to Canada, through Windsor, then back to Detroit via the Windsor Tunnel.  If you run the full marathon, then you run around Belle Isle. 

He got his bib and "free" shirt

This is the sticker I want on my van.

Gorgeous night view of the RenCen from the front of Cobo.  Katie was off at the choir trip to a haunted hayride that night!

Sunday morning, Chris got up super early to get downtown.  We left an hour later and parked at the RenCen.  We were there in plenty of time to see him come out of the Windsor Tunnel after the "underwater mile", under the Detroit River!

The girls made signs for Chris

After seeing him by the RenCen, we scurried to the finish line area to see him again.  My darn phone wouldn't focus, but here he is again!

Then we found him again after the race

Cool medal

His route is in orange

We stopped for a photo op by the Spirit of Detroit statue on our way back to our cars

Soccer Season

I finally found some soccer pictures!  Megan and Jessica played soccer last fall.  Megan played on the Holy Family team so she could stay with her great coach and good friends.  Jessica played on the same RSC team as usual, with dad as her coach.

U8 Revolution team

5th grade Wildcat team

I couldn't find any good game pictures of Jessica this fall.  Oops!  But here are some action shots of Megan, playing 11 v 11 on a full-sized field for the first time!

Meg's in white, running toward the ball

Megan is throwing in the ball

Megan dribbling for a breakaway

Go, Megan!

Meg and her BFF Abby

Sister soccer stars

Megan's team had a pretty bad record, but they were playing against 5th and 6th grade CYO schools, and their team had ONLY 5th graders.  They had a small team with only 1-2 subs per game, and several of the girls had never played soccer before.  It was their first time playing 11v11, and their first time playing on a really big field.  Despite their record, they played really well, and progressed a lot throughout the season.  Megan was a star forward or midfielder.  Her cross country legs were amazing on the soccer field!  Every Saturday she ran in an XC meet in the morning, then played a soccer game in the afternoon.  Every Sunday, she had another soccer game.  Then she had XC or soccer practice every single day after school.  She is one tough cookie!

Jessica's team did pretty well.  Chris is a great coach, in that he doesn't play to win, but to get each girl experience at all positions and all situations.  We played some really competitive teams, who left their best girls in at forward the ENTIRE game, but Chris rotated everyone around in a very organized schedule.  Our girls will be better for it!  Jessica was a star player in every position.  She grew up on soccer fields, and the game comes very naturally to her!

Cross Country

Katie & Megan ran for Holy Family's cross country team last fall.  It was a great experience for both of them!  They got to run with their best friends, they learned a lot about running, they got in terrific shape for soccer, and they had fun!

Meet in Grosse Pointe, right on Lake St. Clair:

This shot is far away, but you can see the park is on a peninsula jutting out into the lake.  It was beautiful, if cold and cloudy and windy.

Megan with a kick, passing her BFF.

At a home meet:

At the CYO championship:

At the team party/picnic at Bloomer Park:

awesome group of 5th graders!

Giving out paper plate awards

Last meet: RARA meet at Bloomer Park.  This is the varsity start:

Katie and her BFF Sarah

Here's the JV start:

Meg and her BFF Abby

Our athletes with their wonderful coach, Coach Tim Grogan!

I wrote down some of their times, just to remember:
ND meet, 1.9 miles: Megan 16:34, Katie 20:03
Sept. 19, 2 miles: Megan 17:25, Katie 20:47
Oct. 3, 2 miles: Megan 17:04, Katie 20:54
Oct. 10, Megan 1.2 miles 9:09, Katie 2 miles 19:35
CYO meet Oct. 17, 2 miles: Megan 15:43 (!!!!), Katie 19:23 (!!!!)

They had such great improvement throughout the year!