Boy Scouts Super Activity

This picture sums it up.

Chuck and his co-leader, Derek, took their boy scouts (14 and 15 year olds plus Cameron) on a 5 day backpacking adventure in Colorado.  The 16 and 17 year olds tagged along with their leader, David, an old man.  They drove to Durango, camped a night and boarded the train the next morning.  They got off the train at Elk Park to start their backpacking.  Although they followed the map, they started off in the wrong direction.  But quickly figured it out and turned around.  They had planned to hike about 30 miles into Silverton.  However, along the way the trail would disappear.  So they ended up doing an out and back trip with much of it being bush-wacking.  They boarded the train and took it into Silverton, spent some time there and then rode it back to Durango.  They left that day and arrived home safely (only by the grace of God) late that night.  After the first night, David could not go further, so Chuck hiked him out and he camped by himself at Elk Park.  The boys had matured from the last time Chuck took them backpacking.  So, as Chuck would say, "It didn't suck."  But they did get a lot more than the bargained for.

A Summer of Swimming

All 3 kids joined the Dobson Dolphins Swim team this year.  It was the third year for Cameron and Hannah and the first for Christian.  I overheard Christian telling my sister, Camera, that he didn't want to do swim team but I was making him.  However, I didn't really have to force him.  When it was time for the first practice, he did not hesitate.  He did say he didn't want to swim in the meets, which I said was fine.   He did however, hesitate the practice before the first meet when they were doing mock races.  He came walking towards me, crying a little with his heart pumping so fast.  I did convince him to swim in one of the mock races which seemed to have settled his nerves.  But I had no idea what would happen at the first meet.  There were so many people there!   However, when it came time for him to swim, he did not hesitate. Christian knew a little freestyle and backstroke before starting swim team, but he could not swim the length of the pool.  However, he took to swimming like a fish to water.  His improvements were amazing.  He was even awarded the Most Improved.  I love watching these kids swim!

photo bomb by Carson Hamblin who might one day be an Olympic swimmer

Christian's fastest times: Free: 23:90; Back: 30:76; Breast: 29:57; Fly: 31:89

Hannah's fastest times: Free: 44:01; Back: 59:96; Breast: 58:53; Fly: 54:03

Cameron's fastest times: Free: 37:34; Back 45:68; Breast: 52:49; Fly: 1:04:09

Silver Bullets - Little League

It was the worst of times; it was the best of times.

If the final tournament had been the first games of the season, I would have prayed for losses in the first two games, so we could go home.  I know--bad dad.

After middle-school tryouts for the 8th-grade team (as a 6th grader) were unsuccessful, our attentions turned to mainstream Little League.  School sports are "The Bomb!"  [that's good, by the way.]  The kids stay after school for practice and then ride their bikes home.  Little League is short for: you re-arrange every aspect of your life so you can be a roadie for your budding baseball star.  It's a combination of love and vicarious competition.  We planned to make fun of Little League families.  And AYSO soccer families [AYSO = All Your Saturdays are Occupied.]  And, well, lots of other families....

Now, here I was at the Little League equivalent of the NFL Combine.  They were fielding, throwing, pitching, hitting, trying to field, trying to throw, trying to hit...  Cameron was one of a handful of sweatpants and hoodie boys in a sea of baseball pants and bubble-gum wads.  The 8 coaches stood by with clipboards, making various marks, frowns, and eye-rolls.  A month later, we found out Cameron would be on Coach Brad's team.    Two months later, we found out that Chuck had a "man crush" on Coach Brad and was a total team fan.  So embarrassing...

We won the coach-lottery with Coach Brad and Coach Mike.  They had excellent time management skills--keeping 3 or 4 different "stations" active for each group of boys at practices; kept the parents completely informed about everything necessary to be a good baseball "roadie;" taught a bunch of Bad News Bears how to be baseball players and teammates; and demonstrated amazing sportsmanship and perspective at every turn.  Cameron went from essentially being a non-player to being a gifted 1st-baseman.

Cameron had never really been on a winning team, so the first several wins of the system made for quite the ride.  The first loss to the  hand-picked "all star" Devilbacks was a familiar pill to swallow. The second loss to The Boom (Jackson's team) nearly sunk the ship.  We all barely recovered from that one.  But it was an excellent teaching lesson.  They entered the playoffs tournament in second place behind the hand-picked "all star" Devilbacks.  A harsh second-round loss to The Boom (Jackson's team) sent them to the Loser's Bracket [oops, we call that the "lower bracket" in Commie Land,] and started them on a long, fairy tale ride back to the championship game.

Against every odd known to 11-yr-old sports [including 3 innings with their 1st-baseman pitching (Cameron),] they beat the Devilbacks!  Chuck was so excited that he hugged 2 people who were just looking for the dog park.  They ran off muttering something about stranger danger...  Many of the Devilbacks were in tears.  The post-game Devilbacks picnic was in shatters.  But ding-dang double-elimination--the boys had to play them again after a 15 minute break.  And they would have beat them again (in extra innings) if it weren't for some really bizarre in-field-fly-rule call and the fact that their 8th-string pitcher got shelled.  But still, it was an amazing night.  And amazingly long.  And amazingly hard to go to sleep afterward.  That's the problem with being a fan.

But what a gift to have worst times and best times.  Especially the best times.
* post written by Chuck

 

 

The Dancers Among Us

Dance 101 Recital

Cops and Robbers

Bond - Ballet 

Bad - Tap

Happy 10th Birthday Hannah!

Hannah turned 10 on the 30th of May.  Her day started out with monkey bread and swim team practice.  We had lunch at Zupas.  And that evening she had dress rehearsal for her dance recital.  The real excitement came  when we went to the American Girl Doll Store.  She bought a second dog for her doll and some new clothes.  I wasn't planning on having a party, but she insisted, so a couple weeks later, we had a pool party complete with pizza, cake and ice cream.  Her guests included: Audrey, Natalie (and the rest of the Hamlin family), Laurel (and her sister Renae), Willow (and her brother Ashton), Ginger (and her brother Benson), Layla, Camera and Melody, Emily and Raygan and Rylee.  It was simple and a lot of fun!

In the last year, Hannah has excelled in her role as middle child.  In her eyes, she is always wronged and never does wrong.  She wants things to be fair and if she has a play date taken away for getting in trouble, she expects the same to happen to her brothers.  Her fears of kidnappers and murderers have subsided a bit and only occasionally gets me up at night.  She likes things to be neat and tidy.  She keeps her room very clean and often organizes her things.  And best of all, she no longer wants to keep everything! She loves playing with her American Girl doll, drawing, and doing crafts.  And she is currently teaching herself how to write in cursive.  She also loves to take selfies and pose for the camera.  She is sassy and smart, has a good sense of humor when she is in a good mood and is beautiful and talented.  At 10, she is 4 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 62 pounds.

Winter/Spring Extracurriculars

Christian played a couple of sessions of soccer with Small Goal Soccer.  He had a lot of fun and really went after the ball.  The kids would practice and do drills about half the time and then play against each other the other half.

Hannah continued with Girl Scouts, dance and piano.  She is so talented and is making great progress in everything she does.

Packing food at Feed My Starving Children

Dance 101 Recital - "The Dancers Among Us"

 

End of School Year 2016-17

Christian had a great year in 1st grade.  He got along well with his teacher, Ms. Sudman.  And although his two best friends from last year were not in his class, he made new friends.  He talked most about Julian.  He loves math and doesn't like reading, but he is a very good reader.  He was referred for gifted testing and scored high enough to be put in the gifted class(es).  He really enjoyed being in gifted or PACE as it is called at the school.  He would put his soccer ball in his backpack and could be found playing soccer before school and at recess.  We are so proud of Christian and his hard work. 

Hannah enjoyed 4th grade.  Although she had the teacher she requested and she did like her, she wished she would have been more fun.  Hannah had old friends in her class and made lots of new friends.  Hannah was very active during her 4th grade year.  She participated in the after school choir and showed off her talent playing the piano at the school talent show (which you had to audition for.)    Hannah likes art a lot.  Unfortunately art is not a special, so the classroom teacher has to teach it when she has time.  She also enjoys recess but realizes it is not  really a subject.  She loves to read and write but she didn't really like reading class.  She likes math but feels like she is not good at it, but I disagree.  Hannah is so smart and talented as well as beautiful.  

Cameron was super excited to "graduate" from elementary school and go to middle school.  We toured several middle school and decided on the neighborhood school (although not our home school), Fees College Preparatory Middle School.   He applied for and was accepted into the STEM program, which he said was a mistake.  Well, luckily he had a mom who agreed and we asked for him to be enrolled in all honor's classes for the second semester.   I volunteered weekly in the STEM classroom and I was unhappy with the teacher, the curriculum and the students in the program.  He was unhappy with all the writing.  I also volunteered in the science room and was disappointed in the atmosphere.  Otherwise, we would have encouraged him to stick it out until the end of the year. Cameron did not make a lot of friends, but had one good friend, Curtis, who was in most of his classes and is a kid you are happy to have your son hang out with.  "Middle school started out good but went downhill from there and ended horrible." says Cameron.  When asked why,  he said, "Classes got boring, teachers stopped trying to make it fun, the rewards were stupid, kids could not shut up so we were constantly getting lectured about shutting up."  And he really really hated the Second Step program that the school was teaching.  It is a program used to teach kids life skills: how to deal with conflict, how to have empathy, why to not use drugs, etc.  But all that aside, he made straight A's (mostly A+'s) and was very involved.  He was accepted on the Honor's Team.  One of their many fun activities was spending a weekend in California going to Universal Studios, the Holocaust Museum, a play and an art college. He played flute in the band and made the Junior Varsity basketball team.  He also tried out for the baseball team but did not make it.  That lead us to Little League baseball (more on that to come).  He was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society and participated in an after school Biology program offered by graduate students at ASU.  Although Cameron did not love middle school, I am happy that he was willing to get so involved.  We really hope that in the future Cameron can find more enjoyment at school and find a desire to do his best.