A Few Mentionables

In looking back over the past few months I realized that there are a few things that I don’t have pictures for (or I do and they are not yet recovered from my old comp.) but that are worth mentioning, if for nothing else, at least for us to have documented).

CUB SCOUTS- Garett has been in Cub Scouts since May and has been LOVING it! I am currently the Wolf leader and love having G with me at Den Meetings. I’ve had between 12 and 16 boys at my house every Thursday afternoon for an hour since February. I have to say that in the past 10 or so months I have really grown to love my calling. My boys are adorable and always excited to be here! They’ve all worked really hard and earned a ton of awards too! G, my little cub scout!

SOCCER- Annie played soccer this fall and had a fantastic season! Different from how things are done in Colorado, each soccer season kids are put on a new team. In Colorado you play on the same team unless you request a change. Annie wasn’t sure she’d like that and since she’s only played one season still isn’t sure she wants to start with a new team next year because this year she had so much fun with the girls on her team. Her coach was great and they ended up having an undefeated season up until the semi finals of the playoffs. Annie played great all season and scored at least one goal at almost every game. She also learned to play keeper and though she didn’t love it, she did great! At the end of the season we got an email from the coach of the competitive team asking her to come and play on his team. He said all the other girls had tried out for their spot but after seeing Annie play during the quarter finals in the playoffs he knew he wanted her. Annie was very flattered but decided that she didn’t want to play through the winter and into spring since she was already playing basketball. She’d balanced all soccer season long between basketball and soccer and wanted a little bit of a break.

FOOTBALL- Spencer played football again this year and grew to love it more than ever before. This year he played starting center, was captain of the offensive line and even got to play some defense. Being the center he got to touch the ball on all the offensive plays and got really good at it. I would get really nervous when they would do a shotgun and he’d have to make a long snap but he was awesome and didn’t have any bad long snaps all season! After the last game he declared “I’m definitely playing again next year mom!”. That in and of itself is evidence that he LOVED it this year because after every other season he’s played since he was 8 he takes at least 6 months before he decides if he wants to play again! Here are a few pics I was able to get off the team website! He was number 43 this year. It took me almost all season to get used to it since he’s been number 42 since he was 8. At the year end team banquet Spencer was awarded Scholar Athlete as well as Coaches Award (which the coaches awarded to 3 players who played important roles on and off the field but who were in positions that didn’t get much recognition. I think my favorite part of the season was that Spencer’s nickname was “Colorado”. All the coaches and a lot of the players called him that from the first day of practice when he showed up and told everyone he had just moved from Colorado.

BASKETBALL TRAVEL TEAM- When we first moved here we found out about a girls travel basketball team in the area. Annie kept asking me to call the coach and ask if she could try out for him. I kept putting it off for a few reasons, the first being that I was already overwhelmed with our new schedule and didn’t want to add another thing into the mix. The second reason was that I was afraid about the cost. Usually travel teams are really expensive and I didn’t want to have to tell her no because we couldn’t afford it. One day, about 2 months after she’d been bugging me about it, Annie brought me the laptop and said, “Mom, do you think this is ok for me to send to the coach?”. She had gone online, googled the team name and the coach, found his email and wrote him a letter asking for a tryout! I was completely in awe at my little girl and decided that if she wanted it that badly, I would call the coach myself. Annie still sent the email though . A few days later I talked to the coach and he wanted her to tryout! It was hilarious too! After Annie warmed up with the team he had them do left handed layups. Annie was the only girl out of 12 that could do a left handed layup. The coach looked at me and said, “We’d love to have her on the team”. Annie was so excited and it turned out that it wasn’t expensive at all. Just the cost of the uniform and tournament fees which run about $30 once a month. Annie has been playing with the team ever since! She’s learned sooooo much and become such a great player. She’s learned to play the post, much to her chagrin since she likes to play guard, but has done well and is often one of the high scorers on the team. We are excited to continue watching her in both her beloved sports!

PALM SPRINGS- At the beginning of December Adam and I took a trip to Palm Springs for a little weekend getaway/15 year anniversary celebration since we hadn’t done anything for our anniversary in July. We had so much fun being together, golfing, going to movies and eating at yummy restaurants! We sooooo need to do that more often!