All about the Kids

This post is a little update on the lives of my kids.

Matt still lives in San Diego and is still in the Marines.  From the tone of his facebook posts, however, both of those facts are about to change.  His term of enlistment is going to expire this year, and he does NOT plan to re-enlist.  Once he is out of the military, it sounds like he plans to move back home, so to speak.  Home, meaning Idaho, not his mom's house or ours.  I am glad!  You wouldn't think a trip to San Diego would be so difficult to manage, but it is.  I will be glad to see him back in the mountains and closer to us!  He finalized his divorce and he currently has a girlfriend named Autumn.  He seems head over heels in love with her.  I sincerely hope for lots of happiness to head his way!

Helena went to a job interview today at ... RUBIO'S!  Ooh, yeah!  It went well, and once the paperwork and orientation are done later this week, she should be working there by next week!  I think it will be great.  The manager, Eva, is VERY nice.  Bill and I are very happy for her and hope she has a great experience.  This is her first official job, you see.  Sure, she has 'nanny-ed' for lots of people, and house-sat.  But this is different.  And I am happy for her.  Also, I'm looking forward to ordering my dinner from her sometime in the near future!

While she was gone on her job interview, her friends stopped by and 'heart attacked' her room as part of a date invite!  Braxton wanted to ask Helena to the Valentine's Dance at school (also called the "Winter Social"?), so Megan and Dallan helped him decorate her room as the invite.  She didn't realize the 'heart attack' was an invite, at first.  She thought it was just her friends' way of cheering her up after a rough weekend, until she read the letter attached to the red rose laying on her bed.  It is a good thing she is a relatively neat person and her room was decent (although she says she would have cleaned it up if she knew they were coming).... no underwear on the floor, thank goodness!

Helena has been enrolled in an online Financial Literacy class ever since summer vacation and has had a hard time motivating herself to finish it.  So, she is now taking the more traditional approach and is now taking it at the high school.  We had to move Seminary to after school in order to fit it in.  However, her final semester schedule is still somewhat up in the air.  Her Advanced Photo class only has 8 registered students.  The school may drop the course because the numbers are too low.  If that happens, we'll have to go in and do some juggling of her classes to fill the void.  The school would take those students who still want Photo (like Helena), and add them in a Photo 1 class (which she has already taken), and have them take it 'seminar' style with a personalized contract with the teacher.  It is unlikely that she would learn as much that way, and much more likely she'd become a glorified TA to help the teacher with the photo 1 students.  Phooey.

Will has a science fair project looming large in his life right now.  Can I tell you just how much I HATE it when teachers take an event that is supposed to be voluntary and turn it into a mandatory class assignment?!?  It is like they sat around in a teacher meeting and said, "You know, we just don't get enough entries in the science fair to justify the cost and bother of running it... I KNOW!  We'll MAKE the kids enter it, then we'll look like our science department is freaking awesome because so many kids are participating!"  (Never mind that 90% of the projects are pieces o'CRAP!)

Yeah, well, here we are.  Doing a mandatory/voluntary project.  And yes, it is WE.  He is supposed to submit photos of himself performing the experiment.  So I became the photo journalist documenting him.  He also needed an assistant to help him time the reactions as he performed them.  And, of course, he needs a swift kick in the behind to remind him to get it done; because while performing the experiment is fun, processing and writing the paper is not.

Lacrosse pre-season conditioning starts tonight.  Will is there now.   And he is also over the moon about the new snowfall we received today.  I am sure he is going to want to hit the slopes ASAP.  He's the only one in the house truly thrilled to see winter finally arrive.

Lacrosse

Today's lacrosse game was played against Pleasant Grove.  We were creamed again.  However, our offense did manage to score three points, so it wasn't a complete shut out.

Will had several good plays and was put in for most of the game.  Once, when he was pulled for a few minutes in the third quarter, the opposing team scored three goals back to back in quick succession.  Will was put back in pretty quickly (along with another boy).  Most of the defense team members just stand around because they don't seem to know what they are doing.  Will is the most aggressive defender on the team, and isn't afraid to attack in order to defend.  Nor is he afraid to draw the foul if it is to the team's advantage.  For instance, the other team stole the ball and was speeding down the side of the pitch, so he pushed the ball carrier out of bounds, drawing a foul, but stopping the other team's momentum.

Here are this week's collection of lacrosse pictures!

Will is at the bottom of the pile on the left of this shot.  It really isn't supposed to be a tackle sport! 

 No, he isn't trying to trip the ball carrier.  He is trying to hit the other player's stick to knock the ball out.

 Sending the ball back into play after it went out of bounds.  I was sitting pretty far away, so the picture is fuzzy.

 I am loving the action pose in this one!

 Will is more often than not in the middle of the action on the defender's side of the pitch.  It seems like many of the other defenders are afraid to hit and be hit.

 Number 27 is a midi, which means he plays both offense and defense and can travel the entire pitch (defenders stay on one side and  attacker stay on the other, but midi's cross the line).  He is a pretty good player, for our team, that is!  Will is in the left of this shot (#14) about to hit somebody with his stick.

Lacrosse is actually very fun to watch.  It is fast paced and the quarters are short.  The entire game is played out in about an hour.  I also like that it is an ancient Native American game.  A truly American sport!  It can't really help being exciting.  After all, you've got a bunch of teen aged boys running around in helmets and armor bashing at each other with metal sticks!  What's not to like about that?!?

Saturdays Mean Lacrosse

At least for the next several weeks, that is.

I went for a short run this morning before we all headed out for Will's lacrosse game at 1:00 pm.  The game was held at Mountain Ridge Junior High, but it didn't start until 1:30 because the other team had such a hard time finding it.  Originally, the game was supposed to be held at AFJH, but the venue got changed the night before.  Apparently the Alta HS coaches weren't as good at sending out e-mail notifications of the change as our coaches were.  When they finally arrived, the parents were grumbling a lot over the travel distance and difficulty finding the school.  I don't have much sympathy.  We drove to Bountiful last week and had no trouble finding it.  They were also short one very important player...

... their goalie was not there.

Since this is fall lacrosse and is meant more for skill building than anything else, our coaches offered to let them use our varsity goalie (who happened to be there) in order to play the game.

They creamed Will's team.  The final score was 10 Alta, 0 AF JV.  Still, it was our varsity goalie blocking every shot (no wonder he was so good!) and Will had a great time, which is all that really matters to me.

Here are some shots of the day's action.

 Will looks like he is about to skewer the opposing team player!

 Same shot, zoomed out so you can see how enormous the mountains look in the background!

 I just love all these action shots!  Can you see the ball in the top right corner?  Will is focused on it and headed right for it.

 I was really amazed at how many action shots I got of Will with the ball this time!  I am not usually so lucky.

 In this shot, Will is running a screen so his team mate (who is a mid-fielder) can pick up the ball.

 The goalie had just thrown the ball to Will so he could send it to the attack players.

 Helena taking what are probably much better pictures with her awesome camera.

 Bill creating his own shade for the game.

Toward the end of the game, Will got put in the 'penalty box' (I have no idea if that is what they really call it) for giving a slash to the head... hitting another player across the helmet with his stick... oops.

The game was nearly over, when Will got put in as a midi (mid-fielder) instead of a denfenseman.  Midis have run the entire field and play both attack and defense.  I was surprised to see Will in that position, he's never played it before.  When the game ended, I asked him about it and he just said he wanted to try it out.

So, there you go!  Your shot of lacrosse until next weekend!

Lacrosse

Today seemed to be a day dedicated to my son, Will.  I spent the morning with him, helping him with his Algebra 2 homework assignment.  We had to put that on hold, however, while we went to his lacrosse game; which was held up in Bountiful.  That's about a 40 min. drive north of here, passing through Salt Lake City.  His team lost, but his friend, Dallan, who plays an attack position, did make one of our team's scores!  Will plays defense, so he doesn't make scores.  But he was kept plenty busy, since the other team kept driving down to score against us.

 AF is in the white jerseys.  Will is on the far right.

 #22 is Will's friend, Dallan.  He plays an attack position.

 Will running to get the ball before the other team does.

 Will is #14.

Will's team is pretty raw.  We arrived early enough for team warm ups, and I noticed (from afar) that Will and his friend, Dallan, seemed to be directing the warm ups.  It appears that they are stepping into sort of leadership roles since they are the older boys on the team, and have played for a few years, now.

 Will is on the right.

 Lacrosse is pretty action packed, with people being smacked by sticks, tripped by sticks, or just being bashed into!

 Will is in the middle of this shot, with his long pole angled down.

Will is the front runner on the left of this shot.

The varsity game was held just before Will's game.  It was a much more intense game!  The score was very close.  The players and coaches were much more on edge because of it.  At one point, one of the refs threatened to call off the game if the sideline didn't cool it.  There really is no reason to get that worked up about these games!  The fall league is meant to be fun and has no tournament or other reason to get worked up about who wins and who loses.  The lacrosse league is also much more strict about spectator behavior, too.  I used to cringe over parent behavior at Will's football games... and that was back when he was in elementary school!  I am glad that the parents are so low key at lacrosse.  I spent part of the varsity game chatting amicably with a mother from the opposing team.  Everyone is so friendly and no one is screaming at the refs, players, or coaches.  Of course, that could be because most of us have no idea what the rules are to this game our sons have decided to play!  Most of us have no idea why the ref even blew the whistle, let alone whether it was a fair call or not!

Still, it was a beautiful, blue sky fall afternoon; with a cool breeze that made the sunshine comfortable.  I really do love fall here!

After lacrosse, and some grocery shopping, Will and I went out to do some more practice driving.  He is still most comfortable on country roads, but is willing to venture forth into some quiet residential streets.  He also did a bunch of 'touch and go's' in the parking stalls at a local elementary school's empty parking lot.  'Touch and go' is a flying term for practice take-offs and landings.  I used to ride along with my Dad as he did 'touch and go's' in a little two-seater Cessna single prop airplane when I was about Will's age.  Will's 'touch and go's' were of the parking variety.

Country (and lake) view while driving.

Now Will is outside, setting up a back yard camp-out (complete with campfire); and I am inside, settling in to wait for the wandering teenager, Helena, who is off at the Homecoming dance on a double date with her best friend, Megan.  I will write more about that tomorrow when I have heard about all of her adventures.

2011/2012 Lacrosse Season Kick Off Party

Tonight Bill and I went with Will to the high school lacrosse 'kick off party' at the home of another player.  All the coaches, the advisory board, other parents and players met for a BBQ/Pool party.  Parents sat around on the deck or in the grass of the yard while the boys all piled into the pool.  Bill and I were glad to see several other parents that we have known from other parts of our lives and had an enjoyable time visiting.  I met a couple of other parents, too.

Will obviously had a great time, too!  I think the home owner was having a mini heart attack over the shenanigans happening in the pool.  What did he expect, though, with 20+ 14-18 year old boys?!?  They were jumping off the top of the slide, skim surfing across the surface on boards, jump/diving through a floaty ring and doing just about anything else daring that crossed their minds.  In other words, they all had a ball!

Practices start September 8th.  I am looking forward to seeing Will play again!  He played lacrosse in 7th and 8th grade, but didn't want to play in 9th grade.  I think it was because he was made goalie of the "A" team in 8th grade.  The goalie is the unofficial team captain and has to be ready to take a lot of pressure from his team mates.  He didn't mind the severe bruises he got when blocking a goal.  He was proud of them, in fact.  He just couldn't handle the pressure of letting the team down when a goal was scored against him.  It took all the fun out of the game for him.  I watched him get so upset with himself when the team lost and there didn't seem to be anything I could do to cheer him back up.  He looked at it as a personal failure, rather than a team result.  So, I am glad he has decided to come back to the sport in a defensive position... but not as goalie.

There is a lacrosse team tailgating party planned for one of the high school home football games.  I'm sure he'll have a ball at that!

Oh, I hope he has fun!!!

BYU Concessions, Again

Today we worked in the concession stand again.  Bill wasn't able to come because he keeps hurting his shoulder that is trying to heal.

When I signed up to do this, I failed to realize that today's game was BYU's HOMECOMING GAME!

Ugh.

Don't get me wrong.  Rah, rah, rah, and all that.  But I definitely WOULD NOT have signed up to work in the concession stand if I had realized it would be the highest attended game of the year (barring the BYU/UTES game)!

However, it turned out to be just fine.  Everything ran much more smoothly than last time, and it seems like there was less of a mad rush at half time than at the last game.  It also helped that we decided to leave early.  We arrived early, after all,  Most of the boys didn't even show up until just before the game, so we decided that they could just stay and be the ones to clean up!  At the last game, they all took off and left just a few of us to do the clean up.

Lacrosse 2010

Will played on the American Fork Cavemen 7-8th grade "A" team. There were enough boys at tryouts to create two teams, an "A" team and a "B" team. That roughly translates to a "varsity" and "jr. varsity" team.

At first, I was really excited for Will to be on the "varsity" team. As time went on, though, it became obvious that although these boys were the best AF had to offer, they were on the lower end of abilities when compared with most of the teams they played against. You see, this year AF, Lone Peak, PG, and Lehi abandoned the Utah Valley lacrosse league and joined with the Salt Lake organization. Those teams have been around longer and were really good!

Don't get me wrong, I am THRILLED with the switch to the Salt Lake league. AND I saw tons of improvement in our boys when compared to last year. Much more passing and action, a lot less "soccer with sticks". But the team season statistics were on the low end. They won only 3 games. HOWEVER, Will played goalie for one of those three! He was on such a high after that game!

The picture above is from an exciting moment for Will. As a defender, Will managed to get hold of the ball and was running it down the field to try to score a goal. Defenders are allowed to cross over to attack if given a chance... as long as one of the attack men stays behind in his place. Unfortunately, as you can see by the photo, one of the opposing team's attack men managed to knock the ball from Will's pole. You can see the ball in the top left corner of the photo.