Family Game Night

We just finished a great night of playing a game together. We've done this many times before, but tonight seemed particularly good for us. The game we played is called Sequence and is a card and chip game where a team tries to get five in a row. It is some chance and some strategy. But I think the reason that tonight was so satisfying was that we were all able to play. It wasn't too long, didn't require too much heavy thinking and even Maria could join in and make good contributions to her team.

It feels so good to have us working as a team. There wasn't too much competition that made feelings get hurt or emotions out of control. We all left the table knowing that we had a good time with each other. It is these kinds of nights that I live for as a parent. I want to know that my kids like each other and can play together and root for one another. It is the small event that I know will prepare them for the larger life events that will come along.

Life Moves Fast

I've decided that life moves pretty fast and if events and ideas aren't paused over, then they are gone. It takes time, but I'm thinking it is worth the effort.

Between November and February the kids had 50 basketball games and about 75 practices. Most games were on Saturday with occasional ones during the week. And then of course practices were most evenings. It is comparable to a part time job getting the kids to practice and watching their games! But what fun we had! Rose played her first year and had a tremendous time learning the game. She is quite the player, one game she had over 20 steals! Rose had a natural feel for the court and where the play should go next. Scott and I had lots of fun cheering from the stands.

Zachary played with all boys and had a winning season! They only lost one regular season game and came out the winners of their Little Dribblers divisiontournament in Lompoc. Zach is big, but can move quickly and one of the boys on his team calls him "Big Country". Ben was a late addition to basketball deciding at the last moment to sign up. But he would have missed so much if had thought he didn't have enough skills to play. He learned so much about being the big man down under, and he learns so quickly! We didn't realize how tall he was compared to other boys his age. We look forward to seeing him get even better next year!

This year Scott was able to coach Abby's team. For the first time Abby played on an all girls team. She enjoyed that a lot, the highlight being a sleepover at the end of the season. They didn't win many games, but the motto of the team was effort. And they improved so much over the season, they were a pleasure to watch by the end. Scott was a tremendous coach, p0uring his time and effort into making a bunch of early teen girls into a team. Maria decided not to play this year, but maybe next....

Home Again

We arrived home on Friday after being gone for about three weeks. It was a good trip and we had plenty of time to visit friends and family. However, Scott was home alone for two of those weeks and he was thrilled to see at drive in and had dinner ready for us! I think the thing we all missed the most was our beds.

A few of the things we did included hiking up little Mt. Si and experiencing all kinds of weather from sun to rain, seeing fireworks on the fouth of July from the waterfront in Seattle, seeing Kung Fu Panda, mini-golfing once with the AF Thunderbirds flying overhead and once in the dark with glow in the dark balls, seeing Wall-E and driving 15.5 hours to get to our first stop in Oregon on our trip up.

The kids learned how to play Speed and at first I was the speed champion, but they all soon surpassed me. My fingers just aren't as nimble as they used to be.

Here's Zachary

Hi, I'm Zach!

Here are a few things about me. I'm eight years old. I used to not like roller coasters, but after riding Thunder Mountain at Disneyland, I'm learning to like them. I even rode this two seater arm ride at Legoland by myself! I'm the one on the left.

Making it to the next Level

After reading a few friends' blogs, I've decided to try my hand at putting our lives onto the web. We aren't a particularly exciting family, but maybe I will be more attentive to what happens around me so that I have interesting things to share.

We just returned from a whirlwind vacation weekend to southern California making the themepark circuit. We did the mongo day at Disneyland, another at Legoland and a short one at Sea World. Not my favorite way of doing it, but it is so expensive we have to make the best of it. Our favorite place was actually Legoland. It had shorter lines and more rides we could get on without waiting in a long line. It was so hot during the days we were there that the splash park at Legoland was a highlight. The kids also liked the Dragon roller coaster ride. I'm finding that as I get older the more motion sickness I feel on rides like that. But I did it once!