Goodbye and hello

Miss Kaiya made a huge change this week.  She said goodbye to her longtime gym in Lafayette and moved to a new gym in Loveland.  She has been at Mountain Gym for 5 years and called it home.  We made the decision to move her because we learned that there are two other girls in our neighborhood who go to a gym in Loveland and they were happy to add another to their carpool.  In just one week, we've cut our driving time to the gym and back by two-thirds.

Kaiya and I both cried our eyes out as we left.  We will miss the girls, the coaches and all the parents so much.  The new gym has been so welcoming and within a couple days, she was already being invited to hang out with the girls at their homes.  It is a more intense schedule and I was worried it was going to be too much (and Kaiya has been given every opportunity to bail on gymnastics altogether), but she is loving it.  She is now training 22 hours a week!

We had the opportunity to see her old coach last week that moved to North Carolina last summer, which was so fun.  And, she gets to go to Lake Owen again this summer with two of her Mountain Gym buddies, so that has helped with the transition as well.

Getting to see Danae again! 

So proud of this girl for being a trooper and helping us make a change that ultimately benefits the whole family.

Another school year in the books!

Final projects done--check.  Final lunches packed--check.  Teacher gifts given--check.  Ready for summer--check!!  It was a really great end of the year for the girls and sadly, I don't have any pictures of Cooper on his last day as a middle schooler because his entire class went to Elitch Gardens for the day.  It's getting harder and h to snap photos of him!

The girls were both presented with special awards called PRIDE awards at the end of year ceremony and I've never seen two girls happier.  Kinley's teacher e-mailed me about a week before school got out and told me she was getting this award and I was so excited for her, but a tad nervous about how her older sister would handle it having been at the school for 6 years and never getting it.  As luck would have it, I got a call from Kaiya's teacher about 3 days later and learned Kaiya was getting the same award.  Proud mama!! They had to demonstrate something above and beyond just being a good kid, so this was indeed a neat day for both of them.  As soon as they saw me in the gym, both of them had a hunch something good was coming, but the awards are a total surprise, so it was super neat to see their smiling faces.  Kinley walked around for about two straight days pinching herself to make sure the award was real.  

Peaking out to say, "Hi, mom!"

Realizes I am there now

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Special day

Of course, field day is always a hit and this year was no different.  Kinley drenched herself in water games and Kaiya loved being a 5th grade helper all day to the younger students.  She got a REAL field day the week before wherein the kids were actually allowed to compete for ribbons. 

Sporting some ribbons

Determined!

Soaked and happy

Working hard

Sprayed by the fire truck

Kaiya and Josi--neighbors and friends since they were infants

The last day of school was super emotional--I hadn't anticipated it to be that way, but I didn't think I was going to get Kaiya to stop crying.  She just absolutely loved her 5th grade teacher this year and she helped her grow as a person--not just a student.  When they hugged as Kaiya got her 5th grade graduation certificate, my tears started to flow, too.  This is the same teacher that took her MESA group to southern Colorado for their week-long field trip, so she spent a lot of quality time with Ms. Wolfinbarger.  She will be missed, but I know Kaiya is ready for middle school.

Saying goodbye is never easy!

Didn't want to let go

Best teacher ever

Been together since kindergarten

Last moments together in elementary school

May Madness

I laugh when I think about the discussion Doug and I had with the anesthesiologist back when Kinley was born.  When he found out she was baby #3, he told us we had to go from playing man-to-man to zone defense.  It seemed really cute at the time, but he was right!

With all 3 kids in spring sports, we have to sit down each Friday night and have an executive planning session.  Kinley has soccer games, Kaiya has her spring gymnastics meets and Cooper is in the middle of spring baseball tournaments.  There have been some super stressful days, some drama on the baseball field and some tired parents and kids, but even as I write this, I know there is no other place on the planet I'd rather be than cheering on my kids from the sidelines.  They are all thriving and healthy, pursing things they love and I know having us there every step of the way means a lot to them. 

Cooper's tournaments have been a lesson in patience.  They are playing 'up' again this year and it's humbling to play these teams that have 200 kids try out for 12 spots.  They are huge, fast and good.  Not sure all the exposure is worth the low morale, but I keep telling myself that all of life's "learning experiences" are still valuable.  As for the drama side of it, Cooper's coach has been experimenting with him at different positions and having other kids play catcher.  It took the wind out of his sails for a while, but I'm so proud of how he has handled himself.

The coach approached us to explain why he was moving him around and even though we disagreed, we tried hard to remain positive.  Sure enough, it didn't take long before Cooper proved that he really does belong at that position and his defensive skills have now kept him there.  The one issue he has worked so hard to improve is his throw downs to 2nd base and just last week, he nailed a would-be base stealer.  Wohoo! This last weekend, he played lights out.  He caught well and then played 3rd base and made an amazing diving catch.  He also hit well and earned his 2nd Award of Excellence pin of the spring.  Each coach is given a pin at the start of the tournament and they are instructed to give it to one player on an opposing team in any game that they think played with heart, determination and showed sportsmanship.  Coop has now earned this pin twice!! And the bonus--they won a game this weekend!  Here is a link to an article that was written by our local sports writer about the game they won:  www.carbonvalleysports.com

He will play 3 games a week and practice twice a week for 3 hours at a time plus fit in some golf this summer.  All of this on top of the summer "enrichment" projects he has to complete as part of the honors program he will begin in August at the HIGH SCHOOL.  Still not sure when that happened!

Cooper often gets a workout behind the plate!

Look where the ball is!

You get the picture--the kid seriously gets a workout back there!

Taking off after one of his base hits

His frozen fan club on one of the cooler days

Another nice hit

Got a guy in a pickle and ultimately got him out

A little meeting at the mound

Nice form!

Concentrating

Just before saying a prayer in RF and making a nice catch

Some action at third base

Award of Excellence pin

Kaiya made a huge jump from level 6 to level 7 in gymnastics.  The reason this is such a huge jump is she went from doing compulsory routines where everyone does the same thing to having her own routines.  This is also awesome for the parents who are no longer subject to hearing the same music over and over and over . . . . She is doing skills in her routines that she was just dreaming of doing last summer.  It's been amazing how fast she has learned harder skills.  I'm attaching a link to her most recent meet--just her second one ever as a level 7--and she rocked it! She hit all of her routines and placed on bars (2nd), beam (4th) and in the all-around (6th).  She was extactic!   Her first meet was decent except the dreaded balance beam, so she won't allow me to post that video.  She had been gone all week to Cortez, Colorado on a week-long camp for her 5th grade MESA group the last week in April and was exhausted and had been out of the gym all week.  I will post pics from her big trip as soon as we get them from her teacher.  

This is such a great video--what took us 2.5 hours to watch live takes only 3.5 minutes to watch when compiled into one compact video of her recent gymnastics meet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=682Pf3MMlcM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Uncle Brandon and Syd lying down, taking a drink break during Kaiya's meet

Meet of her life!!!

Kinley, having never played soccer, is an aggressive little bugger.  She very quickly figured out how to attack the ball and had her first goal in a game that ended 2-1 a few weeks ago.  Most of the girls on her team have played together for the last 3 years and she had no trouble jumping right in.  Goalie was not her favorite and I can't say I blame her--boring and too much pressure!

Happy girl after scoring her first goal

Not that Doug or I have a life outside work and taxiing our kids around, but we are looking forward to some summer fun.  Doug bought a mountain bike and has started riding a bit with some friends and I made him sign up for the Warrior Dash with me in August.  It's a 3-mile obstacle course that goes through mud, over fire and who knows what else in Copper Mountain.  Should be fun.  I think I'm in severe denial about my age because I agreed to participate in a 12-girl relay race called Ragnar in early September.  It's 180 miles and the 12 of us will run 3 legs each day and night to cover that many miles.  Some of the race is at 11,000 feet.  I'm actually super excited to have something significant to train for and looking forward to the challenge so long as I'm still standing after this summer!  

Had to also throw in some photos of Sydney.  She's growing so fast! I've been fortunate to find a few days to be their daycare provider and plan to continue doing so at least once a month.  LOVE her!

Sydney at 4 months

Giving me a good morning smile