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