Baseball

Will, BS, Sambo

I think this is the final post about baseball for 2012.  Whew!  Between City League, Super League, and All Star League - the boys were on 5 different teams!  We love watching the boys play baseball and see them progress as they learn and gain more experience.  We spent many hours in the hot sun, eating sunflower seeds and snow cones and cheering them on.  City League (Padres - on team together) went from April-June, Super League (Knights and Braves) went from April - June, All Star League (both Knights) went from June - July.  Indeed it took a huge chunk of our time but we went to the games (near and far) as a family and really had a good time.  It is always fun watching BS coach too.

This team is Will's Super League team, the Lone Peak Knights.  Coach Burton asked him to play on his team and we knew we couldn't turn down this opportunity.  He coached Will last Fall in football and he is a fantastic coach.  Besides being great at teaching fundamentals and giving a positive learning experience, he is also into looking good.  They got fancy uniforms, hats, dry fit shirt, and a hoodie in both black and maroon.  Will was stoked!
They had double-header games on Saturdays which was great to get them done in one day.  Sometimes 4 hours of baseball got a little long for the 8 year old boys, but they did great and never gave up!

Assistance Coach Sam and Quincy in her fan gear

The boys taking a quick pee break!

Quincy is a trooper, my little sidekick at all of the games.  She loved the snow cones and hot dogs.  It also meant lots of time playing on the playground at the games!

 

He hits the ball...

And off he goes!

Coach Gaston and Sam during break

Seth, Trevin and Sam. There were always friends and kids to play with at the games

This Pop Up Shade was a lifesaver!

On Saturdays we were always cruising from soccer to lacrosse to baseball.  We often had to divide and conquer!  On some days we had 4 games!  Here is BS on his new ride, the "Burgman", going home after a baseball game...

... And now taking girls home after a soccer game!

BS loves it so much - he drives it to work almost everyday and we save A TON on gas because then I can cruise around in the Turbo Diesel Jetta which gets killer gas mileage :)

Will's Baptism

The Great Man was baptized on July 7th, 2012!

It was a wonderful day for Will and our family.  He was baptized at the Stake Center in Alpine and all of our family came for this special occasion. 

The Grandpas said the prayers, Uncle Shad and Uncle Doug gave talks, the cousins sang a beautiful song, Grandma led the music, Millie and Mom played the piano, and most importantly BS baptized and confirmed Will.  He was the only child being baptized this month from our ward so it was just our family.  So special and intimate.  We are so proud of this little guy and we couldn't love him more.  He already has his own testimony and is so faithful about saying his prayers every night.  I hope he always remembers this day and how he felt.

Afterwards we went to the Suncrest Clubhouse for lunch and swimming!  It was a gorgeous day and the kids were so stoked to swim with their cousins from both sides.  The bummer thing is that right as we got to the clubhouse a little kid had pooped in the pool and so they had to close it for sanitation.  It was so sad and I felt bad that nobody could swim.  Oh well.  We had a good time eating lunch, visiting, and just hanging out.

Clark cousins minus Sambo.  He had to leave to go to his baseball tournament game.  Very bright outside!

 

Grandpas and Grandmas. Our church in the background

His new scriptures.  He was stoked to see the silver on the pages :)

Just a cute pic with his little Sis

A couple of funny things about Will I keep meaning to mention-

-The top 5 things on his Christmas list this last year was:
1. Money
2. Money machine.  I'm not sure if he means the kind that you get inside and money is flying all over and you catch it or a machine that actually makes money?
3. Massage Chair
4. Maid
5. Time Machine.  He said he wants this so he can go to the future and figure out how to make lots of money.

-When Sambo lost a molar, Will offered to pay him $1.00 for his tooth.  Sambo asked him why and Will said, "That way we both win - you get $1.00 and I get money from the Tooth Fairy. "
He knew that at the least he would get $1.00 but maybe he would get more because it's a molar.  Sometimes the Tooth Fairy gives $5.00 for molars.

-Will had an expander placed in his mouth the day before Thanksgiving last year.  It also had a "tongue crib" to keep his tongue from pushing out his teeth because he had an overbite.  He has spent the last 8 months swishing and making all kinds of weird sounds with his mouth when he is eating and trying to  get food out of it.  It was supposed to be in for at least a year but he wiggled and wiggled it until he managed to break the glue loose and pull it out.  Such a stinker!  I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture of it in his mouth  - it really did look like a torture device!  

A Dancer and a Jock

The boys and all of their baseball wasn't the only thing keeping us busy...Millie had plans of her own to not only dance this past year - but also play lacrosse and soccer!  Luckily these sports are seasonal, but it made for 2 months of very hectic Saturdays getting 3 kids to all of their games!

Millie has mostly danced.  When she was younger she played a season or two of recreation soccer.  While she had fun, it wasn't her thing because she wasn't aggressive or competitive, and she was small. She just liked the social part.

Dance has kept her busy for the past several years and she loves it and has become quite a good dancer.  She loves to perform.

But a year ago she decided she wanted to be more athletic and play some sports.  Turns out...she's quite  good!  She's fast but needs to work on the aggressive and competitive part :)

She loves it so much that she tried-out for a comp soccer team.  And she made it!  So now she will be playing for AA team {not as involved as AAA} for this coming year.  BS and I are so surprised that   she chose soccer {doesn't know anyone} over  lacrosse {lots of friends}.  Wow!  We look forward to watching her progress and play and it will be interesting to see how she likes it.  Her first practice was a few days ago and the girls on her team were super friendly and cute.  So far, so good.

She isn't willing to give up dance completely so she will dance 1 day/week as well as take dance class at school.  Phew!  I love watching her dance and was struggling with the thought of her quitting.

Here she is at her latest ballet recital in May:

And her soccer games:

And at lacrosse:

And just for fun, here are some pics of BS and Quincy playing catch during half-time of lacrosse game. So cute.

And this guy is even cuter!

Dance Festival

Still trying to catch up on stuff that happened before summer even started.  The Ridgeline Elementary Dance Festival is always a fun event the last week of school.  It's fun to watch the kids and teachers dance and everyone is so happy because school is over! 

Monday Night Lights

Sambo got a phone call from Coach Buck Mendenhall {from last year All-Star team} inviting him to play on his Super League baseball team.  Both boys were already playing city league but we couldn't turn down the opportunity for Sambo to play for such an awesome coach.  He wanted to play really bad.  Really, really bad.  So Monday night became Family Home Evening at the baseball field in Orem under the lights.  We ate dinner and cheered for the Braves!  The games started pretty late so after several games we started leaving Millie in charge.  We all loved the games at night and of course the boys thought the lights were so cool.

For this team Sambo mostly played 3rd base and pitcher.  Also some short stop.

Man is he getting good!

Grandpa Jim and Grandpa Judy came to several of the games too!  Thanks so much for coming!

Proud

There is so much to catch up on from the end of school - one of them being this:

Little Miss Amilia was awarded the Hope of America award!

The certificate says she has "demonstrated capacity for leadership, ethical and moral character, and outstanding academic accomplishment

It is a huge achievement and we couldn't be prouder.

Her teacher Mr. Wimmer presenting it to her

She didn't know about the award and was surprised when BS and I showed up at her school's award assembly

Another big accomplishment for her was winning a spot on the Student Council as 7th grade Representative at Timberline Middle School.

BS and I told her about our experiences being on student council in Junior High and it must have motivated her to give it a shot.  There were many other 7th graders who also wanted a spot so they had to campaign.  We knew it was a long shot but we were proud that she wanted to try and we fully supported her in this effort.  Wow was it an effort.  She had to answer some questions on a questionaire, make a video showing why she is a good candidate for office, and then have an interview in front of current student council members, faculty, and administration.
They must have been impressed because they chose her!

She is very excited for the upcoming school year and we know she will do a great job and it will be a great experience for her.  Already she has been to a leadership retreat in St. George for 3 days with other Student Council members {last week}.  She had an awesome time but at night she struggled being on her own and away from home.  I secretly enjoy this because I'm not ready for her to be so grown up!  Way to go Millie!

We Miss You

Over the years our family has had our share of pets:

-Otis (our 1st dog)
-Rex & Rico (iguanas)
-Wally& Chester (horses)
-Various fish and snails (In the end we had to "flush" the yellow snail because it ate all of the fish &    escaped out of the aquarium twice)
-Carter (cat)
-Daisy (dog)
-Shortleg (African bullfrog)
-Casper (kitty)
-Casper 2 (kitty)
-Pork Chops (Daisy's puppy)

As much fun and joy these pets have brought us...so also comes loss and sadness when they die.  Our latest loss is Daisy.  She was easily the biggest sweetheart in the whole world.  We lost her back in January, but it has taken me this long to write about it because we have been so sad and devastated.

The story is so bizarre and disturbing.  I came home from picking Quincy up from preschool one afternoon in January (the 30th, 1 day before Sambo's birthday) and started fixing her lunch.  My next door neighbor Tasha came running in my front door completely frantic.  She was yelling that Daisy was in the back of the garbage truck!  I ran outside and the truck was just leaving our street.  I looked at how big and tall it was and thought my sweet neighbor had gone completely nuts (she had just had a baby a few days earlier and was very sleep deprived)!  But I didn't see Daisy anywhere and the look on Tasha's face convinced me she was in there.  I caught up to the garbage truck at a nearby stop sign and a gentleman had waved him down because Tasha had told this random man to stop the truck.  I didn't see or hear any sign of Daisy being in the back of the truck.  The driver looked at me like I was insane and that there is NO WAY my dog is in there.  He climbed the tall ladder to look in the back and didn't see anything.  This was maybe two minutes max from the time Tasha had looked out her upstairs window and had seen Daisy jumping around in the back on top of the garbage while the truck was emptying the garbage can in front of our house.  At that point she was alive and well.  But then now there was no sign of her. The driver told me he was heading straight to the landfill and that he would look for her when he dumped the garbage.  He called later and told me he didn't see anything.  Quincy had witnessed the whole fiasco.  Throughout the day she kept asking me if we got Daisy out of the garbage truck yet?  Knowing how a garbage truck works, BS and I decided to tell the kids that she got carried away in a garbage truck and that hopefully she either jumped out at some point and found a new family that loves and cares for her, or that she is very happy living at the landfill eating as much food as she wants.
We got calls from Draper City for the next week because everyone was so concerned.  The question is how did she end up in the garbage truck?  It would be impossible for her to climb up that huge truck.  So was she in a garbage can?  And how did she get in the huge garbage can without tipping it over?  She is a 75 pound dog!  And why didn't the truck driver see a 75 pound dog get dumped into his truck?     Completely baffling.  I bawled for 3 days.  BS was super upset too.  Except that we had to put on a happy face for Sambo's birthday and his party.  We didn't have the heart to tell him and the other kids about Daisy until the day after.  Then Sambo said, "That's why I don't like pets...because they die!"

Whatever happened, we miss her dearly and loved her so much.  We were lucky to have her for 6 years.  She went on many adventures with our family and was an awesome pet.  Here are a few pics of her over the years.

The day we got brought her home

February 2006

Hanging out with Millie, listening to her troubles

Just part of the family

Daisy LOVED to swim and play fetch.  She would have fetched the ball until she collapsed if we let her!

She was a fabulous Mama to her litter of 10 puppies!  She let Chops hang on her neck and nurse until he was as big as her!

She was also known to be a little Rascal at times - here she went snooping in somebody's garbage and came home with the lid stuck on her.  This is how we found her.  Still don't know who's it is!

The only thing that has helped a little is that we still have her puppy Chops with us.  And somehow he has turned into quite a good dog in the last six months.  Probably something to do with that he is now two years old and mellowed out.  He's taking after his Mom, just as sweet as he could be.

But wait.
And then there's Casper 2.
We went to Moab for Spring break and we came home to find that Casper 2 had left...and never came back.  Bobcat?  Eagle?  Suncrest isn't the best place for an outdoor cat I guess.  Despite the fact that he was a cat (BS and I are not cat lovers), he was a pretty cool cat.  He lasted about a year at our house but maybe, just maybe, he has also found a new home with milder winters and a family that will let him inside more.  We just feel bad for Quincy and her buddy Conner.  They loved this cat so much.  Like so much.  He entertained and played with Q for hours everyday.  And he didn't mind the dogs.  They liked each other.  Something funny about him is that on the occasion when he was let inside, he would always jump up into BS's bathroom sink and lay there!  These pics were taken on different days: