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Landsharks

May 15th, 2012
by Jodie.
1 comment

Princess wanted to do a spring sport, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to do soccer again . . . she wanted to take a break from swimming . . . and she was on the fence about volleyball. Quite frankly, I needed her to choose something that wasn’t on Saturday. I knew Hubby was going to be gone quite a bit, and with Dude’s busier baseball schedule this spring, I needed to know we’d have our Saturdays free. And she’s not really passionate about any of those sports.

She was still thinking when we got the email about spring Landsharks. Instead of running long distance like in the fall Cross country series, they run more sprints and shorter distances on the track. She decided that was what she wanted to do since it took less time and she’s been riding horses much more often.

Much to my surprise, she did awesome! The first week, they ran two races - a sprint and a mile. Here is my Princess running her first sprint . . . even though she is last in this photo, she came in right in the middle of the pack, which was great :-) It was even more impressive because we were gone the whole weekend playing with friends in San Antonio - up early and up late - and our plane got in 2 hours before race time. She had to change in the car, and she still had enough energy to do awesome!

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She did even better in her mile run! The first race, she cut a whole minute off of her time from last fall. The second race, she had cut off 1 1/2 minutes. And by the third and last race, she had cut almost 2 minutes off of her mile time from last fall. She was very excited, as she should’ve been. She ran well and always saved enough to make a final sprint push down the last straight away:

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Each race she ended up passing a few people right at the end with her sprint. It was so fun to watch! I am not a runner, and I didn’t think she was either, but we are so proud of how awesome she did this season. Can’t wait to see if she decides to do the cross country season next fall again!

She’s done with Landsharks and into horseback riding lessons full time now :-) We love her new instructor and are very excited for a summer filled with horses.

Posted in: Princess.

41

May 13th, 2012
by Jodie.
2 comments

Happy Birthday to my Hubby who turned 41 on Saturday :-)

dan_41

Posted in: Daily Life.

Draft

May 10th, 2012
by Jodie.
1 comment

The Pirates play most of their home games at a local High School. 11 year old boys love to see high schoolers playing baseball or practicing. And, there isn’t much cooler to them than having access to a potential future star. This is a pre-game photo from last night’s game:

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“So what?” you say. What’s so cool about that? I’ll tell you what’s cool about that. See the tall kid in the white t-shirt? Senior in high school. Full scholarship to a D-1 school to play baseball. And what else? He’s entering the MLB draft in two weeks. The boys (Dude is #2) thought it was awesome to have personal access to a potential future star . . . a regular kid, just like them, who started Little League as a t-baller when he was 5 and is now entering the draft. A regular kid who was willing to stand there and answer all of their questions about school, baseball, training . . . and even a couple about girls :-)

BTW - the Pirtes won again - 15-4. Go Pirates!

Posted in: Baseball, Dude.

Pirates

May 5th, 2012
by Jodie.
3 comments

Baseball season is in full swing! Dude is loving playing for the 11/12 Majors Pirates. We love love love his coaches! Both of them are so laid back. I can’t imagine either one of them every having raised their voices. The awesome thing is, they get their point across and the boys learn a ton. And we love the parents, too. It’s so nice to have parents who come to the games and watch and cheer. No complaining about my kid playing here or there or not playing here or there or batting here or there in the order. No calls to the coach before, during, or after the game about decisions he makes during the games. Just parents enjoying watching their kids play baseball. And speaking of the kids, the other 10 boys on the team are awesome as well! 9 of them played on this team last year - the other one played on Dude’s team last year. They’re all fun and very nice. They realize that Dude hasn’t played majors and doesn’t know as much as they do  . . . so instead of being frustrated when he does something wrong or drops a fly ball, they help him. They encourage him. They explain to him where to go next time. They high-five him like he’s been on the team for years when he crosses home plate. They pat him on the back and tell him to get ‘em next time after he strikes out. They are genuinely good kids - not one of ‘em with a spoiled rotten I’m better than everyone else bone in his body.

How refreshing.

The Pirates are winning a lot of games . . . they’re having a blast. Hubby and I have fun seeing the name of our company on the back of their jerseys as the team sponsor :-)

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Dude is getting more and more confident with his batting every game. He was a bit intimidated by the bigger, faster pitchers the first few games, but he’s come around and realized he can actually get hits off of them. Here he is loaded and ready to go!

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I love this picture of him on first base. Coach Andy’s demeanor and posture just kill me. That’s typical of both coaches . . . laid back, hands in pockets, softly chatting with the boys telling them awesome job or some small thing they could maybe try to tweak next time.

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This picture makes me giggle. I swear Dude loves baseball . . . but he looks absolutely miserable in this picture as he’s rounding third to head home from first base.

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The one thing I’m most surprised about this season is that none of the boys sit on the bench any more than the others. I figured with us playing in a more competetive division this season, Dude would probably be the 11th man on the team, which would mean more bench time for him. But, his awesome coaches rotate the boys in and out and all over the field every game. Each boy has a #1 and #2 spot for themselves in the field, but they also get to play other positions. The great thing is that they can all play pretty much any position, so no matter who might be gone for a game, the can play through it pretty easily. Dude is WAY happy that he’s gotten to do THIS as well!

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He’s been doing pretty well at it, too!

A few things he’s learned this season . . .

  • Majors is definitely different than minors. All the kids on the team know how to play.
  • Pitchers throw strikes. Walking is not very likely (although he seems to get himself walked at least once a game, if not more!).
  • You need to pay attention all the time. Things move fast, even in practice.

And my personal favorite . . .

  • These kids didn’t get this good only by showing up at the required practices and games. They work on their own, too (hallelujah! I’ve been trying to convince him of this for quite some time!).

We’re only half way through the season. We’ve got about 15 games left, plus a tournament over Memorial Day weekend. Dude can’t WAIT for the tournament - he’s been dying to play in a tournament.

Off to a game this afternoon, then game 2 for the day this evening on a brand new turf field with lights - the Pirates are way excited to play under the lights :-)

I can’t think of many better things to do on a beautiful spring Saturday then watch boys play baseball.

Posted in: Baseball, Dude.

Wordless Wednesday - My Princess

May 2nd, 2012
by Jodie.
2 comments

princess_ww

Posted in: Princess, Wordless Wednesday.

Easter Brunch

Apr 18th, 2012
by Jodie.
2 comments

Dude and Princess went shopping for Easter clothes (thanks Grandma Sue!). As you can see, Princess is much more into dressing up for Easter Brunch than Dude is:

easter-brunch

 

I must say I’m proud of Dude. He actually went shopping at American Eagle rather than Kohl’s! However, I’m guessing I will probably regret his discovery of mall stores in the very near future…

Posted in: Dude, Princess.

Easter Egg Garden

Apr 17th, 2012
by Jodie.
3 comments

We always have a fun night coloring eggs, but this year I bought a couple fun kits for us to play with. The result was a fun Easter Egg garden in addition to our regular eggs:

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This egg has accepted its fate:

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This egg apparently just found out about his fate:

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This two-headed guy apparently found frightened guy’s epiphany funny:

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This guy:

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. . . is laughing hysterically at this guy:

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Mr. Cool Monster with the sleepy eyes and . . .

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. . . Bunny tattoo :-)

Hope you all had a good Easter!

Posted in: Family, Holidays.

April Fools

Apr 16th, 2012
by Jodie.
2 comments

I always have to laugh because Dude has all these wonderful ideas for April Fools pranks - except, every year he forgets it’s April Fools and doesn’t do his pranks. This year, Hubby and I mentioned the night before, and Dude was still mad because he didn’t have enough time to prepare. I suggested that maybe he set the alarm on is iTouch so it goes off a week before April Fools day next year so he has time to prepare. He didn’t like that idea. I told him I couldn’t help him :-)

The evening continued and Dude insisted we have french toast for breakfast the next morning. Um - OK. That actually sounds super yummy, so sure, we can do that.

Hubby and I headed downstairs later that evening to watch a movie while the kiddos got ready for bed. They were suspiciously quiet while at the same time tip-toeing around and giggling upstairs.

When we headed upstairs to go to bed, we stopped to play with Spy for a little while and wondered why the waffle iron was hidden under Spy’s cage table. We just shook our heads and let it go since french toast was on the menu for the next morning. Then, I about jumped out of my skin when I saw THIS when I flicked the light on in my bedroom!

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I just about died laughing as I wondered whether or not they know that one of my biggest fears is someone hiding under my car or my bed and grabbing my legs as I walk by (yes - now you know something new about me) :-)

Off to bed we went. Hubby almost lost it when he opened the cabinet to pull out the electric skillet to make french toast in the morning:

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So yes, Dude figured out how to pull some April Fools Day pranks even with limited advance notice of this ever important holiday :-) He says he’s got plans for next year - I can’t wait!

Posted in: Dude, Princess.

Geocaching 2012

Apr 12th, 2012
by Jodie.
2 comments

Long long ago in a land far far away before baseball schedules and work got in the way, the Boedies headed up to Breckenridge for a few days to get our of town for spring break. Our awesome friends, M and MS, let us use their condo for part of the week. We were way excited to get out of town for a while, but we were bummed that the weather was so warm and the snow was terrible. We didn’t even take our snowboards with! Instead, we packed the GPS, hiking boots, and geocaching loot :-)

We headed up Wednesday afternoon early enough to stop at our favorite Mexican restaurant/bowling alley on the way up for dinner. We got a couple good games of bowling in, ate our favorite most awesomest bison burritos smothered in bison chili, then headed to the condo. The kids unpacked in about 3 minutes and jumped right into the hot tub, which gave Hubby and me an opportunity to hang out, relax, and decompress.

Thursday morning we got up, had yummy breakfast, and headed out for our first geocaching of the year! We snagged our first official cache off of Boreas Pass road. We stopped at a pull-out part way up and hiked down a little way where we met up with the trail. Here are Hubby and Princess on our first forest hike of the year :-)

breck01

As you can see, even up at altitude, there wasn’t any snow. That gives you an indication of how warm and unsnowy it’s been up there!  Turns out we could’ve hiked up from the park in town . . . but when you hike up, you don’t tend to see as much of the good scenery as you do on the way down . . . like this awesome view of Breckenridge ski area:

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We were all pretty excited when we found the first cache :-)

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The kiddos found the regular cache loot in there . . . stretchy people, a deck of cards, other odds and ends :-) They made their trade, signed the log, and we headed back to the car to head to the next trail, which was our actual destination for the day. It was a 1.5 mile hike up to the abandoned Sallie Barber mine. We were on the northwest side of the mountain most of the time, so we had to hike on hard crunchy snow most of the way.

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It was such a beautiful day that we took our time, enjoyed the view, and took breaks here and there. Here are my 3 favorite people resting on a fence that seemed to be here for no apparent reason.

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We reached the entrance to the mine, and were a bit disappointed. The notes said it was a very scenic area! Instead, we found this:

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So we took some pictures and looked around for the cache. Then someone had the very bright idea to actually check the GPS to see where the cache was. Turns out, we were still 1/10th of a mile away! So we kept hiking up the hill until we came out at this!

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The views from the back side were very cool. The kiddos enjoyed dropping rocks down the shaft to see how far down it went and exploring the old pieces of machinery used to operate the mine.

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Up in the forest a ways, the kiddos found geocache #2 for the day!

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Princess was way excited to find a neat deck of cards, and Dude was beyond happy to find a CD of Louis Armstrong, who is his trumpet teacher’s favorite trumpet player guy. Dude decided to take the CD so he could give it to Jon. Can I just say how happy it makes me to see him think of other people and get so excited about it :-)

After some more exploring, we headed back down the trail back to the condo for some lunch and game playing. QT and Ed came to stay with us for the night, which we were very happy about :-) After a yummy dinner at the brewery, the adults played a fun new game, while the kiddos relaxed their tired selves in the hot tub. I had to giggle because the hot tub is right outside the window to the condo. The screens were off the windows when we got there, so the kiddos requested that we turn on The Big Bang Theory on TV and open the windows so they could watch from the hot tub. Ahhhh - a dream come true ;-)

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After hot tubbing, snacking, and showering, Princess was apparently too tired to make it the 5 feet to her bedroom for the night.

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A definite sleeping beauty!

A great ending to fun, outdoorsy day to start the spring :-)

Posted in: Family, Geocaching.

I Overruled His Decision

Apr 2nd, 2012
by Jodie.
2 comments

Dude brought home his class sign up sheet for 7th grade. He chose French, but he did not sign up for Band. I disliked that decision. Yes, I told him he HAD to try 6th grade band. He didn’t want to. So I let him not choose it. Then he ended up wanting to, so he changed his class schedule and played the trumpet this year.

He likes it. He’s good at it. He’s been taking lessons. He still wants to be the Bugler for his Boy Scout troop.

He does not like his band teacher; therefore he does not want to be in band next year, although he says wants to continue to play the trumpet - just not in band.

Hubby asked Dude if he didn’t sign up for band, then there was a different fun teacher next year, would he be disappointed? Dude said yes.

Hubby asked Dude if he signed up for band, would he be disappointed to not get the other discovery classes that band takes the place of? Dude said no, not really. They’re choir, art, and drama.

He had no other good reason for not wanting to do band than he doesn’t like the teacher. She’s boring. They don’t play any fun music. They have those annoying practice records to keep and hand in.

Next year, they get to play fun music because the kids know how to play. They also play as a whole band, not just parts of a band while they learn. And, if they take private lessons, no practice records.

Without a good reason, I highly recommended he choose to stick with band next year.

He did not want to.

I was disappointed.

There may have been sighs and frowns - on both our parts.

Dude may have huffed and puffed, said “Fine!”, walked to his room, and checked the box for band.

I usually let them make decisions on things that I don’t consider earth-shattering; however, for some reason, this time I didn’t.

I didn’t think that not liking the teacher was a good reason to quit doing something he likes. You’re not going to like every boss or coworker you encounter. You gotta figure out how to get past it and enjoy yourself anyway.

Posted in: Dude, School, Trumpet.

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