Fast Forward

Yep, just hit the fast forward button.  I realize that there's quite a few details of life that have happened in the last few months since my last post in January, but in the end there's really no new earth-shattering news.  No major life events.  But, I suppose I can give a small recap. 

Gunnar played basketball - did very well.  Since basketball season in January he has worn basketball shorts and a warm-up shirt every day to school and takes his basketball with him to school.  He's a balla' now.  Paden also played basketball, but it was more of a camp for a week vs. actual games.  Next year, he'll have real basketball season, should he choose to continue with it.  Oh, and we got a free outside basketball hoop from some friends, so the boys play out there as often as the wind will die down.  On the shortest height, Fischer can make a basket.  It took him quite a bit of practice, but he got it!

Then we moved on to Track.  I love track.  I wasn't ever a super track athlete myself; I did track in Jr. High and Softball mostly.  Back in the day, softball was slow pitch at my high school, and I didn't like slow pitch, so I didn't play for HS.  I wasn't super awesome at track, but looking back, I should have done that in HS instead.  At any rate, I love it.  For the little kids, it's 6 meets, the practices are on Tuesdays, the meets are on Thursdays and that's it.  It's a great schedule as far as youth sports are concerned.  And with both (well, all three) enjoying track more than little league, life is good.

Gunnar did amazing this year with track.  He didn't get less than 1st place all season, other than one bad measurement from the high schoolers on long jump at the last meet.  His best efforts produced 15.35 seconds on the 100 meter dash, 19'10" on the shot put, 84' on the javelin and 12' 2" in the long jump.  All pretty dang good, I think, for a 10-year old.  Now that could sound a little skewed because he's only competing against the few boy his own age (9 &10) - I think there's about 6 or 7 his age.  But, I know he throws the javelin farther than the 11&12 year old boys as well.  As I was jotting down some numbers, I just checked the older kids as well.  Gunnar's right there with them, so if he keeps improving he'll stay ahead of his age bracket.  The best part about it was his attitude!  He had the most amazing attitude.  If you know Gunnar, you know he's not always that way.

Paden did well in track this year, too.  He got some first places in javelin and shot put, I believe, maybe long jump.  He rocked a lot of second and third places as well. I am happy Paden was out there competing, even though he'd rather be playing video games. He did improve quite a bit from last year on his throwing events, not so much in running.  He did better in long jump, but if we could get the running down, that would help the jumping too.

Fischer wanted to participate, but didn't want to really compete with the other kids.  He (we) did run one 50 meter dash.  I think our time was somewhere in the ball park of 17 seconds.  At the last meet, he wanted to throw javelin, so after all the kids were done, we threw javelin.  I measured one of his best at 16 feet.  So, he's 3.  That's pretty amazing for 3 years old.  Some of the 5 year olds weren't throwing that far.  That should be interesting in the future. :-)

I have done a horrible job at taking pictures over the last several months.  I have a few pics of track on my phone, I believe.  I will have to pull them off there.  Some of the times, they got down so quickly with their events, I didn't have a chance to take pics.  Other times, I was wrangling Fischer.  So, that's a bummer on the photo front.

T-shirt biz is good.  We surpassed last year's sales by about the middle of April.  We're definitely in need of more space for that endeavor.  We're going to build a shed about 180 square feet and move the woodworking stuff out there, so we should have plenty of space for a little while in the garage with that wood stuff out.  We are a full service screen printing, heat pressing, embroidery shop, so any needs out there, let us know.

Neil and I are part of this community leadership program that is pretty cool.  We have a community project to build a picnic pavilion at the river in a popular beach spot that doesn't have anything but a restroom right now.  So, that's going to be pretty awesome when it's done  . . . in a year.  Our cohort has to raise all the money, but we get a grant up to $5,000 from the foundation that sponsors the classes.  But, the pavilion project is looking somewhere around $17.000, if we want to add picnic tables, which would make sense. :-)  So, it's going to take the better part of a year to complete.  It is pretty exciting stuff.  In other exciting community news, Neil finally got approval from city council to put in a splash pad/spray park/water playground deal-y whopper.  So, he's been researching that and getting some quotes.  I think that's going to be awesome!

Looking to the future . . . Fischer is turning FOUR on Thursday.  Craziness right there.  He's a pretty awesome little dude and I'll have to dedicate a birthday post to him on the 23rd of May. 

I am going to Portland with some fabulous friends to participate in a 5K Mud Run - not sure what the crap we were thinking, so wish us strength and stamina 'cuz I might just kick the bucket.

We are planning to go on a bike ride in June when school gets out that is down a mountain for 17 miles. It's the Hiawatha Trail on the Idaho/Montana boarder - http://www.ridethehiawatha.com/ It's supposed to be easy, but I can already feel my rear end getting sore just thinking about it.  I am excited though, I think it's going to be pretty cool and fun.  I feel bad sometimes having to work most of the summer and we don't get a lot done with the kids.  So, I am trying to rectify that this summer.  Hopefully we can get some other small adventures in as well.

I am definitely going to die for a few days when I set out for my Hell's Canyon relay in September.  The name should pretty much give it away.  We are a walking team, but I have to walk three legs of approximately 6 miles each.  The team captain gave me some easy ones, so for that I am thankful.  But, I am supposed to be training to walk a 13-ish minute mile.  So, yeah, I should be getting on that . . .

Anyway, I am now distracted by someone wanting to order scholastic books, so I'll be back . . .