Hoop, There It Is

Monday, July 26, 2010. If you ranked the things that the boys and I have spent the most free time on since last summer, at or near the top of that list would be our indoor ESPN SportsCenter. A friend from church called me one day and said that they had been cleaning out their garage and wondered if I wanted a sports set that was still in the unopened box that had been in their garage for years. Without more details than that, I skeptically said "sure." And thank goodness I did. Because that thing rocks the universe. We love it! It has provided hours and hours of entertainment and exercise - especially on those ridiculously hot Texas days (and during that horrendous Houston blizzard of 2011...). Thanks a bagillion to our friends for their generosity!

Peanut draining one. Back in July, they used to shoot from this normal distance. Now, they like to step back a ways and jack up the long ball "like Jimmer." So heads up if you're ever in a neighboring room. Or zip code.

Beeju bringing the heater. He's got some velocity and movement. And that's after only 3 months of getting regular "Roger Clemens" shots. And maybe a few rubdowns of "the cream" and "the clear."

Here's a wider angle view so you can see the full capabilities. When the black sleeve is down (like in these pics), you can play basketball, baseball and football. When you fold the sleeve down, you can play soccer, golf and hockey. There are dozens of options for different competitions, and it's all narrated by Stuart Scott (from the TV version of ESPN's SportsCenter). I still can't believe we own this bad boy.

Una Fiesta in South Padre

November 26-27, 2010. Part of our 50-50 joint custody arrangement with the boys deals with us rotating certain holidays - one of which is Thanksgiving. So this past November, Amy got the boys that weekend. Because of that, I decided to head down to the South Padre Island Invitational to watch the BYU men's basketball team in a Friday-Saturday tournament. [For you non-Texans, South Padre Island is a popular Spring Break/winter home/beach resort town at the very southern tip of Texas.]

The tourney was extra fun to attend because (1) the gym (the South Padre Island Convention Center) was very intimate - probably smaller than my high school gym even and (2) BYU fans far outnumbered any of the other teams playing. The primary teams this year were BYU, St. Mary's, Texas Tech and South Florida. We got treated to two days of fantastic basketball (and one afternoon of nightmarish football when BYU blew their game against Utah...which we were watching in one of the restaurants down there on Friday in between games...but I digress). The Cougs won the tournament by defeating South Florida 77-75 in double overtime (on a last second shot by Noah Hartsock!) and St. Mary's 74-73 (thanks to a 3-pointer by Jimmer with 11 seconds left!). I was apparently caught on TV during my exuberance singing the fight song at the end of the championship game - a less than flattering moment caught by my friends, the Elliotts, which they then felt compelled to share on Facebook. (And which their son still laughs about when he sees me.)

Just a couple of pics from day 2 of the tourney...

This shows how close to the action I was in my front row seat (which I rarely sat down in). Which means I technically didn't have to yell that loud. But let's be clear...I did anyway.

Post-tournament award ceremony. Hartsock, Jax and Jimmer were all-tourney, and Jimmer was the MVP.

Me with the MVP (and soon-to-be National Player of the Year?!?) Jimmer Fredette.

Talk About Scary

Halloween 2010. It was brought to my attention yesterday that a couple of friends who I hadn't seen since the mid-90's had stumbled onto my blog and been reading it. Which made me realize: shoot, if someone's actually reading this thing, I should get going and update it. So I'm going to try to crank out a series of posts from the last 6 months or so. Just highlights at this point. And in no chronological order.

It's hard to be a scary lion when you laugh and smile constantly. But that's why I love Peanut so much. It's almost impossible to keep him from grinning.

Beeju as Dracula. I couldn't find kid-sized vampire teeth, so he tried to mash in the adult ones. That was a hard costume for me. Next year, I'll do better. He was happy though, and that's what matters.

I never dress up for Halloween. And now you know why. But hey, the humor was at someone else's expense, so it wasn't all that painful. And let's be honest, it was dead on for James (one of my older brothers). In fact, someone who knows both of us saw me at our church Halloween party and (without seeing/reading my sign) made a comment about how I looked like the old pictures of James that she had seen. I rest my case. My only regret...posting this pic on Facebook. Really Ben? Really? I embarrass myself sometimes.

When Wobbles Turn Into Holes

Sunday, September 12, 2010.  For weeks and weeks, Noah had a couple of loose teeth.  The initial wobbles gradually morphed into bends which slowly became twists and turns.  By the end, those darn teeth were doing moves that would make Olympic gymnasts jealous.  Finally, during the wee hours of Sunday morning, while Beeju and his wobbly teeth slept soundly, tooth #1 bit the dust.  When he first woke up, he didn't even notice.  Watching his stunned reaction when it finally hit him was priceless.  So we went into his room and searched through his sheets until we found the missing mouth jewelry.

That boy couldn't stop smiling all day long.  And when the Tooth Fairy came the next night, it was like Christmas morning here.  So much fun for Pops!

Since that time, tooth #2 has also fallen out - this time at Chick-fil-a.  Here's to lots and lots of toothless grins for years to come!

Wobble, Wobble...

...Bend....Twist....Turn....

The proud owner of a hole in his mouth.

Sunny Side Up, Please

Wednesday, September 8, 2010.  The first graders at Noah's school started their year by putting on a Nursery Rhyme Parade.  They each had to dress up as a character from the Nursery Rhyme of their choice.  Because of Noah's affinity for a certain song he learned at the end of kindergarten, he naturally went for Humpty Dumpty (I tried to post the cute video of him and his class singing it, but the file was too big, and I don't know how to edit it down).  It wasn't easy executing on the Mr. Egg idea, but we had a great time working on it together.

We basically just took a big box, cut off the top and bottom, rounded the top and bottom to make an egg shape, drew a face, gave him some striped shorts and then added a brick wall at the bottom.  Although, it dawned on both of us the morning after that it looked more like an egg sitting inside the top of a chimney than an egg on a wall.  Details, details.  I also maybe should've put on suspender-like straps so that he could wear it on his shoulders instead of making arm holes for him to carry it.  But it all worked out in the end.  And I think my little Round Mound of Rebound thoroughly enjoyed being the best dang Humpty Dumpty that school had ever seen.

Smiling Dumpty

Monster Dumpty

Oh-No-I'm-Falling-Off-The-Wall Dumpty

Beaming Dumpty (in the parade)

Celebrating Freedom at Surfside

Tuesday, July 6, 2010.  Since both Amy and I had our July 4th holidays at work on Monday, I let her have the boys that day while I worked (Mondays are always mine with the boys), and then I took Tuesday off and spent it with the boys.  The best part of taking Tuesday off was that Surfside Beach was almost entirely empty when me and the boys went.  It was so nice to be there and have it not be crowded.

The painful lesson I learned: my arms aren't long enough to put sunscreen on my own back.  After all afternoon in the sun, I came home with a super red 6x10 rectangular window of burnage on the upper half of my back.  It hurt too much to laugh when it was red...but now that it's nice and tan, it cracks me up to see in the mirror.  Next time, I'll have to bribe one of the boys to give me a hand.

Cowboy Sam ready to roll.

With a little coaching from big brother, he realized that boots might not be the best way to do the beach.

Nut flinging dirt in his own face.  Such a Nutty.

The toeheads making their trek to the waves.

Standing triumphantly with the volcano we made.

First Baseball Game

Thursday, June 24, 2010.  Today, Noah's summer program field trip was to Minute Maid Park downtown to watch the Astros' afternoon game.  Naturally, I could not possibly miss my boy's first ever baseball game.  Just couldn't do it.  So I met up with Beeju's group before the game and then spent the day with him.  I didn't take a ton of pics...just enough to capture the day for posterity.  After all, a boy's first baseball game is a big deal.  He's now well on his way to being a man.  Next step: learning to chew/spit sunflower seeds.  We're working on it.

Proud Papa moment

For the first hour or so, he wouldn't let me get up. Every time I tried, he kept waving me back. He's almost never "clingy," but I kinda like it when he is.  So cute.  (Could've done without that blasted Cowboys hat in this pic.)

An even prouder Papa moment...seeing his boy air punching Astros players.  Atta boy!  Go Pirates!

Getting ready to race that giant mechanical baseball player behind him. Beeju smoked the dude.

This is a key place to have on your map if you're going to an Astros game with a youngun'.  Not a bad play area.  And it gives them a chance to stretch the legs and burn off some energy.  Another pic below.

You can't take a 5 year old to a ballgame and not have cotton candy.  What started as a gigantic mound o' sugar...

...quickly turned into an itsy bitsy corn-on-the-cob sized snack.

Washing it all down with a cold one.  Game #1: success!  Hopefully next time we'll get to see the Pirates.