Just look at that smile!

Maddie got her braces off!  Take a look at this gorgeous smile! 

Egads! What happened to the sun?

As many of you might have experienced, we had a solar eclipse in Southern California last week.  It was only a partial eclipse, but it was still exciting.  We learned about it on Saturday, and planned to go see it, but then forgot on Sunday until the eclipse was in progress.  We quickly ran outside and made a pinhole "camera" so that we could see the shadow of the moon over the sun.  Jeff held up a piece of foil with hole punches in it.  The shadow produced was an image of the sun, a crescent moon shaped light.  It was a bit eerie outside.  The light was different, it seemed smoky and dark, but not overcast.  It was very different.  We enjoyed seeing the eclipse.

Gabe's Fathers and Sons

Gabe's birthday was last week.  It fell on one of the busiest days of the week, Saturday!  With all of our activities going on, Father and Sons campout, baseball game, picnics, etc, I fretted over when to have a birthday party.
Finally it struck me....nearly all of his best friends were going to be at the campout.  Why not combine his party with the campout?  I was so thrilled with my idea, that we followed through with it. 

We invited one of Gabe's friends from school to come with us.  Then we invited several boys from the ward over to our house.  We played, had cake and ice cream and opened presents here, then Jeff took a car full of boys to the campout.  They roasted hot dogs for dinner and had their fill of s'mores.  Most of the boys went to sleep with their fathers, but they were back together in the morning to eat breakfast, play football and climb trees.  It was a great birthday party!

A Chance at the Olympics

Everybody knows that I love volleyball just from reading my blog.  However, it may be less commonly known that I love the Olympics.  For some reason, the peaceful idea that we can come together as a world and compete just inspires me.  I love to watch all the different sports during those two weeks every other year.  So when Jeff told me there was an Olympic qualifying volleyball match right in my backyard (Long Beach to be exact), I couldn't resist.  I had to go and see the tournament.  Unfortunately, it happened to be during a very, very busy week for me, and I was unable to get down there to see any of the elimination games that were near the end of the week.  But I did make arrangements to go see some of the pool play games on Tuesday.  I brought the boys with me, and we made it a day.

This tournament was the North American Continent Qualifying Tournament.  Any North American team that had not already qualified for the Olympic games was invited.  The winner of the tournament would secure an Olympic berth.  The winners of the 2011 World Cup already have berths, as does the host country.  Every continent has a tournament (with the exception of Australia), then there are three World Tournaments where teams that didn't win their continent tournaments can compete for a berth.

We watched Trinidad Tobago play Mexico, Canada play Puerto Rico, then the USA play Costa Rica.  It was so much fun.  We really enjoyed the different levels of play.  By seeing the different levels, you really gain an appreciation for the high level of play that separates a gold medalists from others.  The first game was similar to a college game.  In the second game, Canada showed much more prominence as they easily beat Puerto Rico.  But once the USA took the floor, it was clear why they are the defending gold medalists.  It was amazing.  They dominated their competition.  The serves were just amazing, and they blocks were formidable.  It was a lot of fun to watch them play.  Although we did not see the final match, the USA defeated Canada on Saturday night thus securing their Olympic appearance.  It is exciting to think that I have personally seen these guys inaaction.

New Meaning of "HIGH" school

 Jayd tried out for the Highschool Volleyball team this year.  His motivations were questionable....he didn't like his 6th period teacher and wanted to be transferred out of her class.  He knew this would happen if he needed 6th period PE. 

This worked out according to plan, but he had an unexpected result he didn't anticipate.  He loves this sport!!  He has had so much fun playing on this team.  Thanks to a recent growth spurt, he is quite tall giving him a great advantage as a middle blocker.  About halfway through the season, he also discovered he has a talent for being an outside hitter and really enjoys playing that position as well.  It gave new meaning to "HIGH" school as I continually watched him jump up and reach over the 8 ft net.  I really saw him (and the rest of the team) improve and grow over the season.  The season ended on Monday, but that hasn't stopped the team from continuing to play together (volleyball and other things).  For whatever the reason, I am really glad that he has played this year and am looking forward to watching him play for years to come.