Buster Baseball

2018 was another tumultuous year in baseball for Lance.  He took the spring off from school baseball and focused on training at KZone.

Lance "squishing" his training buddy at Meredith College showcase event.

Over the summer, we tried out showcase travel ball with the Mustangs, the travel was hard on everyone, and we didn't see any advantage to Lance for participating.   Lance took the good he could out of it, he loved the boys he played with and had fun when he could.  One incident that stood out was when he was playing catcher and some of the parents were taking the game way too seriously and complaining.  The umpire asked him "Are they going to be like this all game?", Lance quickly responded "They're usually worse.", to which he received a belly laugh by the umpire, saving his team from having the umpire annoyed with them the rest of the game.

In the fall, we decided to form our own travel ball team "The Capital City Misfits".  The team had a heavy emphasis on training and development (no showcase), players were expected to work-out and do hitting practice at KZone 2-3 times a week, then we had team practice on Saturday and Scrimmage on Sunday.  We started a little late in the season forming the team, which added to the difficulty but life is about learning.
Today we finished the season with a great scrimmage against a much older/seasoned, yet gracious team, The Toros.  We were really thankful for the kids to have the opportunity to play them in such an informal developmental setting.

Most of the Misfits, will continue to work out over the winter at KZone.  Lance really enjoys the comradery and exposure to the pros at KZone.  Over the spring, Lance will play for a new 'school" team, New Life Storm, that Chris is helping coach.  Then we hope to set up the Misfits to play 2022 tournament travel ball over the summer. D.V.

Mighty Baseball

Titus took the Spring off from baseball to focus on Taekwondo and swimming.  Over the summer a buddy from TKD invited him to join his travel ball team, the Destroyers. 

It was a great group of kids and a nice introduction to travel ball, as they spent a month practicing and then only played in two tournaments.  In addition, to spending a great deal of time catching, he learned to pitch and was an awesome utility player all over the field.  This age is so much fun to watch, the games are active and fun; Chris added to the fun, enjoying light hearted banter with the umpires over Titus' attempt to frame pitches, to which the umpire laughed and gave Chris the thumbs up.

Over the fall we tried out Cary Rec Ball.  Titus was the star of the team, pulling off double plays and doing his own interpretation of Adrian Beltre, fingering a kid home with a big smile on his face when playing catcher.  Not sure what's next but we have the winter to talk it over.

July Odds and Ends

We started out the new school year with lots of creative activities.

First we went with friends to Yates Mill Pond to take a class on animal identification.  They did big and small activities ie. they made a mold and learned to identify tracks and they collected specimens from the pond they brought back the classroom to identify.  Educational and fun.

They also experimented in many ways at home; such as this egg experiment with daddy. 

Jared spent a week in July at a "Drama and Music Camp" with his friend Nathan.  The final day they put on a show called XXXXX a comical musical twist on biblical truths.

At the end of the month he played his first round of what I call "Archery Golf", known to the rest of the world as "Field Archery".  The targets were literally all over and we even had some science fun along the way.

Titus finished out the month with a week long Writing Camp at Peace.  I wasn't sure what he would think about it but it turned out he had a great time and wrote some very interesting pieces.  He finished out the week with a behind the scenes tour of the library and lunch at old diner in downtown Cary.

Music in the Air

A friend recently told me a story that happened a while back when she was taking Jared somewhere in the car.  They had on the local christian radio station, when Jared pipes up "We don't listen to this type of music, we only listen to the classical station."  I must admit that aside from select Christmas music I don't really listen to anything else.  Chris has made them acquainted with a few other artists but in the home or car classical is really all.

Therefore, it should be no surprise that we got season tickets to the symphony this year.  We got them with some friends, so it was a huge savings, which always improves the experience for me.

The first show in January, was rescheduled for the "Celtic Celebration" in March, specifically March 17th Lance's birthday.  As it worked out our friends were in the St. Patrick's Day parade downtown so they just hung out and met us at the symphony when it was done.  The music and dancing were superb.  This was the impetus for Amber starting Irish Dance classes a few months later when a six week trial became available.

The last show of the season was Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird" one of our favorite symphony's with the bonus of the incorporation of an amazing theatrical human size puppet dance with a narrator explaining the story.

Finally,  the most anticipated music event of the year, the children's piano recital. 

Amber started things out playing:  Yankee Doodle & Eternally Music by Nancy Faber.  She started out with her hand in the wrong position but still played it well, then her teacher kindly moved her hands and she played it in the traditional key well again.  Impressive recovery for one so young.

Titus then performed:  Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree By Brown and Tobias (Titus loves Jazz), followed by Beethoven's Ode to Joy

Jared played Sonatina in G by Beethoven beautifully, then moved over on the bench and Lance joined him in a duet of John Williams Cantina Band, a very peppy and quick moving tune.

Lance finished up the night with, according to the program "Theme by John Williams".  Miss Kathy wanted everyone to be surprised in the first few notes of.....Jaws!  You could hear the intake of breath around the room as everyone recognized the tune.  Chris joked about renting a shark costume and wandering through the crowd. To watch the whole thing (15 min) click this link.

The final act of the night was a young man singing "Sweet Caroline", a catchy tune we all sang on the way home.  What a wonderful night!  It is such a joy to see each of our children grow in their musical talents each year.

Fish Brain

Lance refused to swim on swim team (as usual) but he did find a way to utilize his swim talent;  he became a swim instructor.  At the end of May he was given the opportunity to work at Goldfish Swim School and he took it.  He works 6-8 hours during the school year. 
With his new independent income, he has pursued well.....all things fish.  Fishing Poles, fishing gear and tanks for fish.

On Independence Day he "saved" his first 8 fish form the store and brought them home to a long awaited fish tank he bought with his new found independence. 

Fish TV is great!

Dragons in the Water

Back in January, Titus started swimming at new indoor swim school called Goldfish.  It was located conveniently next to Amber's Ballet School so he was able to do swim lessons while she did ballet (very efficient use of our time).  

He quickly moved from just lessons to lessons and swim team.  At their quarterly time trials he did exceptionally well. Not to be left out Amber started lessons as well to prepare her for summer swim.

They both started summer swim team at our community pool in May.  The summer swim season goes from late may to late July.  It is a compact time with 6 Tuesday night tournaments (or more if you include rain reschedules).  Titus' time at Goldfish gave him a strong base to begin the season.  He was frequently the youngest competitor in his heats yet he managed quite a few wins.  Amber very much enjoyed swimming on the team and socializing with her young friends.  Jared was a big help this year shouldering some of the volunteer responsibilities running the concession stand.

Spreading Good Cheer!

The children had the privilege of spreading good cheer, by entertaining the residents of two different retirement homes this past week.

On Saturday, they played piano for residents at a assisted care facility in North Raleigh arranged by their piano teacher.  The ladies at the home were enamored with Ambers dancing and dress; as much as her playing.  Her brothers played beautifully and even played an encore, to fill the gap till other students arrived.

On Wednesday, we met a large group of homeschoolers to play, sing and do crafts with the residents of another facility.  There were about 30 kids performing: voice, piano, violin, and harp. 

After the official performances, the children passed out cookies and drink, then invited the residents to do a craft.  Jared and Titus were great ambassadors in this area.  The two ladies they worked with voiced their appreciation by wishing they could come back every week. 

To keep the festive spirit going, the "Rat Pack" continued to play and sing.

These two concerts were a wonderful way to share the spirit of the season for us all.

Click this link to listen to recordings of all the kids playing their Christmas piano tunes:
Music Folder 

Ballet and Visitors

We took off running after we returned from Park City.  After our field trip to the Tiger Rescue on Monday, two of our kids friends came to stay with us for a few days (turn about is fun play in this case).  

Shortly after they arrived on Tuesday, we went to Amber's mid-year ballet performance.  

She is definitely the most flexible, had the largest audience in our not so humble opinion, the most beautiful dancer there.  Her friend Mary Elizabeth enjoyed the show a lot.

The kids all kicked into having a ton of fun the next couple days and aside from a little extra cooking I actually got a break to catch up on life a bit, so it was a win win for everyone.  The boys played a lot of Airsoft and Memoir '44.  

The girls were just girls, something Amber doesn't get a lot of so it was truly wonderful for everyone.

Tiger Rescue

Chris took off the day after we got back from Park City and as it turned out I had a field trip planned for the day to the Carolina Tiger Rescue.

We went with a huge group of homeschoolers.  So big in fact that we had to split into two groups.  The lady in charge suggested splitting by families but I guess she's not use to big families, so we split more along the lines of friends.  As a result, all the adults had a few adopted children that day ;-)

Our tour guide was awesome,  we've been to the tour a few times before but each time I learn something new and interesting about the animals; such as the fact they are willing to take deer meat as a donation, I fact I'll pass onto our hunting friends.  Amber and Lily Grace took a lot of photos and Jared had a lot of good questions.  In Chris' group there weren't quite as many questions but a fun time was had none the less.  It's a wonderful facility and the weather was great for our visit.

Park City Get Away

Chris started a new job in September and in addition to him really liking the work, liking his co-workers, and working from home 100%....his company has an Annual Meeting/Christmas Party each year in Park City, UT where the employees and their spouses are all invited.  

Chris and I had never really been more than a few minute drive from the kids in 14 year.  We'd tabled all my grandiose plans for our 20th Anniversary last year, so this was an opportunity to amend that issue that we didn't want to miss.  Thanks to some wonderful friends we were able to make it work.

Leading up to our trip we had a lot to accomplish, like getting Amber to sleep in her own room, doing a thorough cleaning of the house to make our guest comfortable and stocking the cupboards with food. Check!

Then I had to find a formal dress, shoes, etc for the actual Christmas Party without spending much money.  Check!  

And still keep up with regular life, like attending friends Choir Concerts.

By Thursday night we thought we were all set.  I had created a shared checklist for Lance to make sure he didn't forget anything (All weekend I didn't have to nag, just checked to make sure everything was checked off). We had two days of breakfast casserole in the frig. Check! 

On Friday, morning I had a moment of dread before we left and had Chris measure our carry-on.  Sure enough it was too big for the new standards, so at 6:30am we quickly repacked our stuff in the kids swim team bag.  A minor snag, no big deal.

We left around 7:30am on Friday morning.  Ironically, RDU had me as TSA Pre-Check from our trip to Boston earlier this year, so I breezed through security and sat patiently while Chris went through the winding Disney lines.  At home the kids had a casserole to cook, and our neighbor kept watch, till our first set of friends came around 8:30 to hang out for the day.

Amber and Hannah even dressed alike.

Our flight to Detroit went well and we just had time to use the facilities and check-in with the kids before boarding our flight to Salt Lake City.  Carey was surviving and the kids were all getting along well and having fun with their friends. 

Chris barely fit in the second plane, his knees were touching the seat in front but we were both in good spirits, excited about our adventure.  We had fun screening movies, I kept starting movies and then giving up short way in, but at least now I could take them off my list for free.  Chris did better watching a movie he'd been curious about for a while.  Plane travel has changed a lot since our last flight together in July 2001.

Boys looking for snow with Nathan.

When we landed in UT our friends were trading places; one family leaving and another moving in.  This quote from my first friend helped me relax immensely:

"Have a great weekend! Your kids are awesome. That's all I thought about today was how cool they were.Jared taught Nathan how to play Dutch blitz and went slow on purpose without making Nathan feel bad. Lance made sure everyone ate and played with Luke and Titus when they were feeling like oddballs. Hannah and Amber played well all day. Titus was polite and helpful teaching everyone new games. I could go on but you are on vacation!" 

We easily found our rental car, I was feeling frisky so I talked our way into a free upgrade.  I'd never been to UT so I had no idea what to expect, the mountains were right there in front of us, seeming to surround the city in a arid landscape.  The drive to Park City took us straight up and through those mountains.  The resort was very nice and snow was on the ground.  

After checking in, we went looking for food.  The gentleman at check-in said the resort restaurants were quite good so we decided to walk down and explore.  He was right, we had a delicious and relaxing lunch/dinner.  We had a view of the ski lift and the mountains, its was a wonderful start to our vacation.  

After relaxing, and calling the kids to say goodnight (time change), we got dressed to go to the informal party at the owner's house.  What an absolutely gorgeous yet comfortable home.  I was jealous to hear they'd seen moose in the cul-du-sac last year, I was hoping for a repeat but no luck.  It was nice evening of getting to know his new co-workers for me and to a degree Chris also, since he'd only met two in person before this time. 

Saturday was the Annual Meeting for the employees.  I slept in a bit, laughed at the people actually in the pool below my window (heated or not its still too cold to swim outside for me), and wandered down to breakfast.  This was one of the highlights of the weekend.  I sat there and was pampered for 90 minutes.  Custom made omelets, incredible porridge (that I'm now making for us at home), assortment of fresh fruits (cantaloupe and blue berries go really well together) and people constantly checking to see what else I might need.  It was wonderful!  Making breakfast is a big deal every morning in my house, which is why I instituted pre-made casseroles for Sunday mornings.  I realized this trip, not making breakfast on vacation is what makes a vacation truly a vacation for me.  I also enjoyed talking with the staff and a couple of the other spouses that came to breakfast.  I found out from the staff that we could go hiking on the golf course near the resort, so when Chris' meeting was done we headed out.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect, the heat from the sun was so intense that I was fine in simply a sweater without a coat.  Poor Chris hadn't brought boots but was no less willing to embark on my proposed adventure (Thankfully, our room had a fireplace that dried them in 15 minutes).  We were the only ones out on the golf course, we saw lots of animal tracks and the snow got a bit deep at times which had us laughing, we were having a blast, the view was incredible and we even sent a snow message to the kids.

After our hike we wandered into the resorts second restaurant which had only opened that day for the season.  As a result, we were the only people having lunch in our little yurt and enjoyed time together; people watching and talking with our waiter.  

At home is was actually colder and snowing, the kids sent videos of the confused chickens and ran around a bit in hope of it sticking.

Then it was time to rest up and get ready for the big event.

Once again we said good night to the kids and headed out, a bit more dressed up than the night before.  We headed out a little early to check out the downtown area and peruse a couple of art galleries.  The evening was a complete success.  In the morning, we got up early enough to enjoy one more breakfast at the hotel and head out to the airport.  As a present, i had upgraded our seats during Chris' meeting to the exit aisle so he had some legroom, as we were taking a direct flight home.  Our final gift from the vacation was the beautiful view of the sun slowing rising over the mountains on our drive out.

We can't thank our friends enough for all they did to allow us to go and enjoy this special vacation together and we couldn't have been more proud of our kids; they didn't fight the whole time we were gone and obeyed out friends without question.  In fact I think they were having so much fun with their friends, that they barely missed us, they said they were laughing so much they strengthened their abs.  

Success!  We managed to get away, still be friends with both families that helped out and other than a little loss of sleep, everyone was really better off for the wear.  All the same it was good to be home.