Kickoff Football Season

Matt is a football fanatic and has been for several years now. He will watch whatever football game is on...College, NFL, Arena League, Canadian....you get the picture. So this year he decided to actually play football. He has been working his butt off practicing and conditioning with his team for the last 5 weeks. He plays for the Bingham Midget (that's what they call the 12-year old league - midgets) Bronze Team.

Yesterday they had their first game - a practice game against Copper Hills. Above they are warming up before the game. Matt (#87) plays tight end and wide receiver on offense. On defense he plays corner back, linebacker, and defensive end. He also kicks off and returns kickoffs.

Here he is practicing catching kicks. On the first play of the game, Matt recieved the kickoff and ran it all the way to midfield where he got tackled hard right in front of Jen. She got a little emotional about that, but luckily Matt jumped right up.

Here Matt helps the center work on his long snaps. His team doesn't have a ton of really big guys, but they are athletic and fast so when we saw the Copper Hills team they were about to play yeterday, we were a bit worried because they had some really big kids on the team.

But once the game started it was a ton of fun. Matt's team was awesome on defense and didn't allow the other team to move the ball much. They did not allow them to score at all.

Here Matt is chasing down the Copper Hills QB. That kid was running for his life the whole day. Matt's team won the game 36-0. The offense was awesome moving the ball down the field pretty much at will. Matt caught two passes and ran them both in for touchdowns. I think he is having a really good time with this.

At the Bingham complex there are 6 fields and 6 games going on all the time. Needless to say it is crazy there with all the people. Parking is a nightmare. This little team form Kearns was warming up right next to Matt's team and I couldn't resist snapping a picture. I guess I really am a Cougar at heart.

Back To Soccer

Matt joined a competitive soccer team this spring. He played recreation soccer for several years, but didn't play last fall and missed it. His friend, Cody, asked him to join his comp soccer team this spring. We get to go to further away places with this league other than just around South Jordan, Herriman, and Riverton.

Last night he had a game in Tooele. We took the whole family on a Friday night family night. The game was at 7:oo so the second half was under the lights. We were bracing ourselves for the cold, but the weather was quite pleasant.

The game in Tooele ended in a blow out with Matt's team (USA) clobbering Tooele 6-1. In the shot above you can see Nicky running up the hill behind Matt; and Jen and Taylor watching the action off to the left.

Today the game was in Park City. They have artificial turf on the field so it was cool like playing at Rice-Eccles Stadium. However, it makes the ball roll very fast - (good thing Matt is fast like a Gazelle - NL).

The weather was a bit chilly in Park City - mostly beacuse of the wind. Jen and Taylor watched from the car (the parking lot has a great view of the field). Matt's team beat Park City 2-0. After the game we went to Granny's in Heber only to find that they don't open until May 8th! So we did the only thing we could do - went and bought a BB gun and forced granny to open the store and make us some shakes and burgers (and ride the rides, too). Just kidding - we went to plan B - the Dairy Keen in Heber with the cool train in the ceiling. They have pretty good shakes there, too.

Toothy Times

It has been obvious for quite a while that Matt would need a bit of orthodontic work done. Well, that time has finally arrived. A couple months ago the orthodontist put a "spreader" in the roof of his mouth which we had to crank one notch every night. This spread out his top teeth so that they would have some room to work with. About three weeks ago he was done with the cranking and the braces went on the top teeth last week:


As for Becca, her teeth have some challenges as well. She is going to do a "phase 1" and also had to have the spreader put in her mouth to create room. We have been cranking it every night for the last few weeks and Monday when she went to in for a check, the orthodontist said, "Uh, yeah, we're done." She now has a gap between her front teeth that David Letterman, Michael Strahan, and Spongebob would be proud of:

Her braces will go on in a couple of weeks. She will wear them for a while and get them off until she is older when they will go back on again (I guess that will be "phase 2"). All this is supposed to correct her underbite (and make her teeth straight and pretty, of course).

Matt's First Swim Meet

Matt joined a swim team a couple of weeks ago and Saturday he had his first swim meet. He did pretty good for his first meet, just figuring out what was going on and getting a feel for it.

He swam two events - backstroke and freestyle. Here he is getting ready to start the backstroke race. Look at that awesome form. Michael Phelps, be very afraid.

Yes, he realizes the goggles go on his eyes, not his cheeks. In the freestyle event, he had a little "goggle malfunction" - when he dove in off the platform, his goggles came off - he couldn't stop and put them back on. Just a bug that needs to be worked out and chalked up to experience.

Scout Camp at Bear Lake

The first week of July, Matt went to Scout Camp at Camp Hunt on the west side of Bear Lake. Since Matt is not 12 yet, I got to tag along as well.

Here is Matt with his friends Kason and Harrison working on the Environmental Science merit badge. They had to do observations in two different areas on three separate days. This is a nice little spot right by the beach.

One morning they did what is called the "Polar Bear". They went to a spot where a mountain stream connects into the lake. Then, they have to say the Scout Oath, Law, Slogan, and Motto while up to their chins in the 45 degree water. When they are done they dunk their heads under the water.

Part of the Woodcarving merit badge requires a "Totin' Chip" which shows you can safley handle an axe. Woodcarving is one of 7 merit badges Matt earned at camp. The others were Indian Lore, Basketry, Leatherwork, Geology, Environmental Science, and Pioneering.

For Pioneering, he had to learn some lashings and build a tower by lashing some dowel sticks together with string.

Here are the tower and baskets he built for the merit badges. It was a fun week full of activities. I liked it, too because I got to play golf every day while the scouts were at merit badge classes!!! (Jen teases me that I went to Golf camp.)

Hoop it Up

We finally got around to putting in our baskeball hoop this last week. This was the part Matt has been waiting for since we moved here six years ago.

Digging the hole for the concrete and the pole to go in was easy enough. Maybe we should have just left the hole there. It was pretty fun to play in.

Then after mixing seven 80 pound bags of concrete in wheelbarrows and dumping it into the hole, we had to get the pole level while the concrete was still wet. Not too hard of a task, except the pole wanted to lean south and west.

The tough part was putting it together. After I discovered one of the main brackets was the wrong part, I had to make a little road trip to Clearfield to get the right piece. Don't try and make it from Sandy to Clearfield and back on your lunch hour. It takes two hours with the nasty Davis County traffic - even in the middle of the day. It finally went together after a trip to Home Depot and a lot of interpreting very vague instructions.

We got it up and running this morning. Matt had been trying to make this 45 foot shot from the front of the house. As soon as I pulled out the camcorder to record (thinking I would be there all day waiting for him to make one) he nailed the first one!

Piano Recital

Taylor and Matt have been in piano lessons for several years now. This last week they played in a recital and both did very well. We are very proud of them for putting in the time and effort. Sometimes it is difficult to get them to practice, but it sure pays off come recital time. I think we are going to try and get Becca in lessons in the fall.

Matt played "Best Friends" by Robert Vandall and "The Final Stretch" by Randall Hartsell.

Taylor played "Prelude No. 3" by Carolyn Miller and "Afternoon at Cooper's Rock" by Robert Vandall.

Father & Son Outing

Friday night Matt, Nicky and I went on a Father and Son Outing with our ward to the Burraston Ponds near Mona, Utah. It was a great time - we cooked tin foil dinners, played games, skipped rocks in the ponds, and roasted marshmallows on the campfire. Of course there was the typical things that happen at this sort of event - like the kid yelling at the top of his lungs until 1:00 am and the birds that start chirping at about 4:30. Plus the air mattress loses just enough air that your back and butt are dragging on the ground all night. Good times.

Matt teaches Nicky the fine art of dragging a marshallow in the dirt before roasting it. Now that's the best kind of seasoning.

Nicky was the most excited to sleep in the tent. If you click on the picture to see the larger version you can see the punch mustache he sported the entire camp.

After the campout was over, we met up with Grandpa Anderson on his land near Fountain Green, Utah to ride the 4-wheeler and shoot guns!! We invited him to sleep over with us at the Father & Son Outing, but for some crazy reason he thought he wouldn't get much sleep. Boy, was he right.

Matt takes careful aim and it pays off...

He pretty much destroyed this Bud Light can with the .22 rifle. We had a great time!!

2222

Matt got a pogo stick for Christmas a couple years ago. I remember that Christmas day him telling me "Dad this is kinda hard." Then he got excited when he could do 3, then 5, and then 8 bounces without falling off. A day or two later he was bouncing around on it like he was born with it attached to him. At one point he decided he was going to count to 1000 bounces and that was his record. Well, Tuesday he decided to shatter his record and got up to 2222. He could have gone longer, but he decided to stop on a number he could easily remember. Maybe his name will be here someday!!

Mix of Pix

I have been experimenting with my new camera and having fun making banners for the top of this page by cropping some of the photos from our files. It is interesting what you can come up with by taking just a strip (about 750 x 150 pixels) of a photo. I will put some new ones up there periodically. If I have ever taken a picture of you, don't be surprised if your face appears up there. I have been taking a photography class so hopefully the quality (both technical and artistic) will improve over time. Here are a few recent pics of the kids:

The sure signs of Spring...

About February every year, Matt claims it is "warming up" and begins begging for a buzz. Around May we finally give in and let him get one. The blossoms are from the flowering pear tree in our back yard.