Michael's Trip

The day after school got out Michael hopped on a plane to Utah to go to BYU's basketball camp.  His flight was delayed quite a bit and he was picked up by an incredibly nice friend at 1:30 am.  Monday morning Michael and his friend Robbie, who lived in Houston a few years ago, checked into the dorms at BYU, and were sorted into their different teams.  Michael also met up with another former Houston friend Tyler who was at the camp and they were able to hang out during mealtime. It was pretty cool that they were all there the same week of camp. 

Michael's assignment team for the week was Arizona from the PAC-10.  He was the rock of his team, and was nominated to the AllStar team at the end of the week.  When Michael wasn't doing drills and playing games, he spent all his free time playing pick-up games...shocking I know. 


The camp was run by the coaching staff and former players of BYU.  Coach Rose talked to them periodically and even Jimmer showed up one day between NBA training camps and spoke with them.  Michael played hard, had a blast and was really sore by the end of the week.

After camp ended, Michael went to stay a few days at my brother Scott's house. The first thing they did was go and play basketball at the church with a bunch of guys until midnight. Michael was in heaven. My sister and her family also came up for the week-end, so Michael had fun bonding with his younger cousins. They loved tackling him and having him pull them around.



Ronnie, Michael and Isaac heading to the movies



Michael, Isaac and Scott

Final Four

We were just a little bit excited to have the NCAA Final Four come to Houston last week-end.  Don & Michael went to the open practices of the Final Four teams Friday afternoon at Reliant & stayed for the Reeses College Allstar Game afterwards. 

Jake blinding Michael coming home from the game

Saturday Don was lucky enough to go to the Final Four games as a guest of a friend of his from law school.  They had some sweet club level seats & had a fantastic time  watching the double header.

Sunday morning Don & Michael went to an early morning meeting where BYU's head basketball coach, Dave Rose spoke.  But the real excitment came when this fellow stood up to speak....

It was a great way to start a morning!

After BYU was eliminated, we still updated our wall bracket and most of us were pulling for the Butler Bulldogs.  Jake had to go to bed way before the championship game was over, but the first thing he checked in the morning was the bracket to see who had won.  It was fun to have everybody get in on the action, plus learn about a few new schools and their mascots in the process! 



March Madness

Last week we did a little home improvement project on our wall in the living room...

It has been fun to update and see Jake pick his teams based on the mascots...he really likes those Butler Bulldogs!  Even though BYU didn't beat the Gators, we had fun watching the game.

It is a great week to live in Houston if you are a basketball fan.  There are all sorts of Final Four activities going on.  Plus BYU's head coach is headed our way and is scheduled to give a fireside Sunday morning. 

We had a fun time cheering on BYU and Jimmer in basketball this year.  Thanks to all our cool grandparents who made it possible for us to see him play in person in Dallas and who have upgraded our BYU clothing to include some awesome Jimmer t-shirts!  It's been a great season to be a BYU Cougar!

JIMMER TIME!

We had a blast watching BYU beat TCU. The sold out crowd was 3/4 BYU fans, which made it even more fun. Michael went early and watched the teams warm up. 

Michael watching warm-up

BYU Warm-up

Jake & Anna enjoying the snacks

Tip Off

Part of the Gang

Grandma & Grandpa

The kids made signs to hold up at the game.

Jake and his sign

The girls and their sign

Alex and Trevor with their sign

Jean and Cynthia

Even Luke got into the action, dancing, cheering and clapping his hands.  He loved sitting next to Grandmommie and Anna and making silly faces.

Anna, Luke and Grandma having fun

After the game we were able to go hear BYU's head coach, Dave Rose and 2 of the freshman players, Kyle Collinsworth and Logan Magnusson speak for a couple of minutes.

Head Coach Dave Rose

Collinsworth announced his mission call to Russia, which got as loud of a cheer as the players did.

Kyle Collinsworth

Michael and Ashlynn

As Magnusson was leaving, he gave Jake a high five.

Jake showing his lucky hand

After we left the field house, we stopped at the bus and waited for the team to leave for the airport, giving one more cheer for our mighty Cougars!

Fans waiting at the bus

Jimmer heading to the bus

It was great having all 17 of us together cheering on the Cougars to another win!

17 Awesome BYU Fans

Jean, Don, Luke

LeeAnna and Ben

The womenfolk

Ben, Grandma and Bob

Wrapping Up the Summer

Just a few random things from August...

We dogsat our friends cute dog for 10 days. Luke was petrified of Lexie the first day but slowly warmed up to her. By the last few days, he would run up to her and say "Hi" and then pant to her in baby/dog language. It was pretty funny. And he loved grabbing her dishes any chance he got...thank goodness they were usually empty when he grabbed them!

Also this month, Michael wrapped up another season of basketball, this time playing with a AAU team that went to tournaments all around the Houston area. They played their last tournament & then had fun a week later at Schlitterbahn in Galveston.




The last week we've been busy getting ready to go back to school and doing a few last chance summer fun things like having a Harry Potter movie Marathon.

Oh, fun summer days - we will miss you!

March Madness

We love a good ballgame around here & have had a lot of fun with the NCAA tournament this year.




We loved cheering on our BYU Cougars to victory over the Florida Gator's, but unfortunately they couldn't topple K-State. But we still have my beloved Vols in the Elite Eight!!!

GO VOLS!!!!

Tis the Season...

For crazy school nights!

Last night we spent several hours at the middle school. First Michael had a basketball game, followed an hour later with his Holiday Band concert.

Luke and Jake dressed in their basketball warm-ups too.

Michael is first chair French Horn in the Symphonic Band. I took a video of them playing but can't get it to upload right now. But the music was great & people (okay, Jake) was dancing in the aisle during their rendition of Feliz Navidad. It was a fun, festive night.

Playing Catch-Up

Where to start...

Well, a year ago Michael took the SAT's through Duke University and we got his scores in January. He scored 1040 and a 500 on the writing portion. While those scores are good enough to get into many colleges, we are proud to say Michael decided to stay in school and is doing great in the 8th grade :)

But why blog about this now you might ask? Apparently Michael did so great as a 12 year old that he got this fancy State level medal in the mail this fall. Being the modest boy he is, Michael didn't want a picture with the medal, so here it is.




Michael has also been busy this fall playing on the 8th grade basketball team. He is working hard and keeps getting taller, passing me up this summer. Here's a picture of him heading out to a tournament this week-end.

Trevor has wrapped up another season in soccer and did outstanding. He played goalie a lot this season and had the most saves for the team. He plays hard and loves the competition.

One of Hayley's favorite things is gymnastics. You could say it makes her flip out!



Jake is always on the run, playing games and keeping us laughing. He helped unpack boxes at his grandparents new house and found all the fun hiding places to show the rest of the kids on Thanksgiving. He sure keeps things lively around here!


We can't have a post without a picture of Luke! He is up to so much, he will get his own post, but here is a fun picture of him trying to crawl this week.