Even beyond Spring Break and Baylor’s birthday, our crew had a hectic March.
It’s unbelievable that Briley is almost a month away from high school graduation. With her demanding track schedule and end-of-year social commitments, this month will pass quickly. She’s diligently pursuing her CNA certification through Blue Valley’s CAPS program. The first part of the semester involved classroom training, and now she’s gaining hands-on experience in the community. Before spring break, she spent two weeks at Village Shalom, followed by a week in the classroom before moving on to two weeks at Brookdale. Both locations are conveniently located near our house and offered her enriching experiences. She met fascinating individuals, including one of the iPhone’s developers, a rocket scientist, and many prominent figures from Kansas City’s past. She thoroughly enjoyed both locations, but Brookdale was particularly enjoyable due to its relaxed atmosphere.
In addition to her community engagement, Briley has been actively training and competing in track. She participated in her first meet a couple of weeks ago and ran the mile in an impressive 5:24, considering the challenging wind conditions. She believes she has the potential to run even faster in less windy conditions. That evening, she honored Autumn by participating in Relay for Life, despite feeling exhausted but determined to push through. Last night, she made history by running the two miles for the first time ever. She finished in 3rd place out of 19 runners, completing the race in 11:27. Given that it was her inaugural attempt, she’s excited to explore her future in track and field. Currently, she holds the top spot in her region and ranks 3rd in the state.
Baylor has been keeping himself occupied with track and flag football. In track, they’ve only had practice sessions, and their first meet is scheduled for next week. He’s been putting in a lot of effort, so we’re eagerly anticipating his performance. Interestingly, he doesn’t have a dedicated distance coach at the middle school, so he’s been training on his own. Briley has tried to provide him with some training plans, but I don’t believe he’s been following them diligently. One day, he’ll realize that his sister is quite knowledgeable about sports. Instead, he’s been relying on ChatGPT to generate training plans. On the other hand, his flag football team is currently undefeated, with a record of 2-0. He’s been making impressive plays, scoring two touchdowns and showcasing his skills on both sides of the field. Initially, he wasn’t keen on playing flag football, but the coach persisted, emphasizing that this is the team’s final opportunity. Eventually, he relented to the pressure and is glad he did.
Finley has been busy with soccer, wrapping up indoor and starting outdoor. They won their indoor league for like the 5th year in a row and have not missed a beat in their outdoor season, going 3-0. She loves the space outdoor gives her and has responded with a handful of goals so far. Finley's main passion right now is dance. She is busy getting ready for her recital next month and trying to talk Dad into letting her do competition dance next year at a studio her friends go to...she even wrote me a sweet little letter trying to convince me why she should get to do it. We'll see what happens, but something tells me I am not going to get out of this one. Finley did have one of the most entertaining birthday parties this weekend. Her friend Sophie decided out of the blue that she wanted to do paintball for her birthday...her parents have no idea where she got this idea. Her mom found a kid-friendly paintball place in the caves up by Worlds of Fun…let’s just say, there is no such thing as low-impact, kid-friendly paintball. Within 30 seconds, the birthday girl and another girl were hit in the legs and crying hysterically. The other girls were wide-eyed and a wave of surrenders ended the first round very quickly. After one round, about 1/3 of the girls were done, and 2/3 by the end of the second round. While painful for the kids, it was very entertaining for the parents.
Atticus has been busy playing outside with his friends, playing video games with his friends, and playing soccer. His friends usually start the weekend morning playing video games with each other and then decide it would be more fun to play outside with each other. The routine seems to be the same after school...I guess they all get timed out on the video games at the same time. Atticus' soccer team has had some bad luck to start the season. They are 0-2, having lost two heartbreakers. They did the same thing last year and then went on to win the rest of their games, so we are hoping for more of the same this year.
Originally I was going to do a guys ski trip this winter with some friends back home, but they ended up scheduling it for the weekend I was driving our crew back from Breckenridge, so it was not going to work. Instead I did the trip to Keystone with Jonathan in February. Well, while we were in Breckenridge I got a call from Jonathan that they had to move the trip out a week at the last minute and he wanted to see if I would want to go. Well, after initially saying no, I quickly changed my mind. Julie was nice enough to come down and watch the kids, so it was a go. We got back from Breckenridge Friday night, and the following Wednesday evening I flew to Denver to meet the Cleaver brothers and one of their friends. We had a 6 a.m. Epic shuttle the next morning that took us to Vail. We made it to Vail before first chair and were able to check out luggage at the hotel and change into our ski gear. We were on the mountain by 9:30 for a full day of skiing. It was a little warm the first day, but as the day went on, the snow softened up to a powder-like consistency for a couple of hours before getting a little slushy on the bottom half of the mountain. The next two days were perfect skiing, filled with some awesome runs and beers in the woods. It was a great group of guys because we were all around the same skill level so nobody was slowing the group down and nobody felt held back. It was an amazing trip and it was great to catch up with the Cleaver crew. We have already set a date for the end of February next year and I can't wait...all that’s left to do is choose a location.
Now it’s time to take a deep breath, because April and May are going to be absolutely crazy. At the end of it, we get to reward ourselves with an equally crazy, exhausting trip to Disney World the first week of June. I had to get up at 4:45 a.m. last Friday to secure our dining reservations. I have all of our days planned out and the kids are starting to get excited. Autumn wanted me to make sure Finley and Atticus got back there before they got too old, so I figured I better honor her wishes and knock it out...but first, we got to get through the next two months.
Let's Rock this CNA Thing
Relay for Life Crew
A lot Nervous
Fighting for her life
Mile Race
Starbucks run with Ella and Hayden
Two Mile Run
That Sky
Vail Back Legendary Back Bowls
Beer in the woods to end the day...hiding from ski patrol
Midday Beer Break
Not sure why David wanted our picture in front of this lift.
Snow Moving In.
Have to take some breaks on these runs.
That View
None of us were sure what this thing was or who brought it
Baylor Football
Finley and Atticus going 1v1...Dad was ref
Finley's letter convincing me to let her do competition dance...how can you say no to this??
Anybody who has slept with Finley knows she is a spinner at night...always love seeing where she is on the bed in the morning.
