Teenage Dream

So Henry's a teenager.  I know conventional wisdom says we are supposed to dread the teenage years and he's been an official teenager for less than a day but I have a good feeling about teenage Henry.  He is really a good kid.  I know the next few years will bring a lot of changes to his life but I'm not worried about it now.  He is, generally speaking, a kind and responsible young man who doesn't seem to be on the road to rebellion.  At least not yet.

To celebrate I took Henry and a few of his friends to the Logan Aquatic Center today.  That is what is so great about a summer birthday - the weather is typically perfect for outdoor activities like swimming.  We spent the afternoon at the pool with pizza and snow cones.  He picked out an ice cream cake for tonight.  Easy-peasy.

His gift from us was a phone.  Not just an old phone that he can use as a glorified iPod.  A real, activated phone.  With his own number.  Jay was surprisingly resistant to the idea but eventually gave in.  There are lots of ground rules that he has to follow and heaven help him if he gets it taken away for breaking his school's cell phone policy.  He seems happy, though.

The birthday quote of the day goes to Tessa:  "Now that you are 13, Henry, I hope you don't turn into a punk."

Amen, sister.

Happy Birthday, Henry.  We love you!

Undefeated

William's Little League team played in the Cache Valley North Division Championship game last night.  They were undefeated leading into the game and William was nervous.  Heading into last season's playoffs they were undefeated as well and lost in the playoffs.  This year, they made it to the big game.  It was played in North Logan and the Hyde Park Rays played the Smithfield Reds.  It was a good game but the Rays prevailed, making them the champions!

The game made the local paper - here is a link:

http://news.hjnews.com/allaccess/hyde-park-rays-go-undefeated/article_543be518-13bf-11e4-93a1-0019bb2963f4.html

William had a good game.  He made it on base twice (he was hit by a pitch and walked) and stole home both times.  On his last at bat he hit a line drive that the first baseman jumped up to catch in a nice play.  He made two nice defensive plays as well - he chased a ball out from center field and held the runner at 2nd base with a nice throw to the shortstop and while he was playing shortstop he fielded a ground ball and threw the runner out at 2nd base.  

William loves playing baseball.  He really improved his hitting this year and was comfortable at several different defensive positions.  His coaches really worked hard with the kids and they all improved over the course of the year.  

Congratulations to the Hyde Park Rays!  

Safety First

I hate fireworks.  I don't think it makes me a bad person.  I just don't like them.  My friend Lara said that, to her, you might as well light a $20 bill on fire and watch it burn in the middle of the road.  I knew there was a reason we were friends.

Once a year, however, I cave and we do fireworks.  I make Jay buy them because I just can't.  We join our neighbors in the center of the cul-de-sac for 30 minutes of loud, smoky fireworks.  We have our system down and use our wheelbarrow to clean up the mess and it's all over and everyone is in bed by 10:30.

On July 5th, we awoke to this:

See that yellow stick with the charred ends?  It's our push broom!  Apparently something was still actively burning when Jay shoveled it into the wheelbarrow and caught our broom, the remaining fireworks and possibly the wheelbarrow on fire.  We didn't notice a thing until the next morning.  Thank heavens it wasn't windy - I keep picturing a roaring fire out in our front yard that very easily could have turned into a grass/house fire.

Next year, everything gets doused with water, if we even do fireworks at all.  Fireworks and me - we're not friends.  After his I don't think we ever will be.