Chase's "Triathlon Challenge" Gold Medal

Chase has been working hard during the school year to earning his "Triathlon Challenge."  First he earned his Bronze medal, then his Silver medal.  The last week of school he completed the requirements for the gold and was awarded it during the final assembly.  He had to read 30 books, run 12 miles and then complete 6 hours of service.  The running part was easy because of all the running in soccer and the running club at school.  For his service projects, he helped clean Kaye's cabin several times and then plant flowers for his grandma.  He had to read books from different categories and books that were on the fourth grade reading list.  I've been so impressed with how motivated Chase was.  He was always reading a book and looking for the next one to read.  I'm so proud of the effort he's put in to winning this medal.  Great job Chase!!!!

Happy Bridger!

Bridger drew individual little pictures of each family member.  He colored them according to the school they like.  So Bridger and Matt are in red for the U and Chase is blue for the Y.  It made me laugh that he colored me half red and half blue because "I like both."  I love my green eyes and brown hair.  I kept the pictures on the fridge for over a month because they made me smile every time I looked at them.  He loves to color.

Bridger brought down his "monkey family."  He set them up on the couch and then asked me if I would take a picture of him with his monkey family.  I still LOVES his monkeys.  It cracked me up.  

On May 23, Bridger got to celebrate his birthday at school because he has a summer birthday.  He brought chocolate chip cookies because they are one of his favorite treats.  He felt very special at school.

I love this picture of Bridger playing in the bathtub.  He is so full of mischief and happiness!!!!  One day after school he wanted to get in his swimming suit and play in the bathtub.  It's the little things in life that make one happy! Sophie kept dropping her ball in the tub to try to get Bridger to play with her. You can see Sophie's ball in the top left of the tub.

 Bridger will say to me all the time "Mom! Take my picture."  It's like he wants to capture the moment and remember it forever.  We were waiting outside at a restaurant and he ran up this little hill and stood on a big pipe.  He thought he was king of the mountain.  Then the other day, it was almost 100 degrees and he comes downstairs in my fuzzy purple socks.  He said that his feet were cold.  He also had his earphones in because he was jamming out to Imagine Dragons.  They are his favorite band right now to listen to.  I thought he looked so cute, my little hip hop gangster.

 Shan told me that a little shop was selling costumes for really cheap on a corner in town.  I told her I didn't need any princess costumes but she told me they had boy costumes.  We hit the jack pot!  Bridger was SO excited about these super hero costumes.  He talked me into getting four of them.  Luckily they were really cheap.  He loves the red gloves.  They give him extra "power."  He has been living in his new costumes.

Mom and Dad came down and stayed for a few days in April.  Dad planted a few flowers for me.  I happened to walk past the front door and I saw Bridger out helping Grandpa.  I stayed at the window for several minutes as I watched them interact.  It was such a sweet moment!!!  Dad let Bridger use the shovel to dig some holes for him.

Spring Soccer for Bridger - Go Red Rockets!

Bridger had another great season playing with the Red rockets.  It was the same team that he was on in the fall.  Coach Ryan was awesome with the kids!!!  In the picture there is Sam, Coach Ryan, Brody, Ben, and ?, and David, Bridger and Preston in the front row.  They have had so much fun playing together.  Melissa, the coach's wife, ordered medals for everyone and made soccer cookies for the last game.  They are the nicest people.  Bridger has really improved his dribbling skills.  He makes at least one goal a game and sometimes a lot more.  They won all their games except the last one and they were a tough team.  He has loved playing soccer especially with his best friend, Brody, on the team.  They would walk to practice together.  It was very cute.  They think they are so grown up.  

Coach Ryan put so much time into our team.  They would have practices once a week, usually on Wednesdays.  He was always so positive with the kids.  He did a great job of teaching them the foundations of soccer while making it fun.  We were lucky to have our grandparents come to their games.  They were so sweet to support the boys and get up early so they would make it to their  Saturday games.  

The Joys of Mowing the Lawn!

So last summer Chase asked if he could mow the lawn.  We were worried that he was still a little small so we told him that next summer he could mow the lawn.  Early this spring, Chase gave us a list of his friends that mow their lawns.  We agreed that he could start mowing the lawn once a week.  All that excitement only lasted one mow job because by the end of it, Chase came inside and said "that was REALLY hard!!!"  So he hasn't been as excited to mow the lawn every week but he's still done it.  It's been such a huge help to Matt to have it mowed.  Chase is doing a great job learning how to mow the lawn.  Our lawn mower isn't the easiest to maneuver.  He's such a hard worker!!!!

Spring Soccer for Chase

Chase has had a great spring soccer season with the Rangers.  Coach Brian took over the team and has been great with the boys.  Soccer has been all consuming for Chase. Between the academy team and the competition team, Chase has soccer practices and or games 5-6 nights during the week.  It definitely keeps him busy.  When he plays on the competition team, he plays defense.  He has developed into a great defensive player!  Coach Brian has been very complimentary about Chase and said that he is a key player for the team.  

A few weeks into the season, Chase was complaining that his left knee was really bothering him.  Halfway through the games, he would be limping.  I could tell something was wrong because Chase is very tough.  His knee swelled up and was very painful for him.  We had a neighbor who is a physical therapist come over and look at it.  He diagnosed it as patellar tendonitis.  Chase had to take a break from soccer for a couple of weeks to help the swelling go down.  Then for the rest of the season he had to wear a brace just below his knee to help support the tendon.  Luckily by the end of the season, it was doing much better and he was able to play a lot of soccer.

 

Chase has been with Rangers for four years and the competitive team for three years.  It has been wonderful to watch him come out of his shell and develop his soccer skills.  He's a fast player!  He's made some wonderful friends on this team.  At the end of the season, Chase told us that he didn't want to do competitive soccer (AAA) anymore.  We were very shocked at first but then we accepted his decision.  An answer to our prayers came when Raeder asked Chase if he would try out for his AA team.  The coach came up after tryouts and said that they would love to have Chase on their team.  Chase was very excited about it because it will not be the pressure.  They take a break during the summer and start back up in mid August.  He will only have soccer (practices and games) three nights a week.  That makes him smile.  We were sad to leave the Rangers but as the drama played out, the team ended up dissolving so it was a huge blessing that Chase found this new team.  

Back row:  Cooper, Chase, Soren, Nicko, Sam, Eli, Tanner, Stockton, and Jackson. Front row:  Reed, and Zack.  They've been such a fun group of boys.  We've had a lot of great memories with them!

Crazy Hair!

 At the beginning of May, the school did a "crazy" hair day.  Bridger wanted to have a "faux hawk."  It took a lot of goo to get his hair to stand up.  I told Chase about this silly red wig that we had in the costume box.  When I brought it upstairs, Chase started to laugh and said "I want to wear that!!!"  They both looked very sill for "crazy" hair day.

 Chase got his first buzz the summer after he graduated from kindergarten.  The buzzes started off the first week of summer, then it went the last day of school, then the last week.  Well, the boys talked me into doing their buzzes a couple of weeks before school ended.  Bridger wanted a buzz last year but I told him he had to wait until he was in kindergarten so he's been very excited to get his first buzz.  The pictures above are their "before" the buzz pictures.

 Chase has never grown his hair out this long.  So it was really weird to cut off all of his hair.  I've learned from past buzzes that i cut it too short.  Then Chase looks like he's a sick little boy because you can't see any hair because it's so short.  So this year I left it on a one and it turned out so much better!!!  The boys wanted it a little shorter but I said it was short enough and still counted as a buzz.  They just don't look sick now.  Here's the "after" picture.  It will be nice and cool for them for the summer.  I remember how Brandon would get a buzz every summer.  It makes it really easy for me to do their hair.  All we have to worry about now is sunblock.

Chase's Academy Championship Game

Chase's academy team started off really rough.  They lost their first game 11-1.  It was horrible!  He was crying.  We were upset that the teams were so unfair.  We walked away considering leaving the academy.  But luckily Chase stuck it out and it was a good season.  He got lots of playing time and he was able to play a lot of offense.  He score lots of goals and really increased his confidence.  

We were very shocked when his team made it to the final game.  But it was very exciting when his team won the championship game 3-1.   They had huge smiles on their faces.  It was a very big win.  Like always, Rangers bring out the cool trophy and let everyone get pictures with it and touch it.  But then, they gave them medals for winning that they could keep!  Chase had a lot of fun with Coach Cade.  We went to JCW's afterwards to celebrate such an awesome game and a great season! Good job Chase!

 Front row:  Chase, Stockton, Sam, and Cooper.   Stockton, Cooper and Sam are on his competitive team and Cooper is an awesome goalie so it was a super tough game to score agains Cooper and Sam.  But Stockton played goalie too and helped us win the game.  It was a great game!!!!