Piano Recital

Man... another 80/110...

What I mean by that is no matter what it is... soccer, swimming, piano, whatever... he practices at 80%, but when it's time for the competition, test or performance he goes 110%.

Perfection on the keyboard... it was pretty cool!

Student of the Week

First-ever haircut!

The proverbial "before" picture...

gettin' it all ready...

snip, snip...

11 inches going to Locks of Love.

Bored brother playin' with the ole Gameboy and suckin' on a slurpee ;-)

School Awards

I wasn't able to stay for the entire awards ceremony so this is the only picture I have... but both kids got the usual awards... honor roll, athletics, citizenship, etc. This shot is of her award for having her artwork chosen to be displayed at city hall.

Because of our travels and their extracurricular activities the one award that neither of my kids will ever get is perfect attendance... I always joke that kids that get perfect attendance don't have a life ;-)

Field Day 2006

Chillin' with Neal, one of his baseball teammates.

Ready... set... 

The quickest out of the blocks! 

Hanging on to that lead... 

"OK listen... you're going first... and I want you to..."

"Oh come on guys... it's really simple..."

Group hug ;-) 

In full flight... 

No one even close... 

And for the fifth year in a row she remains the fastest boy or girl at her school!

The X-Bar Race

The dawn of a beautiful day... and the view from our tent.

And the sky the night before... absolutely amazing.

Four hours from any substantial metropolitan area makes for little to no light pollution, so you could see virtually every star. The kids spent forever identifying every constellation they knew.

Breakfast OF the champions... FOR the champions... WITH the champions... 

Taking a little nap while warming up for the race... I'm KIDDING... she blinked.

And leave it to the desert to be over 100 degrees Saturday afternoon and then just over 60 degrees in the morning! 

Hammering it hard to the single track... she was a little anxious before the start because she wasn't able to pre-ride what is a very technical and rocky course. 

A little support from a spectator! 

The group strung out on their way to the single track. 

Did I mention the course was ROCKY?!

When I was pre-riding with the kids all I could think about was not crashing... thinking: "elbows... hips... knees... rocks... pain... must not fall..." I didn't... well I crashed three times... just never fell ;-)

A well-earned second place finish today... with her friend and competitor April.

And when I say the girls she competes against are a foot taller than she is, I don't mean figuratively...

I mean they're a FOOT TALLER :-)

Another well-earned second place today!