New School Year 2016

     Well another school year is upon us, and another summer has gone too fast. Its always tough going back to work after being able to spend all day, everyday with my family. The boys are growing up so fast, which is good and bad at the same time. When they are younger, you can't wait till they grow up a little more, but now we just want them to slow down.

     Haydn is in grade 8 this year. This will be his last year at the Junior High. WOW. Next year he will be at the high school. I can't believe we had a boy that old now. He will be 14 in a few weeks and have his Learners License soon, Crazy! So as for now he is the top dog in the Junior High and then he will be back to being low man on the totem pole next year at the high school.


     Haydn just finished his grade 8 volleyball season. The boys had a good year, but seemed to always end up in 2nd place. We finished 2nd in Rally Point (in Calgary), 2nd in divisionals and 2nd in the final Zone tourney. The boys had a great season , but always seemed to just come up short in the championship games. The Zone tourney the boys played great, but just came up against a bigger and better GS Lakie team from Lethbridge.

     Haydn had a great season. He was one of my main setters and probably one of my most consistent servers (which is great at this age). He received two "Player of the Game" awards during the season this year. We had a lot of fun driving to and from tourneys with him and his friends. We even dropped into see Luc at the hospital in Calgary with Haydn and a couple buddies, which was a lot of fun for them.

 

 Haydn just finished basketball tryouts and he made the team. This will be the first main sport that I haven't coached or helped coach with Haydn. It will be good to just sit back and watch the game and not have to worry and coaching from the bench (I will just coach from the bleachers now haha)



     Brody is in Grade 5 this year at the elementary school. This will be his last year at the elementary school. Next year he will be up at the Junior High with me. I loose Haydn to the High School, but I will gain Brody at the Junior High.

     They changed the football age for Brody this year, so he couldn't play regular football he had to play flag football. He was a little bummed out, but it was good for him to play flag and work on his moves and running. He had some good runs for touch downs this year, but he still missed using his size to run people over hahaha.

     Brody is in an after school volleyball program right now, where they practice volleyball skills and learn the game a little more. He does pretty good and can serve a mean over-hand serve. He will also be starting an after school basketball program next month.

     Both the boys started a indoor baseball camp in Lethbridge that runs every Monday until March. It will be good for the boys just to keep up of their hitting and fielding skills during the off season. I am excited to see how it helps them once the actual baseball season starts. Both the boys loved the first day and can't wait to go back.

   

 















      Tyson started kindergarten this year. He was pretty surprised when he realized that he had to go to school everyday (even though its just for a half day). Tyson is a really bright kid who loves to draw, and is actually a great artist. Sometimes he will use words that we would never know he knew the meaning of or how to use them in a sentence. He sleeps just like his dad....not well. He takes a while to calm down at night enough to fall asleep hahaha Its always an adventure at bed time for him.






















Update on Luc
 
      Luc has come along way since his accident in June.There was a time where we didn't know whether he would live or die and then we didn't know if he was ever going to be able to move any part of his body. He is able to move a lot now. He still can't walk, but he is definitely on the road to learning to walk again. Each day and week he gets a little bit stronger and is able to do more and more each time we go up to visit him.

 

      Kristi has loved going up and helping him. Last week she went up and took Luc out to the movie in Calgary. They went to the movie "Trolls" hahaha. It is so awesome to see him getting out of the hospital and doing some normal things. We met Kristi up there as well on the weekend and took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese and Luc came with us haha. There were so many people and I thought it was going to be too much for Luc, but he seemed to have a good time. He loves giving the boys a hard time and its fun to see them laugh back and forth. After that we went to the mall and looked around some of the stores. Luc loves to buy Stance socks and he bought the boys a pair for their upcoming birthdays.

     Luc always seems to have such a positive attitude around us. It would be easy for him to be down in the dumps about his situation, but he is always ready to work hard and make things happen for himself. I am not sure I could have had that same attitude being in his spot. He will probably be in the hospital for another 6 months, which will make it almost a full year in the hospital by the time he is done. The goal is for him to be walking by the time he leaves!!















Halloween

Haydn dressed up as the wrestler John Cena. Him and a buddy trick or treated for a while, but then went to a friends house for a party.
Brody was a couple different things. He had a purple blow up fat suite that he wore to school. Then he dressed up as a Yankee baseball player to go trick or treating.
Tyson was Luigi because he is in love with the game "Luigi's Mansion" right now.
Lennon was a Butterfly and she was so cute.
We only took Tyson and Lennon to a few houses and then went to Justin's house for Pizza like we always do.

Other Pictures

We won a softball tourney in Okotoks during September long weekend. We played against Micheal Ferland (who plays for the Calgary Flames), and I out homered him 3-1. boo ya!
We won the intermediate side of the tournament.

We had a "Colour Fight" at the school. Everyone had this coloured powder and threw it at each other.

Summer 2016

     It will be tough to sum up the summer now that it is over. I always say I should write while the summer is happening, but of course I was too busy and too lazy to write while we were having fun in the summer. I will do my best to give the detailed needed to explain how busy and fun this summer was for our family.


Softball Tourneys
 

      We played some good softball this summer. The summer started (well, end of June) with a fun tourney in Cranbrook. I have been asked by a team from Lethbridge to play in the tourney for the last few years, but this year Kristi came to play with our team as well. Brody was a little grumpy at first, because it has just been me and him for the last couple years at this tourney. We played great in the tourney and ended up winning the "intermediate" side of the tourney.

   























     Our Cardston Men's team that Me and Jimmy played on had a great final Tourney. We went into the tourney as somewhat the underdogs, but everyone got hot at the same time and we rolled through the tourney and won the championship. Jimmy and I hit the ball so well. It was like every hit was hard and in a gap somewhere or over the fence! I made a wicked diving catch in the semifinal game in left field. I tracked down a ball in fair territory and caught the ball fully stretched out and nearly slid right out of the diamond. Jimmy hit one ball to left field that went over the road and I'm pretty sure they never found the ball. I hit one to Centerfield that was probably one of the longest balls I've hit on Reford East diamond (I also grunted pretty loud as I hit it haha).

   











   




























     Our team in Lethbridge Co-Ed played in the league tourney for the first time ever. We are usually gone and don't have enough for a team. This year we had enough people to get a team. We went into the tourney the #2 team in the league. There was only 1 team that had beaten us and that was the #1 team (the Hounds, they beat us twice in league play). Our first game we went into the bottom of the 7th inning down by 5 runs, but we came back to win the game by 1 run. The Semifinal was against the Hounds and we beat them by 5 runs. We made it to the championship. The Tourney was a true double knockout, so whoever came to play us in the final had to beat us twice to win. The Hounds came all the way around to make it back to the final. It was such a hot day and there was no way we wanted to play 2 games, so we took care of them in one game. Kristi hit a "Legit" inside the park Home run on diamond #9. She hit it over the left fielders head and before he could even get it to the cut off, Kristi was at home!

      Our family tourney was fun this year cause Haydn was able to play full time. He played so good in the outfield, and he made some great catches. He made one catch on the run (off Ben Court) that made me so proud of him!! We only won one game, but everyone had a great time. We wore pink shirts for Breast Cancer and to support my mom. I hit one of the longest home runs I have ever hit during the family ball tourney. We were playing on the Lions Park baseball diamond and I hit one over top of the playground in Left Centre. I wish I knew actually how for it was, maybe I should measure it.

Haydn - Royals Summer Baseball

     Haydn didn't know if he was going to play summer baseball this year because his age group did not have a South Chief All Star team this season. I started talking to Rory Snider and he said they were doing a summer baseball league for some younger kids in association with the Fort Macleod Royals baseball team. It took a little convincing (from Kristi), but Haydn decided to play.












     They practiced twice a week and had 3 tourneys in July. The first 2 tourneys would be seeding tourneys for a final tourney at the end of the season. Our first tourney was in Clive Alberta....Ya I had no idea where it was either. Clive is about 30 minutes east of Red Deer. The 2nd tourney was in Hanna Alberta (which is about 3.5 hours away), and the final tourney was in Wetaskwin Alberta (which is up by Edmonton). So ya, we had to drive a long ways for Haydn to play baseball this summer.




     Haydn's team was young and struggled in the seeding tourney loosing some close games. They pulled it together though for the final Provincial tourney and won. Haydn had a great season playing for the Royals. He played first base for most of the season, but in the finals our team needed a better Catcher and Haydn stepped up and said he could play the position and he did Awesome!! He threw out a few runners on 2nd and 3rd base. He kept the ball in front of him when the pitchers were wild with their throws. He had a great season at the plate, and rarely struck out, he always seemed to put the ball in play.

   

     By the end of the season he was really happy that he played and was already talking about next season with the Royals. Haydn also hit his first ever "over the fence" home run this summer. We were taking BP on the SW diamond of Town Square and he put one of the fence. He (And Dad) was pretty excited.

Brody - South Chief Minor All Star Baseball

     Brody made the Minors All Star team this year. He had a great regular season and had a lot of confidence going into the try outs for the team. He Actually missed the first try out because he went with us to a softball tourney in Cranbrook, but the coach told him it would be ok because he had played so good during the season.









     Brody's season was made up of a lot of exhibition games and then the big "AAA" Prairies tourney at the end of the season. We travelled to Medicine Hat and played against their "AA" and "AAA" teams. They easily beat the "AA" team and had a tough loss to the "AAA" team. We went into the top of the 6th inning against the Med Hat "AAA" team with the top of our order due up in the batting ordered and down by 2 runs. Suddenly the field sprinklers came on and they could not get the to shut off so they had to call the game and we lost by 2.

   




     They played games in Lethbridge, Fort Macleod and Raymond. Brody played First base, Catcher, Outfield and catcher. He had a great season at the plate and hit the ball really well.

     The final Prairies Tourney was playing against the best 9-10 year olds in Alberta and Saskatchewan. We were not sure how we would do, but the boys played awesome and we ended up loosing in a game that would have sent us to the semifinal. The team that ended up winning Prairies was the Med Hat team that had beat us by 2 because we could finish the game. Brody had 2 "Walk Off" hits in the tourney, where he scored the winning runs.

     So between the 2 boys playing baseball, we did a lot of travelling. I am so proud of both of them and how they played. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I love traveling around and watching them play the game I love.

Wasa and Echo

     We ended the summer with a couple of camping trips. We went to Wasa as a family for a week and then we spent 5 days at Echo with Ryan and Brandi. It was a great way for the family to end the busy summer. Just relaxing and playing on the beach. Not too sure what to say about the trips, so I will let the pictures do the talking.

Jaxon / Grandma Fromm / T-Bones Birthday / Luc

     Jaxon stayed here for the summer and worked at the Subway in Waterton. He Cant work in the States right now, so he had to come to Canada to make some money for the summer. It was fun getting to know him better and hanging out. He would just pop-over and hang out with the boys whenever he wasn't at work, or if he was just bored. He would come hit balls with us and play basketball with the boys when we could get into the gym.

   

     Kristi's Grandma Fromm passed away this summer. She was an amazing lady and so many people turned out for the funeral. It was a happy/sad moment for Kristi. Happy that she was on the other side now, but sad to see her go. She loved Haydn and was not shy about telling other people that Haydn was one of here favourites haha. We were so glad that we stopped in a few weeks before and took some pictures with her. She leaves behind a lot of family that will carry on her good name.

   
Tyson turned 6 years old!! all he wanted was a Luigi's Mansion cake and Corn on the cob for his Birthday. Some how Kristi made it happen (Well the corn part was easy, because its Taber Corn season). She knew a girl who was good at making cakes and she made T-Bone an awesome Luigi's Mansion cake!! Tyson had some friends and family over and we had a BBQ and cake with everyone.

      Luc was in a terrible car accident at the end of June just outside Sparwood. He had to be air-lifted to Calgary with life threatening injuries. He is still in the hospital and cannot move very well. He has a trake in that helps him breath, but he cannot talk. He communicates using head nods and an alphabet board that he spells things out with. It will be a very long road for him, but he has made a ton of progress in the last couple months.

Other Summer Pics