April 2013

As this sign says there is no easy way down.  When you are following the Connor Clan there is never an easy week or month.  We are rarely home and often eating in our car as we are driving to a practice or game.  And yes the house is still messy and the dust bunnies are still here.  We just might have to name them soon!

April had us skiing for the last few weeks of the season.  

 Our last run of the season and probably one of the best days of skiing this season!  We have put away our ski gear and packed away our ski clothes for another year.

The Seattle University Softball Team had a little league day for our league.  The kids got to go out on the field with the softball players for the national anthem.

 

This is Hayley.  Caedan met her earlier in the year at a Husky Softball game while sitting in the stands watching a game.  She remembered him when she saw him and asked to have her picture with him.  Caedan seems to make friends with the older girls everywhere we go.

 Someone got a haircut this month.

 April started out with some rain that cancelled a few of our games but the weather quickly turned for the better and we have had some wonderful spring weather for playing ball.

 Our weeks are now filled with t-ball practice, softball practice, 2-3 softball games and a t-ball game.

 Olivia about to unleash the heater.

Throw it to me!

The Alley Cats closed out the month of April with an impressive 8-1-1 record.  It must be all of that great coaching they are getting!!

March 2013 update

In like a lion out like a lamb honey badger.

March picked up right where February left off.  With skiing still in full swing we spent every weekend in the mountains skiing at least one day and sometimes both days of the weekend.  

Olivia spends her days training with the race team and Caedan is left to spend the days skiing with his parents.

Caedan has spent lots of his time in the terrain park working on perfecting his tricks.  He was pretty excited to be able to ski across this box.  

The U-12 championships had us skiing for a weekend at Alpental.  For the U-12 Cascade Cup Championships they let the U-10 compete with the older girls.  Olivia decided that it would be a fun experience to compete in this race against the older girls.

She finished 20th in the GS and 22nd in the SL in the state for U10s which is pretty awesome for a first year racer.

March ended with the last race of the ski season and the race to which all the kids look forward.  The Small Fry race is a fun race where the kids dress up and have a great time on the slopes.  Caedan was also able to compete in the race.

Complete with her bunny ears Olivia is racing down the slalom course.

 

After a 7th place finish Olivia received her bunny trophy. 

At the starting gate waiting for the pink Easter Bunny to start the race.

In the starting gate....

racing to a.....

3rd place finish in the 6 and under category.  And those 2 boys above him, well they are a year older than Caedan.  Next year they will move up to the next age category which should leave the door wide open for him.

We then added in softball practices, t-ball practices, and by the end of the month games for both teams.  And because coaching one team just wasn't enough we decided to coach both teams this year.

Caedan is playing for the Nationals this year and is very excited that his season has finally started.

I am pretty sure that his favorite part of the game is sliding into home plate.  Even though it is not necessary he still does it every time he rounds the bases. 

Olivia is back playing with the Alley Cats this year.

After taking pitching lessons all winter and practicing her pitching at home she is also back in the circle this season.

So far the season is off to a great start for both teams. 

 I am sure that this is due to some really great coaching!!  

Now if only the weather will stay nice so that we can 'play ball'.

Stay tuned for the next update to find out if April showers really do bring May flowers.

February

February - It came and it went and we were just as busy as always.  But don't worry because the dust bunnies are still growing bigger!

Now I know that you are all wondering how we might have possibly spent our time in February.  Well the answer is skiing, skiing and more skiing.

February took us on a trip to the hopping town of Omak for a ski race at Loup Loup.  After a short 4 hour drive we joined the rest of the ski team for a great weekend of skiing.  Loup Loup is a a small non-profit ski area with one chair lift, a Poma lift, perfect weather and spectacular views.   

Saturday started off with the Giant Slalom.

Saturday ended with a medal for a ninth place finish.  Racing against 30 other girls from several local ski teams she once again proved that she is a contender.

Caedan's favorite part of the trip to Loup Loup - The Poma lift.  This is all that he wanted to do.  He did it over and over and over.

Mid February finally had us back at Stevens Pass for the Wild Katz race.  Both of my wild katz were able to race in this one.

The weather was a little rough for the racers with winds blowing really hard during the races.

Caedan raced in the under 8 category   The other 12 kids were 6 and 7 years old.  Caedan was a full year younger than the other kids.

 Caedan after his first run.



 After a ninth place finish Caedan was pretty excited to hear his name called during the awards ceremony.

Though his skiing carer is still very young Caedan has already been recruited by a ski team.  While in Mission Ridge last month Caedan was blazing his usual fast trail and he blew past a training group of the Mission Ridge Ski Team.  He passed them on a narrow section of the run near the bottom of the chair.  We reached the bottom of the run and stopped to wait for the rest of our group before getting into the lift line.
This is Robert's version of the encounter.
The MRST coach called out "Can I talk to you?"  I was thinking that he was unhappy that Caedan had just buzzed his class.  I said sure and somewhat apprehensively skated over to speak to him.  "Your son rips!  Is he in a race program?"

"He's not old enough yet.  He's only 5."

"No.  That's old enough."  Clearly meaning that 5 was old enough for his race program.

"We live west of the mountains, so when he is old enough he will ski for SPAC."

"Oh... you're a SPAC family.  I don't want him to race against my kids."

"Thanks."  I skied off trying not to smile too obviously.

Having only skied 15 times myself so far this ski season I want to assure you that there is still plenty of skiing left this season.  Who wants to join us for a day on the slopes?
Just to prove that we do other things than skiing here is a preview of upcoming items on our agenda.

See you next month.

January - 2013

I made 2 resolutions this year.  One was to post at least one update each month with a summary of what we did during the month.  Warning - this will contain a lot of pictures!  Well, as you can tell that one has not started out so well.  The second one was to not worry about having a messy house.  Instead of staying at home and cleaning the house we are out enjoying time together as a family.  So when you come over you will see lots of these:

So don't judge me I am just enjoying spending time with my husband and kids.  I promise that if the dust bunnies get as big as the kids that I will clean them!

We celebrated the first day of the new year with a day of skiing at Stevens Pass.  It was a beautiful day at the pass.

Olivia started her first year with the SPAC ski racing team.  To say that she is enjoying herself is an understatement.   We currently spend every Saturday up at Stevens skiing so if you want to spent some time with us head up to the pass.  During the middle of January the ski team held a club race.  This was a race of just the team's skiers and is a training race for everyone to get ready for racing season.  Olivia matched up against her 13 teammates during the weekend.

Saturday's race was the giant slalom.

Olivia surprised us with a second place finish.

Sunday was the slalom race.

Olivia with her teammates after her third place finish.

Caedan decided that it was time to try out the half pipe   Ok, so he is not throwing down tricks yet but you have to start someplace.

The last weekend in January had us heading over to Wenatchee for a weekend of skiing and racing at Mission Ridge.  We were pretty excited as this was our first trip to Mission Ridge.

The views were spectacular and the skiing was great.

 Both races were giant slaloms.

Olivia had two strong runs on Saturday and found herself in the medals with a 10th place finish.  The race included 27 of the top girls from 5 different race teams from western and central Washington. She was also the top finisher from her team on Saturday.  Sunday was nearly as good as she came home 11th and second on her team.

Sadly, Caedan spent half of the Mission Ridge trip and the following four days like this.  He got a stomach virus from which he struggled to recover.

Stay tuned for the February update which will include a trip to the exciting area of Omak and surprisingly...  more skiing.