Soccer 2022

 Just wanted to quickly capture the boys' soccer season in the fall.  Both boys continue to love soccer and are both really good at it.

Cameron's team this year was the Thunder Dragons.  He had some kids from his team last year and then some new friends as well.  They had quite a large ability/skill span so they started out slow and had kind of a tough time for the first few games.  But everyone progressed well through the weeks and they were much stronger by the end.  Most importantly they had a lot of fun as a team.  Cameron was a strong leader on his team and hustled his butt off on the field.  He is so fun to watch because he really leaves it all out on the field and gives 110%.  He's a speed demon too and this season he scored a few goals which was really fun.  

Nate was on the Strikers again this season with the same coaches (Chad and Matt) that he has last year.  They are awesome coaches.  He also had some friends who were on his team last year and also made new friends.  His team was really strong this year, but they made the team kind of small and most games they didn't have enough players to be able to sub out. So the boys that played really played their hearts out. Nate played multiple positions this season--defender, mid fielder, outside mid fielder, etc. And he also got his first goal!! It was so exciting! Nate has really come along way with his soccer skills. He is fast and has become more aggressive. Plus his coordination and ball skills have really advanced. It is so fun to watch him play!

Secretly I really hope both boys stay with soccer for a long time because they're both pretty good at it and it's just so fun to watch!

Baseball

Both boys ventured into a new sport this spring....baseball!  Technically Cameron has done it before back when he was about 4 years old he played T-Ball, but hasn't played in a couple years.  And Nathan has never played.  It's been such a fun season watching them learn new skills and meet new friends.  

Nathan's team is AAA and is called the Iron Pigs.  They have a great team--in fact right now they are in 1st place between the two little leagues in the area and they're headed in to playoffs this week!  Nate has really improved on his throwing and catching and his knowledge of the game.  He's a really fast base runner!  He hasn't gotten many hits this season, but he is consistently patient at the plate and gets on base through a lot of walks which is still helpful for points!  He's really enjoyed the season and I think will be back to play it next year!

Cameron is on a Single A team called the Blue Jays.  Cam has also improved on his throwing and his batting.  He's also a really fast base runner!  Cam is all about the full uniform.  He's got the eye black, baseball necklace, belt, etc.  Always looking so stylish on the field!  His team is a mix of skilled players and brand new players so it's been quite entertaining to watch them.  But they have fun and have really positive coaches so that's been great.  I think Cam will be back to play next year too.

Special thanks to both grandparents who have been the best fans and driven out to North Bend pretty much every day to watch baseball games!!  

Family Skiing

We started taking the boys up skiing consistently starting in 2018 I believe. That was the first year they started lessons and they both were able to ski down the hill on their own by the end of the season. Since then we have committed to skiing every winter season together. We love that it gets us outside and doing something active during the winter months. And it's been important to us as parents to help the boys build skiing skills as it's a sport they can do all their lives and it's much easier to learn at a young age (I can attest to that since I learned in 8th grade and it was really hard by that point!). 

For a few years the boys did lessons--either private when they were younger or group when they got older. Starting last year we let go of forcing them to do lessons because the boys felt anxious about them and they really weren't getting a lot of ski time since the groups were so large.  Plus then COVID happened and we didn't feel comfortable putting them in lessons. So the past two seasons we've just skiied together as a family and it has been heavenly. It's one of my favorite activities to do as a family. We commit to going every weekend usually on Saturday starting the first week in January (we usually warm up with a ski day during winter break first) and go all the way through February. This season we got about 7 ski days in.

Every year it's so fun to watch the boys get better and better.  Thankfully they have their Papa as an instructor who is basically a pro. The boys' technique is looking really good and they're getting more confident all the time. In fact this year we spent a lot more time on black diamond runs. Some were very steep and I was so proud of the boys for working through their fears and just taking it one turn at a time to get down the mountain. It was a major lesson in "I can do hard things" and then once they conquered a difficult run, they wanted to do it again!  The challenging runs were more interesting and fun to them this year so they gravitated to them. I'm trying really hard to keep up--we'll see how long that lasts!  I also noticed this year that along with the skill improvement and growth in courage came a much stronger love and joy for the sport. Nathan even mentioned a couple weeks ago that skiing is one of his favorite activities! So that's exciting for us as parents. Looking forward to many more years skiing together and maybe soon starting to go on family ski trips!

Here's a look at the progression of our ski adventures through the years:

2018:

2019:

2020:

2021:

2022:

And here's just a little snippet of their progress by the end of the season.  

Soccer

This past fall both boys got to play soccer....finally!  After much of Nathan's season getting cancelled last year and Cameron's season being non-existent, it was so nice for both boys to have a full soccer experience this year.  And what a wonderful time for it because the skill level, coordination, and excitement for the sport grew exponentially in both boys this year!

Nathan's team was the Strikers with Coach Chad and Matt.  It was a mix of kids from all the local elementary schools so it was fun for Nathan to get to meet some new friends while also having some friends on the team he already knew.  Chad and Matt have been coaching together for a couple years so we came in to a very organized and engaged team situation.  Chad was on it as a coach and put a lot of time, effort and care into coaching the boys which we were so grateful for.  Nate played a lot of midfield, forward and defense and really enjoyed all three types of positions, but we think he's the best at midfield because he's pretty fast.  This year the boys played on a larger field and played 7 vs. 7 with a goalie.  It was the first year Nate started learning about staying in your position on the field, passing more to teammates and being strategic about how to play together rather than everyone just going for the ball at the same time.  And Nate's team was really good.  I'm not sure what their final record was, but I think they maybe lost only 1 time?  They did awesome in the finals weekend too, but heartbreakingly missed the finals by 1 point.  It was a great season though.  And more than anything Nate loved it, worked hard, learned a lot, got better, and made a lot of new, fun friends.  Crossing our fingers he ends up on the same team next year!

Cameron's team was the Striking Cobras.  It was made up of friends all from his elementary school including our next door neighbor Kellen which was fun.  He was coached by Annelle, a mom of one of the boys on the team.  Many of us parents helped her out too.  In fact I got to coach one practice this past season when Annelle was out of town which was pretty fun!  Cameron's age still plays on a smaller field and plays 4 vs 4.  Cameron was by far one of the more skilled players on the field.  It helped that he played 2 years ago and for many of the boys this was their first year. Plus Cam just kind of has natural coordination and sports skills. He's pretty competitive so he wants to always be better and improve his skills.  Cam did a great job this year though building up his teammates, giving them a chance to take the ball, and helping them to get better.  And Cam scored a lot of goals for his team!  It was really fun to watch.  He definitely loves soccer and was sad when the season ended.  At Nathan's age the season is longer and Cam was definitely jealous of that.  He was sad when the season ended!

I'm realizing that one of my greatest joys as a mom is watching my kids in their activities--their growth and skill development, learning about themselves, discovering what they love and don't love, experiencing victory and defeat, etc....I'm here for it all.  Can't wait for soccer next fall!

Seahawks are World Champions

What an incredible football season it's been!  Seahawks just won SuperBowl 48--their first SuperBowl win ever!!  James and I have waited all our lives to witness this and we still can't believe it.  The whole time we were watching the SuperBowl we were in total disbelief and even though they went up 43 to 8 (against the Broncos!!!  Best offense in the league!!!), we wouldn't let ourselves fully believe the win until the final seconds of the game.  We had to keep pinching ourselves.  I realize that for all the people watching who weren't Seahawks or Broncos fans, it was a pretty boring game.  But for Seahawks fans, it was like we died and went to heaven.  All parts of our team played perfectly.  It was the ideal culmination for a hard fought, magical season.

Yesterday Seattle had a parade for the team downtown and over 700,000 people attended.  The fan base in this city and the team's relationship with the 12th man just gives me chills sometimes.  It's such a great community bonding experience.  All week I think most of my conversations have been about the Seahawks and the SuperBowl. Everyone now has a "where were you when the Seahawks won the SuperBowl" story or a crazy parade story.  Unfortunately we didn't get to the parade, but we watched it on tv.  Such a spectacular thing to watch.

Probably the most special thing for me though has been that James' favorite team has finally won a world championship.  He believed in them all year and was always positive about their abilities when I was doubtful.  He grew up watching the Seahawks games with his dad and on SuperBowl Sunday he and his dad got to witness probably the most spectacular game of their lives together.  And now we have a 3rd generation who is in on it too.  Leading up to the SuperBowl Nathan wanted to wear his Seahawks attire every day.  And throughout the day he would randomly just say "Go Hawks!"  What a special thing for James to share all this with his dad and his son.

Ok I know this is getting pretty schmultzy.  But this has been a pretty big deal around our house.  We're excited for the journey again next year.  And in the meantime, we'll watch the replay of the game for the 50th and 100th time--whatever we need to do to get us through to August.

Total Fail

A couple months ago we purchased a bike trailer off Craigslist.  We've been so excited about it because we felt like it would be such a good family activity for this summer.  So far the best way I can describe Nate's reaction to the bike trailer is he absolutely detests it.  This is probably our biggest fail as parents so far where we had high hopes of how something would be and it's been the exact opposite.

We've taken Nate out in the bike trailer 2 times.  The first time James took him on his own and it was tricky trying to figure out how to attach the trailer to his bike, get Nate situated, etc.  Plus Nate had never worn a helmet or been in a contraption like a bike trailer.  He basically cried the entire ride.  So we chalked it up to the fact that Nate was uncomfortable, he was trying to get used to it, it may have been hard with James being by himself, etc....

So we went into round 2 with high hopes.  This time Megs was along and we brought a pillow for Nate to sit on hoping that would make him more comfortable in his bike trailer seat.  Again he basically cried the entire ride.  Poor guy!  And poor parents.  Just all around not a great experience.  We're not giving up hope yet though!  The bike trailer will remain in the garage for now and we'll try again when Nate is a little bigger and older.  For now we'll just stick with hiking and walks in the stroller.

Despite the meltdown he just looks so cute!

Swimming Class

In March and April we took Nathan to swimming class on Saturday mornings.  We now have a little fish on our hands!  Nathan loves taking baths so we thought he might like swimming in the pool too and boy we were right!  He loved splashing and swimming after the toy fishes.  We were lucky to have other family members join the swimming class a couple times too including Gramma and Grampa, Nana and Pops and Uncle Ryan. 

Baby Olympics

In honor of the 2012 Summer Olympics starting today, we're doing our own Olympics here in the Spaulding household....Baby style.  Nathan has become an expert athlete in the Rings event.  It's a grueling sport as you can see by the cry of exhaustion at the end.  Thank goodness he's done a lot of training.  Definitely a gold medal winner!
(Please disregard the amateur filming and goofy commentary)

Happy Summer Olympics!

Sounders game!

This past Saturday we went to the Seattle Sounders soccer game with our dear friends Heidi and Jesse Fader.  It has been a couple years since we went to a game and it was fun to be reminded how excited Seattleites get about soccer.  The team didn't win, but we still had a great time.  Our favorite part was being with Heidi and Jesse who are some of our closest friends.  We always have such a blast together.  We love you Heidi and Jesse and can't wait to hang out again soon!

Raise the Woof

We were definitely star struck last Friday night when we had the fortunate opportunity to attend the University of Washington Raise the Woof event. It's basically a fundraiser for the football team and a time for boosters and fans to get excited for the new season. My brother and his friend purchased a table and had other friends buy tickets. Two of his friends backed out so James and I got free tickets! Now let me preface this by saying my brother and husband LOVE Husky football. I'm not talking love like you love ice cream. I'm talking love like they know all the stats, talk about it every time they're together, sleep, eat and breathe this stuff during the season. So you can imagine how pumped they were.

Sporting our husky gear, we eagerly checked in and walked through the tunnel that the players come out of and down on to the field. I had never been on the field before. Some of the major players like Chris Polk, Jermaine Kearse, Devin Aguilar, and Keith Price (the new quarterback) were taking pictures with fans. The band was playing and cheerleaders were cheering. They had a couple of open bars and it was just fun to walk around. You could even take a picture with Dubs, the mascot husky. We also saw Jason from the Bachelor! Of course I didn't really know any of the players, but I for sure could pick out the Bachelor in a crowd. :) I made the guys sneak some pictures for me.

Then we went behind the stadium where they had tables and a stage set up. We got in the buffet line to get dinner and all the sudden we saw Joe Montana right behind us! He was there with his son who is on the team. We sneakily snagged a picture of him too. We couldn't believe we were that close to him! But of course we acted cool and suave like it was no big deal. The dinner was excellent and then during the program coach Sarkisian got up to speak about the season and introduced all the players. It was a really fun night. I think we are definitely ready for Husky football to start. There goes our Saturdays....