The Cabin

 Over Christmas Break we will be staying in a cabin on a lake at a State Park near our house. Some of Natalie's family will be joining us for a few days, as well as other friends. We will be there about a week and whoever wants to come visit or even stay overnight is more than welcome. I went to see it today, and am super excited for Christmas to head up there. It's my kind of place! Sheltered and warm enough for the kids, and far enough out of the way and quiet enough for me! Should be a beautiful week!

The drive up, about 10 miles away at this point

The master

2 rooms of bunk beds

Kitchen

View from the front door!

That's a Wrap

My basketball season is over! It was such an inspiring year and I feel like the kids really made a lot of progress. We were just one solid post player from contending for another league championship. As it turned out, we came out fairly flat at 8 this morning, and went down by 10 quick. Got after it on defense for a bit and kept it close (single digits) until about 10 to go, then just ran out of steam. We lost by 20 in our first game. Tough to win in basketball w/out some sort of post presence!

The 8th grade team (Last year's league champs) had a fairly easy road to the championship game. The bracket really looked like it was set up to have the leagues 2 best teams face each other in the championship game (as it usually is). Last year (7th grade), Summit went undefeated, or maybe only lost once. We beat them in the Championship game as the 3 seed by 5 points. Close game all the way. This year, I knew it would be a close game, as they are also a very talented team, but I had no idea it would be as close as it was. Biggest lead was Summit by 5pts in the 1st half. Every possession was critical! We went up by a few points with a couple minutes left and from there on Summit had to foul to get the ball back, and we hit huge free throws down the stretch! Such a fun game to watch and be a part of and see the kids play their hearts out! Our 8th grade team repeated their league title winning by 5 points.

I am one of the most competitive people I know, so I don't usually feel too badly for the losing person or team. But today, for some reason, I really felt bad for the kids from Summit. They went undefeated in back to back regular seasons and lost both championship games to us. Immediately when the time ran out, 5 or 6 kids from their team just burst into tears. That's when you can see how much it really means. The passion. It was pretty hard to watch! That being said, I am super happy that was not us!!!

Now more free time, time to start training for bike racing season!!! and maybe ref some girls basketball???

League Tourney

Tomorrow basketball is over. We have our final league tournament. Last night was my last practice. It will be nice for the season to be over, especially since I will no longer have to bring all 3 kids up to practice, waking them from their naps, for them to then have to come back home immediately with Natalie. I will have some time to exercise after school.

The season has been interesting for sure! Last year I was kind of spoiled, it being my first year coaching out here and I had a hard-working and very talented group of kids. All I had to do was build their confidence and watch them take off. This year was very different. I had a much smaller group of kids to work with and most had only been playing basketball for a year or two. Some had talent, some not so much, as is always the case. I had two things on this years team that really stood out. I had a big guy at about 6ft and 180lbs, which is really big for a 7th grader, and he had great skills and footwork. However, he could not keep his grades up and missed half the season, including tomorrow's final tournament. This year, I also had some of the best shooters I've ever had, not much size or quickness, but great shooters.

In 7th grade, and even every grade after, all the way through high school, college, and the NBA, the teams that have the most success are those that play the best defense and have a stud big man. A lot of teams try to play all guards and just outscore every team every game, but it seems to rarely work. But what to do when you have a team where your biggest kid would be a wing on most teams, and you have a bunch of good shooters? You shoot! It's the first time I've ever told a team that I want them taking every single open shot they have. I don't care if it's a 3 or not. I don't care if they miss, we have to shoot when we have open shots. Not sure we can pull out many wins with this strategy, but in middle school basketball, you never know. Our strategy is very simple. Defend, Box out, and shoot and attack the basket as often as possible. Basically no inside post game... We'll see how it goes. May the shots be falling tomorrow morning...

St. Nick

I made an advent calendar for us to check each morning. We have a fun activity planned for each of the 25 days of Christmas. Last night, we read The Polar Express. Night before that, we put Cayle and Lindy's shoes out under the tree for St. Nick to fill with goodies.

Cayle enjoyed coming downstairs to see if St. Nick had visited.  If you have nothing to do with the next 9 minutes or so of your life, you can watch Cayle check out his stocking and "help" Lindy with hers :)

St. Nick video 1
St. Nick video 2

Cayle's New Sport

When we got back from Illinois a few weeks ago, we took Cayle to get skis.  We found a pair to fir him just right - some 70s.  They are so short and cute!  We rented the skis and boots since this will be his only year to wear this size.  We did buy him a helmet and some goggles though since he'll be able to wear those for a few years before outgrowing them. 

Last Sunday, Nick took Cayle to the moountain for his first experience :)  Cayle loved it - and asks me daily when mommy is going to take him on the gondola and skiing.  Hopefully soon!

Traditions

Each year since we've lived in Colorado, we've cut down our tree in the forest.  I, of course, insist on hiking and hiking and hiking to find the "perfect" tree, while most of the other friends we go with take one of the first trees they come upon - regardless of the fact the tree they choose may be worse than a Charlie Brown tree, or perhaps the tree is 20 feet tall (when none of us lives in a house with much more than 10-12 foot ceilings...

Adding to the tree tradition is the Christmas on Broadway parade held in downtown Eagle.  The group of us always walks down to the parade, watches the 15-20-minute long parade, and stops in a well-lit (understatement) yard for a picture on the way home.

This year was no different, and last Saturday was the big day.  We all started out at Jeff and Jess's house (although Jeff had to go to basketball...boo!) for a yummy breakfast of quiche, breakfast potatoes, pancakes, fruit, oj, coffe, and hot chocolate.  Once we all had our fill, we headed up to Yeomen Campground, which is where we typically set off from.  After a few hours, the perfect tree was found!

 

The weather was absolutely gorgeous and actually found ourselves to be wayyyy overdressed.  We got the tree back to the house and set up in its stand.  Then it was off to hang out again - girls went back to Jeff and Jess's house with the kids while the guys hit up the local brewery.  We all met downtown for the big parade.  This was Cayle's first parade where he was starting to understand things a little bit.  he seemed to enjoy the parade!  On the walk back to the car, we had to stop for a family portrait in the yard with soooooo many lights.  

Christmas Tree Day

Welcome to December!!! Off to get our Christmas tree today. Should be interesting since I think there is the least amount of snow ever on the day we have gotten our tree. Also, Christmas on Broadway is tonight in Eagle. Santa rides into town on the fire truck. I think Cayle will really like it this year. He must be excited to get the tree since he woke up at 2 last night and came and crawled into bed with mommy and daddy... :-( 

Older posts about getting the tree and Christmas on Broadway