Photos From Pop

Shane had an awesome time at Nana and Pop's. He went to VBS, weekly outings on Wednesdays organized through the church, Frankie's Fun Place, laser tag, Big Air, the movies, playgrounds, and his cousins for a month straight. When they took him out for fast food, they threw him in the play-place for hours before grabbing ice cream for dessert. Nana arranged play days with other children outside the family and Shane probably wants to move to South Carolina for good now.

That's not an option for him, but we've got a bunch of pictures from Pop he can reminisce with! They're not exactly in order and I tried to come up with a narrative before I decided to do a photo dump instead.

Now that Shane's home, he's going to appear in the blog much more frequently again. Click for more if you want to see some of his summer adventures!

True Spring

Spring is starting to feel like spring! Just in time for team picture day, too.

I feel bad for the photographer. He came out to our practice just to take a picture of four kids.

A fifth ran up later, but the odds of him selling any photos are slim.

Raheem and a couple of other kids walked up to play basketball when we got home. I sat on the porch and Shane half joined in.

I say half, because Shane wasn't playing basketball. First, he wanted to get the ball, spin around, and throw it. Then, he wanted to be a zombie who would tackle other players. Then...I don't even remember what else was going on. I called him aside. I told him that he should jump in the basketball game, but asked him not to run side games that interfered with their game. We had a short talk about "why," and the game went on.

Shane enjoyed it for a while, but then left to climb a tree (a great, spring activity!). He started to call from the tree top with things like "Look at me!" "See how high I am!" and "I'm a great climber!"

I can't remember if I called out or not. I know I thought, "They're in the middle of a basketball game! You don't need to call out, and I doubt they'll join you. Just focus on having fun and the rest will work out!"

Well, I was partly wrong. The kids did stop their basketball game and switch to climbing!

Shane chortled, shook the tree, and made sure he was the highest up. I'm surprised the tree held them all!

It was a moment I was happy to see....though I did think, "It's no wonder he likes to call out, 'look at me!' All the kids do!"

Eventually, it was time for dinner and a shower. Shane went to bed properly tired from playing as all kids should.

Season Ender

There was another exciting game today! Shane's mind was in the game when it was his turn.

Not so much when it wasn't.

Shane hasn't scored at all, but he's actually trying to shoot and taking some chances. He's looking like he understands the game a lot more than before. I only shot once my whole first season (It was the game winning shot, so I remember it!).

Shane probably had as much fun (if not more) after the game.

I watched him climb around on the playground for a while.

There's no fear of heights.

I think Shane likes to get up high partly because it gets other kids and parents to look at him.

Shane joined a tag game with some random other kids when I finally told him it was time to go. He was the only basketball player left at that point.

I don't know if we're going to do all the same sports once we move. Some of them will be a bit of a drive from our new house. Or maybe we'll take a year off and see if the absence fans the flame stronger. Don't know! I've enjoyed having activities to take Shane to. I hope he remembers the activities fondly like I remember when Pop did them with me.

TKD + Walls = Fun

I think Shane enjoys climbing on the walls outside of TKD as much as he enjoys TKD. Maybe even more.

Wild West Virginia

You can call me a rule follower, but I pay attention to parking signs after driving over a 1,000 foot high span bridge (the 2nd highest in the world of it's kind).

Carrie wouldn't tell me what we were doing on the side of a valley after 8:30 PM, but the view was pretty.

I found out shortly. There was a high-rope and zip-line course! Carrie signed us up for a night tour!

It was the sort of thing right up my alley. There was a dual, locking carabiner system to keep everyone safe. I'd seen something similar when we went on a via ferrata run for Matt's bachelor party. Frankly, this system seemed idiot proof.

All it did was slow me down. If Matt and Patrick had been around, we'd probably have made eye contact and started to race.

Carrie and I didn't race, but we had a lot of fun.

Now, while I think the course was safe there were plenty of ways to bang shins or pinch yourself. Also, I have to reaffirm that West Virginia is not a great place for those afraid of heights.

Wednesday we visited the Tamarack in Beckley (good memories!) and drove up to gorge yet again. This time, we went whitewater rafting.

It must have been twenty years or more since I've been on rapids. It's fun, but that's also about how often I'd be interested in going. A good guide makes everything seem easier and safer than it can be (we had a good guide), so I don't get the same sort of adrenaline rush more personal activities would afford (like a kayak).

It's still fun. I recommend everyone try it at least once. Unlike before, this time I got to swim through a level one rapid, have Carrie with me, and watch as Carrie catch a kid's life jacket midair so that he wasn't launched into orbit (his mom was thankful, but the kid looked disappointed!).

The highlight of the trip was 'Jump Rock.'

"It's twenty feet tall, looks like thirty from the top, and will be forty feet by the time you're telling what happened," said Paul (our guide).

He was right.

I ran, jumped off and hung in the air long enough for the exhilaration to wear off and second thoughts to kick in.

It was awesome.

It was also the low-point of the trip for Carrie.

We had to climb to Jump Rock barefooted, because we were in flip flops. Carrie slipped and hurt her left foot near the top. Bare minimum she jammed her toes and gouged one. She assessed one toe as likely broken as she sat and recovered. There was blood on the rocks where she stepped.

Unfortunately, our guide warned us that the way back down from Jump Rock was more dangerous than jumping. The quickest way down was to take the plunge.

Carrie's one tough cookie. She jumped.

Our guide borrowed a medkit and the journey went on.

Carrie would be somewhat hobbled for the rest of our trip. Worse, she was scheduled to do a lot of walking and horse back riding with Grandma in Ireland for a business trip the following week....

...but that was for the future. We rested up after our half day trip and had a pleasant final night in WV.

This trip will always hold a special memory for me, because of the climbing, the rafting.....and it's where Carrie and I started Pandemic Legacy.

Pandemic Legacy quickly became one of my favorite board game experiences ever. If you've played Pandemic and are considering trying Legacy: Do it. Just make sure you have people you can rely on to play it through. Carrie's the type to binge, and without Shane we played multiple games across two nights.

Practice Paid Off

Another week, another TKD lesson.

Shane's forms practice at home paid off. He earned another blue stripe!

I think his climbing has improved most of all.

I showed him how to do it weeks ago, but today was the first time he managed to get around the corner without touching the ground.

It uses more energy than reading. Shane has a lot of energy.

The weather was nice. I try to avoid being in a rush when I can, so I'm happy to let Shane play for 10-15 minutes after class as long as he's not dodging cars in the street.