Allison's Dance Recital

Today was Allison's dance recital for Body Language Dance Company at the Zeeland High School. They have these recitals once a year so you get to see alot of the non-competition dancers as well as the competition routines. Ally lucked out and got to do all of her dances in one show (her friends ended up having to be in 4 shows in one day). At the end of the recital they handed out awards. Allison received a 2nd straight perfect attendance award. She also received the Shining Star Award. That is an award handed out to one kid in each age bracket that the teachers vote on as the one that is "always ready on time, excited to be there, is a joy to teach, and makes it fun to come to class". That was quite a surprise to Heidi and I, but a nice one.

Hannah and Allison at the recital...

Red Wings vs. Ducks - Game 7

Today started just like any other day... get up, get ready for work, pack a lunch, check the calendar (Ally - dance practice, Nate - baseball practice).. and off to work I go. Then at about 11:30am as I got back to my desk after a staff meeting I got a call from Heidi. She'd been looking online and found two tickets to tonight's Game 7 NHL Playoff game between the Red Wings and Ducks at Joe Louis Arena for a decent price. Now, anyone who knows me knows I'm not Mr. Spontaneous. Knowing that I've been swamped at work and both kids have practice, I turned them down and said we can just watch it on TV. The view would be better anyway. But Heidi was persistent and talked me into leaving work early, picking Nathan up from school early, and driving to Detroit for the game. Don't you all wish you had a wife that would do that?! I finally agreed.

I left work a bit early and planned on picking Nathan up from school at 3pm. Remember, he had no idea of what was planned. But Heidi had called his teacher to let her know we'd be picking him up early (and why). When I got there, the receptionist called him down to the office. Having no idea what was going on, he was afraid he was in trouble for something. When he walked into the office and saw me sitting there he really got worried. I let him sweat it for a few minutes while we walked to his locker to get his stuff. He kept asking why I was picking him up early. I just told him we had a lot of running around to do tonight and I didn't think we'd be home in time to watch the Wings game on TV. That upset him! "Why?!", he asked. And I said, "Because.... we're going to the game!" After a couple minutes of convincing him I wasn't joking he was giddy with excitement. He couldn't believe I was picking him up early from school to go to a Red Wings game, let alone a PLAYOFF GAME!

Since Nathan had a math test the next day, he studied for two straight hours in the car with no complaints (no way he would have done that at home!). We got there about an hour before gametime and went down by the glass to watch the Wings warm up. It was a great game and the crowd was super loud. The Wings ended up winging on a goal by Cleary with about 6 minutes left. It was a GREAT TIME and I'm really glad we went. Who knows when we'll get another chance to attend a playoff game. Heidi definitely earned some brownie points for this one!

Here are some pics we took while there.

Nathan on the steps to Joe Louis Arena, home of the Detroit Red Wings...
Watching warmups up-close. The player right in front of Nathan is Jonathan Ericsson. Just two years ago, while he was playing with the Grand Rapids Griffins, he came to one of Nate's hockey practices and worked with the kids on drills. Nathan has kept an eye on him ever since. Now, he's one of the top defensemen on the Wings!
Face-off to start Game 7...
Nathan and I before the game...

Back To The Ball Fields

Baseball and softball seasons are in full swing now. Let me translate... we live at the ball fields most nights of the week. But it's fun so I can't complaiin. Nathan moved up to the 9-10 yo. kid pitch and Allison moved up to the 6-7 yo. machine pitch. This is Nathan's first season with kids pitching to him off a mound. It's quite an adjustment but he's starting to come around. I'll tell you what.. the fields they have put my high-school field to shame! Nice mound, grass infield, dugouts, unreal. They've both had a couple games and are enjoying the season. Allison is hitting the snot out of the ball and Nathan has scored a couple runs. The highlight for this season so far is happening at home though. I've been pitching whiffle balls to the kids which lasted about 15 minutes before they were bored. So I taught them how to play long-base baseball (only one base and home plate...and you can throw the ball at the runner to get them out) and introduced them to the "ghostie" runner. We've played each of the last couple days in the yard and they've been asking to play even more. What a sneaky way to get them to work on their hitting, fielding, throwing, and rules of the game. I only wish I'd thought of it earlier. I couldn't even count how many hours I spent playing the exact same game in the back yard while growing up.

Allison hamming it up before the pitch...

Nathan's first game...

Nate up to bat...

Fifth Third Junior Run

You're probably expecting this post to be about Nathan running another race. Well not this time... The Fifth Third River Bank Run is this weekend and they held a junior race at Rogers High School in Wyoming for kids age 5-13. They had 1/2 mile and 1 mile runs for the little ones and a 5k for the older kids. Nathan couldn't do this race because he had a baseball game. But Allison ran it with Zach and uncle Scott. Normally, Allison would rather do anything other than run. But she did it and said she had fun. Of course the goody bag she got probably made her like it even more... Great job, Ally!

Allison hitting her stride...

Zach and Ally with their "Finisher" ribbons...

TTQ and the 2009 Tulip Time 5K

So, for the past 2-3 months, Nathan has been attending Total Trek Quest after school two days a week. Basically, it's a program aimed at getting kids off their butts and get them doing some physical activity as well as making new friends. For about an hour each Tuesday and Thursday, the volunteer "coaches" would work with the kids on stretching, running, playing games, setting goals, etc. Surprisingly, only three boys from Nathan's school signed up for the program. But he still had fun and improved his endurance. The program culminated with the kids running in the Holland Tulip Time Run 5K race. Nathan did a mini triathlon last summer but this was his first 5k. It was a perfect morning for a race, clear and a bit chilly but not too cold. The entire pack took off very fast from the starting line and I was worried he'd burn himself out too early. After snapping some pictures at the starting line we headed for the finish line to wait for his arrival. The crowd gathered on both sides of the course leading to the finish line. Nathan's goal was to finish at around 28 minutes (pretty ambitious in my opinion). Interstingly, the overall (adult) winner finished in a little over 16 minutes... crazy! Nathan finally made the turn into the home stretch with just under 30 minutes on the clock and ran through the cheering crowd to the finish line. He placed 198 overall out of 486 finishers and his final time was 30:02. See his results here. I expected him to look a lot more tired than he did at the end of the race. He looked like he could have ran another mile no problem (but he did sleep hard that night). He also asked if we could do the Fifth Third River Bank run 5K next Saturday. That was our plan... until we found out it would cost $34 each for us to run in it. So we decided to pass on that one. Congratulations Nate... GREAT JOB!

Nathan approaching the finish...
The Bauerwood TTQ Team (Nathan, Mason, Vitale, and Coach Eric)...