Mendenhall 5 (+ one dog)

Sunday, August 31, 2008

This is the way It's going to Be

David has an alter ego. His name is Coach Dave. He is very tough. He runs grueling warmup drills on his favorite players. Some of the things he makes them do don't even make sense, like doing cartwheels. But, no one dares question Coach Dave.

Then he corrals them all for a fascinating ritual of chanting and bouncing up and down. (He's in the middle there, trust me.)It's all very primitive and quite moving. The other coaches stand back in awe.

The chicks dig him too.

Day at the Lake

Call the truancy officer(do they still have those?), the Mendenhalls and the neighbors(I won't mention names for their sake) ditched school on Friday for a day of boating and fun at Lake Elsinore. I love this shot of the kids racing to meet the guys coming up to the shore.

These guys had a blast. They kept talking to me about how they are going to be friends forever. Even when they're Dads, they're going to buy houses right next to each other and buy boats and take their families out on the lake together. That's all after they room together at BYU, of course.

Nothing like a hug from your big brother.

Abby has never willingly worn a hat. A tiara, maybe, but a hat, never. Not even as an infant, she's always immediately yanked it off. That is until she eyed Parker's hat. Now that is fun, wearing a newborn bucket hat. How cute!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Comeback Kid

The story goes something like this....James walks in the door from school on Friday and he's clearly distraught. Ok, the kid's falling apart. He doesn't feel good. We take his temperature and it reads 102.9. Bummer. It is the first scrimmage of the season that night. Mark makes the executive decision that he should at least go and suit up and watch the game. So, we dope him up with some Motrin and head out. He assumes his honorary position on the field to watch after telling the coach that he is too sick to play, but wants to be there to support his team. (Apparently the coach delivers some sort of speech about their fallen teammate James and how the kids can play their best in his honor-very convincing and inspiring.)

About an hour and a half into the scrimmage, James starts rebounding. I tell him he should go stand on the sideline and watch. He marches over there and stands for a few minutes watching. Then, much to my surprise, he comes back over and says, Mom, I want to play. So, like any good mother would do, I jam the helmet on his head and slap his bum as he dashes out to the field. They put him in on the next play. I'm on pins and needles watching to see what happens. The whistle blows and he's up hitting right off. They had him play another 10 plays or so and then he was out and the game was over shortly after. I was so stinking proud. (James is #51, Zane is #7)

He was on his game and did exactly what he was supposed to. Best part was, on the ride home I asked him why he decided to play and he said that he was watching his team play for hard "for him" that he wanted to go out and play hard for his team. I asked how it felt ot be part of a team and he said, awesome. He said many of his teammates cheered him on when he came back in and he felt so good about it. This meant so much to me because I could see him really want to do something, just because he wanted to do it, not because we wanted him to. Plus, he felt the team spirit. Bonus!! He really pulled it together, he said he didn't feel good at all, but he sure stepped up and proved himself. We went to Denny's to celebrate afterwards and that was when it hit back again, he was burning up, had no appetite and feel asleep in the booth. We went home and he crashed for the night.

Of course, for awhile there, David was determined to sub in for James. It might have worked, if only he could hold his head up with the helmet on.

The future is so bright she's gotta wear shades. By the way, not that we were keeping score, what with it being a scrimmage and all, but we globbered PQ 35-7.