Spectators were not allowed at the high school golf matches last spring, so I have never had the opportunity to photograph Bryce golfing.  Yesterday we had some time to kill so Bryce and I loaded up the car with a bucket of yard-sale golf balls (Thanks Gramma and Pappa) and some old clubs and headed for the beach.  (I know, I know - some whale somewhere will probably choke to death on a golf ball... )  I discovered how hard of a sport golf is to shoot.  I did get some pretty cool shots tho - and Bryce had a good time whacking golf balls into the ocean!

The club and the ball moved so fast I had a hard time getting them in the shot!

After he ran out of golf balls, he hit seaweed root balls

Catching up

So it's been awhile, eh?

Meghan has started the 6th grade and seems to be doing well with it.  No big changes for her at school, except that in some skewed wisdom, the school district decided to group the 5th grader and 6th graders into classes by academic standards.  So that means that all of the high achievers in 6th grade are all in the same classroom, the average students in another and the underachievers (?) below average (?) whatever you want to call them, in still another.  It's great for the high end teachers, because they get to teach to the same level every day.  I am not sure it's a great thing overall though.  The teaching staff has made this separation common knowledge.  I can't help but wonder how those kids in the low end class feel?  I mean, there is so much peer pressure at this age, and now to be thrown in a classroom full of dummies (not my word, but the words of one girl who happens to be in the class) - talk about your self esteem issues!  These kids now have no one to push them, and I don't know about all of the high-end students, but many of them learn better when they help "teach" an idea to another student.  Good news for the school test scores, is that there are 33 kids in Meghan's class.  The lower-end class only has 14 students.  Sure would be nice if we could run some average class sizes - these rooms are too small for that many kids!

Stepping off my soapbox now...

Bryce has started his sophomore year and also seems to be doing well with it.  He is not playing any fall sports this year - tried like heck to talk him into soccer, but no luck.  He is still working at the golf course, and finally has his weekends mostly off.  This will work well for him as he can start going to open gyms for basketball, and as the days get darker earlier, his hours will be somewhat reduced.  Bryce will also get his learners permit at the end of this month.  He has been working hard to pay off his share of the pickup we got for him early in the spring, and will have a little spending money for gas and the like once he starts driving.  He has mastered using a clutch -at least on flat ground, going forward :-) , and is looking forward to hitting the road soon!

Meghan's soccer team is in full swing and so far seems to be pretty successful.  They are early in the league season, but doing well.  A large number of her team will be joined by a few members from another team for a soccer trip to Europe in June of 2012.  They have been hitting the fundraising hard - it's looking like about $3000 per person for the team and chaperones to go.  I will not be going - Lon really wants to to go, and other than the picture making opportunities, I really don't have any burning desire to go to Europe.  The plan is for them to visit Belgium, Germany, Denmark (maybe) and Sweden, culminating in a large tournament in Pitea (pronounced Pee-too) Sweden.  See here for the Pitea Summer Games - it's in Swedish, but most browsers will translate for you.

Concentrate!

A little before and after

On Easter Sunday I took what has turned out to be one of my favorite pictures of Meghan - EVER.  It didn't start out that way though.  We went down to the river, one of the many spots I take the dog to run, and just bummed around.  She was playing in the delta, where one of the smaller rivers around here joins into the Eel River.

This is the image, straight out of the camera.  It's OK, but not spectacular or eye-catching.

 I downloaded all my photos in to my favorite tool - Adobe's Lightroom 3.  I've been playing with cropping and angles lately, so after trying several different crops I came up with one I liked.  Still, it wasn't really what I was looking for.  The nifty thing about Lightroom is that there are all sorts of different "presets" available.  With one click of the mouse, you can apply just about any look you want - sepia, black and white, polaroid, 70s grunge, etc. 

This is the final product.  I love the black and white treatment and the close-up gets rid of all the distracting elements - the goofy Halloween shirt, the bright green background, her hand.  Beautiful!

The difference between what you say and what others hear

Lori (while hugging Lon, who was chewing some food): "I can hear your mandible popping."

Meghan:  "Did you say MAN NIPPLE?????"

A soccer finale

Spring soccer came to a close last weekend for Meghan.  The team played 8 games in Medford and ended up with a 5-1-2 record.  Not bad at all!

She makes this face a lot, but I don't know what it means!

She gives direction to team mates...

Nice move, Meggo!

Her form has improved a lot - she used to not be able to straighten her leg out like that!

She gets to take the occasional corner kick (and needs lessons in tying her shoes!)

Concentrate!

Coach worked really hard with them on some new playing ideas and the girls really stepped it up over the weekend.  It was a whole new level of play!

She is very good at throw-ins and has a knack for keeping right on the line.  Good girl!

She celebrates goals with her teammates - she did score this weekend and her reaction was just the same as it was for this one scored by Sam.

She's very good at stealing the ball

Hi, pretty girl!

She takes the occasional goal kick - she's got a heck of a boot!

She makes defensive walls on penalty kicks - and always makes this face!

Fractured Fairy Tales

Click here to view this video


Here is a video of the play that Meghan's advanced reading group wrote and produced.  Sorry 'bout the sound quality.  Thanks Beth for videotaping and Tracy for sharing!

Flute-ography

So I forced Meghan to take a music class this year at school. I think it's an important skill, and it was a free, after-school class.  She signed up for the flute because it was the first instrument of the class period, and her friend Lisa picked it too.  Throughout the year, kids have dropped out of the program - but we decided Meghan needed to stick with it - even though she doesn't like it and never practices.  Tonight the after-school group had a mini concert, some choir by the little kids, working their way on up to the older kids.  I tried to take some video (we'll see if that gets posted or not) but here are some stills....

Setting up the music

Notice the bright shoes - they were supposed to wear black and white - this is the rebel in her coming out!

Soccer begins again

So, here we are again, soccer pitch.  Nice to see you!

On the way to Medford for soccer, stopped at the harbor in Crescent City.  I was really hoping this dang bird would choke on the starfish, but instead it took about an hour for the starfish to be digested enough the gull could spit it out and start on another side...

Not sure what was going on here, but I think she was successful!

An interesting couple of days...

Yesterday Meghan spoke at a Rotary Luncheon.  She was somehow recruited by a group of kids at her school that are trying to get a BMX park built in the neighborhood.  This group has the attention of a city councilwoman, has spoken at city council, a chamber meeting, and now the Rotary Club.  The teacher advisor for this group wrote her speech for her, and she, along with 5 other kids presented their plan to the Rotarians.  They might sponsor the park!!!

Meghan cracks 'em up!

Today, her advanced reading group presented a play that they wrote and produced themselves.  This group of girls worked for 6 weeks writing, editing, planning and rehearsing.  Their play was a VERY loose interpretation of Snow White, and totally cracked me up.  I am hoping the video that was taken gets posted on line somewhere - if so, I'll post a link.

Peeky:  "Hi ho hi ho it's off to..."   Hungry:  "Why are we singing???"

When Peeky grows up, she wants to be Michael Jackson

After eating the poisoned apple cinnamon waffles

Hooray! A happy dance!

An awesome young man...

Holy cow - Bryce just turned 15!!!  He has developed into an amazing young man that we are very proud of.

This was taken on Bryce's 7th birthday - G'ma Jude and G'pa Bob got him his first set of clubs

Today, he is on the high school golf team and playing in tournaments!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Instead of a cake this year, he wanted "cake pops".

The Soggy Foggy Bottom Run

On Sunday March 13th, Meghan ran in the annual Foggy Bottom Run with her school running club.  About 15 minutes before the race was scheduled to begin, the skies opened up and vomited water.  Within minutes the streets were flooded.  Troopers that they are, most folks participated in the race anyway.

Pouring rain at the start of the race

"I can't believe I'm running in this crap!"

Nearing the end - the friend Meghan was running with wasn't feeling so well!

59th/550 runners, time of 15:38  GOOD JOB MEGHAN!

Lon and Meghan at the game

Winter Semi-formal

So, Bryce has been hanging out with a girl that lives in a town about 40 minutes away.  They've spent hours on the phone, actually TALKING to each other, and he's spent a couple of Sunday afternoons at her house.  Early in January, he invited her to his winter semi-formal.

The boy has "all the right moves"!  He got the color of her dress early on (she only changed her mind once!), bought a tie to match and ordered a corsage.  Saved his money to buy her dinner and dance tickets, sent her flowers at school the Friday before the dance..... 

Took him up to her house before the dance for pictures, then her parents treated them to dinner at a very nice restaurant.  They brought them to our house and they hung out here for about an hour before the dance. After the dance, Bryce and I drove her and a friend back to their town.

They had a very nice time, up till the very end - there's always some sort of drama at these types of dances - it's just too much pressure to make it a "perfect" evening. Hopefully they'll make it up, soon!