As mentioned in an earlier post, we took a summer trip to the mountains of North Carolina and the beaches of Jacksonville. We had originally planned on traveling to the west coast, however we had to postpone those plans until next summer. We then were working on going to the Poconos, but the day we were to leave, there was trouble with Gma and Gpa's house up there, so we were not going to be able to go.

We decided to look in the NC mountains, and needed to find a place where Cooper could come along. We found the Lazy Bear Lodge, in Sylva, NC. Lazy Bear was at the end of a long climb up the mountain, with very few houses anywhere near, and almost complete silence. It was fantastic! The only dicey part of the trip was the drive in and out of the gravel road, with Kristin driving. :)

On the drive up we stopped in Atlanta, with a trip to the varsity for some hot dogs and Frosted Oranges. The next day we traveled to Tallulah Gorge, which was a beautiful spot in Georgia, with some outstanding waterfalls, and excellent hiking. After a couple hours at the gorge, we had lunch (pimento, jalapeno, bacon burger!!) and stopped a flea market (Claire!). Then we continued on to the Lazy Bear Lodge. A long day, but we had a ton of fun and were happy to find the house was so cozy and the weather very cool.

We spent the rest of the week doing the sort of things we would do in the Poconos, such as hiking, swimming in rivers, tubing, and jumping off waterfalls. One really neat thing we saw was called Sliding Rock, which is a natural waterslide. They have lifeguards and everything. It's a giant, relatively smooth rock, that water is rolling over, and provides a 60 foot ride for the swimmers. It was pouring rain when we were there, which was OK because we got to ride more often. Luke took a shot to the ribs from one of the guardrails, but that didn't deter him from continuing to ride!

We went to an Asheville Tourists game (low a affiliate of the Colorado Rockies), and we spent a day at The Biltmore Estate. Both of those trips were a ton of fun. We sat in the hot tub at the house, played some board games, and the kids just explored around the house as well.

We stopped in Jacksonville on the way home, and me and the kids went to the beach for a couple hours two days. Kristin stayed in the room with Cooper, because we couldn't leave him alone. The kids, and Daddy, had a spectacular time body surfing and riding the waves in the Atlantic. We bought Luke a boogie board for day 2, and he did great with it. We've taken it over to Ft Myers beach a few times, not quite the same at real waves. We've promised a trip to the east coast so he can ride some real waves again. He's even decided he wants to be a pro surfer when he grows up!

It was a week filled with "bucket filling" for me. There's nothing I enjoy more than spending time with my family, with everyone locked in on what we are all doing, without being distracted with life's little everyday trifles. Hopefully the kids will have great memories from this trip and our time together, as I know I will.

Long Overdue...Part 2

My last post focused on catching up with the kids. This one will focus on me and the little lady. It's been a crazy 11 months for the two of us, that is for certain. With all of the changes the kids have been going through, it sometimes gets tough to "keep it together" so to speak. We are all running in different directions almost every day, normal stuff that families go through, but it can get to feel like you never get to take a deep breath. But at the end of every day, Kristin and I sit on the couch, throw something on the TV and catch up. I really value that time, because it's the one time of every day that me and my baby get to be with each other, just us. It usually involves a foot massage (me for her), and that's awesome.

Kristin had a full year of work of course, winning at least one big trial, and maybe two (sorry can't remember for sure). She finished her work to become a certified mediator as well.  She took a trip with the kids to Universal in the winter to meet Amy and Monica and their kids for a weekend. They sounded like they had a ton of fun! A few weeks after that, we hosted Deltas weekend at our house, and several of her friends came to visit, a couple brought their daughters as well. It was nice to see everyone together, particularly Olivia and one of the other girls. They really hit it off, and seemed to enjoy each others company.

Our basketball season at BV was an interesting one, getting smashed several times, but in the end coming together to make it to the league title game again. We were able to upset a team in the semifinals, Claire's travel coach was the coach of the team, in a thrilling game. We had a player announce she was gay to the rest of the team (a first for Mark and I), and after one game the team turned against our best player. I think Mark and I did a good job of rebuilding the team's relationship with each other, and overall it was a successful year.

March and April were amazing months for me. First, I got to watch Claire do so well in her hoops as mentioned previously, which is of course fun. I returned to Las Vegas with my buddies for the first weekend of March Madness, and in addition to the normal fun that goes with the trip, the local team, FGCU, scored a huge upset. They were the talk of the tournament, and we all won a bunch of money betting on them. In early April I traveled to Georgia with Stan, and in a span of three days attended the National Championship game at the Georgia Dome between Louisville and Michigan (L'Ville won), then drove to Augusta and watched the Wednesday practice round at the Masters. An amazing three days that I'll never forget. What a gift from my buddy Stan.

We took a summer vacation which I will write up in another post, and spent lots of time at the bowling alley again this summer.

The last few weeks, since we got back from vacation have been tough for me. I always dread the beginning of school, I miss the kids so much. Add in the downer I get from returning from vacation, and that Olivia is now in high school, and this year was a double gut punch. A college friend of mine, and husband of one of Kristin's college friends, killed himself just about two weeks ago. While I hadn't talked with him in several years, this really hit me. He suffered from depression, and had been for several years apparently. This brought up the feelings and thoughts I've been having for a couple years about myself, which led to Kristin and I talking about me for a while. As I explained to Kristin, I love my life. My family is the BEST! I'm just so scared of what the future will be like when the kids grow up and move away, and if anything were ever to happen with Kristin. Everyone says you have to stay in the present...and I try to do that. It's hard to look back, just because I know things will continue to move away from that. And I can't look forward, because it's so damn scary. So that leaves me with today, which I always try to make the most of and enjoy. Hopefully from talking with Kristin about my feelings I can find a way to enjoy the times we had when the kids were smaller, look forward to the great things that will happen in the future, and enjoy each day along the road.

Long Overdue

I'm just realizing that it's been almost 11 months since my last past. I've recorded much of those 11 months either on video or with still pictures, but mostly without my thoughts attached. I'm going to update as best I can in this post, so settle in.

Luke did wonderfully last school year, although he didn't seem his happy self as often as usual. When he told me one day in the car that he wakes up happy every day, but when he gets to school that goes away, I knew we had to look at alternatives. St. Francis has been great for our girls, but the classroom setup and teaching style just wasn't working for Luke. 3 weeks ago he started at Allen Park Elementary and seems to be loving it. He's in a classroom with kids that are more at his level, and that's allowing him to keep working and stay focused on doing a great job like he always does. He misses his buddies, but he's already made new friends, went to a party this past weekend, and has really adjusted well. One of my favorite parts of the new situation is that I get to ride bikes with Luke to school and home from school every day. It gives us about 10 minutes each way of time for just the two of us, which is so precious.

Kristin and I had a really hard time with this decision, but in the end it was the right one. The older we get, the harder it becomes to change from our patterns. But as you'll see later in this post, we got a chance for spontaneity over the summer.

Luke is playing guitar, he's learned parts of Enter Sandman, Back in Black, Smoke on the Water, Simple Man and Iron Man among others. He's a gifted young man. He's showing a renewed interest in playing baseball again, and asked if I could set up some golf lessons and take him up to the course to play. I'll definitely do that, and look forward to spending time with him out on the course.

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Claire has probably had the least amount of change over the past 11 months. Her school year had the typical bumps that comes with 6th grade. Feelings of being left out, girls being nasty to her, spending LOTS of time on her hair and nails in particular...all things Claire has been dealing with. 7th grade seems to have started out better than 6th ended, so I am hopeful that her friends have moved through their phase of exclusion, are all more comfortable with themselves, and can get back to being nice girls to each other. Claire made the 7th/8th grade volleyball team, she was very excited about that. She an excellent athlete, so it wasn't a surprise to the rest of us.

Claire also had a terrific travel basketball season. She grew a lot, figuratively, over the course of the season. She played a lot of minutes, against excellent talent, and played well. She was named the MVP of one tournament, repeated as the State of Florida free throw champ in her age group (made 60 out of 65), and her team made it to the state championship. I don't know how long she's going to continue to want to play travel hoops though. As she's getting a little older, the distraction of hair, nails, boys, etc. seems to be drawing her away a little. Obviously that sort of bums me out because I enjoy watching her play so much. But as long as she sticks with it at school, I guess that's OK.

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Olivia has experienced the most change since my last post, and it's been a whirlwind for her since about April of this year. She graduated from St. Francis in May, preceded by a graduation dance and a class trip to Busch Gardens. I was fortunate to be able to chaperone on that trip...what a blessing. I got to watch her have so much fun with her friends. It allowed me to remember back fondly to my 8th grade trip, running around the park with my friends, kings of the hill in our own minds. That's how she looked and seemed to me, and it was great.

After the dance we had about 20 kids over to our house. They were all very nice, and it was a great way to culminate the 10 years she spent with many of these kids at SFX. There were several kids I have known since they were 3 or 4 years old at our house. They were just babies back then. There was one boy left once everyone else left, his mother was late picking him up. I sat and talked with him for about 20 minutes. That's when it hit me how much they had grown. We talked about baseball and music, high school, vacations and things like that. Olivia sat on the couch and kind of just listened, I wondered what she was thinking about. She had been crying when I got to the gym to pick her up. I thought something was wrong, but it turns out she didn't want it to end because she knew her time at SFX was basically over. I'm glad that SFX provided so many great feelings for her, and I'm glad we were able to make that happen.

At her graduation, the principal and assistant principal stood and gave academic awards up on the altar. There were a couple of special awards, for different things. Then a representative from Bishop Verot High School, where Olivia now attends, came to the altar. He was presenting an award to a student that exemplified leadership, Christian values, determination and all the values you would want your child to have. It is named after a former teacher at Verot. As he was talking, it struck me...he's describing Olivia! When he was just about to announce the winner, I had this flush feeling come over me, I knew it had to be her. Sure enough, he said Olivia Woolam, and all the people in the church began a loud applause. Several of Olivia's teachers began to tear up. It felt so good for her, and for Kristin and I obviously. It was such a superb way to end her SFX life, and so well deserved.

Olivia immediately started playing basketball with our Verot team, going to camps over the summer at the University of Tampa and The University of Miami. She played well, and fit in with the team. One of the seniors had a team sleepover, and Olivia joined them. She's doing wonderfully with the team, and I'm sure she will continue to thrive.

School started for Olivia a couple of weeks ago, and she has experienced so much already. They had a freshman retreat, where they do service work, spend time with each other and seniors, play some games and sleep on campus at school. The next day there is a mass, with parents included. She was so EXCITED, even after the retreat!! She told us all about it, some of the new kids she met, etc. Last Friday was the first home football game, which we all attended. I enjoyed sitting and just getting to spend some time talking with my beautiful wife, while the kids ran all around the stadium. It was nice. The next night, Olivia went to her first high school dance, TWIRP. The girls ask the guys to this dance, and sure enough Olivia asked a boy she didn't know 3 weeks ago. Overall she had a fun time she says, even though she was introduced to high school girl behavior when someone started flirting with the boy she asked. Such is life in high school.


That's life with the kids right now. I've left off so many things that they have said or done over the past 11 months, too many to recount here. But they are in my heart. They are so beautiful, all three of them. They seem happy, they care for others, and each other. They are my lifeblood. I love how they think they can do anything (and they can), they always see the good in others, in things, in circumstances. They are wonderful role models.

End of the First Quarter

WOW! What a first couple of months of the 2012-2013 school year! Luke joined boy scouts, as you can see above. He already has competed in the rain gutter regatta, had a camping trip (no we didn't spend the night), and several meetings. He's really enjoying it, because all of his close "bros" are involved as well. He's playing soccer, and loving it. Again, most of his close buds are on the team, and I'm coaching along with a couple of his friend's Dads, and everyone is having a great time.

As for school, he's totally killing it. His reading skills are off the charts, and he writes even better. I was blessed to be able to substitute in his class for a week - what an eye opener! I laughed, I cried, laughed and cried some more. Several of the other teachers said they heard I was doing a great job, and I really tried to soak it all in. How many chances do you get to teach your kid's class for a whole week? I took a picture of all of them during a lesson, I'd like to write a little about each one and see where they are 7 years from now when they graduate.

Speaking of graduating from St. Francis, Olivia aced her grades and earned Franciscan honors for the first quarter. She was one of three kids to earn it in 8th grade. That's two quarters in a row for her, she has really set a high bar for herself. She also went to the high school where she will probably go for a day to learn about the school. She qualified to take the PSAT along with about 50 other 8th graders from Fort Myers. Her basketball season starts at SFX next week, and I know she's excited. She's been shooting 100 3's a day in the driveway and making about 45% - that's awesome!!

Claire hit the ground running in middle school, and also earned Franciscan honors. She was the only 6th grader to achieve that level. Claire has had some friend issues this quarter, like many other middle schoolers do. But she has handled them with grace, as far as we know, and was awarded the St Francis Award - which is given to someone who displays a Christ like attitude. We are very proud of her efforts both with her work and her character.

As for Claire's sports, she was one of the leaders of the school volleyball team, which went undefeated! Claire seems to be enjoying volleyball more and more. I'm glad she's having fun. Her travel basketball team open gyms have also started. The coach said she will probably get a good amount of time. She has definitely improved over the past 12 months and I hope this year is a good experience for her.

That's about it right now, everyone is in a good groove, and the BV basketball season starts tonight. The CEO got some good news about her workload lightening some, which is great. I've started to plan our cross country trip as well, so excited about that!

Here's to keeping things rolling in the right direction :)

A Tri Weekend

This past weekend was one of firsts for our family. We've been training since July for the Captiva Triathlon; doing family bike rides, running in the street in front of our house, swimming together at lunch and after work. We had some really good times doing the training, particularly on the bike rides when we were able to share our daily activities and thoughts. What a blessing those times together were!

The weekend started with Luke's race; 100 yard swim, 1.5 mile bike and half mile run. He was excited to do it, and had done a nice job with his training. He was a little concerned about the swim, thinking sharks or other sea creatures might get him. As the race was beginning, and his wave was preparing to enter the water, he completely freaked out about his goggles. He wouldn't get in the water, and his wave took off. Claire came over and yelled at him to get in the water, I snatched her goggles from her and gave them to Luke, and he dashed into the water. He swam wonderfully, and came out of the water ready to rock the bike. When he came back in, he was starting to look a little tired, but he headed out for the run. A couple times on the run he threw his hands up as if to say "how much longer can I go??" Well, he sucked it up, and crossed the finish line to grab his medal in a total time of about 20 minutes - awesome!

Next came Claire's race; 200 yard swim, 3 mile bike and a 1 mile run. Before the race started, a local news crew saw Claire and interviewed her about the race. We didn't know it at the time, but they followed her throughout the race, and interviewed her again at the end of the race. She'll be highlighted in a show about the race, in a couple weeks, she's gonna eat that up! When the race started, she went bananas on the swim, blowing by people right and left. After taking forever to get out of transition because she was taking so long drying her feet, she hopped on her bike and rode away. She started the run slightly ahead of her classmate, but her passed her on the run course. Even so, she had a great first tri, finishing in just over 25 minutes, way under her expected time!

Sunday brought the adult race, and Olivia's first shot at an adult tri (1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 5k run). Grandpop did it too, his first tri after 80. And it was my first tri that I would do with Olivia. Grandpop started in the first wave, Olivia in the 3rd, and I started in the 5th. As I watched her talking with another younger girl, I was so proud of her. She's so willing to take on new challenges, and has a quiet confidence that she will conquer it. I entered the water wanting to catch her as soon as I could, and that propelled me to a great swim time. I exited South Seas, racing down Captiva, along the Gulf, soaking in the beautiful scenery. I caught her about a third of the way on the bike, and pushed her as best I could. She did fantastic. We passed Grandpop at around the 7 mile mark, saw an awesome osprey right before we pulled back into transition, and jogged out onto the run course.

The run is always a battle of attrition for almost every triathlete. I knew this would be the same for Olivia, so I tried my best to keep her positive. I also wanted her to keep pushing herself though, to enjoy the views of the gulf, to enjoy all the hard work she had put in. She kept pushing, and was doing fantastic, but she started to have some stomach problems. But she fought through it, and crossed the finish line at 1:32:00!! Almost 15 minutes faster than we expected! I gave her a big hug after we crossed the line, and we walked to grab our medals. Grandpop finished about 15 minutes later! Olivia and Grandpop both got trophies for their performance, which was pretty neat. The oldest and the youngest people in the race were both Woolams, and champions!

It was a great weekend with everyone, including the CEO, Grandmom and Oma cheering us all on. It was a beautiful setting, doing healthy things, and doing them together as a family....it doesn't get any better than that!!

We are a month into the school year, and things are running pretty smoothly so far. It's a year of change and transition for everyone, and each is doing a nice job of managing the transition.

Luke is thriving in first grade, and he gets to see Grandpop pretty regularly in class thanks to Gpa's reading assignments. he got his hair cut, and likes it quite a bit because he "can hear better", since the hair has been cut away from his ears. He has joined the cub scouts...first meeting this week! He's not in the same class as his two closest friends, and thus wanted to carry around pictures of them so he didn't miss them as much. He's preparing for his first triathlon this weekend, and he's been swimming, running and riding his bike regularly. He's such a great little guy!

Claire is in 6th grade, dealing with middle school and all that goes with it. She is doing fantastic with her grades, and doesn't seem sucked into the middle school drama, just yet. She tried out for and made the volleyball team, and is no doubt one of the leaders of the club. They just played their first game against the school rival, winning in three sets...she was the point leader for the team. Claire is also doing her first tri this weekend, and is very nervous about the swim. She's been training hard and will do fantastic, because that's who she is.

Then there is Olivia. 8th grade. Queen of the Hill. It's her 10th year at St. Francis, how does the time go so fast?? She is really coming into her own as a person it seems. She has always been confident, but now she seems comfortable with who she is. And that's great, because she is a wonderful young lady. Of course she's doing well with her grades, and she's learning lessons about trust and loyalty with her friends. she has been training hard for the same triathlon, although she's doing the adult race with me. She's nervous for sure, but she'll be fine, because she's got a tough determination. I got to ride with Olivia on a training ride for about 90 minutes, and she talked about school, girls and boys in her class, Halloween parties, basketball, you name it. How much fun for me to get to listen to her sharing about her life. I sure hope that never changes.

I'm so proud of all three, how they attack their challenges and enjoy the ride. I'm so lucky to be able to share in their lives. Keep after it guys!

Goodbye to Summer 2012

Summer 2012 is over tonight. The kids are shown above, celebrating the wonderful 10 weeks with their End Of Summer Cake on "Eat Anything You Want Day" to end the summer. I find it so hard to capture all of the feelings that happen on a day to day basis when writing, even when I make regular entries. This will probably be no different.

The Bear spent much of the summer bowling with me and her brother, as she didn't do any camps this summer. She did work on her scrapbook, and she spent three weeks in the Poconos with Gma and Gpa. She seemed to miss the family more than usual when she spent her time in the mountains without us. She and her brother spent hour upon hour together this summer, playing in the house, riding bikes together, bowling (high score 147!), you name it. They are so tight. It was a good summer for her, I think she needed a break from the stress that she puts on herself regarding basketball and school. It was good time spent, just kind of hanging out, relaxing, spending time with her family, and preparing for middle school. I can't believe I just wrote that. Claire is in middle school. Wow. Anyway, I know she's nervous, but like most things, she'll knock it out of the park. As O said about Claire, borrowing from an Olympics commercial this summer "When you meet Claire, you better tighten your skates." So true. She had a wonderful time in the Poconos with Gma and Gpa. They spent almost two weeks up there with them, and for the most part, everything went well. I think Claire missed home, she never said that, but she called a lot. We of course missed her too.

The Tornado had a very busy summer, and one I think he really enjoyed. He started by taking a two week swim lesson through the city swim program. He swam laps for about an hour a day, for four weeks. He's excited about preparing for his triathlon in September, and was thrilled to learn the different strokes in class. He had so much fun, he asked to sign up again, so we gave him two more weeks of it. He might not be a lot better than he was when he started, but he's a lot more confident, and that will definitely help him in the race. He bowled a lot (high score 117!) with his sister as mentioned above, along with doing pretty much everything with her. We put up a tent in the living room and they slept in there for about a week and a half. They loved it! A little later in the summer he went to golf camp for a week. He seems to like the game of golf, and was the only guy to hit a "bomb" over the creek - nice job buddy! He spent a week in the Poconos with the rest of us, and soaked up every minute of it. Jumping off "da branch", playing horseshoes, swimming at Blakeslee trail, tubing and jumping off the rope swing into the Lehigh River, jumping off the waterfalls at Hawks Falls, riding rides at Knoebels amusement park, and just hanging in the woods behind the house - simple but great fun! A great way to end the summer.

Then there's O. What a different summer from years past. First, she just SEEMS older. He mannerisms, her actions, what she talks about, all have the feel of a real teenager, which she is! She spent two weeks as a counselor in training at Sanibel Sea School. She was the youngest counselor, so she spent much of the time hanging out with kids that are in high school and even college. She got a lot out of it though, and I think working with a lot of young kids really opened her eyes. She worked out with the high school basketball team in June as well, doing all the drills and scrimmages. She held her own pretty well too, I'm looking forward to having her in the gym permanently. She also spent two weeks in the Poconos with my parents by herself, riding horses, and doing all the other great stuff I mentioned above. She bowled a little too, not nearly as much as the other two kids. She's very excited to start 8th grade, hard to believe her years at SFX are coming to a close.

We didn't go on any unique or different trips this summer, we did spend the one week in the mountains, which was great. We watched the Olympics together quite a bit as a family. That was a lot of fun, watching young people chase their dreams and watching my kids imitate the athletes in and around the house. It was a very special summer. I got to spend a lot of time with the younger two, and some good days with O. And really, that's what makes me happiest...getting to spend time with them, have fun with them, workout with them, do work around the house with them, and play with them, that's what I love the most.