It’s hard to believe that my little Jakers is not my little Jakers anymore!  He’s actually quite tall now and he has his driving permit!  Gasp!  You blink your eyes and they are suddenly 14.  We had an amazing birthday celebration for him, by the way, but that will be another post.  Has anyone noticed that I still haven’t posted from Reece’s birthday party in May?  Gasp, again!!

Jake is a huge lover of the sport of golf and he was on the course all summer long.  He’s driven, he’s focused, he’s always “all in,” and he’s an absolute blast to watch.  I love seeing his expressions, I love seeing how he interacts with other players, and let’s just face it, he’s looking sharp in his golf clothes.  As summer came to an end and Fall sports began, we realized his club soccer team is comprised of 99% high school students.  What this means for Jake is, he has no team in the Fall while those teammates are playing for their high schools.  At first I was a little freaked out by this.  For so many years we do our normal crazy life of 18 million soccer games.  And change is hard for me!  In hindsight, this has been perfect.  This freed up his weekends to play the US Kids Golf circuit.

Jake has played every weekend at numerous golf courses in the KC area and played some excellent rounds of golf!!  I couldn’t be more proud of him!  Although I don’t get to be at most of the tournaments because I’m not his normal caddie, and it’s my job to get the rest of the kids to their activities, I am always up to date on just about every stroke he takes- thanks to the normal caddies – Brian and my dad.

This is “Papa Bear” as Jake has appropriately named him and they will talk about golf and watch golf 24-7.  They love spending time together and are always having a good laugh about who knows what!?  They always seem like they’re ‘up to no good,’ as they say.  Papa Bear is always out for the thrill of getting something free – so he picks up tons of golf balls along the way as he watches his grandkids play.  Check his pockets…they are always full!

And he always has this advice….LOOK AT YOUR PUTTS BOTH WAYS!  I bet I’ve heard this a billion times and it makes me smile every time.  However, this fetish he has with finding free golf balls is getting ridiculous!

Jake ended up in 3rd place for the Fall season among some very talented golfers and that’s an amazing accomplishment!  He of course wants to be in 1st and qualify to go play at Pinehurst, but a very solid season, nonetheless.  It’s been ups, downs, torrential downpours, it’s been a wild and fun ride!  I have no doubt there are many more tournaments in his future.  This kid has his sights set on playing college golf.  GO JAKE!

Whoa…struggling to find a place to start here.  This is the first day I actually feel like a somewhat normal person since returning from the 6A State Championship in Hutchinson, KS, with a fat speeding ticket in hand.  That’s right, I got out of there so fast, that I actually got a speeding ticket!  Doesn’t that officer know that I’m tired, completely wind-blown, and emotionally drained after watching my precious daughter agonize for days.  I mean, does this guy not have daughters!?  Surely he understands!?  Well no he doesn’t, he just sees my Johnson county plates and Patagonia coat in the passenger seat and he wants to stick it to me.  Ok fine, so I’m bitter about it.

Moving on. The girls arrived in Hutch on Sunday morning to play a practice round–9 sets of clubs and pull carts + luggage in 1 school van and 1 suburban.  eek!

On day 1, with wind gusts up to 60mph in the prairie lands of Hutch, these girls were fighting hard.  Morgan had an amazing first 9 holes in these conditions.  In fact she was sitting in a great position after 9, among 90 girls.  Job very well done, Mo!

The next 9 holes didn’t go the way she wanted and she ended up shooting 100.  She strives to shoot under 100, but in these conditions, I was so happy with what she did.  Especially considering there are girls out here that hire private coaches and practice in their basements all winter long.  As much as you try to console, it’s just flat out HARD to get mentally re-set.  There were tears, there were hugs, and there was Brian cussing out the taxi company that was late to pick him up to take him to Wichita to catch a flight for a business trip.  Anything to keep the day interesting!  

The head coach was sick in her room, the assistant coach was taking an on-line class in his room, so all the girls piled into my van (1 on the floorboard) and I took them to dinner.  We had a good time and spirits were fine considering we had just found out that our team was tied for 6th place (top 6 teams advance to play the next day), and we lost in the tie-breaker.

However, Morgan, and 3 of her teammates did qualify to play as individuals based on their Day 1 scores.  YAY!!

As I arrived at the course on Day 2, I reminded Morgan to just have fun and be grateful to be there, grateful to be playing on Day 2.  Many other girls had to pack up and go home and the weather was better–a sigh of relief.

The first 3 holes went well!  Then the wheels fell off and mentally Morgan was just not there.  I would like to be able to explain how that feels as a mom to watch your child mentally suffer for 6 hours, but I can’t actually put it into words.  She’s always the bright spot, the encourager, the happy one!

All I know, is whether she’s first or last, I’m always proud.  Some days do not go as we hope, but she’s a healthy, bright, beautiful, and hard-working young lady.  She’s honestly, the most amazing 16 year old I have ever known.  I  assure you that I was never that awesome when I was in High School, and I was a good kid!

Here are a few shots of her during the tournament!  These girls are AMAZING.  Some people may not be fans of the sport or think it’s boring and long.  I have an appreciation for these student athletes like I’ve never had before.  They have to be skilled and mentally tough and quite honestly, many of us could never hack it.  Congratulations to all these young ladies who came this far in the season!Last year Morgan shot her best round at the state tournament and I know she had hopes to do it again, and I think this pressure was the downfall.  It’s time to put this cart she’s been living on for the last 3 months, AWAY, and re-focus!  WE ADORE YOU MORGAN and you deserve everything good in life!  GO GIRL….we see you being AWESOME every day!

On a sidenote–we put together the best goodies bags for our girls!!  They deserve every bit of it!  Victoria Klausner, our #1, took 3rd place at State — she’s amazing!!

Morgan had so many well wishes from friends and family and we appreciate it so much!  Our favorite was a video clip she received from this precious little one that she babysat this summer…

Ok I guess I’ll get back to paying my stupid speeding ticket.  Ugh.

 

 

Somehow this 11 year old has ventured into middle school and eligible to run cross country.  Just a second ago he was in Kindergarten, I swear!

The kid can RUN!!  Without hesitation, we signed him up and Jake as well.  Jake ended up ditching at the last minute to play football – but that’s an entirely different post!  It’s a short season,  practicing 4 days a week, and most of the season was boiling hot.  Not to mention, Drew is playing on 2 soccer teams and a competitive basketball team right now.  EEK!  Needless to say, from time to time, we let him skip practice and prayed for the season to be over so we didn’t get turned in for over exerting our kiddo.  Our good friend, Stacey, spotted Drew along the road running one afternoon and she almost picked him up, she felt so sorry for him!  LOL!

 

Don’t worry, he’s a beast!  Most days, he said he could keep running, he wasn’t even very tired.  He must get this from his mom!  Actually, I don’t like to use this word, but I HATE running 😉  I love to exercise, but going on a run is terribly boring to me.  So, thankfully, my boys are not taking after me in that area.

In 6th grade, the number of runners is plentiful.  Then it starts to tail off as the kids get older and realize that running is hard.  Look at all these 6th grade boys!And they’re off!!Within 6 minutes and 34 seconds, Drew as crossing the finish line and we were rushing off to the next activity.  It literally takes longer to get in and out of the high school parking lot than it takes to watch the meet.  Look out…that ONW parking lot is treacherous!  It’s a wonder any of those students make it out of there without it being a crash up derby.A fantastic 2nd place finish for our Drew!

The 2nd meet was against Frontier Trail and Oregon Trail and a rain shower came through right at the start.  They finished and another 2nd place finish.  He’s got this figured out!

He clocked in at 5:48 for his mile run.  That’s my boy!

 

The 3rd meet was back at the ONW course and was against Mission Trail and Chisholm Trail.  He improved his time to 6:19 on this course and another 2nd place finish!  We aren’t sure how he managed that because he got tripped and trampled at the start!!  Love the perseverance to overcome that one!

Finally, at the pinnacle of the season, the ALL CITY meet was held at CBAC and it’s an 8am race.  And it was cool for once!!  Unfortunately, Drew never feels great in the morning.  Generally he has a stomach ache and it takes him forever just to get a granola bar down the hatch.   With the combination of nerves and the early hour, he struggled to gear up and decided not to sprint at the start which had been his strategy in the previous races and worked well for him.  He ended up missing a medal by one place and took 11th.  Which I personally think is amazing out of all of those schools!!  That’s a huge accomplishment!  He knew he could do better so he was disappointed.

He sprinted past the finish line and all the talk in the stands with PRT parents was….Drew must be sick if he’s not coming in 1st for Prairie Trail.  Every meet this season he was 1st for his school.

PRT took 2nd place in the city in 6th grade boys, 7th grade girls and boys, and 3rd in 8th grade girls. Out of ten schools, this is an amazing accomplishment!  Way to go Huskies!

It’s been such a great season and no matter where I went, if I ran into people from school, they always commented on what a great runner and athlete Drew is.  SO PROUD of him for trying something new and excelling.  I already can’t wait until next season!  I know this won’t shock most of you, but I pretty much tear up at every meet because I’m so proud of all of those kids out there!