Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Connor's last basketball game with the Beaches Basketball League


Connor had his last game of the season today with the Beaches Basketball League. It's been a tough season for him and his team. Unlike some of the previous leagues he's been with, this league had a different strategy for putting together the teams and allowed teams that had been together previously to setup their own teams. We didn't know anyone and just put his name in and he was randomly assigned to a team. There were no tryouts, and no balancing to the teams. Although the league had 4th and 5th graders playing together, Connor's team was all 4th graders and they were the smallest and most inexperienced team. They played 8 games and Connor's team only won one. Sadly, Connor wasn't at the game they won.

Today, at his last game, Connor tried his hardest. He's improved throughout the year and has been practicing at home quite a bit, but it was all for naught. They lost 4-17. Connor had a few chances to score and unfortunately the ball just didn't drop in for him.


The team today was probably the tallest and biggest they played against. There were two fifth graders that were super tall. At one point, Connor tried to shoot on the tallest boy. Connor was jumping up and the shot was completely out of his hand. The tall boy was able to stuff him without even having to jump.

After the game, the kids all got balls to take home. While the team was in the room getting their balls, I took a pic of Connor next to the tall boy. His mom laughed when she saw us taking the pic and she mentioned that her son was projected to be 6'5" when he grew up. Maybe we'll see him in the NBA some day!


After the game, I took Connor to Whits and we celebrated with some frozen custard. He's had such a good attitude throughout the season and we are proud of his effort and for working hard.

Harriet Tubman


Paige has been learning so much at school, and unlike Connor, she likes to talk about some of it when she gets home. We've talked about Abraham Lincoln recently and this past week she's been wanting to discuss Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad at every opportunity. Today at lunch, Paige was pouting for some reason and Andrea asked her to talk about something and Paige said 'no'. I said: "Well fine, I want to talk about Harriet Tubman!" and it brought a smile to her face and we all had a laugh. I had Andrea take a picture of my cute girl with me so I could remember.

Compete, Beat and Eat - Rice Krispie Challenge

 On Saturday night, Connor and Paige went to the Compete, Beat and Eat - Rice Krispie Challenge at the Inn & Club. Andrea and I went to dinner with Ross and Gina at Nona Blue.

When we picked up the kids, Connor made a mini-restaurant out of his rice krispies and candy.


Paige made about fifty magic wands with sticks and candies on them.


They ate dinner and had fun with the counselors and friends. When I picked them up, I asked one of the counselors Anastasia if the kids had been good. She said that Connor and Paige were both awesome and that they are the good examples for the other kids. I'm proud of our sweet children for always being good and making us proud.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

New bike for Daddy and visit to Branchy with Paige


On Sunday, I was out with the kids in the afternoon and wanted to ride my bike, but the tires have been flat on it and it was never a very good bike anyways. I decided to buy a new bike and got one at the local bike shop. When we got home, Paige went for a ride with me out to the North Island and we visited a vacant lot with a sad little lonely tree on it that Paige calls "Branchy". She loves that little tree and we have visited it a few times. Paige brought Branchy a little bottle of water and shared it with the tree. She's such a sweetie.


Kiawah weekend

This past weekend we went to Kiawah to try the tennis program and to have a nice family weekend together. Connor and Paige went to the camp there, which was a more laid back fun camp, not focused on any particular sport. Andrea and I had heard good things about the tennis program, which was ranked as #1 on some tennis review websites.


We checked in to the condo and I took a quick video when we arrived. It was pretty small, but very nice and clean. The showers were wonderful.


We took the kids to the camp on Friday and Saturday and the kids loved it. They both didn't want to leave when we came to pick them up, and begged us to go back. I don't remember a camp that they both liked so well. Sadly, the tennis was not what Andrea and I liked. First off, the clinics were held on two of the only hard courts at the facility, which had large cracks in the courts and weren't in the best condition. The regular clinics were super slow paced, with 100% fed balls and no playing out points. Very boring. the "drill" clinic was a little more fast paced, but the games were pretty simple and not very challenging. We were surprised we didn't enjoy it very much.

We explored the grounds, which were spread out and required us to drive quite a bit to get from one side to the other. We went to the golf clubhouse on the far East side of the island, it took around ten minutes to get there. There weren't many places to eat, and they were all pricey since everything was part of the Kiawah resort.


We ate at the BBQ restaurant, and the food was pretty good. There were also quite a few big gators laying out by the sidewalk near the restaurant. We took a picture from far away, then got braver and took a picture a bit closer. The kids were cautious about it and couldn't believe that Andrea and I wanted to get closer.






Andrea and I took a walk on the beach and got to spend some time together Saturday. After another underwhelming experience with the tennis clinics, we decided to go home early on Saturday instead of staying for the rest of the weekend. We enjoyed our day at home on Sunday, and it was a nice end to the weekend.



Tuesday, February 14, 2017

10 Year blog anniversary

Yesterday was the 10 year blog anniversary.

I can't believe I've been doing this for 10 years now. The first post was a pic of Andrea, when Connor was still in her tummy. 10 years later so much has changed.

It's amazing to look back on everything and I'm thankful I've kept up on the blog over time. We always find ourselves looking back on the blog and checking when things occurred in our lives. Week by week, I've documented what we've been up to. Our ups and downs as a family, and our milestones.

Each year we've printed a book with the pictures and posts and I'll post a pic of them ASAP.

Triples night at PVIC


Andrea and I attended a Triples night mixer at the club on Saturday. Addy, one of Andrea's teammates, organized it and invited us. We'd never played triples before, and it was quite the workout and very fast paced. We both played well and had fun with everyone. It was nice to be included in the event. After tennis, we had our picture taken on a little Polaroid type camera, and then went to dinner at 3 Palms Grille with the group.

Paige is student of the week!


Paige earned "Student of the week" in her class this past week. For a reward, she was given a free Slushie coupon and we redeemed it over the weekend. We're excited for Paige and it's cute to see her so proud of herself. Great work Paige!

Connor and Wolfie


Connor got to hang out with his buddy Wolfie a few times last week. He went to the neighborhood movie night, and then over to Wolfie's house for a while on Friday night.


On Sunday, Connor went to Wolfie's house in the morning and then they all went up to Dave & Buster's for Wolfie's birthday party.


Stuffed animal photo shoot


It was story time with Paige and we imagined that her little stuffed animals were at school and it was picture day. We took pictures with each one, and I decided it was too cute not to keep the pictures.






Monday, February 6, 2017

Trevor's 10th birthday party


On Saturday, Connor went to his buddy Trevor's 10th birthday party. The kids all started out at Dave and Buster's for some games and lunch and then went to Velocity to jump on trampolines and run around and be wild.

After the party, they all went to Trevor's for a sleepover and stayed up well past midnight. We met the Haskins at Cheesecake Factory for lunch on Sunday and Connor was almost asleep on his feet when we saw him get out of the car. We made him take a nap in the afternoon since he wanted to stay awake for the Superbowl, and I had to wake him up after a few hours so he wouldn't sleep all night. He definitely had a fun time and I'm glad he got to spend some time with his buddies from our old neighborhood.



Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Our new tennis star - Paige at Oakbridge

Paige was definitely not a natural with tennis in the beginning. I can remember the first few times taking her out and seeing her swing and completely miss the ball, misjudging bounces, having trouble deciding to hit forehand or backhand. She has always enjoyed lessons and going out to play, always had a great attitude, and she has been improving quite a bit lately. Paige usually goes to Oakbridge for tennis once or twice per week with Connor, and this week Andrea took a few videos of Paige taking her turn hitting with the coach. She's definitely turned a corner and is able to get the ball back, and in, with much more consistency.





We're proud of how much she's improved and how hard she always tries. She's our little tennis star!