Round off Back Handspring

Ali has been working on her back handspring as well as making the connection between her round off and back handspring.  Today she trained with the head coach and she got it!  She still needs to work on it but she completed it!  The video isn't the best because I was so far away but you can still see it.

Hip update

I do not have good news to report on my hip.  I haven't quite digested it all yet so bare with me.  I saw the doctor on Monday.  My expectation was he was say to have surgery then rehab and then back to normal activity.  Well, he did say surgery and then 6 months of no real activity and NO MORE RUNNING!  He said if I wanted to run it would be a 2 mile maximum.  This is awful news to me as most of you know I love running.  He said that if I was planning on running after the surgery then there was no point in doing the surgery because I would just end up needed a total hip replacement. I was in such shock I couldn't think of any questions.  I had Sofia with me in the room as well and while I was trying to be brave and not cry for what I was losing so that Sofia wouldn't be worried she broke down in tears because she felt bad for me.  It was very sweet and I guess was a good distraction for me so that I held it together.  On Tuesday I sent an email off to the Doctor's assistant with a bunch of questions that I couldn't think off after hearing the shocking news.  I received more unexpected information.  I thought I would be on crutches for 2 weeks.  I was wrong.  His PA called me back and told me to expect to be on crutches for 6 weeks and I won't be able to drive for 4 weeks!  I have worked on shifting schedules and finding friends to drive the kids around for the beginning of summer as my surgery is scheduled for June 24th.  I'm feeling a little better emotionally and can now talk about it without choking up.  It will be an adjustment but I will just have to find another sport to enjoy.  Such is life! :)

Kirsty's visit

My girlfriend from Prague sent me an email asking if I wanted a visitor to which I of course responded "YES!".  She booked her flight and arrive on April 17th.  I was so excited and happy to know she was coming.  Kirsty is one of the first people I met in Prague and has been such a great friend.  I was excited for her to come and show her around New England as she had never been to this area before.  As when I would come back to the States I would shop, when Kirsty came we also shopped.  Clothing is so much cheaper her especially with the outlets that is just makes sense to buy things here (although I do miss Promod and Vero Moda in Prague).






Between shopping and toting the kids around to all their activities we managed to bring Kirsty up to the white mountains.  We had to share Polly's Pancake Parlor with her as well as Fraconia Notch.
We did a short hike a mile up a trail to lo
ok at some waterfalls and then headed back down.  The mountain still had snow on it though so going up any further without proper footwear was not advised.  It was beautiful to just walk in the woods and see the waterfall though.  We headed back home with a stop in at the Tilton dinner for another slice of Americana...milkshakes, cheesy fries and fried pickles.  It is fun to have guests because then we can eat the crazy american foods we almost never indulge in.  We had never even had fried pickles before.  I will admit they were pretty good although I can't ever

see ordering them again.

I then took Kirsty down to RI while the kids were in school.  I love RI and love to share it with people.  The beaches are just amazing and the sand is like powder so I took Kirsty down to Sand Hill Cove, Gallilee, Iggy's Chowder House, out on the rocks off Ocean Drive and Narraganset Pier.  After a tour of the shore we headed into Johnston to D. Palmieri's bakery because there is no way to describe bakery pizza to an outsider.  They have to tast it for themselves to understand just how delicious it is!  After picking up bakery pizza it was off to Smithfield to show her the neighborhood I grew up in but more importantly we went to Del's.  Again there is no way to accurately describe Del's.  She just had to have it and she loved it.  How could you not!

As a final night of sharing our area we took Kirsty into the North End for dinner at Giacomo's.  It was worth the wait as usual.  The dinner is excellent.  After dinner we went to get cannolis but along the way we saw a fireman responding to a call and we started to talk to him.  He believed that Modern pastry was the better cannoli where as Jason and I have always gone to Mike's pastry.  We decided to finally give Modern a try.  After taking a bite I headed to Mike's to get some cannoli.  Kirsty preferred Modern pastry and Jason and I agree that the shell at Modern is better but we like the filling at Mike's pastry better.  Either way they are both delicious   It was beautiful night in the city and a great way to end Kirsty's trip.

Athletics

The girls are busy as ever with all their athletic activities.  Sofia started with a new swim team at the beginning of April.  The team is awesome.  The coaches are fantastic.  They work the kids hard and expect the kids to give full effort.  The coaches are engaged with the kids and truly want the kids to improve.  Sofia has had more coaching in the last month than she has had in the last year and a half.  Her new team incorporates dry land training along with the swim training.  Some days it is shoulder work, push ups, squats, lunges and some days it is a mile and a half run before getting int he pool to swim for an hour.  The kids in the program are very nice and Sofia is already friends with her team mates.  She has her first swim meet with this team on Friday night.  It will be her first 50 meter race in a 50 meter pool.  She is scheduled for a 50 freestyle, 50 breast and a 100 back.  Unfortunately I can't be there for the meet but Jason will be so I will let you know how she does.

Sofia also started Softball at the beginning of April.  Her coach is impressed with her arm.  She told me she has one of the best arms on the team which is surprising since this is her first year playing softball.  The problem with softball from a spectator view is that it is painful to watch as ground balls roll past the kids.  Unlike soccer you can't fudge your way through beginner softball.  If you miss a grounder or don't catch a pass it is glaringly obvious.  I will say though that the kids have already started to improve from the beginning of the season.  Jason is working with Sofia in the back yard on her hitting since she either checks her swing into this wimpy swing or she goes big and lets the bat fly out of her hands.  She needs to learn the art of big strong swing with an easy drop of the bat.

The girls school also has a program called "The Marathon Fitness Challenge" in which the kids get a shirt of they rund 13.1 in 8 weeks and a medal if they complete a full 26.2 distance.  Sofia did the 13.1 last year and it was a struggle.  This year I told the girls I would find the time in the schedule to run with them but that I was not going to fight them over it.  For the most part they have been doing great.  We have been running 2.3 miles after school on Tuesdays and then getting in another 1.5 miles during the week.  For Sofia that is usually at swim practice so that leaves the weekend for Ali to run with me.  The girl
s are on track to meet their goal.  They have also signed up for a 2 mile race on memorial day weekend.  They had the option to complete a 1/2 mile, 1 mile or 2 mile race and they opted for the two miler.  The two mile race is no parents allowed to run with the kids so it will be their first solo run.  They have agreed on their own to run together and to encourage each other if the other one tires during the race.

The two mile race is in Vermont on the same weekend Jason is running his first marathon.  The girls are excited to be involved in the marathon weekend activities.  Jason has been training and is now on his taper so things are winding down.  Hopefully the race goes well for him as we is currently struggling with a tight calf and a rotator cuff tendinitis.  (Sucks to be getting old!)  I assume he will beat my time so I joke with him that in order to make all things equal he has to run faster than my time to really beat me as he is a guy.  We have a debate going about weather the difference should be the boston marathon qaulifying time difference or the difference between the elite male/female winners.  It is all in good fun though and I'm sure he will do great!

Swim Banquet

Sofia's swim team had an end of year banquet. Sofia had a blast with her friends.  When we arrived we walked in together but she quickly shooed me over to a table with parents so that she could sit alone with her friends.  It was very cute and hard to believe.  The kids talked and ran around until dinner was served and then they were on the dance floor.  One of the older kids on the team was Dj-ing the banquet and he wanted to shoot a harlem shake video.  While it took forever to get it all sorted out the end result made me laugh.  Sofia really busted out the moves.  It is great to see her being herself and being silly even in front of parents and older kids. You can see her in the bottom right (in the front) of this video.




At the end of the night the coaches gave out the trophies to all the kids as well as all the ribbons the kids won over the course of the season.  Sofia took in quite a haul of ribbons.

Second Grade Science Fair

This year Ali had her turn to participate in the second grade science fair.  Thanks to the handy book Sofia received from Auntie Carlene last year we were able to find a fairly straightforward experiment for Ali to complete.  I mainly let Jason take on the job of science fair.  I tend to want to just get the job done but he is very good at explaining the process and letting the kids work their way through the problems.

Ali decided she wanted to grow crystals.  It didn't require a lot of materials and did not require me to tote containers of water into school so I was happy with the choice.  I have to admit the project was pretty cool and Ali was able to discover what made crystals grow big or small and if they developed quickly or not.  She hand wrote all her notes which I thought was great and I agreed to type them up since they needed to be written quite large to fill the display board.  She writes more neatly than Sofia did at that age (and neater than Sofia now too!) so it was easy to follow her notes.

Vermont Ski Weekend

Last weekend we headed up to Vermont to ski with Jason's brother Matt and family.  The kids were really looking forward to skiing with their cousins and just being able to play with them.  The weekend started off a little dicey wince the 6 inches of snow that we were suppose to get in the early AM Friday tunred into 16 inches that didn't stop coming down until mid afternoon.  I waited until about 2pm and then decided I needed to brave the roads to get Watson down to my parents.  Fortunately my Mom met me at the mall so I didn't have to drive all the way to their house.  Half way to the mall the snow had stopped and the highway was just wet.  It is amazing the difference a short distance can make in a snow storm.  By the time I was heading back home even the highway near us had cleared to just wet pavement so it made for a much easier drive.  The roads in our town were not great but that wasn't a problem.  We ended up hitting the road for VT around 5pm and made good time with no traffic and it only took us anout two and a half hours.  We arrived at the house about 5 minutes before Matt and Jodi so timing ended up being perfect.  The kids played and we all relaxed and chatted.

Saturday we headed over to Magic Mountain to ski.  Jason and I had never skied there before so did not know what to expect but it was a fun mountain.  They only groom about half the mountain so there was a lot of bumps on the trails.  We took the kids down a couple easy trails to start but then moved them up to black diamonds.  Since we don't really know the mountain we took a narrow double black down the mountain with the kids which was not bumped up and the loved it.  They made nice quick turns and cruised down the trail.  This is where knowing a mountain has advantages.  I didn't know that this trail would dump us out onto another double black trail that the kids had been eyeing from the lift saying, "I'm not doing that" to which I replied, "no we wouldn't do that one...it has too many rocks and probably too technical for you right now."  Well, such is life when skiing....ski the trail you end up on because there really is no other choice.  The girls did great and skied down it quite a way until there was a significantly steeper section with a number of bare rocks showing.  Jason talked Sofia off the ledge and explained to her how to do it but then skied very fast to "show" her.  I could see that this did not work so I asked her if she wanted me to show her the way.  She did so we took one turn at a time through the rocks and she did great.  Ali followed suit and fell right at the bottom.  Not a major fall just a "I'm scared so I'll sit" type of fall.  She started to cry but then I pointed out that she only fell on this tiny section after she had already done all the hard work.  She looked up the mountain and smiled as she realized she had conquered the trail that looked so difficult from the lift.

Sunday we skied at Stratton which is a completely different mountain than Magic.  It has wide trails and is nicely groomed.  Sofia was a little nervous because in her mind a "bigger" mountain must be more difficult.  We assured her that there was going to be nothing at Stratton that would be any more difficult than what she had skied at Magic.  She lightened up after that and started to have fun.  She was zipping down the mountain with ease.  The mountain has a nice mix of moguls in with groomed terrain so we could hit the moguls and the kids could go groomed or they could jump in and out of the moguls as they wished.  The weather was so perfect for the whole weekend.  It was sunny blue skies and in the 30's!  We sat outside in the sun to eat lunch.  Ski days don't get much better than that! Sunday was a day of falls though.  Every one of had a fall at some point in the day.  Nothing major but falls non the less.  We always joke around that if you don't have a fall you aren't skiing hard enough so I guess we were all skiing hard!  I went almost the whole day but right near the end I caught an edge.  I was going to snow Matt but then decided to be nice and let up on my speed a little.  As soon as I did I caught and edge which flipped me back to whack the back of my head ( thank God for helmets) on the ground, spun me around and sent me down the mountain.  Of course the whole family was standing on the ridge and just backed up assuming I was going to stop but I went over the ridge (not a big dangerous ridge just a natural roll in the hill).  Unfortunately for Sofia she was not on the ridge but just on the other side of it.  Fortunately by the time I crashed into her I wasn't going very fast!  The kids did not want the day to end.  Sofia started to complain when I told her we had two runs left.  I then had to explain that we had only two runs left because that was all we could fit in before the lifts closed for the day.  It was such a perfect day.  The kids can finally ski fast enough and in control for me to follow behind at a normal speed.  It was the first day we skied until the lifts closed.  The only complaint being that the mountain should stay open longer! :)