Summer Summary

I hope you can forgive me for the long, silent stretch in blogging. I think I took the idea of summer (meaning a lack of schedule) to heart, and have done nothing but what was necessary for our survival in weeks. It's been great! Utah, Oregon Coast, birthdays, the beginning of football (including the concussion story and the reason I'm glad he got it. . .you're totally in suspense now, aren't you?)

Snapshot Summer Summary

UTAH VISIT

Becoming acquainted with our newest niece/cousin Emmy 

Kaysville for the 4th of July

(thanks to Aunt Glo, Abbie was able to ride on the

Taco Time float-which she loved :) 

Welcome Emmy Baby Shower with Four

Generation Pictures 

S'mores in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard 

Remembering that Grandpa can fall asleep anywhere! 

Attempted picture of all the Poorte Grandkids

hehehehehe. . .  

OREGON COAST

Abbie felt a little too close to that wave. . . 

Quick glance with a smile in between waves 

In this picture, the Ocean is deceptively calm. Notice how

no one has their back turned to it, and Justin is cautiously

looking at the camera. Wise move.

Abbie is the first, as usual, to accept one of Dad's

crazy challenges. Total dunk in the freezing Ocean. 

Kite flying 

Love this pic of Ty. It says "There's no way I'm getting

too close to Dad, he'll take me down." Also a wise move. 

Ty's the only one that can give Dad a run for his money. 

Unless he turns around and grabs you. . . 

Dad's self-inflicted dunk in the Ocean. Often, Ty turns

Dad's challenges back on him. Never to be outdone

by the kids. . . 

It was the most beautiful day on the Oregon Coast we've

ever spent. We all came home beet red and exhausted :) 

AUGUST BIRTHDAYS

We were lucky enough to have Jacob, Jen, and Mike

here for Ty's birthday. It made it extra special.

Another Dad ice cream cake (to Ty's specifications).

Death by Chocolate, topped by a treat added by Dad,

crushed Butterfingers (Ty's fave.) 

Quite determined. . .it's in a suspicious looking box! 

The Dolphin Pillow Pet. She's wanted it for over a

year. Sigh. . .another stuffed animal in the house.

But she's just so happy! 

Ice Cream Cake by Dad. NO chocolate, well except

for the crushed Crunch bar on top. She's not

completely without taste :) 

I think this is the second attempt of three to blow all of the candles out. She couldn't blow them all out at

once during YW's either. We had our YW BBQ the night of her birthday and they put candles in the cake for her. Maybe it's the candles. . . 

Success! 

FOOTBALL 2011

Starting Safety and Backup Quarterback

#5 on the jersey this year

Jamboree is an event that our football program holds every year. Teams from around the area come to our field and we scrimmage them. Ty had a great day at Safety (for those who don't know, he's the last

line of defense), including two interceptions. Both of our scrimmages this year were against the cross-town rival, so that seemed to make it just a little more awesome :) 

At Qtrback, just after a successful hand off. 

Calling the play 

This is just before the snap. Ty threw an 8-yard pass that ran for a TD.  He is so disappointed that I don't

have any pictures of the actual pass, or the interceptions at Safety. Yet again, we are missing our own personal photographer (Grandpa), and his ability to take 700 pictures in a game. . . 

I felt like I had a few good pictures, so I put the camera away so that I could enjoy the scrimmages. After this great play, Ty went back in at Safety. As the Southridge player ran through all the other defense, Ty was right in his sight and he knew he couldn't get past Ty. The runner was crouched so low in his run that Ty couldn't get under him, not ideal. As the runner tried to plow through, his head came up and caught Ty right under the chin. Well, it worked. They kind of bounced off of each other and the play was dead. . .I held my breath for a moment as I watched Ty. I do a lot of that watching him play. He rolled right over, before I could even jump out of my seat, so I knew he was conscious (wasn't that nice of him?). He sat there for a minute on his knees, with his head on the ground. Later I learned that this was him fighting the nausea. We are so grateful that it wasn't worse. He isn't quite cleared to play again yet, and Saturday is our first game (that'll make it two weeks since the injury). He's bummed to still be out, but I'm glad he's had so much time to heal. It will be a real bummer if he looses his starting position due

to this, but knowing him, it will just make him all that more determined to get it back.

So now to my reasoning for being glad. For practice, a few days after this, our team went to scrimmage

another team, which of course, Ty wasn't allowed to participate in, although he was there. During the

scrimmage, our Safety stopped the other team from scoring and the other team's player took issue with that. He came up to our Safety and kicked him in the shin, and in response to that, our Safety shoved the other player. The other team's coach came out onto the field, stepped on our Safety's ankle and shoved him to the ground, and proceeded to (with hands at our player's neck, holding him down), yell at our Safety. Well, it gets a little more dramatic from there, but I'll finish up by saying that our team member is now on crutches and there is an investigation. While Ty is sure that if he were in the same situation, he wouldn't have shoved back in the first place, I'm just so grateful we didn't have to find out.

I know how anti-football many mothers out there are, and for good reason. It causes me anxiety to watch him out there playing. But I cannot deny the incredible good it does for Ty. It is his passion. It has helped to develop his drive and determination which surpasses anything I've ever seen from any kid his age. It makes him come alive.