Ian's Championship Kickoff Return

Well Played

The Huskies lost their championship game against Skyline today. Ian played a great game, but it wasn't enough to pull Hillcrest through. The defense gave a solid performance, but our offense was plagued by penalties and turnovers.

Thanks again to everyone who supported Ian this year. He likes giving out hugs after the game and enjoys performing on the field for his fans :)

Bantam Playoffs - Hillcrest vs West

Hillcrest had a great game against West in the first playoff game today. Ian had some great runs, blocks, and scored a couple TD's off passes. Thanks to everyone who came and called to support him.

Ian started the game off with a touchdown. The pic is after Jensen's 40+ yard touchdown. Vombauer also caught a pass for a touchdown and Ian scored the last TD (video at the bottom) to end the game with a 27 to 6 win.

Next up; Skyline...

Kearns Touchdown

Ian started the game against Hillcrest by returning their opening kick-off for the first touchdown of the game. I'm not sure what TD this video is, but the whole game was about this easy. It was just a sad day for Kearns.

Kearns TD - Too Easy from aaron smith on Vimeo.

Tailgate Party

Aimee and I, along with coach Hinton and his wife, hosted the Thursday night tailgate for the football team this week.

Last week there were a TON of people out for one of the coldest tailgate nights we've had to date. This week has been really warm so we planned on at least the same number of people. Not so much. We were giving away dessert and muffins afterward and ended up taking home and whole tray of brownies and 60 muffins.

Minimal attendance aside, it was a ton of fun and the food was good. Coach Hinton made chili of three-different-levels-of-death chili and brought the chopped jalapenos for true masochists. His wife made peanut butter rice krispie treats with chocolate icing which I am now craving. Not sure why I didn't snag some left-overs...

Aimee and I did cornbread muffins and cream cheese iced brownie bites with fruit on top. I'm pretty certain the consumption rate would have been at least triple without the fruit. All the kids thought they looked far too healthy ;)

So Close

Ian was held scoreless against West. He had plenty of yards and caught a couple sweet passes, but was stopped just short of the goal line each time.

One Inch Short

Battle for Yards

Hillcrest was definitely outsized against West and had to fight for every yard. They really together played as a team, fighting for each other on the field.

Disliked For All The Right Reasons

Ian was greatly disliked by West on Saturday. I've never have much problem with him irritating the opposing team, but when the opposing, dirty deed teaching coaches decide to target him, I do get a bit concerned.
It was a tough battle. West played a dirty game. The refs must have had little brothers on the the team and I can't post any of the opposing parents' comments and still call this a family website. In the end, we just outplayed, outclassed, and outscored them.

(West coaches had the same expressions every time we ran past them ;)

War Machine

Hillcrest had a great game Saturday against Cyprus. Ian had 3 or 4 touchdowns and some great runs. The kids are in great shape and were hitting hard this game. Defense struggled a little bit because of the size difference but made up for it in skill and speed.

I stuck together a couple pix of one of Ian's touchdown runs from the Cyprus game and put it in a video. Music is AC/DC's War Machine ;)

(click the pic for the rest of the pix)


We took a quick zoo trip Saturday after Ian's football weigh-ins at the Steiner center. Ian starved himself the day before and all morning so he managed to sneak in just under the 135 lb limit. He was VERY nervous about making weight especially considering that fact that he would have lost one-fifth of his official identity which currently reads as:

Babysitter Extraordinaire

Struggling Student

Parent Antagonizer

Dog Lover

Running Back

We started out in a light rain which I believe is the perfect weather for a zoo trip. It's just enough to keep the crowds away, but not so much that the animals mind. I had to drag everyone along to get them inside and excited, but once Aimee declared her desire to pet the fruit bats, everyone was in a good mood (and slightly disturbed).

By the time we were leaving the snow was coming down pretty heavily, but no spirits were dampened. Avyrlie enjoyed catching snowflakes, Aimee was on her phone safely under the umbrella, and Ian was still a little goofy from his day of starvation.

I'll add more commentary in the Flickr gallery

Hillcrest Champions!

Not my shot, but this is right after they won the championship:

Championship Awards Banquet

After an undefeated season and championship win, no one was complaining about a little 'overtime' at the awards banquet. The coaches really love the kids and like to give them a bit of the praise they've earned this year. Here's a clip of Ian's award presentation:

Untitled from aaron smith on Vimeo.

Football Clips

These are from the last game again Northern Extreme in the play-offs. Ian had a great game and managed to exact his revenge on #7 in the process :)

Saturday Football

Hillcrest did much better this weekend, but still needs a little polishing. They are still a bit sloppy and make some silly mistakes. I put together a couple clips.
First is Ian scoring while the lady next to me is screaming "Hit 'em!!!!" Then an interception (not Ian but a sweet play). Next Ian pulling out the moves for a great run and touchdown. Finally Hayden with an Avyrlie takedown.

Scrimmage Clip

We scrimmaged a PeeWee team (a year younger than us) from Bingham who is freakishly large and pretty good. These were two of my favorite clips. Ian had a bunch of good hits but this was the only good one that videoed well. Also, it is not my voice you hear in the video.

Outside the Arena - First Scrimmage

Ian had his first scrimmage of the arena-football season yesterday at Midvale Middle School. They'll have an indoor scrimmage on Saturday, but for now they're out in the cold. It was very different than regular season football. The field is half the width and half the length so the plays are quick and tight. Quite a change for a team used to running sweeps.

Of course every time Ian was tackled I'd wait for him to get back up holding another broken shoulder, but he stayed in once piece. It was pretty ugly overall, but they were intense, hit hard, and started to get some plays down. I think they'll do well and have a good season.

Sticker Talley

3 touchdowns
3 extra points
1 kill

Grantsville Game

Bitter sweet loss.

I generally don't brag too much about my kids on the blog. Mainly because the free time I use to blog is when I'm fed up with them and stick them in a closet, covered in peanut butter, with two beagles to deliver the lickings they deserve.

Yesterday though, they somehow made it through and entire 24 hours without providing sufficient motive for ritual torture. So, this morning I decided to take a couple minutes to do the proud parent blogging thing (before they wake up and earn a licking ;)

Yesterday, Hillcrest faced their nemesis, Grantsville. Predictably, they began by giving up 20 points, and trying to hold back a lot of tears from the beatings they were getting as their line was broken through again and again. By the time a hand off was made to the running backs, there were two or three red jerseys already within tacking distance. Our strategy of 'watch #34 because he usually has the ball' worked perfectly, as long as we were wanting to watch him gain 6 yards on each carry before tackling him.

Somehow we needed some motivation. Hopefully, at some point this group will figure out how to rely on each other for motivation and support when things are down, but for now, they seem to need a big play, either by luck or one person's determination, to restore their confidence. Thankfully, Ian brought that determination with him to this game.

He started out getting pounded for the first quarter. On one play, by the time he got the hand-off he had two guys hitting him in front and a third hitting him from behind which sent him to the sidelines for a while to catch his breath and nurse a nasty welt on his back. Toward the end of a second quarter filled with more failed passing plays and fruitless running attempts, everyone was pretty frustrated and tired of getting hit.

Ian was frustrated, beat up, and sore, but stayed focused and determined (not a usual combination for him). He finally decided to make a bit of his own luck and smashed through the Grantsville line and broke several tackles for a huge 10 yard run up the middle. We finished the half without scoring, but also held Grantsville scoreless as well. Ian had consistent blocks every play, and morale was up ever so slightly.

The second half started with Ian kicking off. He had a huge kick, just shy of the endzone resulting in a tackle on the three yard line. Grantsville's next play ended with us recovering a fumble, and then scoring our first TD of the game.

Ian's next kick was almost as perfect, but sailed all the way into the endzone putting Grantsville on the 20. Another recovered fumble and some renewed confidence put us on the scoreboard again.

On his third kick, he tried to get a little fancy and put it deep into the corner. Tough to do when you're still kicking off your toe and don't have the control. He didn't quite get the depth, but did manage to put it on the side to get us a relatively easy tackle on the 15.

I'd love to say we ended up coming back for a win, but it just was not to be. Everyone was feeling pretty good after the game though having played a very tough second half and showing some constancy that has been sorely lacking all season. The parting chant was 'WE WON THE SECOND HALF!".

As much as I love to see him make the big plays, it's Ian's attitude that plays on my pride. He keeps his head up when others despair, cheers for his teammates and offers encouragement when they're down, and is as quick to recognize efforts as well as results. He's still an eleven year old boy with the attention span of a beagle puppy, but he has made some huge improvements in recognizing some of his own efforts as well.

Building his confidence has been a long hard haul, but I think he is finally starting to realize that he has a stake in all the efforts we are making and is beginning to make the connection between the efforts and the results. I tend to think he usually feels that life is more like the first half of a Granstville game than it is like the second, where no matter how hard you struggle, you keeping getting held and hit from behind. Hopefully we all have enough determination to pull each other through the second half with our head high.

Blah, blah, blah... I'm a sentimental sap... apologies.

And Avyrlie. The beagles get no remarks of pride unless they learn to use the toilet and make dim sum (two separate things. I don't make dim sum in the toilet)

I usually wish Avyrlie would take attention span lessons from the beagles, but she tends to remember and dwell on everything. Like Ian though, she is a peacemaker and loves to make friends. Everywhere we go she instantly adopts a new group as 'her girls' or 'her boys' and leads the charge to the playground. I picked her up at preschool the other day to find her explaining to Girl-1 that it was now Girl-2's turn on the computer but that she could have another turn after Girl-2 was done. Then she took her by the hand to pick out some toys to play with. Somehow the friend association translates to parents as well because when I pick her up, two or three other kids come grab my hand and tell me they're ready to go. Very cute (as long as the hand sanitizer isn't empty...).

Her first questions for me are always, "Where's my bother?", and "What's my mom doing?" (next question is "Can we get a donut?". Aimee's kid...). When we get home, she's excited to see the dogs have them chase her around the house or yard while she plays referee and tells them if they need to be nicer to each other.

Her absolute favorite play date is with Ian's football team after practices on Thursday. Every Thursday a couple of the parents provide a tailgate party for the team. They've done this for several years now and it has caught on as a traditions with most of the other Hillcrest teams as well. Avyrlie invariably ends up with several players chasing her around the field and teasing with her. I've taken this as advance warning and have started working on my intimidation techniques for subduing boys who continue to chase her as she gets older. First in my arsenal was a large jar of Alum.

While Aimee is certainly not my kid (from what I hear she was lucky to survive childhood) I have to mention how proud I am of her as well, freaky habits and all ;)

Aimee pointed me to a blog that one of her co-workers maintains where he refers to himself as Donkey. After reading several posts, my mind somehow associates him with another unflattering donkey like word. I'm not the brightest and most compassionate person, but I can't fathom this guy can believe things like: inviting your mother to watch your kids birth is ok, WITHOUT ASKING YOUR WIFE FIRST! or that mentioning your WIFES FACIAL HAIR is alright in any context. Well I caught myself feeling exactly like a post straight from his blog when I realized that it drives me nuts when Aimee asks my opinion about something and then reports to me later that her dad agreed with me so I might be right. As if my opinion is bound to be wrong; as if I am EVER WRONG at all ;)

Yeah, what an ***. It actually took me thirteen years to have it dawn on me that her letting me know my opinion was confirmed by someone who was able to live with a teenage version of my wife (aka The Beast) for many years without selling her to the Russian government for use as an interrogation torture engineer (ask her brother), was not an insult, slam, or any form of derision.

She certainly gets much more than just opinions and good looks from her parents. She's a bizarre workaholic and makes exiting a vehicle quite the event :P No is simply missing her vocabulary which has resulted in some curious telemarketing and door-to-door sales escapades, and she is charitable and doesn't takes service obligations lightly. Crowds give her endless stress especially in her home (it takes an hour of snuggling with a case of paper towels to recover from a party), but she would be lost without daily contact with parents and siblings.

I am most proud of her as a mom of course. Without her, I'm sure the kids and I would constantly end up explaining to neighbors why we were dancing around a bonfire in the backyard (of course Aimee would have us naked ;), roasting marshmallows till all hours of the night, and neglecting the yardwork until kids could only escape the front lawn with they aid of a highly trained search party. She keeps us on task (yes, she acts like my mother as well), and without her help we'd probably all be Democrats.

The past couple years have been exciting, rough, fun, frantic, rewarding and stressful. We've made it through them to become a more functional family with a refined vision of who we want to be (although Avyrlie has known all along she wants to be Princess Aurora). We are blessed beyond measure with health, family, successes, and beagles, and hope to someday deserve half of it.

What on earth does any of this have to do with the Grantsville game? While watching Ian struggle and succeed on field I realized more profoundly than ever, that Ian now has as much of a role in determining outcomes in his life as his parents do. It's exciting and terrifying to see how much and how little control you have simultaneously in guiding your childrens' future.

If you've read this far, I apologize. I wrote this more for myself than you and am feeling selfishly satisfied. Check back soon for pix that are much more interesting than the ramblings of my emotional exhaustion ;)

Oh so close!

No the blowout they all wanted, but Hillcrest managed to pull off another win against Bountiful. Pictured above is Ian's oh-so-close to a touchdown run ending in airborne acrobatics as he was shoved out of bounds. The deciding factor ended up being extra points with a final score: 18 to 21.
Kimberly tagged along with us and did Aimee and Avyrlie's hair afterward. On the way home we stopped at ninth and ninth to meet Gil and Tiff who were in town to pick up a new road bike. I'm not sure Ian loved it, but the rest of us enjoyed lunch at Mazza (middle eastern) and hung out a bit at the street fair.