For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been participating in The Week That Was Captured (#TWTWC) linky hosted by Hannah over at MakeDoPush.co.uk. I’ve been focusing on using photographs as my medium, since I don’t have a lot of other posts the really revolve around photos…most of what I post is prose. Just be thankful I didn’t choose poetry as my medium…OK?

Anyway, TWTWC has given me a point of focus for documenting our everyday lives. I’m great at catching photos of sporting events. I’m really good at capturing pictures at school events. And I’m fairly decent at snapping a few shots of holidays. But the in-between days, our everyday lives, have really escaped capture. And that’s too bad, because most of our lives are spent in between the bigger events, and what shapes us as a family has been getting lost.

I set out this week to record something from every day, but honestly , Saturday was too spectacular not to stand alone. As usual, we had a busy day planned. I would love to say that I sleep in on Saturdays, have a leisurely breakfast while enjoying a good cup of coffee, and then fritter the day away with naps, reading, and lounging about. I may do that someday, but this past Saturday was not that day.

Nope, not my a long shot.

A New Ride

We started the day off completing the purchase of a new (to us) vehicle. We’ve been scrambling for a few weeks after the blown engine in one of our cars. Right now we have five drivers in the house, and seven people who all need to be going different directions. Although living in a small town has it’s perks (no long commutes, very little traffic, etc.), we’re used to being able to get from place to place with very little friction. We had resorted to a weekly driving meeting to try and allocate out cars, juggle schedules, and make sure that nobody was left standing anywhere for too long. We’d have the meeting on Sunday, culminating in a great plan…and it’d fall apart by Tuesday. When you couple that with the fact that our two most reliable vehicles have over 175,000 miles on them, it was time.

So we’ve been searching for a while and had even tentatively planned a trip to Tulsa and Oklahoma City (both four hours away making a 10 hour round trip) to look at several car prospects. We had also investigated vehicles closer to home, but nothing had really panned out. Fortunately, Hectic 25 doesn’t give up, and she found a vehicle at a new dealership 10 minutes away. She caught it just after he’d listed it on Craigslist & Facebook and we had the initial negotiations completed an hour later.

So Saturday we drove over, signed the paperwork, and pulled off the lot with a new-to-us vehicle with 100,000 fewer miles than our most reliable transportation. As we were driving from activity to activity later in the day, I noticed that the entertainment console (because calling it a radio would be so understated) has an AUX port. You simply cannot imagine my excitement when I realized that I can listen to my podcasts while driving about. You also cannot imagine the amount of protestation the rest of the Hectic Family raised when I made that announcement. I simply replied “Peasants” and plugged in the AUX cord.

Flip for Fun

It was a good thing we had our new ride, because immediately after making the purchase, we put it into service. Our local gymnastics club was hosting the Flip for Fun meet, and Hectic 12 was competing. She’s in her first year of competitive gymnastics, and it’s been a great season so far. We’ve got a few more months until the season is done, but we’re having a blast so far. With this being a local meet, our ability to come and go was greatly enhanced. And, it meant that more members of the Hectic Family could drop by and watch her.

Hectic Mom and 12 went to the meet a bit early, followed by me with Hectic 25 and Grandson in tow. We arrived a bit later than planned, and missed her vault. In youth gymnastics, they vault off the horse twice, and we walked in as she stepped off the mat following her second vault. I was disappointed, but I made up for it with lots of photos and videos of her other three events.

During the competition, Hectic Grandson explored the entire arena. He’s gotten pretty good at taking the stairs (which should make Rory Vaden pretty happy). He managed to get all the way to the very top of the arena, with his Mom in tow. It was pretty funny to watch her following him around, desperately trying to keep him out of trouble!

The day was a crazy success, with Hectic 12 getting spectacular scores, earning a 4th place overall. She still has a lot of room for improvement, but we’ve seen her get better every week. She seems to really like her teammates, coaches, and the competition itself.

• 9.550 vault 2nd
• 9.400 bars 1st
• 9.100 beam 6th
• 9.450 floor 3rd
• 37.600 overall 4th

Pass, Set, Hit!

Of course, we wouldn’t be the Hectic Family if we only had one sporting event for a kiddo in a day. During the beam routine, Hectic Mom left to go coach her rec league youth volleyball team…which counts Hectic 12 as one of the players. In fact, Hectic 12 is an outside hitter, and pretty important to their overall strategy. The overlap between the two events was unfortunate, but it’s not like we haven’t done that sort of thing zillions of times for the last few years. This kind of shuffling is something we’ve gotten used to.

So, the moment that the awards ceremony was completed for the Flip for Fun, we raced out the doors, to our car, and over to the volleyball gym. Again, there are some things about a small town that are priceless…the less than one mile drive between sporting facilities is one of them!

Hectic 12 put her volleyball clothes on over her gymnastics leotard, and the second we pulled into the parking lot she was in the door. Her fan base (Hectic 25, Hectic Grandson, and the old, slow Hectic Dad) trundled in afterwards. With camera in tow, I took my place on the sidelines and began shooting away. At the very last instant before she went out on the floor, Hectic 12 pushed up her slick long sleeves from her leotard, realizing that they might not be the best surface to pass a volleyball.

When the games were done, her team had gone 2-1 against the only other undefeated team in their league. They were all pretty excited! The amount of jumping around and screaming after the match was ridiculous, funny, but ridiculous. The girls were really good sports after the game, and I never doubt that the handshakes and expressions of “good game” to the other team are absolutely genuine. I’m glad to see that sportsmanship is still alive with this team and this particular group of kids!

Prom Photos

After the volleyball match, we ran out to grab some food from a local burger joint. They aren’t part of a chain, so the food has a bit more personality. It’s a pretty well-known place around here, and is typical on a Saturday, it was packed. There were both baseball and softball tournaments going on, so the dining area was filled with sweaty, smelly teens and pre-teens in team uniforms. And their parents. And other fans. And of course, the town regulars.

We grabbed our food and decided to eat it at home. Of course, it took us longer to get our food than I had anticipated, and frankly I didn’t look at the time as I drove home. I walked in the door to discover Hectic 18 and her Prom date (whom she’s been dating for over two years) in all their regalia, ready for photos. Which my cheeseburger and onion rings getting cold, I took our indoor photos. Then we packed up in two cars and headed over to the local nature center for the group photos. I ate my cheeseburger and rings as I drove the two miles to the photo shoot, hoping to Heaven that I had all my gear (lenses, data cards, monopod, etc.).

We arrived at the Nature Center to a packed parking lot. With two Proms going on within equal distance of the center, there were lots of people there. By lots, I mean probably close to 200 folks. We gathered our group and started to take photos. Luckily Hectic 18 had been one of two on the planning committee for their group, so they had allocated enough time for the photos before they had to leave to catch their ride to dinner (an hour away). Thank goodness she’s a planner!

I thought my daughter and her date looked amazing! You can tell from the photos that they get along really well. It’s also fun to note that one of my daughter was able to attend prom with a friend that she’s had since they were 2 years old. The two girls have grown up together, and despite going to different high schools, have remained friends. It’s not very often that you have a lifelong friend when you’re just 18…but these two have achieved that!

In the Fall, these two will head off to the University of Kansas. I anticipate that they will continue their friendship for years to come, and the shared experiences of going off to college at the same time, in the same place, will only strengthen that relationship.

Of course, everybody is going to have a favorite photo, but of the roughly 200 that I took (thank goodness for digital cameras!) this one stood out. Hectic 18 always manages to stand out in a crowd. Unlike me, she’s not a total goofball, but she has a very fun streak. For whatever reason, when we’re in group settings like this, the two of us manage to have a moment. This was that moment, just my little girl giving me a smile…just for me!

Wrap Up

After a few errands (OK, it was about ten but we’re not going into that now), with the last one being a trip to the grocery store, we closed out Saturday. All in all, it was a great day. We got a ton accomplished, and getting to see Hectic 12 in two different sporting events in the same day was fun. Tiring, but fun.

How about you, what fun did you have this past weekend?