Xavier Goes Shooting
Greeting to all.
This Labor Day weekend we attended a church retreat with 200 others from our congregation. It was a welcomed time of relaxation and fellowship in the Collegiate Mountains of Colorado.
We attended the retreat last year as a fact-finding mission to learn more about the local church we were investigating. It was last year's retreat the solidified our decision to join the congregation.
This year the schedule allowed for more personal time with the expectation of using that time to meet more people, as well as relaxing from the normal rigors of life.
The retreat center had a BB gun range and (of course) BB guns and ammo. Rebecca wanted to take Xavier shooting.
We three grabbed some rifles and ammo, then followed a group of teens to the range.
I gave Xavier some basic lessons in the anatomy of his rifle and how to handle it in a safe manner. After some practice, Xavier hit several targets located about 20 feet away.
Super K!
Greetings to everyone.
Xavier began his thirteen plus year career as a student. Today he attended his first kindergarten class in a K-12 school.
The family did registration last Wednesday. Monday we all met his teacher and explored his classroom. We also dropped off his many school supplies.
After the meet-n-greet, we headed over to a local park for an all-school picnic. Xavier made friends on the playground while Rebecca and I worked the parental crowd. We spoke with many parents and spent some more time speaking with his teacher. The more we learned, the more right our choice of schools felt to us.
Today started out early. We roused Xavier at 0630. 0640 he sat at the breakfast table, his timer set for :25 minutes (his timer is a visual device we've introduced to get Xavier to eat in a timely manner; it's been working well).
Xavier dressed on his own, though we laid out his clothes. His school has a dress code—no uniform, but some tight and conservative standards, which we like.
We headed out the door at 0730 and took :05 minutes for first day of school pictures.
Ten minutes later we were in a massive traffic jam of people dropping off students. We made a note to be out the door by 0715 tomorrow!
The school has traffic flow and management down to a science. It's a tight lot, but we moved through quickly enough. After parking, we walked Xavier to where his class was assembling near the Kindergarten area of the curb.
Being the first day, all the teachers were out collecting their charges. Tomorrow, we will be driving up and letting Xavier out. He will walk into the school and find his classroom on his own. How different this is from the last four years of pre-K.
Rebecca picked Xavier up four hours later after sitting through a traffic jam worse than in the morning. We have been assured things will get better over the next few days.
Xavier had fun his first day. He drew a picture of our family, which is now hanging on the refrigerator. He played on the playground, listened to a story read to the class. What else he did he does not remember, or he's not caring to discuss. He did say he made fifteen new friends today; there are eighteen kids in his class.
First day of school, but last day of soccer. This evening, we headed over to the soccer field, a fifteen minute drive. As we pulled into the parking lot, Xavier fell asleep. (We did wake him for his practice).
Tomorrow, we do it all over again, albeit some parts a little earlier than we did today.
A Busy Week of Firsts
Greetings to all.
Xavier has had a busy few weeks.
It started Friday, July 20th when Rebecca, Xavier, a school friend of Xavier's and his mom spent the day at Elitch Gardens, a local (Six Flags) theme park.
Xavier rode his first roller coaster and crashed around in his first bumper cars ride.
The following week, friends of Rebecca vacationed in Colorado and used our house as a base of operations. They brought their four teenage boys with them. Xavier took to the boys right away!
During their stay, Xavier spent a day at Water World (a water park with slides, "river" rides and wave pools). Though Xavier has done water slides in the past, he had a lot of fun on the slides and lazy river.
On one ride he shared an inner tube (one of those double figure 8 styles) with Rebecca. At the end of the ride, as Rebecca got off the tube, the shifting of the tube knocked Xavier into the pool.
He panicked a bit, then while still under the water began a dog-paddle/freestroke maneuver. Shortly thereafter, he discovered the pool was not so deep and he stood up. Now he had a story to tell of the water park, and tell it he does!
We discovered a fun hiking trail twenty minutes from our house. Xavier went along for a hike, threw sticks into the creek and chased them along. He, needing to poop "right now" had us running to the nearest outhouse structure. Boy, drop vaults are not what they were when I was Xavier's age, let me say.
Along with the visiting family, Rebecca, Xavier and I spent another day at Elitch Gardens. The first ride we did was a water slide ride. Rebecca, Xavier and Xavier's friend stood in line for more than :30 minutes the week before and did not get on the ride. Rebecca was determined the family was going down that slide. She was like a military DI right up to the point of us sitting down into the round raft.
After spending time in the splash park and meeting a friend to splash around with (while letting Mom and Dad relax on Chaise lounge chairs), Xavier played in a room that shot foam balls out of many sorts of devices.
After a kiddie boat ride, Xavier took another round in the bumper cars. One little boy was having trouble getting his car to go (looked like it was his first time in one). Xavier maneuvered his car over to him and showed him how to control his car. Afterward, Xavier aimed his car at a mass of crashing cars and pushed his pedal to the floor!
The busy week ended with a walking tour of Golden and ice cream at a one of our preferred creameries there.