Elementary No More

It was just three blog posts ago that I wrote about Smunch's first day of 6th grade. Although, I've been terribly remiss in updating my blog, it really does feel like that was about two blog posts ago. How is it then, that he was "promoted" from 6th grade last week?

Fresh off the baseball win, Smunch attended the school's traditional 6th grade pool party on Monday. I admit, I hadn't given this event a whole lot of thought. There was a pool, there was swimming, Smunch would love it.

But I forgot to consider that he's in 6th grade and while he's still kind of a little kid in his own way, girls in 6th grade are tall, developing and...holy bikinis Batman! I did not photograph those cute skinny girls in their cute little bikinis. Smunch hung out with his happily geeky friends and pretended not to notice.

Maybe he didn't notice. But I'm skeptical that he's quite that naive with all the media consumption he does.

I didn't stick around. It no longer seems particularly appropriate. It would be like hanging out at one of his friends' birthday parties.

Wednesday, the 6th graders had their traditional jump rope performance.

I'd seen similar perfomances from past 6th grade classes. In the olden days, I walked my kids to school and hung out until they went into their classrooms. I admit my internal thoughts about this performance were along the lines of, "Hmmm...I don't think Smunch can do jump rope. I guess we'll see."

So, uh, yeah. That's pretty much the case.

They also did a little line dance. I have a feeling Smunch was a little more comfortable with that one, but really, getting a bunch of pre-teens to do such a thing is a small miracle. Many of them looked tortured.

And that just left Thursday, or "Promotion Day". I did the legwork. Got the kid a decent haircut, bought him some acceptable duds for the occasion. Of course, he wouldn't go shopping with me, so that really meant being his personal concierge, but alls well that ends well, I guess.

That's one good-looking kid, if I do say so myself...and I do.

He hasn't been so certain about graduating from elementary school. He's been at the same school for seven years now, after all. Change is not his favorite item on the menu. He still didn't look so sure as he toted his chair to the front...

not so sure as he resolutely marched out to Pomp and Circumstance either.

He didn't even look up. I wondered if he was afraid to catch my eye in case he was teary...or I was. I'd already warned him I would cry through the whole ceremony. He didn't look any more sure of his future as he sat and waited for his turn on the stage.

His class was promoted last and with a name at the end of the alphabet, 80 kids were promoted before he finally got to stand near the edge of the stage. (Just five were promoted after him.)

Finally, he had his turn on the stage.

His teacher said some kind words about him...

the principal handed him his "portfolio", including his Certificate of Promotion and a Presidential award and letter for his high GPA...

and then he was back in his seat, looking really no more certain than he did before,looking at the white envelope he'd been given.

And then it was over. And so was his elementary school career. I'm sure it seemed like an eternity to Smunch, after all he has spent more than half his life there to date. But it seemed like such a whirlwind to me! I still remember how sad and scared my little guy was when I left him at kindergarten and the near panic attack he had on his second day of 1st grade. Relatively speaking, he's so grown up now. So smart, so responsible, so well-established in his little world.

All the 6th graders were represented by a star on the "Star Wall".

Smunch was there too.

No hint whatsoever that he isn't ready to go. I know that he is.

I'm pretty sure his 6th grade teacher feels he's very well prepared, although she said she would miss him. I believe her. This was her first class...ever. She will miss many of them, I'd guess.

I just hope that he believes he is ready. Because he is. He really is.

And what did we do to celebrate? I suppose some kids would ask to go to Disneyland. For a few kids, however, THIS is Disneyland.

So, before Mam was done, Smunch and I went home and found some tickets to purchase. Then we picked up his sister who had just finished 4th grade (although he probably would have preferred not to)

and headed out to the ballpark. I told him I would buy him a sundae to celebrate. And at $10.50 each, I thought I'd also paid for the privilege to take Smunch's picture.

He was a much happier camper than he might appear. Special thanks to this guy...

Michael Morse, who had quite a day. So the Giants won...which was perhaps far more exciting to a 12-year-old baseball fan than any elementary school promotion could ever be.

Happy Summer!

Images of Summer

Heh. I didn't write a single post for the entire summer. It was a busy season...and it honestly seemed really long. I can't believe the kids are back in school. My life suddenly seems a little more sane, even if there's more work involved. But the summer deserves some thought. We packed a lot in those few weeks when I didn't work. And the kids were in camp the rest of the time. It was busy at the office too, so I was glad to have planned ahead. But enough of that. On with the pictures!

Smunch played on the PONY in-house All-Stars team, which plays a single weekend tournament against the other in-house teams. His team won again!

Best baseball season EVER.

Mam continued to have a successful Nova season all the way through June, although they won no more tournaments. She was often one of the stars.

We went to see the big boys play. Shocker huh? Wasn't a shocker when they lost in 13 innings either!

As soon as Nova was done, we went camping in the Redwoods...with banana slugs.

We did some hiking in the forest, including fording the little river

The kids enjoyed themselves

Best Ranger Program EVER

With a little guidance, you can find all kinds of stuff in the creek!

Aunt Karen came to visit with Spencer! and Lucas! Lucas was more lively than this most of the time.

And then we went to San Diego to visit Aunt Karen..and Spencer! and Lucas!

We went to Anza Borrego State Park on a particularly thundery day. The kids learned about flash floods!

We went to the water park...apparently water slides are exhausting!

We went boogie boarding at the beach. The kids LOVED it!

Did I mention that they LOVED it??

O.K., I thought it was pretty fun too.

And we all took a falconry class at the La Jolla Gliderport. Smunch with a Harris' Hawk.

A week later, Mam and I decided to do something Giant

...and completed the Giant Race 5K right on the field at AT&T Park.

And would you believe, that wasn't the end? We still had one more Grand adventure in store....but that requires its own post or five.

Game 7

I mentioned something, somewhere back there, about the San Francisco Giants' improbable run through the National League Divison Series (NLDS) and their arrival at the National League Championship Series (NLCS) where they promptly went down 3-1. I lamented that Barry Zito would be pitching Game 5 against the Cardinals. It was an elimination game and Barry? Well, he hasn't had a particularly celebrated history with the Giants.

Still, Zito put on a stellar show and the Giants won Game 5 in St. Louis, 5-0. Because they were not eliminated that night, it meant the series returned to San Francisco. Now, for the uninitiated, those who do not have season tickets for the Giants, but want tickets to a playoff game, have to enter a lottery. If your email address is chosen in said lottery, you have the privilege of paying a lot of money to purchase tickets to the series. I think I put my email address in the lottery a day too late to be chosen for the NLDS. And I wasn't chosen for the NLCS at first either, but then they had what they called a "second chance lottery" and I was chosen. The only options were for "Home Game #3" or "Home Game #4".

Had the Nationals defeated the Cardinals in their NLDS, the Nationals would have gone on to play the Giants. And the Nationals would have had home field advantage. There would not be a "Home Game #4". I found myself some nice tickets in the upper deck for "Home Game #3"...and then I realized, as I sat at my desk at work, that I'd left my wallet in the car. I ran down to get it, but by the time I got back? My browser session had timed out and I could no longer get tickets for "Home Game #3". So...I settled for purchasing two tickets for "Home Game #4".

Now, what that meant is is that my tickets would automatically be no good (and refunded) if the Nationals beat the Cardinals. It also meant that should the Cardinals win, the Giants would have home field advantage, but the series would have to go to seven games if I was to get to go. The chances that all the stars would align for that to happen seemed pretty remote. No worries, I thought. At least I'll get my money back.

But what do you know? Those Giants won Game 6, 6-1, behind Ryan Vogelsong on October 21st. And that meant I had tickets to the tie-breaking game of the series...the game to decide who would go on to the 2012 World Series. Holy cow.

And so it came to pass that I picked up one very happy little boy half an hour early from school on Monday...and we drove to the train station, where we caught the train to AT&T Park.

Now, as parenting moves go, this is an arguable one. The kid had stayed out super late the previous night...when his dad took him to Game 6. It was another school night. I took him out of school early. And then there was the weather forecast. Rain.

When the series was in St. Louis, it had rained. There was a 3.5 hour rain delay in the middle of Game 4 (I think). I was envisioning a real nightmare...a stadium packed with people trying to get out of the rain, sitting there for hours with my bored 10-year-old. What was I thinking?

Fortunately, my imagination was wrong. It was a beautiful day at the ballpark. We arrived just after the rain stopped. There were boats in McCovey Cove, puffy clouds, sunshine, a floating Delorean. (A what?)

Matt Cain was pitching against the Cardinals' ace pitcher, Kyle Lohse.

Cain pitched a perfect game earlier this year and is currently considered the Giants' ace. But he wasn't at his best. The first few innings were a little tense. But the Giants scored against Lohse and they scored again and again. By the end of the third inning, it already felt like the ninth. The score was 7-0, Giants.

The Cardinals had come back from a 6-0 deficit to win the NLDS against the Nationals. It was an awesome feat. So, a seven run lead didn't necessarily seem like a lock either. But it made the crowd...the very, very noisy crowd...a lot less tense. It was just one big party out there.
And with his team winning, Smunch was having a blast.

Sometime around the seventh inning, it started to drizzle. There was enough wet to make both Smunch and me put on our rain ponchos, but a few minutes later, we felt kind of ridiculous and took them off. However, by the end of the eighth, the rain started for real.

New playoff rules say that they can't call a game because of rain. They can delay it, but with just an inning left to play and the score now at 8-0, that seemed silly, so they let the game go on.

And it rained, and rained and rained. Brandon Belt hit a home run that almost made it to the Cove. 9-0. The infield began to flood. It was the top of the ninth. Javier Lopez, the Giant's sidewinding lefty was pitching. He walked Carlos Beltran. From everything I could tell, he walked him because he couldn't keep from sliding down the muddy mound. With two runners on and two out, Bruce Bochy strode into the rain and took the ball from Lopez as the grounds crew ran out to the infield and tried to repair the mound and spread sand on the basepaths. As soon as the crew retreated, you could no longer see the work they'd done. Rain came down in sheets.

We were sitting in the upper deck, so our ponchos provided the only protection from the rain...and our backpacks didn't have ponchos. I hear that if you were under the overhang in the lower decks, you stayed dry, but you couldn't see a thing with the rain cascading off the decks above.

To the giant roar of the soggy crowd, Sergio Romo jogged from the bullpen to the mound and induced a pop fly from Matt Holliday, which was caught by the game's hero, Marco Scutaro. And poetic justice was served. Just days earlier Matt Holiday mowed Scutaro down as he "slid" into second base and Scutaro had to leave the game with an injury to his hip. Now the mostly-healed Scutaro squinted through the heavy rain to make the last out and send his team to the World Series.

As baseball experiences go. This was EPIC. Memorable in every way.

Like most of the crowd, Smunch and I did not leave. We stood in the pouring rain as the team celebrated on the field below. The National League trophy was presented and Marco Scutaro was named MVP of the NLCS.

Couldn't have happened for a nicer guy.
Then we hightailed it toward the train, where a crowd of wet people awaited a happy trip home. We won't be in attendance at the World Series this year, but you can bet we'll be there every step of the way.

Barry Zito is slated to start Game 1...

Epilogue: Less than one week after Smunch and I attended Game 7 of the NLCS, the San Francisco Giants won the 2012 World Series by sweeping the Detroit Tigers. Pablo Sandoval hit three home runs in Game 1 and Barry Zito got the win. Game 4 was the most exciting by far, going 10 innings. And guess who drove in the winning run...Marco Scutaro.