May 2008: Nolan Started Baseball

Nolan started Junior League baseball here in Cheyenne in late April. They had just a couple of practices and then started games on May 6th. When batting the kids get 2 pitches from the pitching machine to try and hit, and then if they have not hit the ball they get to hit off the tee. The rest of the game is basically tee ball, but the kids are having a lot of fun.

The teams are named after obscure minor league teams, and those of you from the Midwest will get a kick out of Nolan being on the team named after the Lansing Lugnuts.

The above picture was from the first practice.

This was Nolan's first at bat against the 38 mph pitching machine (and this was his only at bat in the first game).

Here is Nolan on first base with Dad helping out coaching on the field before going back to work for a few hours OT.

The second game of the season was on May 8th, and many of the Lugnut kids were able to hit the ball off the pitching machine (noone made contact in the first game). Nolan was able to foul off his first pitch, and then got a nice hit on the second pitch!!!

April 15, 2008: Nolan Rides His Bike!

Well, it was a record 76 degrees in Cheyenne today, Tax Day, and Kelly was able to come home from the hospital after her surgery (details?, give us a call or email), but this day also marks the day that Nolan was able to figure out his balance on his bicycle (with the help of Grandma Carpenter). After a few tries last fall and this spring with Dad, and mastering his balance on his razor scooter, it finally clicked for him after a lesson from Grandma. Here are a few pictures from this evenings bike riding festivities! Way to Go Nolan!!!!

April 10-13, 2008: Frozen Four Weekend In Denver...an Amazing Time!!!!

The Denver Sports Commission, the NCAA and the city of Denver in general did a great job hosting the final four NCAA hockey championships this past weekend! Thanks to the generosity of our friends, Matt and Gwen Solum from Billings, we were able to attend the games. In addition, the NCAA hosted a free youth hockey clinic on Saturday morning at the University of Denver. Both Nolan and Barrett were able to participate in the 8 and under portion of the clinic, along with 88 other kids in this age range. The kids were coached by NCAA coaches and the student athletes who were in Denver to participate in the 2008 Skills Challenge (which took place at Pepsi Center Friday night). The youth clinic was a first class event, and Nolan and Barrett had an absolute blast!!

We were going to meet our friends at N. Dakota fan pre-party, but the bar was overly-packed, so we just walked around outside and happened upon the party spilling out of the bar. This pic is when we were able to watch the UND pep-band and cheerleaders outside of Brooklyn's Bar.

We decided to head into Pepsi Center after listening to the band. Here are Nolan and Barrett by the giant bracket just inside Pepsi Center. Nolan and Barrett accompanied Scott to the Thursday games, after picking up Nolan from school at about lunch time. The crowd was completely dominated by North Dakota faithful, but unfortunately the Fighting Sioux did not puct up much of a fight against a dominant Boston College team. We travelled back to Cheyenne after the second semi-final game wrapped up in OT with Notre Dame upsetting Michigan in a great game!

Nolan and Barrett on the landing about 14 rows beneath our seats. There really is not a bad seat in Pepsi Center, just some that give you more exercise to reach.

This is a picture for the ages. That's right, we were pulling for Notre Dame and the boys got to wear there ND shirts that we picked up in 2006 during our visit to the ND campus. Even Scott rooted for Notre Dame, although it made him sick to his stomach. ND's coach, Jeff Jackson, was previously the head coach at Lake Superior State and led the Lakers to 3 consecutive Frozen Fours and 2 National Championships in the early 1990s. It was great to see him bring another team (even if it was the Irish) and make such a great showing with the trip to the Championship game.

Here we are awaiting the OT session between Michigan and Notre Dame.

Since Nolan was taking a friend to the Saturday Championship game with Kelly, Barrett and Scott went to the Friday night Skills Challenge Competition for a few hours. The photo above shows the men and women who were involved in the challenge watching one of the women take her attempt at the fastest shot. The student-athletes who are shown here were also the coaches for the youth skills clinic that Nolan and Barrett were able to participate in the following morning.

Jumping ahead to Saturday morning, here are Barrett and Nolan waiting to take the ice at DU's Magness Arena for the 2008 Frozen Four Youth Skills Clinic.

Travis sure thought that the Zam was pretty cool in the bowels of Magness Arena, as he and Kelly waited for the older boys to take the ice.

After a warm up, the boys ended up being split up. Barrett's group stayed on the main arena, but Nolan's group went to the other attached rink, Burns Arena.

While Scott and a few other parents were shooting pictures on the bench, DU coach George Gwozdecky walked by to chat with his former player, current Air Force Academy Assistant Coach, and one of the coaches at Gwozdecky's summer camps, Mike Corbett.

Just a cool shot of the pucks on the ice for the skills clinic.

We swapped rinks a few times to see both boys skating, and here Scott caught Barrett cruising around during a drill! Barrett really worked hard and did a great job paying attention for only being 4 years and 3 months old!

Nolan did excellent in all the drills they performed, and Scott caught this nice picture of him during the scrimmage portion of his drills. Nice to see his head up looking for a pass to one of his "red" teammates.

After shedding their equipment, the kids were taken on a tour of the DU athletic facilities and then the student-athletes who coached the kids at the clinic answered questions and then signed each of the kids' jerseys.

Barrett and Nolan really got a kick out of the whole morning event, and it was great to see them having such a great time together.

Nolan's friend Noah was able to meet us at the hotel before Scott dropped Kelly, Nolan and Noah off at Pepsi Center Saturday for the Championship Game.

As you can imagine, Nolan and Noah had lots of fun at the game.

Here are the Boston College Eagles celebrating their National Title after reaching the Championship Game and losing in the previous two years.

The weather really warmed up and was great for a trip to the Denver Zoo on Sunday, before we had to run out to the Denver Airport to pick up Grandma Carpenter. In this picture, the boys are watching the short Sea Lion presentation at the zoo.

And one last shot of the boys at the zoo. Barrett had been really afraid of the Hippos when we visited the zoo to see the Christmas Lights, but he was very brave during this visit!

Happy 104th Grandma Carpenter!!!!

Below is an announcement from the Rockford Squire newspaper in Rockford, Michigan highlighting Grandmother Carpenter's 104th birthday on Tuesday, March 25, 2008.

We had a great Easter Sunday today, as Grandma was at Scott's parents house for dinner and birthday cake in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My Dad remembered that we could do a video chat using our webcams. So, Great-Grandma was able to see Travis "live" for the first time, and how big Nolan and Barrett have grown too! According to my Dad, she was "amazed" at being able to talk to us in Wyoming over the computer, and see us too! Our family often thinks about all the technological advances that Grandma has lived to see, and that amazes us too!

Enjoy the excerpt from her local paper...

"Happy birthday for the 104th time!
Mary Carpenter, lifelong resident of Rockford, will celebrate her 104th birthday on Tuesday, March 25! Wouldn't it be nice for Squire readers to celebrate with her by engulfing her with birthday cards on her very special day? Mary's address is Bishop Hills, 4951 Eleven Mile Road, #28, Rockford MI, 49341.

Happy, happy birthday Mary" from your friends at The Rockford Squire, Rockford's original hometown newspaper, that in your earlier years you will recall as the Rockford Register."

February 23rd, 2008: Travis and Nolan Pictures

I finally took some time to shoot some pictures of Travis and Nolan to go along with the ones posted of Barrett in late January.

Essentially, these were supposed to be Travis' 6 month pictures but instead have become his 7 month pictures.




And although Nolan had school pictures this year, we still were going to take his 6 year pictures, but again these ended up being his 6 years and almost 3 month pictures!


And finally we convinced Barrett to sit in on a few attempts at a picture of all three boys together. As you can see, we actually had some success.

Some More Hockey Shots

Although we didn't get any video of this, the photographer at the Cheyenne Jamboree (back on Feb. 2nd) caught a neat sequence of pictures in which Nolan got a pass from his friend Joey (in goal) and skated down, split two Casper defense and scored a goal! He is #17.

The mini-mites had another great Jamboree weekend this past weekend (March 1-2) in Pueblo, CO!

March 1st, 2008: Hyundai for Hyundai

We finally decided to make the move back to the mini-van since my Hyundai Elantra just would not fit all the boys car-seats (and the boys need to be 8 AND 80lbs in Wyoming before they can go without a booster!).

Kelly found a great deal on a Hyundai Entourage down in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago, and after sleeping off my second midnight shift during the last set we found a babysitter for Travis and headed off to the Springs to deal some automobiles. ;)

Everything worked out pretty well with the dealings with two different dealerships and we drove back to Wyoming in the mini-van just in time for me to go back to work for another midnight shift.

It is very nice now not to have to take the Suburban anytime we want to go anywhere. The boys have dubbed the mini-van as the "Elantr-age" since they can't quite remember which was which.

February 2-3, 2008: Vedauvoo Meltdown Mini Mite Jamboree

The Cheyenne Capitals hosted an outstanding jamboree during the first weekend of the month, hosting teams from Rock Springs, Arapahoe (CO), Greeley and Casper. The Cheyenne mini-mites who were not on one of the two teams to play against other cities also played several scrimmages over the weekend. One of those in the scrimmages was Barrett, getting to take part in his first jamboree. He was very excited about this and had a great time out there. Nolan's team also had a great time and improved a lot through the weekend.

Barrett is in the foreground in blue with the white stick.

We had a photo opportunity after Nolan's last game Sunday and before Barrett's scrimmage.



Late Sunday afternoon, Barrett and his 1st medal!

Then it was off to home to join the others already at the house for the Super Bowl party.

January 29, 2008: Finally Some Pics

After much delay, we finally started getting some birthday pictures around here. I still need to take Nolan's 6 year and Travis' 6 month portraits, but here are a couple I shot of Nolan and Barrett. Barrett's are the best of his 4 year old pictures that I took Monday before the cold weather returned.

January 15th, 2008: Barrett is 4!!!

Barrett enjoyed a great 4th birthday this week, with the celebration lasting really from the 13th to the 17th.

January 13th, 2008: Travis' Baptism

Travis was baptized on Sunday, January 13th at the First United Methodist Church in Cheyenne.

We also transferred our membership over to the church here in Cheyenne that day.

Hope you enjoy the video.

29 December 2007: Cheyenne Mini-Mites Skate At Budweiser Events Center

2nd Try with Slightly Higher Quality Video

For the third time in a month, the Colorado Eagles CHL team welcomed a group of Cheyenne Mini-Mites to skate during the first intermission. This third time was the only one that worked out for us schedule wise, so we headed down I-25 for the evening and had a great time. Enjoy the video. Nolan wore #6 (in White with the black helmet) this evening assisting (and then being tackled by) "Slapshot" the Eagles' mascot's goal toward the end of the video. And he is also the one taking the last shot (that "Slapshot" blocked!). Hopefully you can make out Nolan a few times in the short video. The kids had a great time, even though they only got to be on the ice for about 3-4 minutes. Happy New Year!!!

December 28, 2007: Travis Tried Applesauce Today!

Kelly decided to have Travis try some applesauce tonight, and he liked it. In a few days, he'll get to try bananas too!