'Cuz I'm an Athlete

On Thanksgiving day, Ryan and I saw “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” with Marc & Frances. We have since purchased the DVD, and watched it yesterday with Rara & Papa. One of the younger characters is obsessed with being an athlete, just like a cousin who has come to stay with them. A common answer to various questions throughout the movie is, “Cuz I’m an athlete.” We have all picked up the phrase and use it quite often. Some of us use it in all seriousness, some of us with a touch of sarcasm.

Ryan is definitely an athlete. He finished his Jr. Jazz basketball season about a month ago, just in time to start soccer. He had one game, and then the next two games were cancelled due to the snow. This week the kids were finally able to play again. Ryan and another player were the “Stockton to Malone” of their soccer team. They played such great teamwork! They were very aware of where the other one was on the field, and if he was open. They were great to pass it to each other all through the game. Ryan scored TWO goals, but also had several “assists” (although I don’t think they count those in soccer, do they?). I even caught one goal in the middle of the action!Ryan’s season championship swim meet was Saturday. The season championship is when every kid from every rec center in the league participates. There were about 20-25 kids in every event! He did his favorite events: freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly. Unfortunately, he had been sick for a couple of days, and still had a bad cough. Still, he was in the top four or five of every heat. We got the official results this morning. He finished #12 out of 24 in the freestyle, #7 out of 18 in the butterfly, and #4 out of 18 in the backstroke. He was a little bit disappointed that he didn’t do better, but we were proud of him for his willingness to compete, even not feeling well. He did help his team take first place overall! I didn’t have my real camera, only my Blackberry camera. So the pictures didn’t turn out that great.