Father - Son Campout!!

This weekend, amid the 36 other things we've had going on was the Five Oaks Ward Father-Son Campout! Jack went for only his second appearance and Porter came along for the 4th year in a row. The one memory I have of camping with my father is the bucket of KFC on the first night! I wanted to try that tradition with my kids - but they have only tried KFC once and cried through the experience. So we continued on with our tradidtion of Happy Meals on the way up to the campsite.

On the way up to the campsite Jack asked me if his good buddy who recently moved to Utah, Jack Wadsworth, was going to be there like he was last time we went camping. I let him down with one of the two-dozen Krispe Kreme donuts we took with us - another family tradition. :-)

 I'm the king of the world!

 Look dad - we found the Tree of Life!

 Jack and his buddy Tyler Alexander...

 Send us back your caption of what Porter is saying here. There will be a prize for the best entry!

  We went on a nature hike through the forest, roasted giant marshmallows, and shared our donuts with the other campers. In the morning we got dressed, had some pancakes and then came home for Porter's baseball game. Did you know the sun comes up at 5 am - even on Saturdays?!

U2

So a few weeks ago I had to do some work in Denver, and it happened to be the same week U2 was playing. So I checked with Entercom Denver and they hooked me up with two tickets for the show!! It turned out to be the same weekend as Candace's piano recital for all of her students, so she being the totally awesome wife that she is said, "Just call one of your buddies and see if they want to go with you." So I called my buddy with the most air miles of anyone on the planet that just happens to work for himself (I knew he could get the day off). Andy Thompson flew out and togeher we saw U2 live in Mile High Stadium with 85,000 other people! Does that make me a member of the Mile High Club??!!

 Oh yeah - their opening band was a local Denver band - The Fray!!

 They had a totally eloborate stage made up as part of their 360 tour! There was a giant 360 degree screen around the stage. We were standing about 20 rows back from the front of the stage!

It was a great show and we had a blast finding our way around and rockingout at the show. U2 put on a killer show with hits from all of their albums over tha past 3-4 decades, and kept rocking until close to Midnight. We didn't get back to the hotel until after 1:30 am. I had an early flight out (8 am) and made it back for the 11:30 am church meeting!

I would show you a video here but cannot upload the video without crashing the site... :-(

Origami Anyone?

Megan has gotten to be an Origami Master, fine tuning her skills over the last year. She has read more than 10 Origami books and there is nothing she cannot create! It really is amazing at how her mind works. She will see a piece of scrap paper of any size or shape and within 10 seconds will say, "I can transform that into a crane or a ball or even a T- Rex!"

Megan is also very kind hearted and will use any of her skills and attributes to help others when they are feeling down. In the photo above we were at a ward party and Megan saw this younger girl by herself and not having a good time. So she grabbed some napkins, made a couple of cranes, let the girl choose one and then played with her for 30 minutes.

Say Hey Dodgers!!

So after Porter's finish to the basketball season I did not think it possible for me to get that excited about watching him play a sport. Boy was I wrong...

This year Porter moved up into AA Baseball (kids pitch) with all of his buddies. At first we weren't sure if it was the right move and had to get special permission from the league as he is still 7 years old and the league is for 8-10 year-old kids. In the beginning of the year we second guessed ourselves a few time as Porter was visibly smaller, slower and just weaker than the other, older kids. By the half way point of the season Porter seemed to realize this too and voiced more than once that he wished he had played spring basketball instead.

 
As the season progressed his skills started to improve and he started to have more fun. By the time the end of the year tournament rolled around he was excited and nervous for the first playoff game. We (the Dodgers) were the 4th seed of 6 teams, and had a first round game against the 5th seeded Giants. The game was a nail-biter and ended up going into extra innings. To this point Porter had done well playing catcher, second base and center field, and had gotten a hit once and struck out once. In the bottom of the 7th inning with one out Porter came to the plate and after getting two quick strikes, hit his best ball of the season. It went over the third baseman's head and into the outfield. The next batter was hit by a pitch and so Porter advanced to 2nd base. [All season long Porter had not made it passed 2nd base due to where he batted in the line-up - the good hitters all hit before him and the not-as-good hitters hit after him. He had hit plenty of guys in but he had never advanced past 2nd base before the other team got the 3rd out].




















The next batter hit a single and Porter was to 3rd - with a huge grin on his face! If he scored it would not only be his first time crossing home plate all season, but it would also be the winning run of the game! The next batter, Porter's friend Stevie, hit the ball and Porter ran across home plate for the win! Not only was it great that the Dodger had advanced to the next round, but it was great that they had won on the bats of the back half of the line up!

The team was riding high going into their next game - a face off with their heated rivals and #1 seeded Mets. The Mets are a team that everyone despises. The coaching staff yells at their kids until they cry and then yells at them for crying. With a posted reward of "Beat the Mets and earn a Slurpee" the Dodgers were up to the challenge. This was our third game of the year against the Mets and it was our time. We had tied the first game of the season due to a score book discrepancy (we swear we won 6-5 but they were the home book), and then we lost to them later in the season 5-4 after being ahead 4-0. In this game Porter had the game of his life - he went 3 for 3 at the plate and had his new best-hit-of-the-season! An opposite field bomb over the first baseman's head! In fact the whole Dodger team hit well and we destroyed the Mets! We had a 7-1 lead at one point and finished the game 7-5!

This Saturday the Dodgers play for all the marbles, for the big prize, the SHIP, the Big Kahuna, the Championship Game of AA Sun Creek Little League against the mighty #2 seeded Cubs. Most importantly Porter is having fun and is glad that he stuck it out on this team.

I am an assistant coach this year and am (in case you couldn't tell) a very proud papa! Porter has improved so much this year and is hanging with kids 3 years older than him - which is a big deal at this age. I get so excited for the games that I cannot focus at work and end up going home to be there when he gets off the bus so we can practice together in the back yard. Jack usually comes out and hits a few and then shags some balls for us. Don't get me started on that one - he is going to be an ATHLETE! I love that I am able to share this with Porter and am getting a little misty-eyed just writing this up. I love you Porter and good luck in the Big Game on Saturday!

One of Those Rare McKeehan Days!!

One of those rare McKeehan days…

This was Porter's second season playing YMCA basketball. He has great teammates and a good coaching staff, and had a lot of fun playing. Throughout the year Porter had played pretty well. As he was the youngest on the team and the third shortest, we worked on dribbling with his head up, good passing and racking up assists, and making sure he boxed-out on rebounds so he would have a chance against the bigger kids. He usually made 2-3 baskets a game, had 4-5 assists and 2-3 rebounds - his high point game being 12 points a several weeks ago. That all changed on the last game of the season. Nana and Poppy came to the game and he was playing against two of his buddies, Kyle Thompson and Luke Larimer. This was Porter's breakout game as he scored 24 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, and had 6 assists!!  He was pumping his fists in the air with celebration and was super excited. When the game was over all of his buddies talked up his shooting and all had a favorite memory of a great play Porter had made. His dad, the assistant coach was pretty proud to say the least!  

Notice in this shot, towards the end of the game, every player on the other team is guarding Porter. He still got the shot off and made it! He was 12 of 14 shooting for the day!

Later that day he came home and while practicing the piano, he learned how to play the Star Wars theme song all the way through without error. After he was done I called him into a one-on-one meeting to let him know that today was one of those rare days when everything goes right. I told him that these days don’t happen too often in the McKeehan household, so if he even thought that he had a crush on a girl, that he should call her today as it will go well!! He looked at me and said, “Dad – I’m only 7 years old!”