First Break

 Well, Howard has his first broken bone -- his pinky knuckle (fifth metatarsal to be exact).

I only know the story second-hand from Howard, Caroline, and a friend of theirs, but it seems that Howard was invited to punch a punching bag as hard as he could... which he did.

This was a punching bag hanging in a neighbor's garage, and I guess an 8th grader told Howard and his friend that they could punch it as hard as they could.

We found out a few days later that the punching bag is full of hard sand and is un-punchable, and the 8th grader knew that no one is supposed to punch this bag.  So that is helping us connect the dots a little more as to how Howard fractured his knuckle by punching a punching bag.

He has been seen by the Rangely clinic and referred to an orthopedic surgeon who is a hand specialist out of Steamboat.  We will see hopefully see him later this week -- it is the last week of school so it is a hard time to make a doctor's appointment, but we also can't push it off.

Howard's one tough cookie, and has not really slowed down at all even with the injury.  It is on his right hand (of course), and so far he has been most upset about the fact that he won't be able to throw during a Field Day Event.

Prayers appreciated for fast and complete healing.

Fun Saturday

 We had a lot of fun on Saturday cheering for Howard at the Rifle wrestling meet.  We connected with some friends, enjoyed ice cream, and Howard won second place.

State Bound!

 After a nail-biting victory for the Lady Panthers, the girls basketball team is headed to STATE!

They were a higher seed for their game on Saturday, so Rangely got to host the Regional Championship game, and it was a TON of fun to cheer them on and watch them pull out a win.

Nice!

 Nice, Dude!

Football

 This little boy watched football ALL day on Saturday, and finally conked out watching the USC-Nortre Dame game around 9:00pm.

Intense

 Last night I took a break from packing (more on that later) to watch the Michigan game -- hairy first half and then an AMAZING second half where Michigan blew Rutgers out of the water.  Then, we noticed that the Alabama-LSU game was shaping up to be a close ending, so we tuned in to the end of that game.

Here is a picture of Howard and me on the edge of our seats when LSU opted to go for 2-points to clinch the win in Overtime.

It is SO much fun to have Howard learning about and enjoying football.

 Tracey and Caroline are doing cheerleading through the Rifle Parks and Rec department this summer and they had their first performance on July 3.

They looked adorable in their uniforms, and I snapped this picture of them all ready to go...

Then, when they were out with their teammates I could hardly recognize them.  They looked so grown up in their uniforms doing their cheerleading routine with all their teammates.  I feel like I blinked and they are suddenly in high school.

Soccer

 We've now become a part of the soccer life this spring... both Tracey and Howard are playing which has us at a total of 3 practices and 2 games each week.

Wrestling Saturdays

 Wrestling Saturdays are long mornings for the kids... they each deal with it differently.

First Tournament

 This past weekend, we took Howard to his first wrestling tournament and he had a great time... and WON his weight class.