This past weekend I took my first big trip with Clayton. He and I went to a neighboring town for the girls basketball mini-tournament.
I wanted to share with you what it really means to coach a sport in Alaska because it is so different than anywhere else in our country. Games must be scheduled in tournament style and take up an entire weekend in order for it to be worth the expense to travel to and from other towns. We almost always miss some school and sometimes we miss a lot of school. My next trip we are currently scheduled to miss 3 days!
So here goes my best attempt at painting the picture of how things work up here:
Our adventure started Friday morning. Clay had to go to school with me so we would have enough time to make it to the boat at noon.
We got on the jet boat and took a short 30 minute trip over to a drop off point. Clay was very interested for about 5 minutes, then he passed out for the duration of the trip.
We were then rode on a bus for 45 minutes. Clay slept through that too.
When we arrived at the school, Clay, my assistant coach, 17 middle school girls, and myself made our way to our home sweet home for the weekend. It was the health classroom.
After unpacking our things, it was time to explore the town. We had about 4 hours before we had to play our first game. So Donna, the assistant coach, Clay, and I went shopping.
Clay really enjoyed the toy store and he got a monster finger puppet!
He was also kind enough to carry our goods. Donna had to buy a bed because she forgot hers at home!
The rest of the weekend was filled with a lot of basketball, kids, and noise!
The girls fell in love with Clayton right away and it was like having free babysitters all weekend long! They were so cute with him. They took turns passing him around during the games. One of the moms told me that they would tell each other things like, "He really likes to sit up and watch the game" or "Let him bounce up and down".
The girls bought him an onesie and decorated it so he could cheer them on!
And a neat teething toy!
Clayton was such a good boy. He played hard and slept soundly!
He also ate in a big boy chair. The whole time he was so interested in the surroundings it took forever to get him to eat!
On Saturday evening, I found a nice corner by the biology room to have some "alone time". Clay took a nap and I ate a salad and ice cream.
Early Sunday morning we took the bus ride back to the drop off point and waited to in the frigid morning air for the boats to arrive.
The girls were worried Clay would get cold, so they stuffed a fuzzy pillow around him!
We arrived home about 30 minutes later. I took one second to breathe and unpack, then we took off to get on another boat and do some whale watching! It was unbelievably incredible! I will try to get the photos and videos off the camera for the next post. We love you all!
