UP and DOWN

 The past have been up and down.

We (Andy, Max, Hayden, Graham, Pierce and I) went skiing and snowboarding yesterday at SunDown. We had a great time. Max hadn't been skiing in 3-4 years until a couple of weeks ago when he went with buddies (Griffin, Jacob and Ben). Graham has not been since he had a snowboarding accident in February 2019 when on a school trip. It was awful and he's lucky he doesn't have scarring on his face. Until a week ago, Pierce had never been snowboarding or skiing. He went with a neighbor of Mitch's who snowboards a lot and loved it. Hayden has been once this season and would live on the slopes. Andy loves to ski and well, I'm giving it my best. I had not been in 5 years. I'm not fast. I'm not good. I do though enjoy it, especially with my family. The weather was beautiful so really, a very memorable day.

Max left a bit early to make it home for varsity basketball practice. Well, he ended up in a Zoom call and found out the team is in quarantine due to exposure during the game against City High on Tuesday. Very disappointing as the exposure was limited - potentially none - but Johnson County says playing the game makes everyone fall under close contact. No school, sports, work, hanging out with friends. Max is sad and feels the stress of tighter restrictions again. My heart breaks for him. Four varsity players can still play because they have recently had COVID. They pulled up a few sophomores and in the process, Graham was moved up to the sophomore team along with five teammates. Then today, right before practice, Graham and two of those boys were asked to practice and be evaluated for varsity. To say he is excited is an understatement. I'm very proud of his hard work and this opportunity, no matter how short lived it is. Max is having a hard time being excited for him. I want Max to embrace this for Graham but I also understand it's hard. It's tough to watch the ebb and flow of COVID yet again. 

(The laughable and cringeable addition - Graham comes home from practice; Max picks at him a bit; Graham then fires back with "you didn't get to play varsity when you were a freshmen." Keep in mind this comes from ALL the times Max has reminded Graham that he did not play varsity football as a freshmen. Oh the brotherly, competitive, sports bickering...)