Soccer Trip

Michael's soccer club participated in a youth soccer tournament in Sweden this summer.  The team flew into Copenhagen where they stayed for a few days.  The remainder of the trip was in Sweden.  This was Michael's first trip away from home and family.  Needless to say, I was a bit worried about him being so far away.  While I recognized the fact that this trip would undoubtedly be a good experience for Michael, I did think it entirely reasonable to request daily communication via texts  so that I could ascertain how he was doing.  Apparently I should have been more specific about what I thought daily communication would entail.  Michael's texts, typically sent at least 24 hours apart would consist of the pithy, "I'm okay."  If I questioned what types of activities they were doing, how the soccer games were going, whether he was having fun, I'd typically get a reply along the lines of, "Everything's fine."  After the first couple days of the trip with little even non-substantive communication, I asked Michael to send some pictures.  He sent this.

Needless to say, I was not expecting to receive a picture of grass.  With no people in it.

Later, after much coaxing, Michael sent a picture of his host family in Denmark.

And a pizza (yes those are french fries) from a joint they frequented in Sweden.

The team stayed in a room so cramped that Michael commented, upon seeing a photo of where the other boys team stayed, "we didn't have nearly that much room."

And here are more photos from Denmark and Sweden...

They had a long layover in Iceland on the way back and stopped by the Blue Lagoon...

Summer Camp

Prior to the last day of school, I had a conversation with Spencer regarding the upcoming summer break.  My position (which ultimately is the position that matters) was that Spencer needed to have structured activity for a large portion of the summer.  Spencer's position was that he needed no structured activity.   I gave Spencer the option of choosing the camps for himself, provided he filled 5-6 weeks of the summer.  I suggested possibilities such as a sports or academic camp, as well as a theater camp that ran approximately five weeks and which Spencer's piano teacher works for as musical director.  In the end Spencer reluctantly chose/agreed to the theater camp. 

Prior to the first day of camp, I received an email preparing the campers for tryouts which were to be held on that first day and consist of singing, dancing and acting.  I passed this information along to Spencer.  He was not pleased.  "I hate dancing," was his reply.  In my car, on my way to pick Spencer up at the end of that first day, I readied myself to hear the litany of everything wrong with the camp. But I was pleasantly surprised to learn that camp "was pretty fun."

The five weeks of camp went by quickly with Spencer practicing the dance numbers and the songs.  He had only a couple lines so he did not need to work on those at all.  The performance was last week and was really good.  So now camp is  over.  Spencer said it feels weird not to be going to camp this morning.  He wants to go back to the theater camp next summer.  He has no recollection of me strong-arming him into going to the camp or of "hating dancing."  Weird.

Dank Memes

As the boys and I have grown older, it has become clear that I lack knowledge of certain (many?) cultural trends.  I first realized this about three years ago when I received an email from a friend who mentioned that she was taking her girls to the 1D concert.  After unsuccessfully attempting to determine who or what "1D" might refer to, I asked Spencer.  He answered, without a pause and with a bit of incredulity, "One Direction."  One Direction was at the time a very popular boy band with whom I was entirely unacquainted.

Realizing that there might be other bands or phenomena of which I was unaware, both Michael and Spencer began the intermittent process of trying to keep me somewhat culturally literate.  Since that time, the boys have been the source of information on the following items (and countless others that I am likely forgetting):

1.  Gangnam Style - the song and the dance
2.  Photo Bombing
3.  Various Texting Acronyms
4.  Dabbing
5.  Snapchat (as an idea, I do not snapchat)
6.  "Dank" memes and other dank things