Connor and Josie, take a bow

What a big week at the Ponderosa, complete with a Hoss.  It all started with our golf club having a three day tournament.  Since my game is terrible right now, I decided to pass on said tournament.  So Nita and I thought it would be fun to take the kids to Georgetown to see the inner space caverns.  Essentially it is big cave that was discovered when the Texas Department of Transportation and US DOT were building IH 35.  The kids wanted to explore and discover (and touch) everything.  If you’ve ever been on a little walking tour like this you know there is a docent who goes about 20 yards, stops and then tells you a story and a joke that they have to tell about six times a day (think Phil Hartman in So I Married an Axe Murder).  They do it all while smiling and pretending that the misbehaving kids and adults aren’t bothering them.  God bless them.  Anyway the two big highlights for the kids were seeing (and chasing through the cave) a bat and the gumball at the end of the tour.  All in all it was a big hit.

Sunday I took Josie to the grocery store with me. This isn’t really a big deal except I was supposed to take both kids but Connor wanted to go to Abuelita’s to play instead.  I was shocked because he always gets a doughnut at the store and would probably trade a toe for a doughnut if given the chance.  However, I discovered that (against our wishes) Abuelita is giving Connor suckers and candy every time he goes over.  So there’s that.  After naps, Connor and Nita made cookies and we drove the golf cart up to the club to distribute them.  Nita’s cookies have been a big hit for about a decade for three day tournaments.  So it made for a pretty excited group of golfers charging us like Rhinos at the zoo when they saw the official cookie basket.  Connor had a great time handing them out too. Josie enjoyed running up and down the tee box.

Tuesday was soccer tots.  Nita has a couple of girlfriends whose kids are in Connor’s class and who signed them up for a 3 year old soccer class.  When Nita initially told me about this class I was VERY skeptical.  As a former athlete I am very aware of the pyramid of sports, parents living vicariously through their progeny and the effects it has on them.  You see it is very important that Connor play and love sports.  So my goal is not to push him into anything (too early) that will turn him off of it.  So I was cringing when Nita said she was doing this.  The other reason I was worried was because her friend’s kids are already in soccer crazy households.  One can’t even speak English and I think was wrapped in a soccer jersey at birth.  In any case, she did it and I hoped for the best.

I missed the first two sessions traveling but was able to take in this week’s class.  Oh, my gosh was this funny.  Connor could give two hoots about the whole thing but just liked jumping, running around, and doing his thing.  He didn’t really want to do all the same things, was borderline disruptive by doing his own thing, but in no way was he going to get turned off of organized sport on this day.  So there is one more class left and then it’s on to swimming this summer.

Nita has never completely understood how big a deal some of my friends are.  I say that not to promote that I am a big deal, it’s quite the opposite.  I’m a boring computer guy.  These guys are actual rock stars, movie stars, and professional athletes.  They are the top of the top and I’m pretty blessed and honored to call them friends.  In any case, because of her exposure to these folks and how “normal” they are around us, I think sometimes she takes for granted what a big deal some of our opportunities to spend time around them in their work environment really are.  I made this analogy to her.  “You have a friend who is a brilliant musician and one who is an author.  Imagine if they invited you to a back yard barbeque where Yo Yo Ma, Eddie Van Halen, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift, Stephen King, JK Rowling, Tom Clancy, Suzanne Collins (Hunger games), etc. would be there.  Would that be a pretty big deal?”  She said, ‘Hell yes!’  I said, “That’s where we’re going.  But for the greatest golfers.”

That being said, my friend Omar is a PGA tour golfer.  About 15 years ago his dad and an Austin icon named Sonny Falcon (the fajita king) had an idea for the Texas Open golf tournament in San Antonio.  They would invite the players and their families to a park (semi-secret location, no press) and cook fajitas, Omar’s mother’s famous enchiladas, and a cousin who had ties to a beer company would provide the beverages.  This morphed into other Tour players doing this for other tournaments and eventually the Tour started picking up the tab and more and more players and families attending.  As a friend/family, I’ve been able to attend most of these and they are pretty darn neat.  And it is great to interact with these folks in a family environment instead of at a tournament where they are basically doing their job. Let’s put it this way.  You have quite a different relationship with someone when you catch their child before they fall off a table than if you go up to them at a rope line and ask for an autograph.

So here is the stage, we drive down to San Antonio with Connor and Josie singing songs the entire way. Once we get to the course we head to the range and there in front of us are the best golfers in the world, some caddies, and some wives and girlfriends.  Connor is so overcome with amazement…because he found a grasshopper.  He picked it up and all the kids were chasing him around to look at it. My boy.  Josie immediately dumps an entire water bottle down her front like she’s in an 80’s spring break movie.  My girl. We get them fed and Connor discovers the ice cream station.  So he has two full HUGE rainbow Popsicles and half an ice cream sandwich.  We then head to the golf range where there are kids clubs provided.  That was pretty fun for about 10 minutes.  Connor was more interested in dipping his hand in the cold water/ice buckets that had the Gatorade and water.  He found out that your hands would go kind of numb after a while and asked if he could put his feet in it.  My boy.

After the golf range it was time to do the obligatory run around like you’re being chased by a bee dance.  Connor and Josie both loved doing this with the kids.  Then they found they could make it “snow” by pulling the ice out of the aforementioned ice buckets.  Finally, leave it to Connor to find the drain plug.  Once that happened the kids all took their shoes off and just ran around like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  This got quite a few hoots from the Tour players, wives, and officials.  I can honestly say THIS is what it is all about.  This was probably the best time I’ve had at one of these events and I’ve been to a lot of them.  And I know it was the best one Nita’s ever been to (because she told me).  I have been warned that these are the best ages and I’ve also been told it “only gets better.” I think I really got the biggest kick out of the hugs and compliments from some of the guys I know out there (and some I didn’t).  They were legitimately entertained by the kids and it was pretty neat. Connor, Josie, take a bow!