I’m still amazed at all that happened yesterday. I woke up and took Cody to Spring Hill Elementary School to meet his teacher for the school year. Alicia took Brianne & Dalten to Marvin Wright Elementary School. After about an hour or so, the papers were signed and the kids were ready for another year of school. It’s surreal how fast the kids grow up and are all in school.

During last night’s football practice, Dalten was the left tackle on the O-line. He flew out of his 3-pt stance and really hit the guy in front of him. After a while, the DT in front of Dalten ran a different direction so he wouldn’t get hit. As for Cody, he got a promotion on his pee wee squad. He is now the fullback and the coaches sent home plays for me to work with him on. He’s always liked to run over people. Now he gets to do it with pads on.

With each new day, we create tomorrow’s nostalgia (or something like that). I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me today.

We picked up the boys’ gear today and practice starts on Monday night. The boys are fired up & ready to play. I get a kick out of seeing them in their pads and showing them how to put them on and use them. For a few minutes, it was like I was back playing again. Ahhh nostalgia.

Spring Hill Raiders have really got a great program for the kids. I’ve already received many emails and been informed on most everything that’s coming up. I thought about coaching, but decided against it this year. Being their first year and all, I want them to have fun & learn without dad being there as a safety net.

Brianne will be cheering this year. She has a few friends on the team that live in our subdivision. They’ve already said that they would help her learn the cheers and dances.

It’s gonna be a great year at the Hopson household. Hopefully, we’ll get to see a Tennessee game or two this year.

photo posted from my iPhone

Today we hiked 1.5 miles to this beautiful waterfall. It took about 45 minutes to hike it and was beside a stream the whole time. Once there, we took our shoes off and stepped in the freezing water. Dalten collected rocks, Cody threw them, and Brianne splashed us all.

Tomorrow, we leave for Cherokee, Newfound Gap, and finally home. Maybe we can get one more hike in before the vacation’s done. Who knows?

We’re heading out to beautiful North Carolina to camp at Catawba Falls Campground. We picked this spot because it has waterfalls, it’s near Biltmore, and we can hike a number of trails in the area. On our return trip, we’re going to hike a spot on the AT near Newfound Gap. Hopefully, we’ll have good cell coverage so I can provide some posts and some pics of our journey.

I don’t know if that’s even a word, but it sure describes my week. Cody has been in football camp all week and is really doing great. From the looks of things, he’ll be a running back this year.

The kids are all out of school which means I’m Mr. Mom during the summer. This not only helps to save $$ from childcare, but it also provides them with some good times with their dad.

Alicia came home tonight and we headed out to my parents house to build a fire, roast some hot dogs, and make smores. It was very relaxing to sit by the fire and just watch the flames dance around. My dad broke out a croquet set they bought at a garage sale recently and the kids had a blast knocking the balls around. They didn’t understand the game, but they sure loved hitting the ball as hard as they could.

On the way home, Alicia mentioned that I hadn’t posted anything about our hiking trip last weekend. I’ll do that in the next day or two.

Our youngest child, Cody, graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. It’s hard to believe that he’s growing up so fast. Here’s a couple pics from his graduation ceremony:

Dalten is finishing 2nd grade today and moving off to Marvin Wright Elementary School in the fall. So today is his last day at Spring Hill Elementary School. He will finish his second grade year with perfect attendance and with the best in the class award for Math.

When the kids came home from school yesterday, I took them fishing at a creek near our house. Fishing was one of Dalten’s last Cub Scout requirements for the World Conservation Patch. We didn’t fish more than 30 minutes because he had his final Cub Scouts meeting later in the evening. We also didn’t catch anything but we did have a few crawdads nibble on the worms.

At Dalten’s scout meeting, he learned that he would be getting a bunch of patches and belt loops along with his Wolf Badge patch. He was sad that last night was his last meeting for the season, but he’s looking forward to camping this summer and more scouting next year.

Here’s a pic of his belt now with his belt loops. He’ll be earning at least 4 more at his graduation next weekend.