Tennis

 My 2 oldest are playing tennis this fall as part of the community center.  This is the first year they have had the program.  The kids get bussed directly from the middle school to the high school courts for practice and matches.  They decided that since they were playing they would watch the US Open and really pay attention.  Dad was at work, so they were left with my minimal knowledge of how the game is scored and played.  Luckily we have this little thing called the internet that is very resourceful.  All this new knowledge and watching some pros in action led them to making a court in our driveway out of the pool volleyball net.  I gotta give them props for creativity.  Unfortunately the court was too small for their wild shots. :0)

 This was their 1st match after 3 practices.  I can't get there until about an hour into it so I alway miss them doing their singles matches.  They are in separate doubles matches there.  It was a bit on the painful side because they only had 3 practices and they were left to score themselves with no ref.  Tennis isn't like soccer or basketball where you can not be very good but  people are moving around and it looks like a game is being played.  With tennis, not so much.  This first match every point was won by fault, so the only action watching them run after wild balls.   There were not a whole lot of balls making it over the net and the ones that did weren't landing in the right spot.  Jared though was looking pretty ready in that picture though.  He's in the purple shirt running.

This was their 2nd time at a match and they actually had to be doubles partners.  Uh oh, was my first thought, but they played very nice together and they made it through the match without calling each other any names.  So proud.  It was amazing how much better things were looking in just one week.  I think I even saw a couple of volleys that were at least 2x over the net.  During this match Jared finally figured out how to serve so they were actually making points on a serve.  He was pretty excited and about half way through he raised his hands up in the air and said "yes! I finally know how to serve."  It was an awesome moment for him.  They are doing good and having fun.  The nice thing about tennis is that ,other than doubles, you have no one to blame but yourself when you loose and with that the celebration is all yours when you win.  btw, isn't that sky against the court a-maz-ing?!