Austin's Birthday

 Time gets away fast! Not only from the last blog I posted but for Austin's past 15 years! His birthday falls at a hectic time of year but with lots of things to celebrate. He's always been talented at everything he does. He has tried just about every sport and activity and is pretty good at most of them. He has tried most forms of music and is pretty good at most of those too. The best thing about him, though, is he is such a nice kid. Many people tell me he's always so pleasant to talk to and comfortable with adults, girls, boys, and kids alike. He's as cool as a cucumber, which is sometimes aggravating when I'm asking him to do something and he just says, "Yup". There's not a lot of fire behind him in that regard. He just gets to things when he gets to them. However, he is responsible, it just sometimes takes a while.

One thing he does have fire in is his push at the last bit of a race. He has a really good kick and will use it almost every time, surprising us all, especially at his last track meet when he got sub-5! He kept improving his race times for the mile for the last 3-4 races in the mile by 5-10 seconds. He really wanted to get below five minutes for his last race, and he did! 4:54 to be exact! I didn't get a good pic of his finish because I was so caught up in how he had come from the back of the pack all the way up to coming in second in that heat! It was one of those exhilarating, proud moments. Here's a picture walk of most of the race.

He's 6th from the back here.

Notice the guy on the far right, almost out of the pic.

Austin's close to him (a senior) here.

The last 1/2 lap here in the back, he's hard to see, because he's starting to pass.

The last 16th of a mile he's still with that senior. 

Past him. Not in the picture are the first 2 guys because they were so fast. This is where Austin passed one of them just before the finish and came in second!

Stoked!

He earned the sub-5 shirt!

He also finished up his piano year with a bang earning the second-level trophy for Federation and earning a medal for certain requirements throughout the piano year. His recital piece was beautiful too.

The most interesting thing about these two final events in his school year is that he had a sprained ankle the last month of track and he had jammed his finger and then it got infected, affecting his piano practice a bit. Yes, Austin is also extremely talented at getting injured. Remember my post about his orchestra concert on Jason's birthday? Thank goodness he didn't break his wrist again, but that was sprained too, which is how we knew his ankle was sprained because we asked the doctor about it when we were at the urgent care.

Jason's brother is a doctor and told Jason where to slice into the finger to let out the puss. I didn't watch up close, but apparently, he couldn't get the blade in, so Kade did. Just like that!

Flexing some scrapes he got at track, while icing his shins, and still wearing the wrist guard for his wrist and ankle was still sprained here.

Sadly, that was Austin's last orchestra concert as he will not be involved with it next year, but he thinks he will still play around on his cello. Maybe he will, but it's okay if he doesn't since he is still taking piano lessons. He just can't do it all. He actually chose to support his friends at their seminary graduation rather than attend his last orchestra banquet. He lost his interest in the orchestra and wanted to support his ward and stake friends in graduating from seminary.

His birthday weekend we played a lot of card games and I took him and a couple of his friends out to trail ride at Maybury on Saturday and we watched Dune 2 on Saturday night. His birthday fell on fast Sunday, but he opted to not fast. I made him French toast, which he ate 6 slices of! We had some good conversation and enjoyed the dinner of wonton soup and fried rice that he requested, which is funny because my wonton soup recipe is one I made up and is the easiest in all the land. Jason suggested he make the fried rice to go with it so we had something else for those of us who were hungrier due to fasting, plus Austin is a major shrimp lover and it included shrimp. We had chocolate chip bundt cake for dessert. 

Goodr sunglasses

A comic from Kade.

Fancy nail clippers, which he was so excited about!

Crocs!

After dinner, we went to a last-minute gathering at a friend's to see a former missionary and his wife who were visiting from Canada. Elder Woodruff was in our ward for 7 1/2 months! The best part for Austin is that he was able to see some friends on his birthday and play basketball while the adults visited. He got more treats, too!

Happy Birthday, Austin!