Debate Camp

Evan is, at this very moment, in the middle of a two week debate camp at Dixie State College in southern Utah. At home, on his best day, he's a man of few words. When away, he takes this unofficial teenage "vow of silence" thing to a whole new level. Crazy, right? I mean, what kid wouldn't want to reach out to his parent on a daily basis... to connect... to share?  Er... okay, maybe we're asking a little too much. You can decide for yourself. The following is a text thread between Evan and Tracy earlier this year when he was at a tournament in Berkeley.

I am pleased to add however...  that this trip has been better. Has Ev tried harder to reach out? Not exactly. Have we lowered our expectations? Duh... We may be overbearing, but we're not stupid.

Evan does seem to really like debate. He works hard at it and seems to have an aptitude... I swiped and scanned one of the scoring sheets from his California trip... He has the number one next to his name... (a good thing). While the high-speed, Jihad-style "chanting" coming from the basement sometimes scares us a little, we're mostly just happy when he is.

Loving Life

A photo of Tracy and Ev just after he passed off the requirements for Life Scout... one step below Eagle. As you can tell, he's beaming with excitement. (a stark contrast from his genuine enthusiasm as a 12 year old... What a world of difference testosterone and two years makes) That said, I get it, I really do. As a kid, much younger than he is now, I shrugged off a friend's invitation to join Cub Scouts.. Even then I knew I didn't want to become a Weeblo... whatever that is.

And yet.... we hope he hangs with it just a little longer. The Troop he's in is pretty engaged in the business of camping, merit badges and other miscellaneous whatnot. Thank you Dan, Ben and Co.. And while sleeping in a snow cave closely matches my idea of torture, Scouting does seem to give the boys interesting things to experience and something to work towards... a blessing in the time of texting and Call of Duty. On the horizon... A week long canoe trip in August and hopefully an Eagle project. Stay tuned.

Two other items of note. See how much taller Evan is than Tracy? That's a recent development. Also, a special thanks to Mom for getting his merit badge patches affixed to his sash... looking so legit.

Camping Out

To prove I could simultaneously be the best and worst father ever, I recently camped out with Evan until 1am (on a school night) to pick up the brand new Call of Duty. How was it? Kind of fun as a father and son thing, but let's just say the Marlboro/Mountain Dew/Nacho Cheese Dorito crowd was out in force. Unless our next war is hosted on an XBOX server, America is screwed.

To avoid cleaning his room, Evan recently camped out in this makeshift fort.

Test for Echo

Evan doesn't say much these days... he's all about the one-word answer. "How was school? we ask." "Good." "Are you hungry?" Tracy offers. "Kinda." In spite of the new teenage minimalism, we suspect he's still the same one-of-a-kind kid underneath. How do we know? (click the image to enlarge)

Exhibit A: On the left is a scan of our Sacrament Program. When his iPod Touch is frowned back into his pocket during church, he'll typically grab a program and go to work counting every vowel and consonant. So is he a codebreaker or just a little OCD? We don't know. We do think he might also be listening to the speakers, but haven't had the energy to try and drill him for details.

Exhibit B: On the right is Evan's iTouch. Possibly inspired by the movie "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", he's been learning the Latin names of as many animals as he can think of. He's up to 74. I asked him today whether he knew all of them. "Most" he says from the other room. "Ferret?" I ask randomly. "Mustela Putorius Furo". "Hey, that was three words," I say to myself. We're making progress.

The Boy

Evan has many nicknames.

Being our only only child born in the south and tipping the scales at just over 9 pounds, we naturally, initially called him Bubba. When he grew up a little, had blond hair and got playfully into everything. We called him the Cougar Cub or just Cougar for short. I think this was around the time we had to call poison control twice in the same week. (He didn't drink the bug spray afterall. He did eat the nickels)

At some point, for no good reason at all, we started calling him Kevin.

Lately, we just call him "The Boy". "What's the boy been up to today?" I'll ask after work. "Time to get the boy off the computer" she's say as bedtime approaches. While I'm not sure that qualifies as a nickname and it certainly isn't very creative, it seems to fit perfectly. Evan is our one and only boy. And while he is certainly at the beginning of that teenage-boy-everythings-a-one-word-answer phase, he's still the same funny, sweet (talked-us-into-watching-Alvin-and-the-Chipmunks-the-Squeakquel-last-night) kid.

He's just wrapped up middle school where he mostly looked like this.

He'll start high school looking something like this.


He can make pretty much anything out of anything. Paper, cardboard, legos... "Anything" these days is mostly full scale firearms... in this case an M249 SAW.

He's some kind of evil genius at Rummikub. (emphasis on the evil) There are three things you should know about playing this game with the boy. 1)He will take his sweet, exasperating time on every turn. 2) He will win almost every time, usually while multi-tasking with at least two other interests. 3) He will rub it in... usually by loudly encouraging you to "Munch it"!

He's also the perfect size 4... making him fantastic, albeit reluctant model for Hailey's dressmaking.

I just have one question: Based on everything you've read here, should I have not let him get the throwing knives?

Big (H)air

A few shots of Ev skating during our time in Boise. Not sure he's the next Tony Hawk, but you've got to give him points for style.

The Big Show

Like Hailey and Eden before him, Evan recently tried out for show choir. If you're not familiar with the concept, show choir combines the singing of choir and the "show" of showing people things. Usually props or humorously choreographed movements. Although some choir directors get the "show" part better than others, we have always enjoyed the performances. This one was no different. Evan also unexpectedly auditioned for a solo. Our kids never cease to surprise.


They invited the students to submit designs for the program. Evan's (not pictured) was not used. Okay, I may have helped a little too much.

New Era

Evan turned thirteen on the third.

This isn't a tongue twister, it's a mind bender. We don't just have one teenager, we have three. It's like the perfect storm. How did this even happen? It's all a biz fuzzy... I do remember getting married... I think we did some stuff and probably said some things... I think we may have even been naked at some point. And now here we are. It's not all bad though. When things aren't super difficult or expensive, they're funny and perfect. There are also some unexpected perks to having Evan finally turn the corner toward adulthood.

His birthday cakes no longer require sprinkles.

He became able at the same moment I became unwilling.

He can stay home alone when we go out.
We can stay home alone when he goes to scout camp.

He's finally discovered the obvious connection between a package of rubber bands, my drill, Tracy's thread and his tub of Legos.

We sorta hate to see him grow up. Fortunately, for now, he's still the same funny, good-natured, inventive kid he was a month ago. We can't imagine our family without him.

The Big Show

On July 9th, I got to take Evan to his first real concert. It was an outdoor gig at the Gallivan Center downtown... part of the Twilight Concert Series. A tip o' the hat to Salt Lake on this one... pretty stellar lineup for a free show. We got there early enough to get a great spot.

We saw Jenny Lewis from here...

We watched Bon Iver from here...

Evan saw two co-eds making out from here...

All in all, not a bad night.

And yes, Jon Shaffer did bring a copy of Golf Digest to a concert.

Camp

As you may have read in an earlier post, Evan recently attended a scout leadership training camp in the Uintas. It was a week long deal... I picked him up last Saturday.

To be honest, the whole thing was a little odd. I'm on my way back from a few hours at the office on a Sunday afternoon when Tracy calls me with the news. Apparently, one of the scouts designated to attend had been diagnosed with swine flu. Somewhat logically, they called Evan (he is a technically a scout) as a potential replacement. Illogically (he prefers the indoors), he agreed.

Did he know what he was getting into? Did we? No on both accounts. As a kid, your judgment is sketchy at best. And as parents, especially during the summer, you jump on opportunities to keep your people busy.

By the next morning at six he was off.
He was a little apprehensive. We felt guilty.

A week at scout leadership camp...
Knowing barely a soul...
Learning the patrol method... (whatever that is.)

If you're asking how this ends... If you're wondering if we were all worried for nothing... you aren't stopping by often enough.

Exhibit A: The weather


Exhibit B: The weirdos.

Exhibit C: The nervous smile that says "I think they're still watching Dad. Please take the photo quickly and let's get in the car."

Was it all bad? Probably not. As I drove him home, he slept in the back, hard earned patches clutched in hand. Has he asked to see the sign-up forms for next year? Not yet.