Niko's Big Week...

The past eight days have been a blast for our son. It started with Valentines weekend. After the Daddy's Day Pancake breakfast at school, Niko got to get signed out of school EARLY and then he and Daddy took the short flight to Phoenix (they went up, had their peanuts, and came down). My dad met them at the airport and within 10 minutes they were in the car and off to an NBA event at the Suns Center! Pop-pop doesn't like to have his picture taken but he sent Niko this really cool Suns jersey Niko wore on the plane, so I asked Juan to take one of Niko and his grandfather anyway. My dad cracks me up because he is laughing and joking all the time, but he absolutely will not smile for the camera. Fortunately, he knows I like to scrapbook, so this time he at least stood still long enough for this one picture. Thanks Dad!

Hightlights of the event: Getting to see Magic Johnson (he's in the picture here), Rick Foxx,

Dr. J, the New Harlem Globetrotters, and Niko says he's sure he saw Shaquille O'Neill walking out of the stadium! They had it set up so the kids had the opportunity to go down on the actual playing floor and shoot some hoops themselves too. They didn't get to see the NBA allstar game the next night (I got the timing wrong on that one) but Niko really enjoyed himself and when asked what the best part was, it wasn't getting to see some of the amazing athletes he admires and hopes to emulate. No, for our son it was, "Getting to do something cool with my Daddy and Pop-pop." :>

Then, this weekend, we set the alarm for 6am to be up and ready to drive the hour out to Norco so our 10 yr old amazing athlete, himself, could play his sport of choice at the moment, tennis. It was cold and the High school was having a marching band competion on the football field at the SAME time. It could have thrown all the players off their game, but not our Niko. Lauren cheered him on and Mommy told him to ignore the VERY LOUD drums and tried herself to ignore the butterflies in her stomach too. Dad, he was afraid of making Niko nervous just watching so he took a spot outside and watched the matches from afar. An hour later, our tennis player (who had a big blister on his hand by the way!) walked off the court with....2nd place! It has been a week of miles and smiles!