Bragging

So, I have to brag a bit about my awesome family members: Robert, Sam, and Daniel.

Robert
Robert is officially a lawyer in two states - New York and Utah.  I am so proud of him.  He studied a ridiculous amount, suffered through four days of testing (two days for each state), and he passed both.  That doesn't include the studying and testing for the MPRE (ethics test).  After passing the NY bar we were hopeful that the Multi-State portion of the exam would count in Utah, too.  But Utah won't count that portion unless you take it along with the Utah Bar, so he had to take the whole thing over.  Way to persevere, honey!

He got sworn in in New York on St. Patrick's Day - March 17, 2011.  His MPRE scores didn't come in in-time for him to be sworn in during their large ceremony, so he just flew out to Albany by himself and had an anti-climactic swearing in.  So, when he got sworn in in Utah on May 18, 2011 he got to bring family members, go to a big ceremony, take pictures and the like.  Finally, a bit of pomp for all that work.

Sam
Robert's brother, Sam, is a junior at Brighton High School.  He plays lacrosse.  Last year we mad it back from France just in time to see him and his team win the state lacrosse tournament.  This year, Sam has continued as the team's face-off specialist.

If you aren't familiar with lacrosse (you totally should be, it is fabulous) the face off specialist lines up across from the opposing team's face-off person, the ref puts the ball on the line, and once the whistle blows they fight for the ball.  They do this after each goal or the beginning of each half.  It is similar to the kick off in soccer, except you are fighting with the other team for possession each time.  Generally, when your team wins the face off they take possession of the ball and you get the chance to score.  So that position is pretty important.

They line up.

They fight.

Go #24!

Sam has done a great job this year and we got to see him play a few games.  He was voted 2nd team All-State.  On May 21st Brighton played against Juan Diego for the State Championship, and won!  Nice job defending that title.  He has one more year to do it again.  We are very proud of him.  We don't have pictures of that particular game, for reasons which will be discussed later.

Daniel
My (Christina's) brother, Daniel, also plays lacrosse.  He is also the face-off specialist.  This was his last year of eligibility playing for Brigham Young University.  We have been lucky enough to be around for a few of his games this year, too.  The past two years he has received awards for being the All-Conference Face-off Specialist for their region.  They headed off to the national tournament in Denver on May 17th.  They beat UC Santa Barbara, Florida State, and their rivals - Colorado State University to advance to the National Championships on May 21st (the same day as Sam's State Championship).

Since we knew it would be the last game of his competitive lacrosse career, Robert and I decided to surprise him by driving all the way out to Denver to see him play.  Now, I'll have you know this was no easy feat with two children 2 years and under!  So we packed up, brought my brother Benjamin along as an extra driver, left at 3:30am on Saturday so that the kids would be asleep for most of the driving.  We got in around 11:30am, took a nap while my parents (who were already out in Denver watching the tournament) watched the little ones, then headed off to the game.

It was a very tense game, with the score going back and forth between BYU and Arizona State University.  But the Cougars pulled it off winning 10-8!  Go Mighty Cougars!  Daniel was honored with the award of Tournament MVP!

 We made it for the big game!

 Happy Dan Cole, #12.

 His neat MVP award - an authentic Native American lacrosse stick.

Way to go team!

We were happy for the team.  They worked hard!  

The next day we woke up and were on the road again by 4am.  Okay, so 16 hours in the car in two days isn't fun.  It is even less fun with tiny children.  It is more tolerable when they are asleep, but that means the adults don't get much sleep.  We are still recovering a week later.  But I would totally suggest doing that way if you have to.

I love our family.  They are wonderful.