The Great Salamander Hunt

In a previous blog post I had shared my love of having my picture taken with Alligators and Crocodiles. I have passed this gene on to Trevor but we are beginning his training with much smaller animals. Check out the pic of the salamander Trevor caught in our backward. He loves to track these guys down and finds one every time he goes out to play. Personally I think it's gross, to me they are just snakes with legs. He told me the other day that he did see a small snake in the back yard. I told him if ever catches one those that he is living outside for the rest of his life.



The girl in the pictures is our neighbor and Trevor's BFF Maria. Don't call her Trevor's girlfriend he doesn't care for that. She is over at our house all the time playing with Trevor and Curtis and we are actually taking her to church with us today. Apparently Trevor is the best member missionary in our little family.

It's official, its now a dynasty

Since no one in the family has mentioned it, or even posted a comment on yahoo sports I've decided to have my own celebration for another amazing accomplishment in picking the winners of the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament. Yes it's true for the third year in a row I dominated the field and won the Pugh Family Pick'Em tournament. This outstanding accomplishment vaults my status to that of Michael Jordan and the Bulls, Magic and the Lakers, and yes even Tiger Woods status. Three-peats are very rare and you are all lucky to be witness to this awesome feet. I look forward to next years tournament and plan on defending my title aggersively.

(I only wish I would have done better in the office pool. I could have won some money on that one).

Great Wolf Lodge... the poor man's Disneyland

Well, its spring break time and in light of the current economic situation we decided to forgo a trip to Disneyland or Hawaii. We thought we'd take a quicker less expensive trip to The Great Wolf Lodge, a new resort which is located in beautiful Chehalis Washington. Great Wolf Lodge has a huge indoor water park which is perfect for us North Westerners. They keep the park at a balmy 85 degrees and you don't have to worry about getting a sun burn. This is key for those of us that haven't seen the sun in the past 6 months. We had a great time riding the slides, playing in the wave pool, shooting hoops in the pool, and basically spending two days in the faux wet and warm weather.


The boys also had a great time in our "Kid Kamp" room. Essentially they had a separate room, within our room, with bunk beds, their own TV, and a Nintendo Game Cube. Other than fighting over the top bunk they had a great time. It was also nice for Mom and Dad to have a little privacy. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, know what I mean.



The only downfall of the trip was the clientele of the hotel. Now I know that I'm going to sound like an elitist but I don't think there were many people from our zip code at the hotel. I'm guessing that the Great Wolf Lodge is more of Kent or Auburn family destination. Let's put it this way, when I'm the physically fit guy at the pool and the only one without a Harley Davidson tat and a beer in hand, you know you are with a bunch of rednecks. It reminded me of saying Grandpa Bob used to say. "I wonder what the poor people are doing" Well, now I know. One more reason to go back to work and put in a few more hours. Mickey Mouse, I hope you'll welcome us back.

Pinewood Derby 2009

If there is one thing I have learned about myself as father its that I am a lousy at building pinwood derby cars. Not only am I lousy at it but I HATE DOING IT!!! Now I understand why Dad took me over to Uncle Lorins house to build my car back in the day. Building a fast car takes an awesome set of tools and a lot of patience, two things I really lack.

I told the boy's that when we started that there was little chance of their Dad building a car that could actually win so we were able to manage the boys expectations. The good news is they didn't come in last place. Trevor was second to last for the Wolves and Curtis was third to last in the Webelos. It's amazing that there are Dads that are worse at this than me.

This year was the last for Curtis but I'll still have to build two more for Trevor. I think I'm going to be buying pre made cars on the internet next year. We'll have the best car money can buy. Shake and Bake.

This is Why Ball Sports are Awesome

On my last trip to Pennsylvania I told Mom my theory on why it's important for kids to be involved in "ball" sports. In my mind there are things in team sports that just can't be substituted with individual accomplishments.

When I read this Rick Reilly article it reminded me of why I love "ball" sports. Teamwork, sacrifice, commradarie, and when done right inclusion of all. This story doesn't mean as much if its about golf, swimming, or bowling. I bet my new hero Matt Watson and his brother Joe would agree with my theory.

Ball sports are awesome.


Life of Reilly
Matt Steven can't see the hoop. But he'll still take the last shot.
by Rick Reilly


A few seconds left. The game teeters on these two free throws. The shooter gulps. The packed gym goes silent, save for the tapping of a white cane on the back of the rim. That's right. The shooter's brother is under the hoop, rapping a cane on the rim. That's because the shooter, Matt Steven, is blind.

So why is a blind kid in a competitive CYO game for sighted high schoolers in Upper Darby, Pa.? Because he doesn't like to miss anything -- especially free throws.

Matt, a senior, had been on the St. Laurence CYO team for a year and never played in a game -- never expected to. "He just likes being on the team," says Matt's brother and coach, Joe. Matt shoots free throws every practice, though, making about half. And that's what gave Joe a crazy, unthinkable, wonderful idea.

Before a charity tourney this past February, Joe asked the other teams if Matt could shoot all of St. Laurence's free throws. Amazingly, they agreed. So did the refs. A blind kid was going to be his team's designated shooter. Hey, it's still better than Shaq.

A BLIND KID AS DESIGNATED SHOOTER? YES.

Did that make Matt nervous? "Nah," he says. "I shoot 'em all the time!"

The first game, Matt came in and -- to the crowd's shock -- made his first two. He was escorted back to the bench, where he grinned as if he had just kissed the head cheerleader. He was 4-for-8 that day.

Matt doesn't talk much -- he has a stutter -- so when Joe got home late after the game, their mom, Joan, asked, "Any idea why Matt's been smiling all night?"

"Oh yeah," Joe yawned. "He shot all our free throws tonight. Going to tomorrow night, too."

Joan about dropped the spaghetti. Does she like it when Matt rides a bike? Ice-skates? Plays soccer? Sort of. She also dreads the day he comes home hurting.

But Matt already knows what it's like to be hurting. Hurting is being born with two permanently detached retinas. Hurting is having your left eye removed in the fifth grade and the right in the sixth. Hurting is when they send you to a high school for the blind even though the last thing you want is to be around only other blind kids. Matt wants to be around other kids. He aches to be treated normal. Not "He does so great for a blind kid!" Just normal.

That's why the free throws meant so much. He'd begged his parents to let him transfer to a regular school -- Monsignor Bonner. And he'd begged his brother to let him join his friends on the CYO team. And then, for the first time in his life, he was going to be one of them.

Which brings us to Matt's moment in that second game. He'd missed his first six free throws, and St. Laurence was down eight to St. Philomena. Then a full-court press pulled the team to within one with 10 seconds left. That's when St. Laurence's best shooter -- 6'4" senior Ryan Haley -- was fouled in the lane. Surely, with the game on the line, the team stud would shoot his own free throws, right?

Up in the stands, Matt's mom was hoping: Please don't make him shoot these.

And Haley really was going to shoot them, until he looked over at Matt on the bench. "And I thought, He comes to every game, he never misses a practice, he cheers us on. He deserves a shot. I mean, it's everyone's dream to make those shots."

So out comes Matt. And for the first time, the St. Phil fans aren't rooting for him. In fact, they look like they'd prefer that he shoot straight into the hot dog table. "That might have been the best moment of all for Matt," recalls Joe. "For once, he was just normal."

Now the ball bounces under Matt's hand. Now the picture shakes in Mom's viewfinder. Now the rim pings from the cane.

Matt lets go. Off the backboard and through. Tie game. Crowd goes berserk. Says Joe: "I think it helped that he's blind. He couldn't see the crowd, the scoreboard, his teammates' faces."

The crowd stills again. Dribble. Tap. Shoot. Bank. Swish! Up by one. The gym windows nearly break.

St. Phil's players forget to give Matt time to get off the court. They race the ball up. Nine guys are running around Matt, who's trying to find a way to the bench. Make that 10, since Ryan's already off the bench and pressing. Make that 11, since Joe -- tears in his eyes -- is trying to get to Matt. Chaos. Joy. Wonder.

St. Phil's desperate shot misses. Game over.

Since then, Matt's life has gone all kinds of crazy, unthinkably wonderful. His teammates call him Shooter. A girl says she heard all about him. He's even thinking about asking somebody to prom.

I hope she says yes. Best blind date of her life.

Trevor Crockett and the Scouts

Check out Trevor's picture from his bottle doll project. They had to make a bottle doll (2 liter bottle is the body) of a historical figure. Trevor chose Davey Crockett because he was "a real cool hunter and was really good at shooting." We watched scenes from the old John Wayne version of the Alamo and he loved it. He also thought the old Disney song was "totally dorky"





Also check our two Scouts. Now that Trevor is 8 he get's to join his big brother every week for Scouts. Curtis is now a Weblow and is less than a year away from being a full blown scout. Am I really that old?!?!?!? Aunt Lizzy, feel free to come up any time and give these two boys some instruction.

Our Big Night with the Globetrotters

Last night the Norhwest Pughs drove up the Everett Event center to watch America's Favorite baketball team, The Harlem Globetrotters. Dad had splurged for courtsides in hopes that the family could get into the act. Anyone remember Mom dancing with the team at the Salt Palace back in the day? Anyways late in the 4th quarter our hopes we realized. Big Easy, the teams showman, came up and asked Trevor if he would like to take a shot in the game. As the Washington Generals raced up the far side of the court Trevor and Big Easy sat back "cherry picking" back at their own free throw line. (Very similar to his dad's offensive moves in ward ball). After the Globetrotters stole the ball they threw the outlet pass up to Big Easy who handed it off to Trev. Trevor took two dribbles toward the hoop and calmy drained and 8 foot jump shot in front of thousands of screaming fans. The place went nuts when he made the shot and the whole Globetrotter Team was jumping up and down high fiveing Trevor. The act continued as the referee stopped the game and demanded to know who Trevor was. Big Easy's answer was "he's my son, cant you see the resemblence." Pretty funny stuff. Big Easy then went over and got Trevor one of his official Jerseys that was autographed by the whole team. Trevor was a true celebrity as we left the arena. People were coming up from all over and saying, "great shot kid." It was awesome and his Mom, Dad, and brother couldn't be prouder of him. The whole family had a great time and we can't wait until the Globetrotters come back to town. Here are a few pictures I took of the evening.

You can also see alot more pics at www.globetrotters.com/fanphotos.
Select Everett 2/20/2006 and Gallery 6 and you'll see all the pictures.