Sorry eveyone. I kept saying it was Julie's turn to update - but she successfully outwaited me. We have a ton to update. We'll start with Jeff.

Jeff’s Update:

Jeff has had an extremely eventful year. From January until late March, he prepared and worked out for the Discus in the spring. His sophomore year, he was very disappointed with his performance at the State Meet. He had gone in with the furthest throw in the state, but just didn’t seem able to relax enough to pull off a big throw at the meet. This was the very first time that Julie or I had ever seen him nervous and be effected by pressure. He ended up 3rd that day with a medium throw as compared to the throws the rest of the year.

We purchased a 35’ parachute which we hung from the rafters in the gym and threw all winter into the parachute. He opened the season with a meet at Mountain Home. Jeff was the only athlete there from a 1a school. All others were from 4A and 5A schools. They seeded the throwers and Jeff came in with the best PR so he was in the final flight. As he came up for his first throw – the meet official read his name and then said, “Camas County – Oh, you’ve come to throw with the big boys, huh?” Where after, Jeff blew all of them away. He threw 154’ 3”, 2nd place was in the low 140’s.

We are pretty sure that he injured a deep abdominal muscle at that meet, (a very typical discus injury as he struggled the rest of the year to approach that mark again and he demonstrated an inability to straighten up tall in the ring. He went on to lose only one meet (YMCA Invitational which draws athletes from the entire state as well as Oregon and Nevada,) for the entire year and finish up with a first place throw at the State Meet. He then took the summer completely off as we wanted any possible injury to heal itself. (Which his football season showed it did heal completely.)

Late Spring Camas County High School had its prom. Jeff had Whitney Davis fly from Silverton, Oregon to attend Prom with him. It is the next best thing to impossible to get Jeff to dress nice so it was a welcome change to see him looking so handsome. (Sorry if I sound like a father, but I just think he is a handsome young man.)

Anyone who knows Jeff knows that he functions on his own time-clock. Since CCHS is so small, all of the kids from the high school are invited to the prom. They perform a grand entry procession where the parents are invited and the kids make a formal, announced entry to the Prom. The entire community comes to watch. This year, the entire community waited for Jeff and Whitney to show up. They were 45 minutes late. They just took their time at dinner in Ketchum and didn’t see any need to hurry. As Randy Jewett would say, "It's just Jeffy being Jeffy!"

His summer was spent traveling between Oregon and Idaho for the most part with a single trip to Provo for EFY. Julie and I nearly had to hog-tie him to get him to go. He had a lot of fun and asked if he could go again next year. (He can’t; school, Mission, all those things plus he will be too old.)

He and Julie made an incredible visit to the College of Idaho (I had to work and missed it.) The school made a big production out of making him feel both welcome and wanted at the same time. The financial offers they made were beyond what we expected, especially since this was the first visit to the school and the first time we had met the coach. We have since narrowed our search down to the College of Idaho and no others and have communicated with the coaching staff on a continual basis. They even came to Jeff’s last football game of the regular season to see him perform in an athletic situation. They exchanged emails with us all through the state playoffs and we feel like C of I will be a great home for Jeff.

In early August, Jeff began football. He was still at Camas County High School. (Just as a reminder, CCHS has 47 kids total – with six senior boys on an 8-man team.) Something was missing. He didn’t have the speed, the drive, the determination, or the power he demonstrated the year before. Part of the problem was the nagging desire he has had to return to Mount Angel for school. With the recession making my job situation significantly more precarious, Jeff and I finally packed up and left for Oregon leaving Julie, Jason, Lahia, and Jaxon in Idaho. Jeff played three games in Idaho and 13 in Oregon – making a 16 game season for him.

CCHS went on to win only one game. Kennedy High School, (which he had gone to and started for as a Freshman,) lost their first three games and then one other in the regular season, and then came into the playoffs polished and looking unstoppable. The newspapers had Kennedy picked to lose the first round playoff game. They said that the team they were playing, Lakeview, just had too much play-off experience and Kennedy couldn’t handle them. The game was played at Lakeview High School (middle of nowhere next to the California border in central Oregon.) Kennedy won 57-0.

The 2nd round was against Heppner, who was the team Kennedy lost to the very first game of the year. Again, the papers picked Heppner as an overwhelming favorite. The game was a muddy, soggy mess, as it rained hard all week and the game was played on grass. The boggy condition of the field slowed both teams down significantly. Kennedy slopped its way to a 7-0 win. Heppner was emotionally crushed; they had honestly thought this was their year to win it all. I stood out at the edge of the field and listened as their coaches and parents literally threw temper tantrums, complaining that the field was so wet and muddy that it stole their championship from them. I thought to myself, wasn’t it muddy for both teams? Didn’t it slow down Kennedy as well?

This win put Kennedy in the State Semi-Finals against Knappa High School. Knappa was the returning State Champions and the team that had beaten Kennedy in the 2nd game of the season 56-18. Again, the papers overwhelmingly picked Kennedy to lose this game. Knappa’s parents had already purchased State Championship rings for their boys – so they would have them at the Final when they won. Kennedy played one of, if not the most exciting game I have ever watched and won 21-14, placing them in the State Finals against Scio. I stood next to three sets of Knappa parents at the end of this game as they discussed what to do with the rings they had already purchased. What avarice.

This put Kennedy in the State Finals against a tough Scio team. Kennedy had lost its regular season game against Scio, 14-7. The Final was a great game, but, unfortunately, Kennedy lost, again, 14-7. Placing 2nd in State is something to be proud of, but the loss hurts none the less. We are proud of the football season Jeff had and extremely glad that he and I relocated back to Oregon.

Compared to Jeff’s junior year, he did not have the stats. His junior year, he rushed for 1,268 yards and 14 touchdowns. This year he rushed for a little over 600 yards and 8 touchdowns. His junior year, he was the offense. This year, he was merely a part f a very powerful offense and he played a blocking and short yardage roll instead. We wondered how he would adjust to not being the focus, but he had no problem with it. He said it was a small price to pay for winning and going to the State Finals.

This past football season also allowed Jeff to escort Abby Bochsler as one of the Homecoming Princesses. Abby and Jeff have been best friends since the third grade. We love Abby and are so happy she got to be one of the princesses. I think both he and Abby look wonderful and they had a lot of fun. We couldn't be more proud of Abby if she was our own daughter. (Editorial note: Sorry for spelling your name wrong Abigail - it won't happen again.)

With Jeff and me living in Oregon with Stefani and Jeremiah, Jeff has a lot of time to play with his nephews and they literally worship the ground he walks on. He is a great uncle ad spends time down on the floor with them playing with, sharing his time, and loving his boys.