Last year Kye did a golf camp at a local golf course. Big Papa was all about it and actually paid for Kye and Colt to participate! While Kye LOVED the camp last year…Zach wasn’t overly impressed with the actual learning about the sport aspect.
All of you know my feelings about competitive sports at a young age. Even though I think we’d be considered a “sports family” (Zach played sports from a young age including both basketball and football in high school as well as football in college…I played no sports like ever haha) we haven’t put Kye in any competitive level sports teams. However, I’m all for him learning about sports he’s interested in and learning skills to help develop his interests. That way when the time does come for him to play competitively, he’ll already have a skill set built up and will be better able to decide which sports he truly enjoys and wants to pursue!
Kye LOVES golf and I love that it’s a sport that he can enjoy for his entire life and one that he can also enjoy now with his dad (and Big Papa…and Aunt Karen…and Uncle Steven…). I set aside a bit of money each month to save for the kids swim each year. This year we didn’t swim as long as we have in the past (although next year Britt will be doing more lessons for sure) so we had money left over in that budget. I suggested (YES! I DO support this stuff even though I know y’all wouldn’t believe me haha) to Zach that we do some type of camp for Kye over the summer. He loves both golf and football and I hunted for camps for both. This is the summer to do it because my schedule is much more flexible than it will be next year so I wanted Kye to get a chance to learn more about a sport he enjoys!
Zach is a member out at Kinderlou now which is a wonderful golf course in our area. He talked to them and they offered a golf camp over the summer! It worked out great! It was 10 days total…each Tuesday and Thursday morning for 5 weeks. The only real issue was it was just an hour. So I had to drive Kye out there (which it’s not very close to our house!) and then had just an hour of time before I had to pick him back up! It was a tad tricky but I worked it all out and we made it work. I know Kye will have to make a lot of sacrifices when the baby comes. I’m pretty hardcore about the baby’s schedule/needs coming first for our family for the first year so I was willing to be as flexible as possible for both Kye and Britt while I still could be 🙂
With such a short time period of the camp my original plan of action was for Britt and I to hang around the Kinderlou neighborhood and wait it out. Zach asked in advance and they said they had a playground, we could use golf carts, etc. So I thought we’d just have an hour of fun time twice a week 🙂 On the first day of camp I wore clothes ready to sweat it out haha. We got there and were not treated the way I had expected to be treated. Eventually we were allowed to use a maintenance cart to ride around the golf course, but it took quite a bit of work to get it. And we were told we were not allowed to use the playground because we don’t have a key. Okay?!? So Britt and I enjoyed the first camp day riding around the course on the maintenance cart….but I wasn’t ABOUT to ask to use anything again. So I got in the routine of dropping Kye off a little early which gave Britt and I enough time to get to town and run one errand or play at CFA for 20-30 min until we left to come back.
She was over it pretty quickly haha
We saw SO many animals on our ride though and it was a beautiful morning!
Since the first day was the only day I was able to stay at the course, it was the only day I was able to watch Kye in action. I wished I could have stayed and watched more often but if you know Britt then you know silence is not in her skill set 😉 Golf def requires silence! We drove by and watched for only a few minutes but they were practicing longer putts. Kye went first in his group and MADE THE PUTT! It was awesome! An older kid said “whoa! No way man!” and then the instructor said “Wait?!?! Are we on tv?!?!” haha. Kye was so cute in his reaction. He didn’t celebrate or act proud or anything. He just kinda acted like he does it every day haha. When no one was looking though he did turn and give me a thumbs up 😉
This is the put he ended up making 🙂
After the first day I realized that Kye’s already large head is even larger than I had thought haha. He has like no hats that fit! I’m thankful TJMaxx has such good deals on hats! He’s in a LEGIT KID size hat now. Like the regular youth sizes! Crazy but it does open up some cooler hat options 🙂
We were the first ones there each morning and would often wait for the instructors to come 🙂
One day as an after-golf treat I took the kids to Academy Sports because Kye mentioned wanting more “practice” He had fun showing off his skills!
We had a great routine down with it all and I am glad Kye’s golf clubs have a way for him to carry them 😉 Made my life easy! Every time I picked him up we’d all three go use their (mega nice) bathrooms then head to the car for home! They ALWAYS held hands on the way to the car. So, so sweet 🙂
It was tough on Britt to drop him off each day. She really, really wanted to stay. The camp is for ages 4 and up so obviously we couldn’t have enrolled her even if we wanted to. The guys were super nice and one day when she was upset about leaving they offered for her to join them. Ha. Ha. Ha. I told them they already had their hands full enough! I felt bad that she would get upset so often about leaving Kye but the reality is she is gonna be away from Kye a lot…and when school starts she will have to be okay with going to her classroom while he is in his!
Love those little crossed ankles!
The neighborhood is SO NICE. It was always my “dream home” place that I said I wanted to live someday. When we built our house we did look out there a little bit but wanted a pool in our backyard and couldn’t have afforded to put one in since they have a community pool and have much higher dues than our neighborhood does! Maybe someday we will be able to afford to live out there but if we had our choice we’d rather pay off our house, live in it forever, and get a beach house 😉
On a couple different occasions we saw HUGE turtles in the road! One of the times I stopped and asked some construction guys if they would come move it b/c I was scared it would get hit but being pregnant I didn’t think I should touch it haha!
One of the days of camp Zach was able to not only take Kye to camp and watch but also stay after and he and Kye played a round of golf together! He took my camera and snapped some pics…I love this first one of what I believe is Kye adjusting his junk?!??! Haha.
Playing with Daddy after the camp! He play a hole and made it in four shots!
On the last day of camp Kye was SO excited because they got to stay for three hours rather than just the one. They got to play some holes and they got pizza for lunch! When I came to pick him up I saw the pizza and…two liters of soda. I had already thought about the drink situation and when I saw the sodas I thought the day had arrived where Kye had tried soda for the first time. I noticed his cup was yellow drink and assumed that meant the worst case scenario: the mountain dew. I mean no mom wants that to be the first taste of soda their child has haha! I asked Kye what was in his cup and he said “lemonade!” The instructor came over and told me that Kye had pretty much insisted on lemonade or water hahaha. I was so proud!!! I did talk to him in the car after and told him that if there is ever a time where the ONLY thing available is soda that he should try to get either the orange one or the purple one (b/c grape and orange soda never have caffeine right?!?! I figure the least evil ones?!?!). He said he couldn’t believe everyone was drinking “those bad drinks.” 😉 He’s well trained for sure!
He was SO excited about the box of balls they gave him and kept saying he wanted to make sure Daddy did NOT take his balls 😉 They have a shirt for him too but Zach hasn’t been back to the course to pick it up yet!
Kye loved, loved, loved golf camp. The instructors were both wonderful. Super nice guys and did great with all the kids! There was actually a boy from Kye’s class last year in the camp with him so that worked out great. But I think Kye really enjoyed being around the older guys, especially the instructors. I think they are both college-age? I mean I’m old enough now where all guys in that age look 15 to me haha. But Kye really, really loved them and has said how sad he is about not getting to be with his “golf friends.”
Kye also learned a TON at the camp so it was FOR SURE worth the money and the effort to take him out there. His interest and love for the game grew a lot as did his abilities to play! Zach said he can tell a big growth in his skills from the lessons and that when he went and watched he was really impressed with Kye’s abilities (majority of the kids were older than Kye but Kye won several of their little contests). Both the instructors told us that not only was he THE best behaved child out there (which you know is my favorite thing to hear FOR SURE) but that he NEEDS to keep playing golf because he def has talent. Next Tiger Woods? haha.
I am very proud of Kye for his behavior at the camp. It is a HUGE blessing that I can drop off my 5 year old and simply say “HAVE FUN!” I never once worried about his behavior when I left him. I trust him to make good choices and he did! The instructor brought it up to me and said that they only have to say something to Kye ONCE and he listens. That is a big compliment and something that makes me more proud than any of his sports accomplishments for sure!
When I asked Kye recently if there was ANYTHING else he wants to do this summer (seeing as we are expecting a baby any day now I’m trying to cram all the fun in I can) he said only one thing “Play more golf!” Oh he is his daddy’s child 😉
