Fierce Competition

Ben turned 18 on Sunday. I can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that I have two adult sons already. I’m pretty sure they were born only five years ago.

As your kids get older, they are busier and that means sneaking in a birthday celebration is harder. Add in the fact that we are busy with coverage as well and the special day can easily slip by.

But not this year! Ben’s request for this birthday was golfing. Not only golfing, but a best ball family tournament. So that’s what we did.

At 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, we gathered at the Tracy Country Club for the first family best ball tournament with those Ben invited; he set the teams. Looking back, I am positive he stacked the teams.

Ben put his dad and grandpa on one team. Brady, Natalie and I made up team number two. Ben and Per rounded out the third team. Ben teed off first, of course. However, I think he was trying to get us to think he wasn’t going to have his A game that day. His tee shot barely went 10 feet and we all had a laugh.

However, Per got up behind him and had a great tee shot to put them the furthest up the fairway. That pretty much told the story of the day.

If Ben had a bad shot, Per had a great one and vice versa. Brady had some fantastic putts for our team and Natalie really started to connect as the day went on. His dad and grandpa had some good shots, too.

The one negative was my golf game. “Not Pretty” would have been a nice way to describe it. However, it really didn’t matter.

The weather was hot. We moved slow. But the laughs far outweighed anything else. There were some downright ugly shots. There were also some areas we had to do a little landscaping after we were done.

In today’s chaotic, nonstop world of having kids, it was so much fun to have some uninterrupted time, to laugh together and at each other. However, I think they did more laughing at mom than anything.

I don’t remember the final score. I’m sure Ben or Per could tell you. I do know our team finished last. I also know I got a nice sunburn.

Will this be the start of a new annual summer family tradition? Maybe. I hope so. And I hope we can carve out more of these moments between all the other demands of life.