Dave & Shell Adopt: The Taste of Victory

Monday, January 11, 2010

The Taste of Victory

I am an assistant coach for a neighborhood youth basketball team this year. When we started the season with five straight losses we all wondered whether we would win a game. Of course, at this age winning is secondary to learning fundamentals and sportsmanship, but it does help build confidence and it's more fun to win. In spite of their early struggles, the kids work hard at practice and are getting much better.

We picked up our first win on Saturday over our arch-rival 25-22 and then defeated Pleasant Grove today, 27-25. With two wins, that's officially a wining streak! I am amazed at how much they have improved over just a short while.

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Four Seasons

To help you visualize who we are and what life in our home is like, we thought we’d take you through the four seasons, highlighting some of the things we enjoy. After the “seasons” section, we will discuss our vision for family life and what we are doing to prepare to be parents.

Winter:

We live where the winter is cold and snowy. So, we do lots of indoor activities such as watch basketball games on our big TV or go to watch a game at a nearby college or pro arena. Dave’s large family (eight siblings, all married with one to five children each) also gathers often as many of them live nearby.

Having grown up in California near the beach, Michelle likes to bring a little warmth into the season. We often spend Thanksgiving or Christmas (or both) in the Los Angeles area, visiting Michelle’s family and the places she likes most, the beach, Good Stuff restaurant, Disneyland, and Grandma’s house which has a pool and tennis court. Dave finds his way to the golf course a time or two during the visits out there, as well.

Winter is also one of Dave’s busiest times of year at work with end-of-year accounting to wrap up and new product releases to promote at an annual trade show. Dave is lucky enough to co-own a business with his brothers, a business started by their parents years ago. However, hard work with the Mitchell brothers is not so bad as it is always mixed with playing jokes on each other or turning mundane tasks into intense competitions!

Spring:

Spring at our house is always much-anticipated. The snow starts to melt and the many trees and flowers come to life around our 1970s split level home. During the spring Michelle’s weekly play group for neighborhood kids and moms resumes at a nearby park. Dave and his buddies plays basketball a couple nights a week in local leagues. The wives and kids gather to watch. And, as soon as he can, Dave gets out his golf clubs and starts working on his game at the nearby Country Club.

Spring also means March Madness as we have the tradition of filling out brackets (winners and losers) for the NCAA (college) basketball tournament. We study the teams and try to out-do each other and our other family members and friends who do the same. It’s a fun time that we look forward to each year.

Summer:

Summer is great! Once the pool opens Michelle spends lots of time there, several days a week. She just can’t get enough of the sunshine and water. Dave joins her at the pool occasionally, but prefers to play golf.

When the nights are warm, we love to host neighborhood BBQs in our backyard. Kids love to play in our yard because it has a two-story play house, basketball hoop, big grassy area, and a couple of dirt piles for fun. Sometimes we get out the craft supplies (provided by Dave’s business) and set up a craft table where kids can cut, glue, and stick things together without fear of running out of materials.

Summer is a good time to take the boat out on the nearby reservoir, as well. We like to cruise around with fishing polls in the water and see what we can catch. Michelle’s favorite summer dinner is one with fresh trout.

Oh, yeah, and Dave usually plays in a summer basketball league, too!

Fall:

Sometimes it’s hard to say good-bye to summer, but fall brings a lot of fun things. Dave looks forward to fall because it means it is time for the archery (or bow) hunt. Dave, his brothers, and some of their friends have a tradition of going out and hunting deer and elk starting in late August. It’s one of Dave’s favorite things to do because he loves being with friends in the mountains.

Then, there’s always the first Brigham Young University (BYU) home football game and the anticipation that brings. As BYU alumni, Dave and Michelle are big BYU sports fans.

Fall gets busy for Michelle in terms of work and volunteering, as well. Michelle is in charge of providing legal training for a company around this time. She also resumes working on projects for the adoption groups she is involved with, namely the Utah Adoption Council (UAC) and Families Supporting Adoption (FSA).

This fall, after the pool closed, Michelle even started golfing with Dave!

Dave & Shell Adopt

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Monday, January 11, 2010

The Taste of Victory

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