We’re going to take a break from the Yosemite trip. We’ve enjoyed a bunch of visitors over the last week or so, and we’ll have more this week.
Grammy and Kristin were here for a week (ending this past Wednesday). Kristin is excited about the start of school, and Grammy was excited to hang with the girls (Kristin and Paris). Mark flew in on Saturday and added to the mix, and then Cameron joined us on Wednesday. We’ve been having a blast!
But! All of this fun and games makes it hard to gather thoughts and photos from Yosemite. I promise more Yosemite is coming!
Until then, let’s talk boxing. Whenever Mark is here, he loves visiting Aaron Jaco. Everyone remembers Aaron, right? Former National Boxing Association Light Heavyweight champ. Trainer extraordinaire. All around good guy. If you need a refresher on him, check out this post.
So Mark wants to train with Aaron. As an added bonus, Cameron decides he wants to as well. Cameron’s first day was Friday. It’s safe to say he learned a lot, but it was a tough day for him. Everyone’s first day is a tough day. Cameron threw more punches, did more push-ups, and did more ab work than he’s probably done in his entire life. All of this in one, joyful hour. But he did it!
After the workout, I asked him what he thought. “I’m going to puke”, he said.
“Nah”, I said, “that’s just your ab muscles doing a little spasm thingy. You’re fine!”
“I might need Mark to stop the car. I’m not feeling so good.”
It turns out we made it home without stopping the car. On the way, I said “Cameron, you did such a great job today that tomorrow I’m going to introduce you to kettlebells.”
“Oh my God, Dad. Is he worse?” (Kettlebells aren’t a “he”. Kettlebells are weights. Cannonballs with handles. I think Cameron was a little tired.)
So Friday was a success! Mark and I enjoyed the workout, and Cameron is really looking forward to Monday. Yes! He’s excited! This is a good thing.
As an added bonus, Mark sparred with Aaron on Thursday. Aaron likes to “slow things down” when sparring with someone new to the sport. He coaches the whole time, he offers a ton of encouragement, and he’s pretty easy-going on his sparring partner. Do not confuse “easy-going” with “easy”.
Mark busted his butt. Aaron had fun. We have the video to prove it! It shows Mark — decked out in a 2009 Detailer shirt he won from an upperclassman. And it shows Aaron — shoes off, having fun, hands down while encouraging Mark to “throw your jab!” Mark learned a ton…
…but learning can hurt. Check it out:
Important note to current or future plebes that get clever and find this: Mark is most certainly better now (when you read this) than he was in the video. You probably want to exercise a little discretion. Comments about this post or video will absolutely make your day-to-day more difficult. Just a thought…

[...] a hard guy to forget. If anyone new wants more info on him, get it here and [...]
FASCINATING ! HAD NO IDEA THAT YOU HAD ALL THIS GOING ON JAY !
ALL I CAN SAY IS ,, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK !!!