Team Darley: Letter to 9 Year Old Caycen

Dear 9 Year Old Caycen,

Wow!!!! What an amazing year you've had! We had a year full of fun sports, an amazing teacher, some crazy things going on in the world, and lots and lots of adventure!!!!

This past year you joined the Richmond Hill Tide baseball team and had sun a fun season! We started as 8U in the spring/summer, then went up to 9U kid pitch in the fall. You mainly played 3rd base, left field and pitcher. You've worked your tail off in baseball and have come to love it so much!!! You started taking pitching lessons with coach Chandler in the spring and have grown so much in pitching!

You also played soccer in the Fall and your team was the top team in the rec league. In winter you played basketball for your 2nd year in a row and you grew so much from last season. You got to play point guard a lot this season.

We went on several vacations this past year too. We took our family trip with Nona and Papa Ray to St. Augustine during the summer. After we left St. Augustine, we drove to Valdosta and went to Wild Adventures for Gracie June's birthday. A few weeks later, went for a quick day trip to Jacksonville Zoo. We went to Disney for Fall break for the Halloween party and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! We really want to go back every year once the pandemic is over. We went to Asheville, NC later in the Fall and got to go to The Biltmore for the first time. The Biltmore was decorated with Christmas decorations and it was beautiful! It was a rainy trip to Asheville so we didn't get to do a lot more than that.

We've also had some crazy events this past year. In the fall we had Hurricane Dorian and had to evacuate our town to go to Warner Robins and we stayed with Pop and Cheryl. While we were there we went to Rigby's Park and played some putt putt, rode go-carts, and played arcade games.

In March, we also had to experience the coronavirus (which at the time of this letter, we are STILL dealing with!). We had to go to e-learning and do school at home. It was NOT FUN for us! We had to do a lot of work on the computers. During this time we also had to do social distancing where we couldn't be around friends for weeks. Baseball was canceled, we couldn't go to restaurants, we ordered all of our groceries online, stores shut down, and it was CRAZY! Eventually, things started to open back up and we started going back to restaurants (but the workers had to wear masks) and we had to have tables spread out pretty far. Baseball opened back up, which was great. There's still a lot of craziness going on with the whole Coronavirus thing, but we made it through the toughest part so far.

For your 9th birthday we had a birthday party at the house and invited all your baseball friends and a few friends in the neighborhood. We rented a jousting blow up pin, a light up game and a snow cone machine. It started raining during your party and the jousting blow up pin turned into a huge water slide and you all started wrestling, sliding around, and getting soaked! Everyone said it was the best party ever!!!

This past year has been a blast and I'm just so so proud of the young man you're becoming!!! I can't wait to see what happens this next year and all the things that you will accomplish. I love you my sweet buddy!!!!

Love,

Mommy

Favorites:

Fast food - Subway

Sit down restaurant - Jalapenos

Color - Orange

Baseball number - 1

Baseball player - Freddy Freeman

Video game - Fortnite (YOU'RE OBSESSED!!!)

Best friend - Cody

Movie - Home Alone

Pictures from this past year!