September Soccer

Since 6 weeks of our lives were consumed with soccer games, practices, and clinics, I suppose a blog post is needed. :) The boys have fun playing and we have fun watching...but like all good things, they must eventually come to an end. :) This year Kaleb was on the Tidalwaves, while Aaron played for the Tigers. We were blessed with perfect soccer weather, therefore, no make-up games. Several of Aaron's teammates have older siblings who are friends with Kaleb and Braylen, so they enjoyed going to Aaron's games to hang out with their buddies. It got a bit nutty when their games were on the same nights at different fields, or when supper had to wait until games were over at 7:30. Overall, it was a fun season and I am glad they participated. Kaleb's team was undefeated this year, and the kids were awarded trophies at the end of tournament play. Aaron's team played hard and had fun. And isn't that what it's all about? :)

See the bandaid on his knee? It was like his elbow--never without a bandaid!

Aaron still loves to be goalie!

Switching to Kaleb's pictures--we cheer for blue now!
Kaleb loved playing as a mid-fielder. He never volunteered to be goalie!

Cheering section for Kaleb--Aaron frowned upside down so it would be a smile. Silly!

Our champ :)

Now that it's October and we have our evenings back, I do not miss soccer at all. Now if only the grass would stop growing so we could stop mowing the lawns...

Changing topics here--today is the day my grandma passed away 11 years ago. I bet she would have enjoyed watching my boys play in their soccer games. Maybe she was watching them after all. She just has a heavenly seat. :)

Next time I hope to post a few funnies. The kids have been giving me great material lately! :)

Photographer Braylen

Braylen takes lots of pictures. LOTS. Obviously he has no idea what it is like to use film and to develop every picture taken. It's a good thing, because I'm pretty sure we would be broke by now if we developed all of his pictures! All joking aside, I enjoy watching this hobby of his unfold. Sometimes he has well-behaved models to pose for him. Like his brothers and our dog. Other times he takes pictures of flowers, trees, the sky, green grass, sprinklers...or whatever else is within view. Here is a sampling of some of his August/September pictures. Thank you Braylen for sharing your pictures with me!

Ginger at her water bucket

Water, anyone?

This is one of Braylen's favorite pictures.

I love the perspective here!

Ginger is a very cooperative model!

"Corn"
Taken from a moving vehicle through a window!

Here is one last picture. It is one that I took of my budding photographer! (I've been told the settings were wrong when I took this picture. Oh well!) The other day Braylen told me he might want to be a photographer for the White House someday. Until then, he can be my white house photographer. We do live in a white house, you know! :)

Camping with Friends (Again!)

September was crazy busy for us. (Isn't it always?!) I was delighted to turn the calendar page to October. Such a clean slate. While constantly doing fun things is, well...fun, it is also exhausting. After a while I start to feel like the heart and soul of our family is unraveling due to all of this "fun." Don't get me wrong--I am thankful for our active lifestyle. It means we are all healthy. It means we are blessed in more ways than I can count. But a little rest is restorative. :)

Last night we celebrated the end of our soccer season by watching Aaron play one last game this fall. The weather has been so perfect for soccer this year. Kaleb played his last game last week. Someday I hope to post more about our September days. But for today, I'm highlighting our September camping trip with Shawn and Rebekah and kids.

"Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them..."
Rebekah and I used to sing this song during the summer we worked at camp.
And now we go camping together with our families. :)

What is he thinking? I like to think he's reflecting on such a great summer. Ha!

Aaron insisted we bring my flip-flop candle on our camping trip.
Notice his elbow? Seems like it had a bandaid on it all summer long.

Kaleb uses sticks as swords...

...and as guns...

...and he dug this log out of the lake to have a place to sit!

The boys spent lots of time playing in the mud. What a great thing to do while camping.

Here they are showing off their dams.

Derek and Shawn deep fried the turkey Braylen shot last spring. They did it all themselves--hooray! Rebekah and I prepared a few side dishes and I think we had a nice spread of food. Yep, we sure do love our hunters. :) If someone would have told us 20 years ago what our future held, Rebekah and I would have never believed it. Isn't God great?!?!

Derek's checking on the bird. (Thank you Braylen for this picture!)

One last picture for today. This one's from the state fair. Yes, we snuck in a trip to the state fair on Labor Day weekend. We even let Braylen bring a friend. It was very hot. There were lots of people there. But we had fun and ate cotton candy, funnel cakes, and drank tart lemonade. That makes it worth it, right? ;) I thanked God over and over that we never tried to go to a state fair with young kids and strollers. I saw so many miserable looking toddlers and even more miserable looking parents. I wanted to tell those people, "Wait until your kids are older! They will enjoy it more, they will be old enough to remember it, and it is so much easier on you as parents!" But I kept my thoughts to myself. To each his own, right? :)

Haven't you ever seen a Mater hay bale before? :)

MOO

Thanks to Grandma :), we took a field trip with the kids before going back to school. She had this idea to visit a local dairy. While it's not Young's Dairy, it was an educational experience. What did I learn? Dairy farms are messy. Not at all like the cute little childrens books portray them to be! I also learned that dairy cows produce all that milk, and they never get to nurse their calves. At least at this farm they don't. Their calves are taken away after birth and bottle fed. I also learned that most of the milk from this dairy is used to make cheese. And we don't even live in Wisconsin! :)

Here are a few pictures from our field trip. It was a fun time with my boys, nieces, SIL, and MIL.

Some of the calves were friendly, while others were skittish.
Aaron found one who thought she was a dog in need of a good head rub. :)

My favorite question from one of my boys was this:
"Why are all dairy cows female?"