Spring soccer started on Saturday with Alex’s game at 8am and Sam’s game at 1pm.  So soccer pretty much takes up the whole day and it looks like it will be that way all season.  Both Sam and Alex lost their games but both of them played well.  Alex had some nice passes and two very good shots on goal but their goalie was pretty good.  Alex’s team ended up losing 2-1 but could have very well won the game.  I am pretty sure by the end of the season once they are used to each other they will be in much better shape.  Alex does still have Josh on his team, but some of his other school friends are on different teams.
  Sam meanwhile was put in at goalie/keeper!  We originally thought it was only going to be for just this game because the regular goalie wasn’t there, but found out after the game that the ‘regular’ goalie was there but they needed him on offense.  So it looks like Sam will be playing goalie all year.  The coach volunteered to give him some one on one time on Wednesday nights after the regular practice (Sam will generally miss practice because it is from 5pm – 6pm), so he needs to make the most of the coach’s offer.  Sam actually played pretty well for his first whole game as keeper.  He did give up 3 goals but one of them he couldn’t see and another one was just a great shot.  He made a couple of nice stops too, just needs to learn when to fall on the ball and when to make a challenge.  So all in all it should be a good season!  Below are some photos from the two games, a photo of Sam with his new goalie gloves we picked up later in the day and then a short video of Alex trying to help him learn how to reject the ball at goal…. hmmm – love the gloves but the flip flops just don’t match.

So Alex missed the deadline for the photo contest – the upper grades were a few weeks ago.  The good news however is that he can enter his waterfall photo or any other photo in next year’s contest.  Sam’s choice came down to 3 photos… see the finalists below.  In the end, we asked the teacher’s opinion and she thought the berry photo was the best.   Now we can just cross our fingers and hope Sam places again this year.

Desert Lizard

Lizard on a hot tin roof

Winter in North Carolina

 

Thankfully we have 3 or 4 more years before these 2 boys are ready to drive….

We made the trip up to Virginia for Easter weekend and managed to get a short hike in at the Shenandoah National Park.  The drive was about 1.5 hours from Waynesboro but was worth the trip except of course for the cold, the wind and the fact that Mom sounded like she was dying from a lung infection.  The hike was about 2.6 miles down and back to the Rose River Falls.  Since it seemed like it was going to be the easiest of the hikes and the shortest we thought this would be a good place to start (there are 10 waterfalls listed in the guide).  Below are some of the photos….

Ok – so we didn’t actually take this picture, but we now know the answer to the question…. Yes!

What can you do in 24 hours and two plane tickets to KC??  Alex and I found out over the weekend.

De-icing the plane at 6am on Sat morning…

So the guy at Budget says – pick any car in section 1 (Economy)…. Alex and Dad go out there and there are no cars in Section 1, so we go back into Budget and he says just pick one from Section 2 – there aren’t any cars in Section 2 either, so he says just pick one in Section 3 then.  So instead of a economy car we end up with a Dodge Hemi – this of course made Alex’s day and he immediately started texting his friends!

Doing some shopping in Downtown Lawrence, KS… 2 hours until tip off.

Lunch at Fuzzy’s Tacos – great Enchiladas.  We couldn’t get into the The Burger Stand (our first choice) – too crowded.  Both are listed as 4.5 stars –  Lawrence has a lot of great little restaurants.  Our favorite spot, The Local Burger, was closed due to the fact they are moving.

Give Big Jay a rub for good luck at the Student Union.  We parked here and walked across campus…  since it was Saturday we didn’t have to pay for parking!

After a grueling 38 minutes, the Hawks finally pull ahead.  Definitely missing their big man Cliff Alexander today.  Perry Ellis at the line with 1.6 seconds left and a 4 point lead.  Perry had a double-double in the game 28 pints and 13 rebounds to lead the Jayhawks.  See why AFH is the toughest place to play in all of college basketball below (114 dBa)

After the game…

Brand new – just opened a couple of months ago about 5 minutes from Grandma’s house.  We actually needed another light for Alex’s room.

The College Basketball Experience center

College Basketball Hall of Fame

Sprint Center – home of the Big 12 Championships in just a couple of weeks… right next to the College Basketball Experience center.

The Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts – unfortunately the KC Symphony was having a performance , so we didn’t try to get in.

KC Scout overlooking the city.

Another view from the Scout – you can see the Kaufman Center in the middle and the Convention Center is the building with the 4 small towers.

The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art

Heading home – STL to RDU… we just missed all the storms and didn’t have any problems flying.

So we had our second winter storm of the year on Tuesday and received almost 4 inches of snow.  Of course the forecast was only for flurries  or up to 1/2″ of snow so it caught everyone a little of guard.  The boys got out of school early and we all went outside to clear off the driveway and let the dog run around for a few minutes.  The boys had Wednesday off as well as the road crews did a terrible job of clearing the street.  We are now waiting for winter storm #3 to roll into town on Wednesday night into Thursday.  Predictions run from 2-4″, 3-6″ or a winter mix of freezing rain, sleet and snow – basically they have no idea what is going to happen.  The boys already have a 2 hour delay, but may not end up going to school at all if we actually receive one of the first two forecasts.  The Raleigh area is predicted to get 6-10″ of snow so Dad took the day off to avoid the drive.  Here are some of Dad’s photos from Tuesday.

A little better prepared this time.

Home Sweet Home – even can see the smoke from the fireplace.

  We actually got to see Alex dribble the basketball in Monday’s game (a rare sight as he usually just passes it off) as he got a lot of playing time during the 45 point victory.  The opposing team only had 6 players and not very much experience, so the coach cleared the bench to get everyone a little bit of experience.  Something we learned was that the conference has a 40-point rule similar to the 10-run rule in softball.  Once a team gets a 40 point lead, the officials let the time clock continue to run even during free throws and when the ball goes out of bounce to keep the game moving and show some mercy to the losing team.  Alex did have quite a few assists and he had a couple of shot attempts, but he also had 4 fouls during the game – the team was taking bets whether or not he would  foul out.  🙂

Mom took a break from picking up after the boys and worked on some of her photos.  The top photo is from her Valentine’s bouquet and the bottom one is from the ice storm last week.

 s

Right around the same time as Spirit Week, one of Sam’s friends had a birthday party.  Mom dropped Sam off right at the same time a bunch of the boys were driving around the yard like maniacs in a Golf Cart – apparently that was one of his birthday presents.  She captured a short video of Sam jumping in for the joyride (those first time drivers are the worst).  Sam ended up staying up all night watching TV and playing games (non-electronic games – they weren’t allowed to bring phones or iPads), finally falling asleep at 8am about an hour before we arrived to pick him back up.  Hopefully this isn’t a precursor to college life.  🙂

We are trying to get caught up on some events over the last few weeks that we didn’t get posted to the blog.  The first event was Spirit Week at Trinity.  Sam and a couple of his friends participated in a chariot race for all the 6th graders.  You should be able to see Sam and another boy pulling a 3rd boy around the gym on a large towel.  Sam and his team will be easy to spot as his team is in last place and Sam collapses at the end of the race due to exhaustion.  🙂