Rain, Rain and some more rain – almost all of the recent soccer games were cancelled so we don’t have any new soccer photos (at least not from a game).  The last regular season game is tonight and it will be Senior night as well.  Hopefully Mom will get some good photos to post in a couple of days.  The tournament is next weekend and right now they are tied for 1st place… hopefully this year Alex can take home the State Champion banner as they have placed 2nd a couple of times over the last few years.
  We do have some school photos to post – see below.  Sam’s photo is probably the best school photo we have ever had of him.  Most of the time we haven’t been keeping the photos of the boys because they really aren’t that great but this one is a keeper.  Alex had his taken as well, but they didn’t turn out quite as well so we will take them again in a few weeks.  All Seniors have to wear a tux in their photos too.

 

  Lots of soccer games since our last post so we have lots of photos below.  Overall, Trinity has only lost 2 games on the year – the last two, both of which were played in the rain and at home.  One game was non-conference and the other game was a conference game (yesterday) to the team that will be hosting the state tournament.  Unfortunately the best player on the team, Zack was injured halfway through the game in their first loss and didn’t play at all yesterday.  The good news is that they have a week off so he should be healed and ready to go when play resumes.  The tournament is only a month away, so they need everyone back in form.
  Sam has not been getting any playing time as keeper, but lots of playing time as defender, really only just coming off to catch a quick breather.  Sam continues to improve every game and is now doing a much better job running through the ball instead of waiting for it to come to him (and potentially the other team as well).  Sam did take a kick to the shin a couple of days ago and had to come off for some ice but got right back in there after a few minutes.
  Alex has scored 2 goals off of corner kicks one in each of the last 2 games and had another couple of close calls.  Being left footed has it’s advantages as he has been bending it the goal from the corner like David Beckham.   A couple of attempts bounced off the goal posts as well… so close!  Alex has several goals on the season, but 2 of them were from headers and now 2 from corner kicks… not very many people can say they have scored that way.  Alex took a beating in the last game, since Zack wasn’t playing the other team was really keying in on him and at one point was hit so hard he did a somersault on the field.  Of course no call was made by the officials.  Alex did come off the field and sit for a few minutes after that one, but came back in after a just a short while later.  Alex is also the assist leader on the team – generally setting Zack up for the goals.  Unfortunately we don’t really have anyone else that can score like Zack, because Alex has been putting up some pretty passes from the wing, but nobody is finishing them.  Alex has also become a leader on the field, playing all over the field when needed and showing some good mental toughness when the team was down.  One of the coaches passed Alex and Zach’s name on to a local college soccer coach and someone is supposed to come out and take a look at them.  We don’t know if anything will come of it, but it was nice to know they thought so highly of him.

Alex breaking to left wing and he gets an assist to Zack on this one.

Sam in a rare goalie appearance for a non-conference game.

A little brotherly love as Alex comes back to  help Sam, but the two ended up knocking each other over.  🙂

A corner kick attempt….

Off the top crossbar.  😦

Another corner kick attempt….

Just missing, this time hitting the right goal post.

Sam getting a little ice for a kick to the shin…

Sam making a save in the box….

So Sam came home the other day after his first outing with a bow tie and said that he needed another one.  When asked what was wrong with the first one, Sam said nothing, everyone really liked it.  Well of course we had to ask who commented on it and apparently it was all the girls…. so we went out and got him another tie.  🙂
  He still needs to learn how to smile for the photos though.  😦

  Trinity won the first three games of the season with the final victory coming yesterday against a very tough Jacksonville team.  Alex has scored 4 goals in 3 games with two of them coming at a very crucial time in the Jacksonville game yesterday.  Jacksonville had the lead going into half and the momentum – this is a very loud team that tries to intimidate their opponents.  They also have a couple of really big guys that like to push their weight around a little.  Alex scored the goal to tie the game on a beautiful header off of a corner kick – nobody saw that one coming!  The second goal was another goal off of a corner kick but he had to work pretty hard to get in position and then spun and took the shot.  This was definitely Alex’s best game as he had 3 assists as well.  We are definitely very proud of Alex and he really stood out as a leader on the field yesterday!
  Sam played goalie a little in the first game and played defender the rest of the time.  The team isn’t very deep so Sam is getting quite a bit of playing time for his first year.  He is also improving every game.  The second game of the season was definitely Sam’s best outing.  Sam had several very strong defensive kicks and pretty much kept the area clear for the goalie.  The coaches even called Sam out after the 2nd game for having a great outing.  Sam still needs to work on settling the ball to take a better shot and his footwork.  We are sure by the end of the season he is going to be much better as quickly as he is improving.  The other news is he has lost about 3 pounds over the last few weeks as the conditioning and running have started to take effect.  Both of the boys are pretty exhausted at the end of the school day from homework and practice/games.  Both of them are both making all A’s and B’s this year as well!
  Lot’s of photos below – remember Alex is number 15 and Sam is number 22.

Alex scores on a header from the corner to tie the game.

Sam stretched out trying to make a save…. just a little too far out to get a good angle and the ball sneaks into the goal.  Sam gave up a couple of scores but also had a couple of good saves for his first attempt in the box

Alex setting up for his second goal on this sequence of 3 photos…

  Alex and Sam started the soccer season yesterday (photos coming soon) and as you know they have to dress up for school on game days.  Well Sam comes home yesterday and said that he apparently had some problems with his tie, so he decided he wanted a clip on bow tie to make it easy to get dressed and change.  We found one at ‘Belks’ for him last night and picked up a regular tie on the clearance table for Alex.  Another game today meant a photo opportunity, but of course when it was time to take the photos this morning the boys once again forgot how to smile at the same time….

Alex’s first project of his Senior year – the family tree.  Thanks to Nana, Beth and Margie for their help with some last minute names.  The funny thing is the teacher isn’t going to know if we got it wrong or not… we are pretty sure most of the grade is going for the design and definitions.  🙂

After several texts from his friends with last minute instructions, Alex gets a little help from Mom and Dad on this one.

If you are on the website, click on the photo to enlarge or pinch and zoom on your phone and hopefully you will be able to read all the names…  Mom’s family on the right and Dad’s on the left.

 Alex’s birthday was on Sunday and he turned that magical age of 17.  Magical at least for a teenage boy, but maybe not quite so much for the parents.  🙂  We had a big dinner (steaks and shrimp) and a Keylime Pie (his request) for his birthday party.  Also on Friday, Mom took in cookies to hand out to his friends at school during lunch.  One of his friends, once he found out, jumped up and yelled it was Alex’s birthday and got everyone to sing Happy Birthday to him – much to his embarrassment of course.  Apparently a couple of girls even asked him to the Homecoming dance in January – shockingly he said yes to Virginia.  Seems a little early to start planning for January, but it’s a small pond and you have to make plans early.  We were thrilled he said yes as this will be his first real date.
  For his birthday present, Alex got to go to the Elon Soccer camp last month in Greensboro – including t-shirt and soccer ball.  Sam’s birthday present was his scuba diving classes, which ended up costing quite a bit more than expected.  So since we always even out the presents, Alex ended up with a couple of packages to unwrap on Sunday as well – a new soccer bag… designed to look the Tardis from Dr. Who and a new pair of headphones…. his last pair broke about a month after the warranty ended.     Sunday was really his last day of summer, so we hope he enjoyed it as school started in earnest on Monday – he even received his first school assignment that is due on Wednesday.

 

Farley unwittingly gets into the act on Sunday as well.

Throwback Thursday a few hours early…
   On a beautiful Saturday morning 20 years ago today, Mom and Dad tied the knot.  We thought we would share some old photos from the wedding since most of you on this blog were there that day.  Thanks to everyone who came and shared the festivities with us!

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the boys and they seem somewhat excited.  Sam is excited to  see his friends while Alex is excited to start soccer.  Not exactly the scholarly pursuit we were looking for, but we will take what we can get.  Mom took them to orientation tonight and Alex had to stay after for a little while for the Senior class meeting to learn about the fund raisers and the New York trip.  Sometime during the evening, Sam was apparently talking with his friends at school and they were talking about the best parts of last year.  Sam said his favorite part was when he passed some very lethal gas in class and the teacher had to get out the Febreeze to try to neutralize the odor… apparently a couple of the boys agreed that was one of their best memories as well.  
  When both of the boys got home they were told to pack up their backpacks and get ready for the morning.  Of course, Sam was finished in no time and was very proud to show off everything he packed.  Meanwhile, Alex was still looking for his books at 10:30pm.  🙂
  We snapped a couple of quick photos tonight because they both looked so good with their haircuts and skinny jeans, and we also knew that Wednesday morning was going to be a nightmare getting them off to school.  🙂

Throwback Thursday a couple of days early….

Still one of our favorite photos.

What seems like Sam’s never ending and bottomless Birthday gift just keeps on giving as his diving watch arrived today.  We had to buy a pretty inexpensive one to get him through his first couple of dives, but we ordered this one online.  The original price was $395, but Mom found it on sale for $65 and free shipping.  We thought it looked nice and a lot more rugged than the cheap one we originally purchased, but we had no idea it would look this good… the original price is much more realistic.  🙂

The box is quite large and well built – don’t know why it is that big though?

The watch comes with a cleaning cloth and pillow

We chose this one because it has the hash marks below 15 minutes and the actual time above the 15 minute mark.