Ok, so Alex is not really a baby any longer, but he did need some new shoes for the basketball team. Alex is playing Junior Varsity basketball this year and is really excited about it (hopefully he keeps his grades up!). The first game is tomorrow night against Oakwood – a private school in the area. TCS played Oakwood in Soccer but was defeated pretty soundly so hopefully the outcome will be different tomorrow. We picked up the Shoes at Dick’s Sporting Goods today and even got to see Mr. Goldberg (he is an Assistant Manager there now). Buying shoes with Mom was kind of chaotic as she had at least 5 pair of shoes scattered all around in various states of unpacking. The attendant looked a little overwhelmed as were the rest of us. 🙂 The first photo is of course of the shoe, then photo two is the warm-up jersey and the last photo is the actual uniform. Hopefully we will have some game photos tomorrow??

This year for Halloween, Alex was at the ‘Wilds’ with the rest of his 9th grade class. They were gone from 7am on Monday and came back on Friday at 3pm on a christian retreat. Alex got to go the rifle range, play paintball, play basketball and went to Cool Beans (coffee shop). Of course they had church 3x a day as well. Sam will be able to go in a few years when he gets to 9th grade as the school makes the trip every year. Meanwhile Sam, Mom and Nana went around the neighborhood for a little trick or treating… They didn’t stay out too long as Sam got a stomach ache. This year Sam went as a Soccer player – using the jersey that Gung Gung brought him back from London.

Happy Thanksgiving! We picked up a new inflatable for Thanksgiving this year – much smaller than our old one. Only 3 weeks until the big day…

The last half of Dad’s vacation was spent putting in the new double oven… took us 2 days to get the new frame built and the range put in.

Sam had his soccer tournament today, but they lost in the first game. Not surprising since they didn’t win a game all season. Even if we didn’t, we did a play a much better game against the best team in the league and only let them score 2 goals. Sam had an excellent game and had several good kicks on the ball.

Sam lost another soccer game this weekend, but the team is getting better and Sam showed some good hustle on defense. No injuries this week either. Only a couple of more weeks and then the tournament.

Sam had another soccer game today and he got some good time in on the field… at least until he apparently got a pinched/stretched nerve in his deck. Sam ended up coming out of the game and we had to take him home because it hurt so bad. He seems to be recovering now, but still has some pain in his neck. He should be better tomorrow, but I don’t think he will make soccer practice. Sam is running much faster this year – we think the treadmill has been helping quite a bit.

Gung Gung brought Alex and Sam back a couple of soccer jerseys from England – he even had their names put on the back… the boys loved them! The wore them today to Sam’s soccer practice. Alex goes to help with practice as he plays on the same team in the Spring (the fall he is playing on the school team). Gung Gung got the home jersey for the Chelsea Football club.

Last year we stopped and took a photo of the boys on the mountain on the way home, so today we thought we would update the photo. Sometimes boys will be boys….

Aunt Courtney took a photo of all of us in front of Grammy’s house today…