Sports and Stuff

Two weeks ago the sports season officially opened up for our family. But before I went to any games, I headed down to Pleasant Grove to see Echo and Amie F. and go for a hike with them. Echo lives in Pleasant Grove, but Amie was visiting from Georgia to go to Education Week at BYU. We were all in the same ward together for many years in Henderson. It was amazing to be able to catch up with them. It was like we had never been separated. And I guess we had a lot to talk about, because we ended up walking 8 miles!!

I just hope one day I can grow up and be like these two. They are inspirational.

I then raced back to Draper to catch the end of Harry's first soccer game. It was pretty much adorable. He smiled the whole time while he was running around. I wouldn't expect anything less from this guy. He is posing with his buddy Sawyer after the game. And the best part of the game was the treats. Harry was looking forward to the treats. I don't think he was disappointed.

When the game ended, we had just enough time to get to Woods Cross to watch Raef play an official scrimmage. The boys looked great and I think they are ready for the season. Their first game was this last Saturday and they did not disappoint. They won 33-0 versus Copper Hills. Raef had a stand-out game. He made some key tackles, swatted down the ball on a pass play, and held his position on offense. The coach from the other team even called him out at the end of the game to commend him on a job well done.

And as always, Rinar wore his silly hat that Raef just loves. The Copper Hills game was in West Jordan and Rinar had to run 21 miles for his training that day. I suggested he run to the game, since it started at 9:00. He did, and ended up running 24 miles because he took a wrong turn. That sucks for him, but he didn't seem to mind too much. If it was me, I would have been really pissed off. Good thing it wasn't me!

And like I have mentioned before, my little kids are in full swing with school. Just thought I would include a few pictures.

Julia had her first soccer game last Monday. They are called the Cotton Candies. Hmmm, wonder where they came up with that name? She is on an all girls team and loves it and loves her pink uniform. We really scored in that department. Julia did great and I think she might have some skill when it comes to sports. She did well. But it was hilarious to watch how many of the girls would come to the sidelines upset and fling themselves to the ground in a fit of hysterics. Oh yeah, girls really are different from boys.

And then there is this little darling who is on the cusp of walking. Look at that little tush. She is just the cutest thing ever.

The Debut of the Black Sharks

Eli had his very first soccer game on Saturday.  It was just too cool.  He was a tenacious little player who got right in there.  And then when he wasn't playing, he was all over the bowl of peaches Katie brought for the team.  You see, Eli is never out of the action.

His team is called the Black Sharks and they scored lots of goals.  So did the other team. It was an action-packed game.

And then Harry and Julia were good sports hanging around, waiting for the game to finish.  And they just had to take a picture with their buddy, Ryder B. His brother Weston is on the team with Eli.

And here are some of the boys. All of these guys are in Primary with Eli and I am just so thrilled that he is going to be growing up with these kids. They are all top-notch little guys.

Landon C., Bryson O., Weston B., and Eli

British Invasion

Eli did his first official athletic event this week. He went to soccer camp.  He loved it. I am quite impressed with the kid. He dribbled really well and took it all very seriously.  I think I might actually have to put him on a team next year.

Since he did the camp, we had another coach stay at our house this week. Her name was Charlotte and it was a lot of fun. The funny thing is, she did the camp last year and coached Raef and Zach. She actually wrote their names on their soccer balls. Crazy, huh?

We loved having her at the house. As she put it, she was just like part of the furniture.  Once again, I invited all of the coaches over for dinner. There were seven this time. Two of them were from Brazil. That was pretty cool. Rinar was able to use his Portuguese, and I think they really appreciated it.  Ironically, one of the coaches (Bruno) is from the first area where Rinar served his mission in Rio. Rinar got out his mission pictures to share with them. It was quite a bit of fun.

Here is one of Eli's coaches, Liam.

Eli is getting some instruction from Coach Bliss.

Becky From Manchester

A couple of weeks ago our family hosted a soccer coach from England.  Her name is Becky and she stayed with us for a week.  That was a lot of fun.  There is a British Soccer Camp that makes a tour throughout the summer and they place the coaches with volunteer families.  I have signed Eli up to do the camp in August, but I guess they didn't have enough host families for the last camp that was just here.  The kids loved her and we even started to understand her accent by the end of the week.

As an additional bonus, five of the coaches, including Becky, came over for dinner on Wednesday. Rinar was out of town and they were coming back from an afternoon at Tahoe.  I thought it would be fun to have them over, and it really was.  As I sat around the dinner table with the five of them listening to them talk, I felt like I was in a English pub, except for the beer and smoke, of course. Except, they don't have smoke in pubs anymore, according to my guests. Fun times for our family.

Victorious

The boys had their second soccer game this season.  And guess what?  They won!!!  We did a little bit of recruiting and our friend Trevor decided to join the team. His dad works with Rinar and they are in our ward. Trevor is really a baseball player. He has never actually played soccer. I am not sure why not. The kid is a natural.  I was so impressed. He got right in there.  Trevor has a killer instinct and it didn't take long for him to get the rhythm of the game and then score our first goal. It was sweet.

It was a come-from-behind win.  The final score: 3-2.  Raef scored the go-ahead goal.  He seemed a lot more evenly paced for the game, not so frantic.  The team was starting to realize that you can't follow the ball around everywhere. They seemed to reserve their energy much better.

Raef got a breakaway ball and took it all the way down the field, past about 3 defenders and put it in the goal.  After that, his step was a little lighter.  I must say that it is definitely much more fun when you win, or even when you score goals and are competitive with the other team.

Zach is still trying to figure out where he is when he is out there. But he is tough and has no fear at going head-to-head with anyone.  He even had a really good shot on goal at the very end.  I think that made him happy.

Do you know what made me happy?  Eli, Harry, and Julia stayed with the babysitter.

Great Basin Soccer

Saturday was the first soccer game of the season. Zach chose soccer this year. He has been on a team for a few weeks today and the league has not given our team enough players. We are supposed to have 8 to field a team, and they only gave us six. Therefore, we put Raef in a uniform to play with the team. He wanted to play baseball instead.  The other team had 11 kids!  We only had 7.  Needless to say, the kids got tired quickly.  It doesn't help that they still run everywhere the ball is like a big clump.

The good news is that they started to spread out as they got more weary.

Our fearless coach Andy.  He is a parent who so kindly volunteered to coach the team.

We pretty much got annihilated, 5-0.  The important thing is that Zach had fun. I have decided that we may be the worst team, but we are going to have the best snacks.  At least there is something I can do.

Farewell to Adam

Adam left last Sunday, but not before he cooked us an English staple of pasties. It is a meat pie. It was quite delicious, despite the fact that I messed up the pie crust.  We enjoyed it anyway. But we especially enjoyed having him be a part of the family for the week. The kids loved him and we were able to do lots of fun things together.  

We got Adam hooked on a couple of our favorite shows, Burn Notice and Storage Wars.

He took a picture with the kids and then put it in a frame for us to keep.  Since I never get rid of stuff that is framed, I guess he is enshrined forever.

Later, it was time for bed.  I realized I had no idea where Zach was. He wasn't in his usual locations.  I finally found him zonked out on the couch. He had been reading a Fablehaven book. There are 5 in the series and he rereads them everyday. But it was a long day, with soccer camp and everything, so I guess he was just wiped out.

Challenger Sports Soccer Camp

This has been a fun week for the boys. They have been participating in a soccer camp put on by some British imports.  Luckily, we have had the pleasure of hosting one of the coaches at our house for the week. I always like to make new friends. Our latest friend is Adam P. and he is from Liverpool, England.  It has been enjoyable learning about his culture and trying to understand his accent.

Adam coaches the five year-olds.  Cute, huh?

Raef was practicing his mad soccer skills.  He is wearing a soccer shirt that Rinar brought back from Brazil many years ago, where he served a mission for our church.  That shirt is almost 20 years old. Rinar happened to be in Rio de Janiero when they won the World Cup.  Since Raef was put on the "Brazil" team at the camp, it seemed so perfect to break that sucker out.

Zach is on the "Ireland" team, so he wears green. He seems to be having a lot of fun, making friends and learning coordination.

Here is the big group of older kids.  They have some really neat coaches who are fun and respectful.  It has been a worthwhile week of soccer camping if you ask me.

Game 3: Red Bulls vs. Blue Racers

WE WON!!!

The score was 3-2 and we hung on to our victory. Zach led an assist to Ossian and he put it in the goal. Zach has no fear at getting in anyone's face. He plays 100% all the time. He even ran head on into the other player and got knocked in the head pretty good. He didn't cry but you could tell that it hurt. Coach Jose told him that the other guy looked a lot worse than him, so when Dad asked him how he was, Zach told Dad, "I look a lot better than the other guy."

Raef also played a great game. He is very athletic and really did an excellent job as sweeper, the defensive dude. He also contributed to a score by getting a big kick down the field to his teammate (I can't remember which one), who put it in the back of the net.

They were a happy bunch of kids and it was nice to see all of Coach Jose's hard work as coach starting to pay off. They moved better and were really using the skills they have been learning in practice.

It's Official...Call Me Soccer Mom

It was a big day today. Raef and Zach had their first soccer game. On the way to the fields, I was asking the boys if they were excited to play and have fun. They told me they were. Then Raef asked me if I had a sign so that I could cheer them on. I don't think he had any real perspective on how big the audience would be for his game. I told him that I didn't have a sign. I apologized, but promised that I would cheer for him real loud. Then he told me how I was supposed to cheer.

"Mom, when we are on defense, then you say...DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE. And when we are on offense, you say OFFENSE, OFFENSE, OFFENSE. Okay Mom?"

I thanked him for the cheering tips and promised that I would do my best.

So, after hiking down to the wrong fields carrying a cooler full of drinks, a chair and a stroller, we climbed back up the hill. After getting better instructions from a kindly lady, she pointed up the hill about a 1/2 mile to where their game really was. She might as well have pointed to the top of Mt. Everest. It was over 100 degrees, I was completely wiped out from carrying the cooler, and Raef had mutinied on pushing the stroller anymore. So, I had to abandon the cooler and chair and quickly push the stroller and lead the kids to their first game. You have to understand that this soccer league is huge. There must have been 20 games going simultaneously. It was amazing. I had left my house 45 minutes early so they would be their in plenty of time, and I limped across the finish line with only minutes to spare.

And I still had to go back down the darn hill to get the cooler. Just so you know, I had a heavy cooler because it was our turn to supply drinks for everyone after the game. Rinar couldn't make it because I volunteered him to play the piano for a baptism in our ward. He was going to come to the first part of the game, but all the roads were plugged up due to repaving.

I was on my own.

Week 1: RED BULLS vs. RAMS

The name of the kids' team is the Red Bulls. Isn't that the perfect name for a team with green and blue uniforms? It makes perfect sense to me. I mean, I totally get it.

My boys had no clue what they were doing, but they started to get the hang of it. Raef scored the only goal. Well, sort of. They had the ball after the other team had scored and they started playing before the referee had blown her whistle. None of the kids knew you were supposed to actually listen to the whistle or the referee, so they kept playing and Raef kicked it all the way to their goal and put it in the back of the net. I am counting it! We won't talk about the score after that, okay?Don't worry. Zach had his moment of glory also...well, kind of...

He had kind of a difficult time processing the idea that you switch goals after halftime. We told him he now had to put the ball in the other goal, but it didn't really sink in. When he got in the game he made a beautiful break-a-way, solo run all the way to the goal...for the other team. He didn't actually kick it in but I think you could credit him with an assist for sure.

(as a side note to all of you, I did the same thing in a basketball game...when I was in high school...on the varsity team...I was really proud of myself but when I looked around, something just wasn't right)

There is one thing that you cannot deny about my boys. They definitely have the best endurance. At the end of the game, they were still running. The coach kept substituting everyone else in and out, but Raef and Zach looked pretty good.

This is one proud Soccer Mom!

Are You Hungry?

Here is Eli eating a lemon. His very first one. What do you think he will do?

Yeah, I was pretty disappointed too. It hasn't bothered any of my kids.

My Weekly Update

My kids started soccer this week. This is the very first time they have done any kind of organized sports. They have had 2 practices so far, and they both were smiling the whole time. It was joyful to watch them. Of course, the first practice they did not have the proper gear. After five minutes of playing, Raef cried out that he didn't want to play anymore. He had gotten wacked in the shins several times. I informed him that he did not have shin guards and that we would get them before the next practice. It seemed to placate him. He did finish the rest of the practice and had loads of fun. But today's practice went a lot more smoothly for him and he enjoyed it immensely.

On Monday we had a very nice Family Home Evening on prayer. We got some interesting comments from the kids. Raef took several minutes explaining why we pray: because there isn't a telephone that can reach that far into outerspace. It was so adorable. He was really thinking about it.

This was our first official week of school. The kids did really well and I was mostly patient. I have added some really good new curriculum that I have been very happy with so far: Math-U-See, Spelling Power, and Rosetta Stone Spanish. All three of these have been a nice addition and I look forward to seeing there progress as the weeks pass by. We are going to be doing school from Monday-Thursday and take Fridays off to clean the house and do fun things together. Violin has been going really well. Raef is working on Musette by Bach and Zach has finished with Hunter's Chorus and is now plunged into Long, Long, Ago in G Major, with a variation. They are both loving it.

I had a very sweet moment with Zach today as we wrapped up school. He sat down at the piano with me and sang some Primary songs very exuberantly: Called to Serve, Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus, Away in a Manger (he sang the harmony!), and Stars Were Gleaming. When Raef finished his spelling, he came and joined us for the last few. These are the moments you savor as a mother.

I had Zach read to me from McGuffey's and he did a couple stories. Raef read 3 easy pages from the McGuffey Primer. I am taking a step back with him again since I am getting resistance. I am going to try to ease him back into reading, and in the mean time just saturate him with stories I will read to him. He really likes for me to read to him. I read "Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar" and they were both fascinated with it. This book will be good to read to them a lot so that they can understand the factorial principle (i.e. 10!=10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1). I get to learn lots of stuff too.

I found this wonderful language program that is based on the Suzuki Method. The kids memorize poems. They are really easy to start with and then get progressively harder. For example at one point they will learn "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. This week they learned 3 poems: Ooey Gooey, Celery, and another one and I can't remember the title. As they memorize, so do I. I love that. I want to have beautiful language in my head too. It is great.

There is so much to learn...we are having a lot of fun together.

This is now my official educational philosophy: Drip, drip, drip...trickle, trickle, trickle.

It really works. I didn't do as much history as I would have liked to do and we only did an art class once. So next week, I know I need to get those in more as well.