Soccer Camp

Last week the boys both got to participate in a local soccer camp that was run by some soccer players from England.  They had a great time! It was Connor's first time playing any type of organized sport. It seems like most everything around here starts at age 4. He is now that magic age where he gets to play on "his own team". He has watched Travis for long enough, time for him to get started! Here they were Monday morning, ready to hit the field!

 Lucky for us the camp was held at an indoor soccer field. Even better was that it is about 3 minutes down the road from our house.  And that is only if the stop light turns red on you first!  Travis went for 3 hours while Connor went for 1 hour.  Here is Connor hanging out waiting for Travis to finish.  The two of us would go home for a bit before coming back to pick up Travis.

 The boys heading out to the field at the beginning of camp.

 You can see Connor LOVED his coach!

 He even found time to make a little friend. She was such a cutie! Too bad they are moving to Australia. 

 Every day they would play a game kind of like a flag football thing where they had to grab a shirt off of somebody.  Travis kept chasing this one kid, here he finally got the shirt.

 Mission accomplished!!  Look how he just tosses it aside.... ready to get another one!

Although it was inside, it was still warm and sweaty in there.  Swamp coolers don't work as well during our Monsoon season.  It was also 114 degrees out last week.  Ick.  Travis found a cool spot during his water break though.

Here is Connor's group on the last day. They were all so cute!

The older group had a "World Cup" ceremony. It was funny!

 I was impressed that each one of the kids got a hand written progress report from their coach.  (There must have been about 40 kids for the whole camp.)  Their words were full of praise and encouragement.  Here is Travis reading his after Coach Harry handed him his paper.

 Travis' coach signed the back of his camp shirt.

Overall this was one of my favorite camps the boys did this summer.  They both got to participate, it was super organized, they learned new things, they HAD FUN, and most of all it was inside.  The bonus was it WORE.THEM.OUT.!!  That is a plus in my book any day!

Ooops..

Oh goodness. I forgot about my second camera in my purse! I almost forgot about what we have been up to this summer.  The camera I throw in my purse is not the best, especially the zoom, but who really cares. All I want are pictures of my kids! We started out the summer with swimming lessons.  Gosh, it already seems like that was so long ago!

 Then Connor went in for another laser treatment on his eye. Poor guy had to do this the day before his birthday.  Here he is in the lobby.  It was super early in the morning, but he was still smiling and ready to go.

 I had to do some serious bribing to get him into the hospital gown.  That boy is STUBBORN I tell you!  We had fun playing with some cars while we waited.

 I believe Connor thinks he is a  rock star!

 This season we had another upgrade of seats to a baseball game.  We didn't realize how nice the seats were until we got there. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have taken the kids.  We were right behind home plate.  At least we were able to stay there for about half of the game.  The boys really wanted to go upstairs and play whiffle ball and do the batting cages.  But not before eating hotdogs and checking things out before the game.

 Of course we got there early for autographs...

 ...and able to get high 5's from the legends before the game.

 See, I even went and was decked out in all of my team attire!

 Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I took a few pictures of the boys on the airplane on our way to California.

 Look who slept almost the entire time!

 How could I forget about my two Power Rangers??  You should see them in action, it is quite a sight! I have that on video on my iTouch... it is being saved for the dating years! ha!

Well, I have to return to work on Friday. The boys start the following Wednesday which will be July 25.  In some ways I think, "already??" and then I look at these pictures and I realize we have been off for seven weeks already. We have been so busy, but not too busy that we haven't had time to relax a bit too.  Both boys have grown in many ways and had such fun this summer.  It really has been one of my all time favorite summers so far as a mom.  The boys are playing together, they can do a lot of the same activities and we no longer have to think about nap time. I can hardly believe Travis will be in Third grade and Connor has one more year of preschool. Where does the time go??  At least I know we are having fun and making lots of memories to cherish! 

Vacation

Hello there! I guess I have been gone for a bit. Having too much fun on summer vacation I guess!  The week after Connor's birthday we participated in Vacation Bible School at our church. Of course my friend convinced me to help her run the games so that meant I had to be there too! The good part of that was that Connor got to go too since I was a volunteer.  We all had a super time that week. However, nothing much else got done around here.  I finally  found time on Friday to pack for our trip to Santa Rosa to visit our family.  The plane ride there was pretty uneventful.  Connor slept pretty much the entire 2 hour flight.  On Sunday we had a small family/friend get-together. It is always good to see everybody! Here are my boys for their annual picture on grandma's bench.

 Holy Cow. Gage will be a freshman in high school this year. He towers over Travis!!  Travis LOVES hanging out with the "older crowd".  Good thing they both like baseball and scooters.  Travis would like to have him as an older brother, I am sure!

 We wish we lived closer to these little munchkins! Daryle and their mom, Karen, went to high school together.  Karen and her husband and Daryle and I used to go out once in awhile during the dating years.  They got married in May and we got married that July. In the same church. By the same priest too!  Our boys are all pretty close to the same age.  The only difference is they have a little miracle baby girl now.  When I am around Karen the pressure is on! She informed me that we are behind schedule for our little girl.... She is too funny!  Don't let the looks on my boys face make you think they were miserable... they were having a great time. They were more upset that their friends were leaving!

 On Monday we made the trek to Fairfield to visit my friend Stephanie and her girls.  We went to the Jelly Belly Factory and had a great time. Notice the same scowl on Connor's face? He has decided mom takes too many pictures. I either get a folded arms, angry face or he holds up 4 fingers in front of his face.  He doesn't want me to forget he is 4 now!

 After that we got some lunch then headed back to her house for some swimming.   The water was cold by our AZ standards... but that didn't stop the kids from having a great time.  Look at these three trying to tread water for me so I could get a picture of them!

Connor took a time out for a Popsicle.  He was done.

I can't believe how big these kids are getting!  They had a fun time playing on their iTouches... Travis learned a thing or two from them.  We had a really nice time visiting.

 That day also happened to be our 18th wedding anniversary.  Wow.  Where did that time go? When we got home Daryle's mom surprised us with a delicious ice cream cake... yummmm! What a sweet surprise, that's for sure!

 The next day we went to visit Uncle Billy at work. I was told I was not allowed to put photographs of this place online.  That makes it sound like he works in some top secret place doesn't it?!  Well, I guess in some ways it is!  You have to know someone who works there to get in.  He works out near the coast and it took about an hour to get there.  If you know me you  know where it is. If not, sorry. We don't want to get Uncle Billy in trouble!  Here we are enjoying lunch with him.  The grounds were beautiful and we had a very nice time checking the place out.

 Fourth of July... need I say more?

 Thursday we took the boys to San Francisco!  We took Travis when he was 4 and hadn't really gone back because who wants to take a baby in diapers to walk around there?  Now that Connor has gotten older it is much more fun to go to new places.  This year we decided to take the ferry boat ride from Larkspur over to the city.  It was awesome! Here are the  boys getting ready for the ride.

 Despite some wind and cold the trip over was uneventful.  However, we did get this spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge on our way over. 

There is our boat in the background.

Through FaceBook my college friend who lives in San Francisco asked if we wanted to meet up for lunch.  We decided on meeting at the Rain Forest Cafe.  Little did we realize this would be an hour walk for us.  Thankfully Travis was an awesome big brother and he gave Connor a lift for part of the way!

 I can't believe we have known each other for over 20 years! We met in the dorms at St. Mary's College. It was so awesome visiting my friend Chimene and meeting one of her daughters. I love having friends where you can just pick up like no time has passed at all.

 The walk back to the boat was more leisurely.  We checked out the wharf and Pier 39.  We spent a few hours just wandering around.  The boys had a super time.

 We caught some street performers. Travis couldn't see so I put him up here so he could get a good look. I couldn't see a thing but Travis assured me that the guys were putting on quite a show!

 The "Silver Guy" as my kids called him. He was pretty cool. All of that stuff around him spun wildly in the wind.  My boys were so curious about how he got this way.

 Time for a hot dog rest for Travis.

Back on the ferry to head home. It was colder out by this time. The water was more choppy.  We decided to sit outside and enjoy the cool breeze and mist and think of how hot it was in the desert we call home.  Unfortunately, these smiles did not last long....

 This is what Mr. Connor thinks about getting splashed with water in his face!  Classic!!!

He was so.darned.mad.

 Friday was finally time to head to the beach. We like to head out to Bodega Bay. This year we went to Doran Beach. It was foggy and a little windy when we got there.  After about an hour the fog lifted and it was a super nice day.  The kids always love having time to play in the sand and chase some waves around.

 This one cracks me up. I told Daryle to take a picture of us... little did I know that Uncle Billy and the boys were behind us!

 The Hawes Family enjoying the beach.

 Look at those hands!

 Saturday.. what did we do... oh not much.  The kids hung out with the neighbor boys. I did laundry.  We watched tennis on TV. It was a relaxing day just hanging out.  On Sunday it was time to go. And time for those dreaded good-byes.  First we had to say bye to Charles. He is getting old, not sure if we will see him again or not.

 Saying good-bye to grandma too. 

 Back home to AZ we go.  It sure is a lot easier to travel when both children can handle their own bags! 

As usual, we had an awesome time.