GOOAALL!!!

Stephen scored a goal in yesterday's soccer match!

He was allowed to move up an age bracket and play on the same team with Michael for the past two seasons. It has been wonderful having the boys on the same team.

This day was particularly sweet....seeing Stephen navigate through the defense and then punch the goal in to put the team up 2-0.

They just finished the season this past weekend. No more practices or games until the spring. It is a long time to wait.

Ready for action...

The boys brought the ping pong table out of the storage room...set up the net...and are ready for spirited play.

We have been playing most evenings after dinner. We realized that our old paddles just were not keeping up with the advanced skill of some in our family. I wonder who?

Here we just returned from the sports store with a couple new ....balanced ...lightweight ...great grip ...fabulous ...profesional paddles.

Andre and Stephen put them to work right away. Andre said that we just needed paddles that worked. I wonder if he is looking for a competitive edge? Probably not....he can still take all of us. It all begins with his powerful serve...which you must see to appreciate. Trust me.

We took a hike.....

Even though it is fall it is still quite warm and the leaves have not really started changing color yet. Today, the weather was so pleasant that we decided to spend most of it outdoors. We thought about apple picking, but when I called the orchard that we usually go to, they said that there were very few apples left on the trees. We decided at that point that we would go for a hike instead. We thought of all the usual places....Great Falls, Shenandoah Park, Lake Fairfax, River Bend Park. Then we decided to go somewhere new.

Andre heard of this park quite a few years ago. It is very close to Great Falls, just a few miles to the south.

We packed our lunch and took to the road. It didn't take long to get there, but as soon as we arrived the children were ready for lunch. Andre and I didn't think that 10 minutes into our hike was a good time to eat. We wanted to find something much more scenic. If nothing else, we wanted to be by the water.

After about 45 minutes we arrived at the water...found a good spot and had our lunch. We had this waterfall just behind us as we ate.




Then the children spent time jumping from rock to rock.....and at this point tried to build a small dam in the river. The few rocks they had here were not going to hold back the Potomac River.

We decided to head back by a different route....and this was much more fun. There were a couple places where we needed to cross over the creek. There were these big concrete 'stepping stones' rising up out of the water for us to cross on.



















Here the children decided that they wanted to climb all over the rocks in the creek. Where is the fun on walking on a path when you can climb in the creek instead?











Finally, we are done with climbing in the creek bed....crossing over cement steps....and trying to dam up the water. It is time to head back to the car.

But, there is no time to rest. In just a few hours the boys' soccer team has a game against the dads.

Here is Michael.....wearing a familiar shirt? It is a bit small, but he loves it.

A bowl of cherries....

Back to food.

Kirsten was quite delighted with herself and the bowl of cherries in her hands. She creatively 'displayed' one cherry for you.