Xavier's First Soccer Game
Greetings to everyone.
We enrolled Xavier in a soccer league this year. He has always liked playing, so we thought he would enjoy playing on a team instead of just doing drills.
The league, a no scores kept league, has six games scheduled. They play on Saturdays. Xavier has practice on Tuesdays. Yesterday, he had an extra practice with a scrimmage game in preparation for today's game.
Xavier missed his first game, which was last week. Dad completely forgot about it while going about the standard Saturday chores. That was a real bummer for us; we had looked forward to it all week.
Rebecca, who was out of town for the weekend, texted in the afternoon asking how the game went. That's when I remembered. Oops!
Well, we did not forget about it today! And, as a bonus, Rebecca was home to watch it.
Xavier's team are the Purple Wolves. The game lasts an hour, and the kids are rotated in and out of the game and into different positions: goalie, defense and offense.
In yesterday's scrimmage, Xavier was aggressive in getting to and around the ball. It took him a little this morning to get back that aggression.
Xavier is easy to spot in the pictures. Look for the purple jersey and bright red socks.
Xavier played defense twice and offense twice. The picture above has him just after kicking the ball into play. The camera was too slow to get to ball and the kick together.
So, for the next few weeks, we are a soccer family. We parents are soccer parents in training as we learn what equipment Xavier needs, what to bring to games, even having to remember there is a game.
Oh, it may be a no scores kept game, but the Purple Wolves won the game last week. This week, the Lime team won 2-1.
First Day Of Second Grade
Greetings to all.
Really, yesterday was Xavier's first day in Second Grade.
Due to possible exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (aka COVID-19), Xavier's first week of school was done remotely rather than in person. To its credit, Xavier's school was the most rational and sane in handling the possible exposure, and the most supportive out of the half-dozen or so organizations that were informed.
Xavier will be in class and in person starting Monday, next week.
This week, he will be doing remote work. We already have his assignments and worksheets and the due dates of each.
The Grand Tetons
Hello one and all.
We made it to the Grand Teton Nations Park early yesterday morning. Xavier was still in bed as we drove, much to his delight. How fun it is to be in the back of the van on the bed while driving through the forest!
The campgrounds in the Tetons were first come, first served, and there was a line. We had met two men in Yellowstone two days earlier who told us it was crowded. They advised us to go to one particular campsite: Colton Bay Village. Boy are we glad we ran into them!
That was the right call. We hit a line of people waiting before daybreak. The site host asked us "Are you sleeping in this van?"
When we answered "yes," he replied "That's the right answer! You have a site."
We set up our camp and had breakfast. As the Village had a general store, a laundry and showers, we spent a few hours bathing and washing clothes and picking up a few items we realized could use.
We hiked a two mile loop around the bay. There were two sow bears with cubs, one bear having three cubs with her according to the park ranger we met along the way. We never saw the bears, but as we walked in the dense forest, both Rebecca and I were wishing we had remembered to bring our can of bear mace.
On Sunday, we headed for Jenny Lake, a very popular place. We wanted to take the ferry across the lake and do some hiking. This time, we remembered to bring along our bear mace.
As we approached the ferry, a tree across the stream was shaking and a crowd of people were staring and holding up cameras. A black bear and a cub!
We never saw the cub other than the tree shaking. We did get an action shot of the mama bear standing on her hind legs, but neither Rebecca nor I could get our cameras ready in time.
After watching the bear a while, we purchased three round trip tickets for the ferry and started across the lake. This was Xavier's first boat ride.
We hiked up to Hidden Falls and had a snack, then decided to head up the rocky goat path of a trail to Inspiration Point.
Xavier did not like this plan and explained hiking was not his idea of camping. The view from the Point was not what we hoped, but still a nice view.
After a little discussion, we decided not to hike further into the canyon.
At the top we met a chipmunk bold enough to nearly hop into your hand trying to get something from unsuspecting people's backpacks.
On the way back, Xavier got to wade in the glacier-fed stream water coming from the Hidden Falls and crawl on some rocks. That was his reward for hiking up to Inspiration Point. It was a good way to refresh your feet from the hike as well.