Grace Scores a Goal!!

Yeah!! Grace scored her very first soccer goal!  Matt and I have been waiting for it for a long time (she's probably played a dozen games so far).  It was the "Purple Ponies" third game, they tied the first, lost the second (pretty bad too) and won their third.  A few of the girls were playing really well, including Grace.  It was VERY exciting to watch her play so well and to score a goal.  I think she was pretty excited about it too, although she acted like it was no big deal.   Grace is #7.

2nd Grade and Preschool

Grace started second grade two weeks ago.  Everything is going fine so far. She likes her teacher (Mrs. Valentine) and has lots of friends.

Grace, Jake, Annika (neighbor in first grade)

Grace, Jessie and Grace

Jake had preschool orientation last week (where he was excited to get a cupcake) and his first drop off day yesterday. He did great.  He was excited about going to preschool, especially since everyone he knows in the neighborhood goes to school.  He also got a new backpack, with cars and trucks on it of course!  He was a little apprehensive for me to leave him, but there were no tears.  When I picked him up he seemed happy, although he was disappointed that you don't watch cartoons in preschool (which is all he does at the gym tot room).  His first words to me were: "the teacher said I have to watch cartoons at home."  As soon as we got home he demanded a cartoon because "the teacher said."  How could I refuse that?

We Finally Go Camping!

It's been a year since we last went camping, longer than we wanted, but things kept getting in the way (soccer games, Ironman training, weather).  Matt picked a spot in the Allegheny National Forest about 3.5 hours from here in Pennsylvania.  On the map it looked nice, it was on a lake and there was a beach nearby.

Turns out that it wasn't a great camping spot.  The lake was not that exciting and the beach was actually a concrete slab with rocks poured on it.  Our site was pretty sloped and rocky and our neighbors were really loud until 11pm (so I didn't mind Jake yelling at 7am "to infinity and beyond" over and over).

The coolest part of the trip was an area called "Jakes Rocks" (Jake thought this meant we were going to a place where he would get new rocks).  It turned out to be a short hike through an area that had lots of big rocks and boulders.  The kids loved it.

We were there two nights.  The first day was nice; we hiked, played at the beach and got ice cream.  We knew the weather was a 40% chance of rain the whole, time but it stayed away until our last night,  and then it POURED.  Around 4 or 5am, it rained really hard for a long time, thunder and lighting too.  I laid there wondering if the tent would leak and what the likelihood was of a tree falling on us.  Luckily the tent held up, no trees fell and the rain stopped before we had to pack up and go (although there was a lot of clean-up to do when we got home).  While not the best camping trip, I'm glad we went!

IRONMAN!

He did it!  Matt finished the Ironman triathlon.  He had an awesome race, finishing in the top third and meeting his goal.  It was a great weekend.

I'm very happy he did so well and relieved that he has no more long training rides/runs that take up our weekends.