Soccer is back in the air.

The soccer season is upon us again and this year Nolan is finally able to play. It took him a couple of practices to get use to the idea but is finally happy about finally being on a team. It helps that I am one of his coaches and he has a good friend on his team as well. Everyones first game was this weekend and the Beard family went 2 - 1. I decided to spike Nolan's hair to celebrate his first game.


Here are Maddux and Nolan during Brooklyn's game. Neither of them could wait for their games to start. I actually got pretty lucky this weekend as I was able to watch all three games. I don't think I caught very many of Brooklyn's games over the last two years as most were at the same time as Maddux.


Brooklyn's team won 2 - 0 and Brooklyn actually played pretty well when in the game. She moved up this year and is playing with 10 , 9 & 8 year olds. They are also playing with full soccer rules and are starting to have to learn the game and the different positions. She seems to be on a pretty good team and her coach really seems to know what he is doing. It will be fun to watch her develop playing for someone who really knows what he is doing.


Brooklyn actually played a little more aggressive than in past years and was not afraid to get right in there and take the ball away from the other team. Here she is getting right in the path of the other player and took the ball away from her.


I was surprise that Brooklyn actually showed some offensive aggressiveness during her game. She has never been known for her offensive skills but actually went to the goal a couple of times and had a couple moments of dribbling the ball up the field. She usually just kicks it once and is happy with that. Maybe we will see this part of her game develop this year.


Nolan just hanging out during Maddux' game.


Maddux's game was a little different of a story as his team really struggled. He is now playing with 7 year olds but is playing on a much bigger field. I think that was the main difference as they were all tired midway during the second period. We have no one on our team who played on the bigger field last year so the kids really didn't know what to expect. It was funny because at one point in the second quarter we asked who needed a rest and all 7 players raised their hand. At least they now know what to expect and we have an idea, as coaches, on what we need to work on. They lost 4 - 1 and really were worn out by the end of the game. This is a picture of Maddux playing goalie and stopping a shot on goal.


Although Nolan isn't much of a player yet he was very excited to be out on the field and was the leader of the high-fives after every goal. He does have some pretty good players on his team and they won their game 12 - 0. He is the biggest kid on the field and just needs to realize that he can go where ever he wants and do what ever he wants. He is not afraid to get in the middle of things but tends to back off after he gets the ball out of the scrum.


I kept trying to tell Nolan to run to the goal when his teammates have the ball so he could get ready for a pass and then score. Well he took it as running right to or in the goal and then just waiting for something to happen. We will have to work on this with him so we can get him some easy goals this year. At this point he really doesn't care if he scores as long as he can give high-fives after his team scores.


This might be Nolan's favorite part of the game. This year he finally gets his own treat and drink after every game.


Have you ever been this tired? This has nothing to do with soccer but this is how we found Nolan after Church this afternoon. He fell asleep in the car on the way home but woke up once we pulled in the driveway. We told him to go into his room and get changed before we ate. Once dinner was ready we went to see where he was and this is what we found. He managed to get his pants down to his ankles and then just couldn't take anymore. He fell asleep right there in the middle of getting changed.

Well next week will be an off-week as we celebrate Labor Day so it will be a couple of weeks before we have any soccer updates.

Back to School.

Well school is officially back under way as of this Tuesday. Brooklyn is in the third and Maddux is now in school all day as a first grader. I am still trying to figure out where the summer went. It went by so fast and now we have to get back into the swing of school and soccer. It was funny because the first day of school I asked Maddux what was the best part of his day and this was his response, "Lunch, recess and gym." What a typical boys response. It will be nice to get back into a regular routine and on a somewhat normal schedule.


This is Jennie on her way to school every morning. This is how she loads up all the kids and walks them to school. It is very nice having the school in the same neighborhood that we live in. It is a five minute walk to and from school each day.


Here are Meghan and Lauren (friends of Brooklyn and Maddux who Jennie watches after school each day).

Our Florida Family Vacation.

Well I finally have all the pictures and video uploaded from our trip to Florida a week ago so thank you for those who have been waiting. We participated in Disney's "Give A Day, Get A Day," which gave us free tickets into Disney World. We hadn't taken the kids before so figured it would be a good way to end the summer and have some fun. We were lucky that Jennie's grandparents house was still in the family (made it by a week and a half) and we were able to stay there for most of our trip. We ended up leaving Cleveland Friday night, after work, and made it do to Clearwater Saturday afternoon. The drive was fairly uneventful outside of the speeding ticket that I got at 2:30 in the morning in Virginia. I have since found out that Virginia is pretty strict on its tickets and could cost me a pretty penny. Some people just have a need for speed and I seem to be one of them. Other than that little hiccup the ride went very well. The kids did great and slept most of the ride down.

The first couple of days we just hung out at the beach and an outdoor pool that we found. The weather was perfect and despite a little afternoon shower every day we spent the majority of our visit outdoors. We then headed over to Orlando to start our Disney trip. We stayed at the All-Star Movies Resort and spent the first day walking around there and swimming in the pool. We then spent the entire next day at Disney World. We got there a little before the park opened up and ended up staying until they closed at 11:00. It was a very long day but the kids had a blast. I was surprised at how family oriented the park was. I think there were only 3 rides that Payton couldn't go on. Other than that we rode on every ride at least once and most twice. The kids especially loved Space Mountain and Splash Mountain. The first time Brooklyn saw Splash Mountain she wanted to do with the ride and would not go on it. The second time she decided to go on it and absolutely loved it. I was surprised at how much they liked the rides and their lack of fear to go on them. That was my main concern going into the day and they loved every minute of the day. We then stayed for the Electric Parade at the end of the night as we got great seats for the show. The day was extremely action packed from beginning to end but was worth every single minute. Both of the boys fell asleep before the bus even pulled out of the park to head back to the hotel.

We then went back to Clearwater to get ready for the trip back home. We did manage to visit the Tampa Aquarium which I was a little disappointed with. It is touted as one of the best in the United States and I guess I was expecting a little more. The kids had a good time, which is the important thing, but I wouldn't have spent the money if I would have known what to expect. We had another uneventful trip back home and made it back to Cleveland Saturday afternoon. Overall it was a great trip and may be the last trip to Florida for quite some time as we no longer have any ties down there. We are grateful for the opportunity that we had to go and visit and grateful that we made it down and back safely.

Here is a photo recap of our trip and week in Florida. I apologize for the number of pictures but had so many that I just couldn't leave any out. We got some really great pictures of the kids down on the beach with the sunset. There are also some great pictures of Payton's first trip in the ocean. She absolutely loved the ocean even after a couple swallows of the salt water. Maddux loves going out as far as he can and make it a couple of times out within 10 feet of the swimming buoys. Of course Nolan wants to be just like his big brother and follows and does whatever Maddux does. Brooklyn is just happy to be there and just does her own thing. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we do.

Here is some video of the kids jumping off the diving board at the pool. I was surprised at how comfortable they were jumping in and some of the things that they could do. As you will see in one of the clips Maddux has no problems doing flips off of the diving board. Brooklyn is still just about running off the board into the pool but Maddux has the jump and form all down. Nolan has no problem going off the diving board but was not able to pass the test of swimming one length of the pool.



Sorry again that this took so long to get posted but I hope you enjoy. We have a blast and had the perfect vacation to end the summer with. Now it is time to turn our focus to soccer and school which start next week. I am so glad that we are fortunate enough to be able to do these type of things and just hope that these memories stay with the kids throughout their lives.