Back into Soccer Mode.

Now that the kids are officially back into soccer mode I figured I would blog about their past two games. Brooklyn and Maddux are both playing U10 as there was not enough interest to form a U8 and U10 teams. That means Brooklyn is playing against 7 year olds while Maddux is playing against 10 year old. Both are doing quite well and having a lot of fun. Nolan is now playing against all boys and doesn't have to worry about running into little girls any more. He is clearly the biggest kid out there and can't always stop his body from charging into someone else.


Brooklyn executing a perfect throw in from the side-lines.


Brooklyn and her new aggressive self. She is not afraid to get in there and mix it up with the other girls. She even scored a goal in her second game of the season. That tied her career high for goals. She almost broke that record last week but didn't get quite enough mustard on the shot to get it past the goalie.


Speaking of goalie Brooklyn has played a little bit of that position for the first time ever. She has actually done a really good job so far and is yet to be scored upon yet.


Although Maddux is the youngest kid on his team and one of the youngest in the league he is doing very well and can hold his own. It took his coach a couple games to realize that he can play but now he is one of the better players. He went from playing 1/2 of the game to playing the entire game and playing of offense. He never gives up and runs all over the field chasing the ball where ever it may be. He is yet to score this year but it is not due to a lack of effort. He really has quite a few kids who don't really know how to play and where to be for the pass. This allows the other team to double and triple team Maddux when he has the ball. At least he is having fun.


Maddux running over his opponents on the way to the goal. As you can see there are three defenders to one Maddux.


Nolan with the wide open shot on goal. He may not be the best player on his team but when he gets going no one is going to get in his way. If they do, they usually won't the next time. He doesn't do it intentionally but is just so big and once he gets going it doesn't take much to knock smaller boys over.


Here he is again leading the charge.


We are hoping the weather will cooperate over the next month and allow the kids to get all their games in. They go up until Halloween weekend but already had their first rainout and the further we go the less likely they are to play those games.


This is the next generation of soccer. This is Payton with Atticus and Finn watching their older brothers who all play on the same team. Payton can hold here own against the boys and loves to hang out with her "friends".

Well now that we are officially into school and summer is almost over I figured I would update everyone on what we did this summer to keep us busy. Most of you know about the trip to Bora Bora and our week in North Carolina but here is what I have not blogged about yet.

The Warrior Dash


In June, Jennie and some of her family members ran in the Warrior Dash alongside some friends. It is a 3.10 mile obstacle course filled with water, mud, fire, trails and obstacles. They do these races all over the United States and she would recommend you participating if you ever get the chance. There are thousands of people who participate in these races and provides for a really good time. This is what you can expect to look like after the race.


Here is Jennie at the finish line jumping over a trail of fire.


This was obviously before they started the race. Jennie heard it was a good idea to wear some type of eye protection when going thru the water and mud. This was all that she could find around the house. The funny thing is that it wen right along with the theme of the race. The idea is to dress up in the most bizarre outfit you can imagine and run the race in that. They award prizes for the best costumes at the end of the day.

Cleveland Indians Game


We managed to catch a couple of Indians games this year which was a lot of fun for the kids. Thanks to Mitch Talbot and his wife, a pitcher for the Indians, we got to go down on the field and watch batting practice before the game. It was a cool way to see the players and I was probably more excited that the kids to be at that level. We got to sit with some of the players families and there was a very cool fireworks show right after the game which surprisingly enough the kids enjoyed. Our kids don't always do that well with fireworks.


Nolan along with the Indians mascot, Slider.


Down on the field with the boys during the Indians batting practice. Most times the stadium doesn't even open up in time to see the Indians hit batting practice so we felt extra special to watch while everyone had to wait outside of the gates.


Grady Sizemore and Sandy Alomar during batting practice.

The Cleveland Corporate Challenge


Jennie had the opportunity to participate in the Cleveland Corporate Challenge of behalf of PNC Bank. She was discovered a couple of years ago and has been a staple ever since. The event is a month long Olympic style competition that faces the different corporations in Cleveland against each other in a series of 15 or 20 different events. Most teams are always lacking girls so once they find an athletic one, insert Jennie, they usually all upon them many times to help in various events. This year Jennie got to do kickball (above picture), dodgeball, volleyball, basketball, tug of war & the obstacle course. She helped PNC Bank to capture its 6th consecutive Corporate Challenge Cup.


A little action from the sand volleyball court. They actually finished third in this event with a pretty poor team. Personally this looks like an attempt at the Michael Jordan pose.

The African Safari


For Payton's 3rd birthday we took the kids to an African Safari off the coast of Lake Erie. We got a good price on the tickets and went along with Tacie and her kids as well as Liz and her girls. It was very cool because you got to drive your own car through the preserve and could find the wildlife from the inside of you own car. I would say from the comfort of your own car but there were some times when you didn't feel all that comfortable. There were giraffes, elk, deer, llamas, water buffalo, bison, alpacas and steer looking animals all waiting for some pellets or carrots. This is a great shot of Maddux feeding a giraffe through the sunroof of the car. It was also nice because you could drive through as many times as you wanted for the one price.


I am not sure what these animals are but they had some massive horns attached to their heads. We tended to keep the windows up when driving by these guys as we were not all that excited to have them hanging around. One car actually lost a windshield to this animal a little earlier in the day. It was shaking its head to get the flies away and hit some poor guys windshield in the process. The crazy thing is that the guy had the whole thing on video as he was recording them feeding the animals. Of course there is a huge sign upon entrance into the preserve that states they are not responsible for anything damage that happens to you or your car.


Here are all the kids that went that day.


Maddux and Nolan riding the ponies that we on hand. They also had camels that you could ride and I think that Payton was the only one who would not get on that.

Strongsville Carnival


Every August the city of Strongsville puts on its Homecoming Days and a carnival comes to town. The kids love going up and riding the smaller rides and playing the different games. It wasn't until last year that I got the three oldest kids to try all the rides and figure out that they loved them. Nolan will go on anything as he has no fear but the other kids usually require quite a bit of persuasion before they get on. The crazy thing is that once they get on they love it and want to go over and over again.


This was one of the weaker rides as you can tell by Brooklyn's enthusiasm and the boys fake smiles.


This is the favorite ride of the carnival : the Mummy Ride. It took a couple of hours to get Brooklyn on and once she did it the first time she had to do it over and over and over again. With there being no line I be they rode this ride over 30 times in a row. I just love Nolan's expression and he was the only one who would raise his arms up on the ride.

Summer Fun


As in the past, the trampoline got a lot of use this summer. Some of the kids have gotten a little more daring and started trying different degrees of difficulty while on. Maddux has gotten quite good at back flips and front flips; not sure where he picked those up from.


Of course any time that Maddux and Cannon are doing something Nolan has to be right in the middle.


Maddux with his best Spider-Man impersonation.

Sports Highlights

Cedar Point and the end of Summer.

With school starting this week and summer almost over I decided to take the older kids to Cedar Point for one last hoorah and to end the summer in style. The kids had never been and are not getting into some of the rides so I figured it could be a fun day. Plus it gave me an excuse to go and ride all the rides. I wasn't sure how the kids would do since the rides were quite a bit bigger than they were use to but I figured they could still have some fun and would maybe surprise me. It was kind of funny because on the ride there I could sense the nervousness in them. I don't know that they said more than 10 words the entire way there and that is highly unusual for these kids. With Cedar Point being one of the best amusement parks in the world I know they have heard about it from friends and TV but I don't think they really knew what it was and how big the rides were. We took the kids cousin, Cannon, to make an even 4 and hoping that he would get Maddux on some of the rides. To my surprise the one person I was worried most about freaking out, Brooklyn, was the only one who would go on the good rides with me. I think the Cannon factor had the opposite effect on Maddux. With Cannon not wanting to go on most of the rides, Maddux was also hesitant and skipped most. I think I could have talked Maddux into them but when his older cousin, who he really looks up to, won't go then he was out as well. But Brooklyn was my rock and went on every ride that I wanted to. I was very shocked and proud of her as she has been the undaring one in the past. Anyways, the day was a lot of fun and I think the kids had a real good time and the bigger rides will hopefully grow on them as they get older because I am going to need someone to ride with me.


The Millennium Force was the second ride that we went on and is arguably one of the best roller coasters in the world. Brooklyn was the only one who was brave enough to ride although I almost had Maddux bribed with a Milky Way. The roller coaster takes you up and drops you over 300 feet and reaches speeds of 70 + mph and is one of the best rides I have ever been on. Brooklyn absolutely loved it and would have gone on again had it not been for the hour and a half wait.


Cannon, Maddux and Brooklyn on the swing ride. One of the few rides that the boys would go on.


Maddux did find one roller coaster that he really liked, the Gemini. It is an old roller coaster and a decent little ride for those less adventurous.


One of the three water rides that the park offers. Two of the three rides will drench you and if it would have been about 10 degrees warmer, would have been great. The kids really liked these as we spent a couple hours go on these over and over again.


Brooklyn cooling off by running through the fountain. This was a popular spot for a lot of kids that day.


The kids riding the lift which takes you from one end of the park to the other. The kids were dying to give this a ride.


Maddux and Cannon alongside a hot rod which was parked outside of the Johnny Rockets restaurant.


This is Cedar Points newest addition, The Windseeker. The ride takes you up 301 feet in the air and swings you around at about 35 to 40 mph. The boys wanted nothing to do with this so Brooklyn and I were on our own. Not a super crazy ride but the height does provide for a nice view of the park. We actually rode this one at night and got to see the park lit up which was nice.


The Millennium Force initial drop. If you look close enough in the picture about half way up the hill you will see the ride actually stopped on the hill. Some bozo decided it would be funny to undo his seatbelt and didn't realize that a safety precaution forced the ride to stop once he did that. They had to come up and reset the ride which kept them on the hill for about 20 minutes. Not sure what that guy was thinking but I am sure the couple hundred people waiting in line were not happy with him.

Well with summer officially over it is time to turn our attention to school and soccer. I know that Jennie is glad to have the kids back in school and on a set routine. The summer really went by fast but we had a lot of fun and are glad we got to spend time with family.

A Week at the Lake

This past week we traveled down to North Carolina to have some fun at Jennie's Uncle Jay's lake house on Lake Gaston. We went with Jennie's parents, sister (Rachel and her family), brother (Spencer) and brother (Greg and his family) for a week of adventure, swimming, jet skiing and blowing off some steam before school starts back up in a couple of weeks. Jennie drove down with the kids and rest of her family on Sunday and I flew down mid week to join them. The weather was perfect and the lake water was surprising quite warm. The kids had a ton of fun and always love spending time; aka: having sleep overs, with their cousins. We are very grateful to Jay and his family for letting us spend the week on the lake and using their boat and jet skis. It was well worth the 10 hour drive and numerous bug bites. I don't think the kids wore anything other than swim suits the entire week. It was a lot of fun and we are blessed to have family with the resources to do these kind of things. The following are some pictures from our week.


This is just about everyone sitting on the dock. This dock actually has a bunch of fish swimming around it and you can bring bread and other things and feed them if you want. There were some pretty good size fish swimming around and we even saw a turtle and a water snake. It was kind of funny because we actually went there twice (because we forgot the bread the first time) and we told the kids to make sure they didn't fall in or the fish would eat them. Well the second night we went back Nolan got a little too close and ended up falling in. The water was only about a foot deep but he freaked out because he thought the fish were going to bite and eat his legs. The look on his face was priceless and I only wish I had the camera running when it happened. You could see the look of panic and fear in his eyes. It only took him a minute or two to get over it but he thought he was fish food for a good minute or two.


Maddux and Nolan climbing a tree down by the docks.


This was the first trip to the dock and Nolan and his Uncle Spencer pretending to feed him to the fish. He was actually asking to be hung upside down above them and then once he started he had other ideas. I bet if you asked him now he would probably have different thoughts.


We also did a little relaxing while we were up there.


Brooklyn practicing some volleyball with her cousin and Uncle. You have to love the outfit. There were a couple of days where this is all she wore. Nothing like some long chicken legs.


Jay's neighbor was kind enough to let us take his boat out on the lake one night to see the sunset and just cruise around.


The zip line was one of the highlights for the kids (and adults). I wondered if it would hold the weight but to my surprise it was very solid. We tried to get the kids to go from the top but most would only go half way up. I actually had Maddux up to the top and holding on the the handle and then he looked down and changed his mind.


Spencer and I launching the kids into the lake from our shoulders. I am not sure how it started but before we knew it we had all the kids in the lake asking to launch.


The raft was also a very popular attraction. The kids loved to play sharks and minnows with Grandpa and Spencer. Nolan didn't make it very long in this round.


Brooklyn swimming around in the lake waiting for someone to play with her.


This is the candy thank you that we made for Jay and his family. We were so grateful to them for letting us use the house and just wanted to make sure that we said thank you. I don't know how many times the kids tried to get the treats for themselves.


Nolan holding a catfish that Greg and the boys caught off the dock. He wouldn't hold it without the glove which is one better than Maddux who wouldn't even stand near the fish.


Maddux and Grandpa cruising around on the jet ski. I actually let Maddux drive with me on board and he actually did quite well. He drove all by himself and I just held on just in case. He had a lot of fun driving the jet ski and is a little speed demon in the making.


Here is the view from Jay's backyard and off his dock. It is really a very nice set up and perfect place to spend time as a family. Here are the kids jumping off the dock into the lake to cool off.


Maddux showing off his spinning cannon ball abilities.


The look on Cambrie and Payton's faces relays how the week went. There was something for everyone to do and everyone had a great time.

Again we thank Jay and the Rannels family for letting us come down and spend the week. We had a great time and was a nice way to end the summer. Now it is time to get back on a schedule and get ready to start school next week. Where did the summer go?