First day of Soccer practice. Brayton was very excited this morning, he couldn’t wait to get going. We got to Raccoon River Park and there was about a google of kiddos there playing soccer. We found our team & field & the WDM soccer folks had their 13 yr old girls come to run practice for the kids. I attended the parents meeting while they had a few drills and then played a quick little game.
It was brutally hot out, I think about 90 degrees. The kiddos took numerous water breaks and played lots of soccer. Brayton came over and said to me, “Dad basket ball only makes me a little tired, Soccer makes me VERY tired…All in all I was very impressed with how the programs were run, how organized it was, and how much fun the kids were having. We met some new friends (both parents and kids) and I have to say I’m looking forward to soccer season for the first time in my life!
It’s Friday night, and on Friday evenings my kiddo’s get to spend some ‘special’ time with Daddy. Especially that I’m leaving for San Francisco tomorrow. That means we usually hop on the bike and do the park tour here in WDM. Anytime we jump on the bike there are a few things we do prior to leaving the house. One of those is everyone goes potty. So we did our thing and jumped on the bike to head to the new park just built about 3 miles west of home.
We proceeded to ride over to the new park, it was about 90 degrees out so it was hot for sure. We got to the new park and played about 5 minutes, when out of nowhere both kids had to do #2. Okay, fine. Walk over to the brand spanking new bathroom, and guess what…Locked. No wipes, no potty, I’m at least a mile from anywhere with a bathroom…I’m in trouble.
Me: “Can you guys hold it a little longer.” Lauren: “NO! I gotta go NOW!”
Okay, kids, let’s go over to the creek and try do get our business done in the grass by the creek…
Long story short, after lots of trying we had no luck. Which was good, because I had no idea how I was going to wipe their butts…When we turned around to walk the 20 yards back to the park I realized some woman had just arrived with her kid and had been watching me coaching my two while they were both squatting, pants down…Ugg, what do I say? Proceeded to walk up and she says, “Don’t worry, I was just there last week.” Not exactly sure what that means.
So, we didn’t get our business done and the kids started playing again. Two minutes later, Lauren says, “Dad I gotta go poop!” Okay, so lets get back on the bike and ride over to my friends pizza place. That’s a good place to go.
After riding about a a mile, we arrived at Tom’s pizza place. Tom was gracious enough to let us use his bathroom and we got the job done. Whewwww….
After that, we went to the store and bought 2 loaves of bread and went to feed the fish again, like we always do. What a great Friday night.
Well, summer is here and before we know it will be gone…Amazing how quickly the time goes. It wasn’t too long ago Brayton was in preschool and was upset because he had to take a summer break. In about a month both kids will be in preschool at St. Francis, which they are both looking forward to. Colette and I wonder how Lauren will react to Mommy leaving here there for the first time. It will be the first time she is away from either of us (not including visits to Grandma and Grandpas). Brayton, we’re not worried about him. He’d go back tomorrow if he could.
We’ve been keeping really busy this summer. We got pool passes again this year, and Colette, I, and the kids have certainly gotten our moneys worth out of them. We go to one of the three city water parks at least three times a week. The kids are really enjoying going and we’ve even gotten them to put their faces in the water a bit and hold their breath. Lauren is much more adventurous than Brayton in the pool. She’ll stick her face in and even dunk her head under the water. Brayton not so much. Although he has gotten pretty good at going down the kiddie slides at the pool and he get’s a big kick out of that.
We’ve been pretty lucky this summer to see lots of family. We’ve been back to see all three sets of grandparents a couple of times, and they’ve been here in WDM quite a few times too. The kids love seeing all of them, as evidenced in the video of them dancing with Pappa Alan.
Last weekend we made a day trip to Omaha for cousin Maria’s birthday party. Everyone was zonked out 10 minutes into the drive home. We are excited for Aunt Mikhael, Maria, and Emily to come on Thursday night and stay until Saturday. We plan on going to the Indianola balloon festival which was a big hit with the kids last year. Uncle Matt and I will take all four kids on Saturday morning while Colette and Mikhael host Audra’s baby shower…Not sure what we’ll do yet, but it will be fun.
This summer both kids have been taking gymnastics lessons. They look forward to going every week and I can say they have learned a lot. Brayton is getting really good at his somersaults and cartwheels. He can sit on his bottom with his legs wide, put his hands down on the floor and lift himself up into a somersault. They get to do lots of jumping on the trampoline and they really like hanging on the high bars. I took them to the park last week, and Lauren hung on the high bar there for 32 seconds before she dropped. I was amazed.
One of the highlights of my week is on Saturday’s I sometimes get to take the kids myself while Colette goes scrapbooking. I usually load them on the bike and we ride all over WDM. We either go to a park and play or to the pools. After that we head over to my friends pizza place and eat some pizza after which we stop by the local convenience store, buy a loaf of bread and go feed the fish at the pond in the Jordan Creek Towne Center. This is really a blast for me and the kids.
The kids got their first taste of fishing this summer as well. One Sunday afternoon, we decided it was time to try this. I had always hesitated taking them because of the boredom factor, but we bought some worms and tried our luck. We went to two local ponds. After about 1/2 hour of trying, I had failed in my fishing duties so Colette gave it a try and managed to snag a small bluegill. The kids had a real thrill getting to touch the fish and feel his scales. We then released him and our fishing day was done.
August 30th is our 7th wedding anniversary. We are celebrating by taking both kids to have their eye surgeries. Both kids have Strabismus and need to have it surgically corrected. What a way to celebrate our anniversary, I am not looking forward to that day. It scares the dickens out of me.
