Little Rowdies Kickers...

A new addition to the fall soccer is an introductory camp offered to U3 and U4 kids. I signed Cooper up not knowing how he would do. He often shy's away from big crowds and people he doesn't know. I thought this would be the perfect fit for him since we have to be at the fields anyway.

He was soooo excited to have "cweets" and a water bottle. He really was excited to go all the way up until we set foot onto the field. Then...he saw all of the kids and got cold feet.

 Here he is outside of the circle. There was no way I was going to get him on the field or off for that matter. He was going to sit right there and not look at anybody and nobody was to look at him, not even me. Deep down he wanted to go out and participate but just wasn't sure what to expect out of it. So I bribed him. I have been known to do such a thing on certain occasions. I promised him we would go to the "ice cream shop" and get "yellow ice cream". And that was it, he ran out onto the field and did a fantastic job.

 He didn't venture far from the coach. He always made sure he was within touching distance of her even if it meant squeezing his way in between another kid and the coach.

 I don't really think this smile is cause he is happy about playing soccer but more about him spotting me over on the side taking his picture.

 Partnered up with a little girl kicking it back and forth. He was so funny...he would back way up and run really hard to kick the ball.

 The stare down in the soccer net. I don't think there was any conversation going on. If there was, it was a one way conversation.

 Now he is truly happy...the yellow ice cream I promised him for doing such a good job.

St. Joseph...

We didn't make our annual family vacation to Destin this year, but we found a beach that is a close second to Destin...St. Joseph, Michigan...only 2 hours and 40 minutes away!!! It is this amazing beautiful little town right on Lake Michigan with sunsets that have to compare to those on the west coast. Chris and I wonder why we didn't discover it until now, and we look forward to more stays here at St. Joseph.
***More photos in the Web Albums***

 St. Joseph's downtown sits right next to the beach and is filled with children's boutiques, a winery, restaurants, and lots of art stores. Also downtown are a few ice cream shops, which of course got our attention right away. Cabanas Ice Cream in particular was the one we patronized twice.

The St. Joseph River empties into Lake Michigan right next to the beach, so our backdrop for the weekend were these 2 lighthouses. The red and white one is the 2nd most photographed lighthouse in Michigan. We thought we would try and push it to the #1 spot throughout the weekend. The boys loved the lighthouses...although it would have been much cooler if you were able to go up them.

Usually on our Destin trip we take a walk out onto the pier and watch the dolphins and end up being really hot by the end of the walk...as much as we missed the dolphins, we loved being able to be cleaned up and not sweat just walking out to the lighthouses like we would have in FL.

We do have a photo where everyone is looking but we also have this one where no one is looking! Pretty typical in our family to have at least one like this. Seriously, everyone is doing their own thing!

Mom and Dad decided to join us for the weekend as well. I think they too were amazed a place like this existed so close to home.

While the boys rode the 100 year old Silver Beach Carousel, Chris and I found our own entertainment for a few minutes. I was really puzzled as to why the artist needed to make the woman's legs so hairy! He/she must be European:)

The highlight of the trip was pier jumping! Who knew?!? When we walked out to the lighthouses Sat. night we were a little concerned with the lack of railings along it. My first thought was "Someone could just come out here and jump off!" (Being a former diver and a mom of 3 boys I couldn't help but think of it). Well we soon found out that is exactly what people do all along the pier all day long. No warning signs or anything! Just jump at your own risk. The boys REALLY wanted to do it (and I secretly did too). So with their lifejackets on, we let them jump off the 12 foot high pier. They were hooked after the first jump and had sooooo much fun!!!! And the best part was I didn't have to worry about getting eaten by a shark (that IS my greatest fear)!!!

READY!!!....SET!!!!....

 JUMP!!! 

So graceful! This is about the position the boys entered the water every time.
 

Meanwhile, while we were pier jumping, Papaw stayed back with Cooper building a drip sandcastle. The sand was surprisingly fine and clean...not Destin sand, but very close to it. And the lake bottom was just as soft with lots of sand bars so it wasn't too deep.

I can't say it enough...the sunsets were gorgeous!! People came down to the beach to enjoy a bottle of wine while watching sun sink into the water.

The last thing we did on Sunday was rent this Surrey Limo bike for an hour. A lot harder than it looked but lots of fun. We rode it all around the downtown...

...and even had to push it once up a hill the owners said we would have to but didn't 100% believe them. Who did we think we were?...the only 2 groups to ever make it up this hill were a set of military guys and some long distance cyclists! We didn't stand a chance!

Cousin Playdate...

While Cooper's brothers were off at a baseball/football camp and enjoying some Memaw and Papaw time in Kokomo last week, Cooper enjoyed a playdate with Bennett. Tons of fun was had by these two. Between talks about Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, some sand play, and lot of hose play these two are starting to get old enough to play together. I just wished we lived closer so we could have more times like these.

A couple of days later and 2 big brothers back into the action we met Abby at the sprinkler park for some more fun.

Getting all 4 on this wobbly beam without one of them falling off was almost impossible.

Just chillin' in the shade

Annual Fair Trip

Well I am officially one of those moms who cannot keep up on the whole picture thing. I kinda think I already new that and that is why I don't have any scrapbooks or photo albums for my boys. One day, I will. But for now organizing them on the computer and blogging every once is in awhile is going to have to suffice. There are so many things I want to blog about that we have done this summer and I will slowly catch up. Last week we made our annual trip to the Howard County Fair. We had so much fun despite the heat...little did we know the extreme heat was yet to come.

We first visited the farm animals. Love the face on this poor sheep. Not only was he freshly shaved (which probably felt good), but he had 4 boys with their hands all over it. He was the Grand Champion!

Cooper rode this train 3 times. He LOVES trains and asked where Thomas and James, and Percy were.

Papaw was the BEST ride partner ever! Thank you Papaw for going with them on so many rides.

Abby was the other person designated to ride with the little boys. They weren't quite tall enough to ride by themselves. I pointed out the letters to Cooper on this bear and after going through each letter he realized his name was on that bear! So of course they rode that one.

After riding some of the kiddie rides with Carson, Camden headed over to some bigger rides. Next year Carson will be tall enough to ride with him (hopefully).

I think next to the train, this was Cooper's favorite ride. He was belly laughing all the way through. I don't know who is enjoying this ride more?:)

And down the BIG slide they went. So much fun!!

We took our traditional ride on the giant ferris wheel with my parents. The boys asked the carney people to turn on the lights and they did!!

Carson!...the flash gets him every time.

The 3rd largest county fair in the state!!

The last ride of the night, and a favorite! This ride looked like lots of fun.

On the way up!

Way up there is my little boy! Made me a little nervous to see how high it went.

And finally dessert!!! Can't go to the fair without sampling some. The boys split a funnel cake and I had an apple dumpling...YUM!!!

Good to the last bite!

Spring Soccer-Camden

We finished up our first season of spring soccer. Camden played with the same team and coach he played with in the fall, and it was so fun to see how much they improved and actually played as a team...passing and spreading out on the field and cheering each other on. Camden really likes soccer and on his last game he came up to me and said, "I wish I had 200 more games to play."

Getting ready to kick it in.

G-O-A-L!!!

His determination to get the ball is quite impressive. He's never the strongest or biggest kid on the field but that has never bothered him one bit.

Going in to score. Towards the end of the season, we really practiced on using his right (weaker) foot. He was so proud of himself when he finally scored a goal with his right foot.

We are so proud of him and how hard he works.

Already looking forward to fall when he moves up to the bigger fields!!