DJ’s played his secod soccer game last Saturday, March 21. The kids are getting better, and at least 6 goals were scored but they don’t actually keep score. At this age we just want the kids to learn the basics and have a good time, they can get into the hard core competition part of it later.
After the game DJ ran up to me and said “the coach told us to be dirty”. I expect he was not asking them to kick, punch, or tackle the opposing players. I think he was encouraging DJ after he fell and got covered with dirt.
This video is a short mix of the game, played at double speed for my own entertainment.
I also put together a 10 minute video with clips from the entire game. It is long but parents and grandparents may enjoy it. Click a link below to view the movie. You can save this movie to your computer by right clicking on the link and choosing “save link as” or “save target as”.
Trip Log: Saturday March 7: Leave Boerne, Texas at 8:00am. Drive all day through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Arrived at the Creer’s in Montgomery, Alabama around 12:30am. They were nice enough to kick their daughter out of her room and give the bed to Heather and me.
Sunday March 8: Hanging out with the Creer’s. Lots of fun playing with the kids, building Lego, playing dodge ball, tossing footballs, shooting each other with dart guns. We were playing dodge ball with with about 20 tennis balls in the yard and their daughter decided it would be more efficient to just hit me with a bat. Luckily she only hit my sufficiently padded back side. We went downtown and saw some historical buildings and walked by the Alabama river. The kids had a great time playing in a massive water fountain, to bad no one planned ahead and wore their swimsuit.
DJ washes his own clothes. How Thoughtful...
Monday March 9: Left the Creer’s around 9am and drove to my brother Dale’s home in Kissimmee, Florida, arrived around 7pm. Dale, Jae, Tanner, Lane, and Wilson welcomed us to their home. Lane donated his bedroom to the cause, thanks again. Hung out and played Lego with my big brother.
Prototyping our interstellar cruisers.
Tuesday March 10: Went to Downtown Disney to check out some cool stores and such. THEY HAVE A LEGO STORE!!! WOWSERS!!! We spent lots of time at all the non Lego related stores, and not nearly enough time at The Lego Store. It was really cool. The girls bought some girly colored bricks and DJ bought set 6743 “Street Speeder”. I did not buy any Lego for myself and am still in shock over that. They do have some other cool shops and restaurants, one place called T-REX was decorated like caves and jungles and various prehistoric scenes. DJ got a Build-a-Dino stuffed animal, but maintained some boy cred by naming it “Thunder” and plus it is a dinosaur. We also went into many Disney merchandise mega stores and had some cool drinks at the Rainforest Cafe.
Don't freak out, but there is something big and green behind you.
2 Awesome things in one picture, and you lived to see it! (And no, those are not mouse ears on DJ
Wednesday March 11: Disney World Magic Kingdom Day! Arrived at the park around 9am, Tanner’s awesome friend Mike got us 3 free park hopper passes (thanks again Mike). Rode the monorail for the 1st time in my life and it was excellent. DJ requested that we ride Space Mountain first so we headed to Tomorrow Land first thing and rode it, as the coaster was stopping DJ was yelling “that was totally awesome!” he was dancing around generally freaking out. I wonder how many time a day the ride operators get to see that, must be a fun job. We rode or saw all kinds of fun things; Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Space Command Spin, Stitch’s Great Escape, Speedway, It’s A Small World, Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel, ate lunch, and then Peter Pan’s Flight. Around 1pm Heather suggested I use the park hoppers to take the older girls to Animal Kingdom while she took DJ and Anna to Toon Town. Ashley, Alyssa, and me rode the monorail and bus to Animal Kingdom, it is a gorgeous park. We walked through the park and got fast passes for the African Safari ride then went to the opposite side of the park to ride Expedition to Everest. (I lost my mobile phone on the Everest coaster but got it back from Lost and Found on Friday. Disney’s lost and found is amazing.) We rode the African Safari and saw loads to real live animals. Then we rejoined the rest of our family on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom around 3:30pm. The rest of the day we rode or saw the following: Swiss Family Treehouse, The Enchanted Tiki Room,Walt Disney World Railroad, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, The Country Bear Jamboree (that was creepy), Splash Mountain (very fun and me a DJ got soaked), Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor, dinner at the Starline Cafe, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and the Wishes Firework Spectacular.
I was sitting in the front row of the Splash Mountain “log” with DJ and we got blasted by a massive fountain of water splashed up by the log going down the big drop. DJ thought that was the best part of the whole day, I just thought it was rather wet. Then we got it again down a small drop, DJ got a face full of water and just laughed about how awesome that was. Then starting up the big hill he looks at me and says “this is gonna be bad”, not a bit scared but a little sarcastic like I may have said it. He would have ridden that one again and again but the line was long and it was getting dark.
How do you like our new place, the kitchen is a little small but the rest is fab.
Thursday March 12: Went to Melbourne Beach on the Atlantic Ocean side of Florida. Jae let Wilson skip school and they both came along with us. Played on the beach and in the surf all for about 4 hours. The waves were the biggest I have swam in in normal weather, the biggest where probably about 5-6 feet high. Texas beaches only get 2-3 feet swells in normal conditions. Now our kids can all say they have been from sea to shining sea, we go to California nearly every year and spend a lot of time on the beaches around Santa Barbara, CA.
When we got back to Dale and Jae’s they had cooked up some excellent pork roast tacos. Dale and I spent some quality brother time blowing each other up on an online game called Territory War.
The whitest kids you know.
Friday March 13: We decided that we should not do anything on Friday the 13th, too risky. No actually we let the little kids hang around the house while the big girls went to an outlet mall. I went to Disney’s lost and found to pick up my cell phone. Did I say that Disney’s lost and found is amazing? We got some pizza for dinner and watched Kung Fu Panda on Dale’s big gigantic projector. Then DJ and I watched the Hulk.
Saturday March 14: Left Dale and Jae’s around 9am and headed for home. Did not make it all the way. Stopped in Biloxi, Mississippi for the night. It rained all day, and the driving got pretty scary for a stretch across Alabama. We passed 5 wrecks in about 20 miles just outside Mobile.
Sunday March 15: Left the hotel around 9am and headed for home. This time we made it all the way. Ran into major traffic problem just east of Houston. We asked Gigi for a detour and she told us to exit I-10 and take a road headed south. We ended up taking a ferry across a small portion of the bay and driving past the San Jacinto Monument which turns out to be the tallest monument tower in the world, 570ft. The Washington Monument which I would have guessed as the tallest is a measly 555ft. We also passed the Battleship Texas. We arrived home around 10pm, the cat and rabbits were all alive and the neighbor’s lights were on so apparently we did not miss the rapture or anything while away on vacation.
Click here to download a higher quality version of this video. 55mb
DJ started soccer in February, his first foray into organized sports. I wanted to start him off with something a little more intense like rugby or roller derby, but there are not leagues for either in Boerne, Texas, so we settle for soccer.
5 year old kids playing soccer is kind of like that football game we had when we were kids with the vibrating metal board and the little guys that just went randomly everywhere and occasionally the ball would make it in the goal. It was fun to watch and the kids got a lot of practice kicking the ball out of bounds.
The coach is very patient with the kids, he stays on the field helping them notice where the ball is and telling them when it is their turn for a kick-in.
On one of the kick-ins the coach lined up his players and told them “as soon as they kick the ball, get it!” The kids obeyed and promptly ran to the ball and grabbed for it with their hands. One of them triumphantly hoisted it into the air after he succeeded with his interpretation of the coaches instructions.
For the past 5 days I have been riding at McAllister Park during my lunch breaks. In 30-40 minutes I can get in a 3-5 mile ride on nice single track and double track dirt trails. The trails offer some moderate climbs and descents and lots of winding narrow paths through Live Oak forests.
Today I found a program for my HTC Mogul Windows Mobile phone, GPS Cycle Computer, which uses the phone internal GPS to track my position, speed, elevation, and ride time. This picture is from Google Earth with the KML file of todays ride; 4.13 miles in 35 minutes.
Over the past week I have ridden about 37 miles in the park. My favorite trail is the “Red” trail with all the unmarked trails that branch off it. Most are through the shade of the Oak Trees, and there is a large ravine with some short but steep descents. This is a good area to help me regain my old technical riding skills without the danger of tumbling down 400 feet of mountain if I crash.
