Daniel played with the Diamondbacks for spring soccer, and he will continue with them in the fall. They play tougher competition than he has faced before, but he is very comfortable at this level. Click the picture above to see some more. He is so much fun to watch and we took a bit of video. We only included a few clips here – in the last game pay attention to David’s commentary. The final comment is made by their cousin, Mason.
Indoor Soccer 2012
Daniel’s soccer team from last year, the Wolverines, played winter indoor soccer. They also invited David to play on the team. It was so much fun to see the boys playing on the same team. David was fully up to the challenge of playing with the older kids. The team was very competitive and, in fact, won most of their games. Indoor is a very different game and it really wears the kids out. Here’s a little bit of video that captures Daniel and David playing together. Watch for Daniel passing to David, who passes back to Daniel for the goal! It’s kind of difficult to tell whether you’re seeing Daniel or David so here’s a clue: Daniel is number 22 and is left-footed; David is number 23 and is right-footed. Enjoy!
Daniel Basketball 2012
Daniel had a good season of growth in basketball. He played on a new team – with a bunch of kids he’s played soccer with. His speed and quickness were evident throughout the season and his skills continued to improve. We put together a small sample of his highlights. As with David, he’s rather easy to spot (hint: look for number 22).
David – Basketball 2012
David with his coaches
What a fun time in basketball this season! David played with the same team as last year – the Celtics. He has grown so much that, most of the time, he looks a bit out of place with the rest of the third-graders on the court. He learned a lot and had a tremendous amount of fun. Here’s just a short sample of the highlights on video. You won’t have much trouble picking him out – he’s the one making all the baskets in these clips (except for the one clip in which he’s tackled by a much shorter player)!
Great Visit
On Saturday, our great friends the Beards came to visit. We are truly blessed every time we get together and this was no exception. We enjoyed talking about raising boys, how God is using them in their ministry, and and just life in general. We were not able to get together over Christmas so this visit was long overdue. Our boys enjoyed playing together, including some time spent on the Wii. Here are a few pictures of the kids.
Math Night
The boys enjoyed Math Night at Karshner Elementary School. Teachers, staff and volunteers prepare games and learning aids. The kids spend time with them learning how to make and use the aids. The kids got to use the computer lab, eat pizza, and bring home some math manipulatives. Thank you, Karshner staff!
The Great Storm(s) of 2012
So it turns out the snow did stick around… In fact, we experienced a sequence of storms that caused a lot of damage throughout Western Washington. We started with a couple days of snow and it looked like it was going to be fun. The boys played outside, school started a bit late, and all was good. After a few inches of snow, everything turned to freezing rain, which built up on the plants, cars, roads, house, and pretty much anything else. And the wind blew. About 300,000 homes and businesses lost power, including us. Our electricity was off from Thursday morning at 6:30 to Saturday noon. Life changes without electricity and with limited mobility. And mobility was not all that useful since none of the restaurants or anything else had power. We largely stayed home, read, and played board games and with non-electric toys like Lego’s. It was a very good time for the boys to exercise these skills. When it was all over (hopefully, it’s all over), Randy spent some time removing tree branches that had broken (mostly) off. Then we ventured out and took some pictures of the damage. Some places (as in one street over) looked as if a hurricane had struck. Our old home had a tree completely uprooted.
We’re grateful to have our power back, but the close family time was also nice. The boys were fantastic through it all. Daniel had some glasses with a built-in flashlight (in case you’re wondering what he’s wearing in some of the pictures). He used the glasses to build his Lego chopper in the dark.
Note: we combined the new pictures in the same slideshow with the previous snow pictures, so both this post and the one right below use the same slideshow.
Snow!
We got some snow last night and today. David made a snow-sheriff and the boys had a pretty good snowball fight. It looks like the snow will stick around for a couple more days so we don’t know if school will be canceled yet. We took a few pictures and a little video today. Enjoy.
Pacific Science Center
Sarah & Kyle gave us a membership to the Pacific Science Center for Christmas. When the girls were younger we loved going there, so it was gratifying that she (they) got this gift for us. We took the boys for our first visit and, knowing we will go back with some regularity, we took our time with a few exhibits rather than trying to take in the whole thing. We watched an IMAX movie (The Adventures of Tintin – 3D); you’ve gotta love the glasses! We all enjoyed the day tremendously.
Disco Ball
The other day David started joking that he throws “disco parties” when he is left at home alone. Mind you, he is never home alone more than five minutes and this happens once a month when Sary-Jo has to take Daniel to school early. Nevertheless, he apparently “pushes a button” and a disco ball appears for the big party he throws. He had us in stitches as he told this story. So today Sarah went shopping and brought home a disco ball for him. Here is a little video of Sarita dancing with the boys.