Birthday Party for Chad & Marcus

We loved getting together in mid-November with family and some friends to celebrate Marcus and Chad's November birthdays! It was a especially nice to spend time with Mellani & Ces & kids, Jake & Kendall & kids, and Duane & Mary & Tucker.

 

Cousins are the best! 

Tucker! 

Genevieve loved playing with Payton!

Sports Fun

This past week brought some fun sports stuff our way:

Willem got to go to a birthday party at Matt Knight Arena where Will and his friends got to shag balls, watch practice and then play some ball with the UO basketball team. Willem brought his iTouch with him for pictures and the only pictures he can get on the iTouch are 'selfies' (the camera and viewing is on the screen side only). I would have loved to see him ask coach Dana Altman and star playing Damyean Dotson for 'selfies' with him :) Willem said the party was so awesome....

This past week, Cade played in his first adult league indoor game with James and Marcus' Dairgold team and he played with me for the first time in our co-ed adult indoor Darigold team. It was so fun watching him and playing with him! It's something we have talked about him eventually doing the past 10+ years as he's watched me and our family play hundreds of indoor games over his 14 years! The co-ed game was especially fun because the team consisted of eight family members (James, Jenn, Marcus, Me, Selene, Mariah, Roman and Cade)! Oh, and we won and both Cade and I scored! This was Selene's first time playing co-ed indoor with us too and before they went out there so play she said, to Cade, with a smirk "Finally, our childhood dreams are coming true!" Love it!...

 

Gabrielle started her St. Paul basketball season with a win last week! It was a lot of fun watching her play and to see how much she has improved since last year in her confidence, skills and athleticism. I also love seeing her have so much fun with her team as evidenced by the pictures I stole from Instagram below of the girls on their drive to their second game. Elle started both games and played about 75% or more of the games. She scored one basket in each game (the games are low scoring affairs 29-23 and 19-26) plus she got a bunch of steals and rebounds...

Here are a couple fun pictures of my friends and my hill runs the past week. In the bottom one, we up Mt. Pisgah rain in a rain and wind storm (the rain started when we were halfway up the hill)! In the top one, we ran up Spencers Butte...

Finally, Chad and I finally got to a Duck football game last weekend. Chad's mom invited Chad and I got to go with my BFF, Chris! We all met up at halftime. It was great company, a great atmosphere and another great Duck win...

 

Love You, Mom

Happy Birthday Chad!

How is it I am married to a 45 year old!? To me he's still the 16 year old I met 29 years ago (ok, maybe more like the 30 year old it seems I was with just yesterday)! Whatever his (or my age) I do know I am so blessed to have somehow had the wisdom to marry such a great man, husband and dad!

We had a fun day bowling with the kids for the first time in a very long time. It was fun to see their personalities come out in their bowling and reactions to it! I think Cade thought he'd be really good at bowling (even though we never go) and when he wasn't, he rented another lane and played 5 games on his own in between his turns with our one lane...he improved a lot and figured it out scoring 100 in his last game. Gabrielle slowly got better as we bowled, she didn't get really frustrated but she did want to beat Willem! Willem really wanted to beat Elle and did roll on the ground with irritation a time or two (mostly in fun) when he didn't do well! Nev wanted to bowl all by herself and was annoyed when we all tried to help; she did do just fine on her own (with bumpers and using a roller some of the time). It was fun watching her jump up and down with excitement every time she knocked down some pins!

After bowling, Chad and I snuck away for the night at The Inn at The 5th. In the morning, after sleeping in, we worked out together with friends and enjoyed lunch together before heading home. I love birthdays!!

Looking at these pictures, I really should have taken my 'real' camera with me! Oh well, still fun to document the day even if it's on my iPhone (once again!).

I've still got it ;) Chad's score is hidden...he got a close 2nd at 141! This was the first game, Elle, Will and Nev used a bumper.

All sweaty and happy after Chad's birthday WOD!

Congrats to Sol Blue! And More Soccer News!

Gabrielle's soccer team, ETFC Sol Blue, accomplished its goal of being top two in the 2013 OPL Fall Premier League with a record of 8-2-4 qualifying them to be promoted to the top league in the state next fall (the National Premier League). In order to qualify, her team had to win their final game on Sunday vs CFC and they did, 1-0! Elle played the whole game at center back playing great. Her team finished 6th in this league last fall so this was a big improvement. It's been a lot of fun watching this group of girls improve over the past 16 months since Elle joined the team.

Happy girls after the win (missing Brooke and Elena)

Elle and I celebrated with Dickie Jo's and frozen yogurt after her final game!

Cade played with ETFC U14 Celtic Blue this fall (the 8th grade ETFC team) while his regular teammates from ETFC Boca Blue played on their high school teams. Cade was dreading playing with a new and younger team but it ended up being a good experience overall. We are proud of how he took a leadership role, played several different positions, and made friends with his new teammates. His team finished a bit disappointing 5th (5-8-1) in the OPL Premier League (one level below the top NPL) but they played a lot of good soccer and all learned a lot through the season and in their close losses.

Cade played goalie the last two games of the season (both wins 3-1 and 2-0!) while the team's regular goalie was out of town. Cade did great! He played most of the season at center back, quite a change from his usual forward position. 

 

 It took a while getting used to Cade being the biggest kid on the field most games!

Willem's team finished their OPL fall season in the U12 1st division with a 2-7-3 record and a goal differential of just -10 in their 12 games. Lots of close games! It'll be nice when his team grows a bit as they are a skilled group of boys but just quite a bit smaller than most of their opponents. Willem played half of most games in the goal and the other half at forward and some midfield. His ETFC Valencia Blue team is playing in the quarterfinals of the Directors Cup next weekend after two good wins this past weekend (hopefully I'll get some good pictures of that game :).