First Game

The Eagles won 32-27 with Sam catching 3 passes and scoring a touchdown. He also caused a fumble which the Eagles recovered. He also kicked off and had some deep kicks after a shaky first kick. Dylan punted well and had a few tackles before going out with an ankle injury. He will be fine.

53

I'd pay a lot of money to know what I was thinking when Uncle Tom took this picture some 40 years ago.

Strategy

The little Giants played their first game of the season and the boys did a great job helping them have fun and win the game. They both seem to really like this coaching thing. I hope they have a great season.

Children in Bloom

The boys and their friend Jacob at the show.

Rock Show

Great set by the crows but I missed Match Box 20 because we were all chatting back stage. Always good to see AD.

September Gurls

The title of this post is a great Big Star song.  Listen to it if you'd like. https://youtu.be/BNKSs1J38EA

Jenna's birthday is in the next couple days and dylan baked this nice cake and hooked her up with an Echo dot and wifi light bulb. His idea since she liked his Echo/light bulb set up. 

Sent from my iPad

Scrimmage 2

They played a little better this time around but still lost. Lots of mistakes that will have to be corrected before the next game.

Freshman

Coach Carpenter

The boys are officially coaching their very own flag football team this Fall. Last spring they guest coached a team, but this little Giants team is all theirs. They held there first practice this morning and from all accounts they think they have a pretty good team. I'm happy they wanted do this and I think it will be really good for them.

It Begins

An early sign of fall appeared on the driveway. The temps this week are more in line with mid-September which feels great but I'm sure we have some steamy days between now and our first fire.

Post Practice

Dylan has a smile on his face after another practice. That's a good sign. The boys are getting extremely lucky with the weather lately. It's 10 degrees cooler than normal with low dew points and it looks to stay that way for the next week. They could be dealing with jungle heat and humidity this time of year.

Flyer

Guest dog went back home last night. We hope he visits again.

Football First

The boys both started on offense and defense in their first tackle football game ( scrimmage). They played well but the team was not firing on all cylinders. More practice and another scrimmage next week. They will get there.

Surprise

I don't remember these coming up in this spot before. Could be the extremely wet August we are having. A fan motor burned out on our 7 year old HVAC system on Friday. The service company got here fast, but.... the part won't be here till Monday. It's been a warm couple nights with hopefully just one to go.

Eagles

The boys are impressing the coaching staff. Big, strong, fast and smart. Who wouldn't want them on your team?

Football

The boys have graduated to helmets on Tuesday and shoulder pads on Thursday. Full contact this weekend and a scrimmage next week will get them fully indoctrinated in tackle football. They both seem to love it and aren't that concerned about the coming bumps and bruises that come with high speed collisions.

Biceps

Flyer doesn't like letting go of his toys which creates a great opportunity to work on your arm strength.

Guest Dog Returns

We get flyer again for 6 nights. He's still as spunky as ever.

Helmets

Second practice with helmets, on to full pads by Thursday.

Fun Visit

We kept pretty busy during Mae and Mom's visit despite a drenching rain on Monday. Mt Vernon, laser tag, Dunkirk, Freedom House and Top Golf were all good even if we weren't able to get the African American Museum.

Better

Dylan continues to recover from eye surgery and while his eyes are pretty red, he's in good spirits. Heading out to see the doctor for the follow up in a few minutes.

Happy Drugs

Dylan seems to be enjoying the Valium before his eye surgery. Nicole is rocking a sexy white jump suit. I got nothin..
He should be done by now, we are waiting for the doctor to come out and update us.

Extra Work

The boys did some extra work under the direction of Cory tonight. Freshman football is still only a couple times a week right now so Cory got a half dozen kids together for an extra workout. They need it after doing a bunch of nothing all day.

Guide

Fellas

Moth

Top of old Mesa

A few more from last week.

Pool

The boys and I spent a lot of time in a Linda and Gil's pool during the visit. It was fun to have water in the back yard.

Mariachi

The four of us drove down to Albuquerque yesterday so that we were closer to the airport for our 6am flight this morning. We had a nice Tex mex dinner in old town and stumbled upon an all woman mariachi band while looking for ice cream. It was a nice way to end a really fun visit to New Mexico.

Santa Fe

The boys and I had a nice long workout this morning while mom had a meeting in Albuquerque. After some home time we all went into town for ice cream.

Mesa

Our first hike of the day brought us to the top of a mesa that had a view of Los Alamos. Some steep climbs but we made it.

Voyagers

The boys loved this. They would have gone as high as class 4 rapids but 2's and 3's were a good start.

Surfing the Rapids

Sam and I joined another boat to surf some heavy rapids. It entails paddling up behind some rocks then getting caught up in the funnel. Nicole and Dylan did this too but Linda and Gil sat out this activity.

White Water

Spent the morning boating down the Rio Grande in some 2 and 3 grade rapids the went into Taos for lunch and a visit to a Pueblo. Fun time in the 55 degree river water on a warm, sunny day.

Meow Wolf

Under the sea

Blue

One of the many odd areas of Meow Wolf.

Santa Fe

Grand parents and grand kids together in the high desert.

Swingers

They play music at the top of this pole, then the last guy on top plays by himself while the other four swing to earth.

Tres Amigos

Got an early workout in, then some southwest culture at the Viva Mexico Fiesta at El Rancho de las Golondrinas. Fun little outdoor museum with some authentic Mexican acrobat musicians. Crazy stuff.

For Forever

The vistas are grand in Linda and Gil's back yard in Santa Fe. Our first visit to the new adobe abode and I'm already feeling relaxed. We had to change planes in Atlanta but everything was on time and we made it up here by 4:30. A quick dip in the pool and now sitting back with some wine.

Lazy Weekends

The last couple weekends have been multiple workouts and trips to the pool. The boys had an extremely active week with three JV basketball games and a practice, two football practices and basketball camp from 9-3 each day. We topped it off with a two hour session with their basketball trainer this morning. They have earned video game time and iPad watching for a couple days. I'm happy they worked so hard and are staying active. I'm doing the same.

Sent from my iPad

JV

The boys played their first high school junior varsity games last night and did very well. They are defiantly able to hang with the older kids and play well at the next level. They were also extremely gassed by the end of the night, having spent the day in basketball camp and then playing two high intensity games. Dylan scored first and had four points and a few rebounds while Sam scored 6 and had 10 rebounds. The second game was tougher and Sam had two points.

Tubing

It was fun dragging the boys around and they look like they are having fun.

Boating

I owned a boat for a few years and worked in a Marina in high school. I always liked boating and the one we had last week in northern Minnesota was fast.

Mississippi

Hiked around St. Anthony Falls and over the stone arch bridge today. It's right downtown Minneapolis and the site of the original town of St. Anthony. All the flour mills started there because of the water power available from the falls.

Dabbing Tuber

Nicole getting getting cocky before her tube ride.

Storm clouds

Yesterday was beautiful but the rains are here this morning. Hopefully not an all day thing.

Bass Boy

We don't don't have a lot of luck with the fish yesterday but dylan caught the biggest one.

Reflecting

Maddens

Beautiful night in north Hernandez Minnesota.

Up North

A high of 64 today, but that didn't stop Sam, Mae and I from getting in the lake. Refreshing to say the least.