Fall Means . . .

Soccer! EZ wanted to do soccer at the Y again and even though last year was a little painful to watch, we really want him to keep trying and keep learning so we signed him up. He is still one of the slower kids on the team and can be a bit of a space cadet, but there was definitely a big improvement from last year. He had two great coaches and it was kind of funny, because the head coach was French and fit the European stereotype of knowing a lot about soccer and his son was amazingly good. Towards the end of the season EZ really surprised me when he asked to play goalie. He had never shown any interest in it before. I have to say I was on pins and needles every time he got to play it. I was so worried the other team would score a bazillion points while he was in there. Amazingly enough no one ever scored while he was in goal! I think he liked it because he could play and dance around a bit while the ball was on the other side of the field and there was enough of a commotion when it came back to his end to get his attention. He also really liked the fact that the team was all boys this year. He is definitely getting into the girls are gross and boys are awesome phase. 

Fall also means I get to take a trip by myself! Well this year it meant a trip with only Conrad, but that is close enough. I was definitely in need of some time away. I love my kids, but 4 is a lot of work and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Well I still am, but the vacation definitely helped. I decided to visit my family in Pittsburgh and I used some of my down time to make this Steelers football hat and learned the Conrad hates hats. 

Since I failed miserably at getting pictures of my parents with Conrad when they came in August, I made sure  I took some this time. 

One of the bonuses of going now was that my sister Sarah was still staying with my parents and my sister Katie was able to fly up from El Paso as well, so we got to have a little new cousins reunion. Unfortunately, it didn't work for Meghan to come out with Timmy. I swear one day we will get all 4 boys together. 

We didn't do anything amazingly exciting while I was there, but that is exactly what I wanted. I really enjoyed the trip, but I did learn that 4 days is not quite enough time away to make me start missing my kids. HaHa. Maybe someday I can take a longer trip, but for now I am grateful for what I can get.