Soccer Treats

 Oh, yes, I did.  :)

Because normal is apparently just not in my vocabulary.

Even if the team is full of fuddy dud parents who don't want to do anything fun for an end of season party.

I have been taking pictures all season and sharing them on our team's website.  I did mention that I created a website for our team, right?  Yes.  For 5 year old soccer.  I refer you to the normal statement above. ;)  And I have to admit at the end of the season I still think it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. 

But...  to save time uploading I have been resizing the images - so I knew at the end of the season that I wanted to give the other parents a CD of the full resolution pictures I have taken. Only wouldn't it be nice to have all the pictures organized by player similar to the tags and slideshow on the website. And speaking of slideshow... you know... Picasa lets you make Gift CDs with a slideshow... and it was all downhill from there.  :)

The DVD (because CD's weren't big enough... :)) autoruns and comes up to a slidshow viewer.  When you select a child the slideshow starts and shows you all the pictures that were tagged for that person.  Can you say AWESOME??  :)

And speaking of all those pictures... wouldn't it be nice to frame one or two for the parents??? And when I stumbled on the frames I knew it was just perfect - room for a "glory shot" and an action shot.  Luckily I found great pictures of every player.  And was once again off to the races.

And while that was all well and good they were both more for the parents than the kids.  So I started thinking treat ideas again.  And decided the candy popcorn would be quick and easy.  And delicious.  :) 

I also picked up the last thing for the party today - the kids' trophies.  They are going to be so thrilled.  :)

Exploring Inks Lake

After our canoeing adventure we ventured over to Devils Waterhole to check out the trail and creek bed.

The trail was thankfully really well marked as there were several areas through the rocks where without the markers we probably would have wandered off in the complete wrong direction.

Not that we didn't take any detours anyway, though.  :)

I remembered from our first trip here a year or two ago that there was a neat area in the dry creek bed just off the trail.  So when we saw the rock outcropping we picked our way down the rocks and into the creek bed.

The rocks were beautiful.  And we could see quite a few fish in the shallow but crystal clear ponds.

While we were checking out what must be a beautiful waterfall when the creek is running Kevin clambored up to the top and was telling us what was on the other side.  Of course I wanted to see, too, but knew from watching him that getting up the last part was deceptively difficult.  So he came back and kept an eye on the kids while Sharon and I made our way up to the top, too.  I found a slightly easier way up and was patting myself on the back for the ease of which I scaled the last 10 ft section.  Hard?  Hummph!  Hardly!  :)  We looked around and as the kids were getting wrestless and wanted to either climb up to where we were or throw rocks neither of which was a good idea we started to head back.  :)  At which time I was reminded that sometimes things are far easier to get into than they are to get out of... Turns out getting up wasn't the problem.  Getting down was more challenging.  The footholds were there, but you coudln't see them, or quite reach them without just turning around and dropping in blind faith that they were there, and that your feet would find them, and find purchase.  And you know, not twist an ankle, or break your neck.  :)  Quite uncharacteristically I just sat down, turned around, and just dropped without giving it too much thought.  And luckily the footholds were just where I expected the last several feet were easy to reverse back down.  Good thing, too as Kevin told me before going up that if I broke my leg he was NOT carrying me back out. :)

We eventually made our way back to the trail and continued on around seeing all kinds of neat rock formations we hadn't seen before.

Some that little monkeys, and big monkeys alike decided were just asking to be scaled.

We truly couldn't have picked a better weekend - the weather was just gorgeous.  Or a better place.  The trails were lovely and the rock climbing reminiscent of younger days at camp.  :)  We all thoroughly enjoyed our little trek.  We will definitely have to do it again next time we make it out to Inks Lake.



A ride to remember

First thing on my agenda for the morning since sleep was out of the question.... :)  was a canoe ride on the lake.

So we rented a canoe, suited everyone up in life jackets and headed towards Devils' waterhole.

Right along side the famous jumping rocks.

We got an up close view of the rocks I had admired from across the way.

And found a tiny little cove around the corner with some beautiful and colorful rock outcroppings.

While I alternated snapping and paddling Sharon figured out the right way to do it turning the paddle over to Caden and letting him paddle while she snapped pictures.  :)

At one point she decided she just couldn't wait for our promised hike in this general area and decided she would hop out and take some more pictures before we headed back.

Despite warnings from both Kevin and I over how slippery the rocks were and what a bad idea trying to get out was she stood up, and stepped out towards the rocks.

Needless to say, she should have headed our warnings.  :) 

As she stepped out her movement pushed the boat out away from the rocks, and no sooner had her first foot landed before she discovered just how slippery the rocks were as she zipped off the rocks, plopping into the water and under the boat to come out on the other side, shocked and sputtering.

After a moment of slight panic as she frantically latched on to the side of the boat - shocked at the cold, deep water, and the fact that she found herself unexpectedly in the water as she doesn't know how to swim and was only afloat thanks to the life jacket - she left out a laugh.  Reassured that she was okay we joined in and had a good laugh as well.

We moved our boat safely out of the way and enjoyed the show as she attempted to make it up onto the rocks several times before finally giving up and listening to our recommendations to find shallower water on the other side.  However, not being able to swim she refused to let go of the boat and insisted her husband paddle her across to other side.  :)

They eventually did make it across the way and she was able to walk out of the water.

To the cheers of some passersby enjoying an early morning hike in the area.

Thankfully the water while a little chilly when you first got in turned out to not be bad at all after a few seconds and other than a soggy cell phone, and little scrape on one elbow everyone and everything escaped unscathed.

In search of sunrise

Thanks to daylight savings time and Ryan's absolute refusal to EVER let me sleep late I found myself wide awake at 5:30am.

Well in advance of the sunrise.  :)

And like his father - Ryan only has one mode - loud. 

So to avoid waking the entire campground up before the crack of dawn I went ahead and got up and took Ryan to do a little exploring by flashlight well away from civilization. 

Needless to say the flashlight was by far his favorite part.  :)

We ended up over by the boat launch and docks again watching the fog roll across the water.

And a few ducks out for an early morning swim.

Thanks to the flashlight and a couple of toys we managed to keep Ryan entertained for almost an hour and a half.

Though with 5-10 minutes before the tip of the sun actually peeked out over the hills in the distance Ryan decided he just couldn't take one more minute of being separated from the cars and trucks (or more likely envisioning someone ELSE playing with them) so he insisted we go back to our campsite

We took the longest, slowest detour I could manage and enjoyed the rocky shore, and play of colors across the sky and reflections off the water on our way back.

Thankfully, by the time we finally made it back there were signs of life just about everywhere so Ryan was able to grab one of the cars and run wild around the site again.  :)

Inks Lake - Day 1

A few weeks ago one of our friends bought a new tent and was eager to go camping and take it out for a spin.  He lucked into a highly coveted reservation at Inks Lake State Park and invited us along.  So Saturday after our soccer game we made the drive up to Inks Lake State Park (near Austin.)

And as luck would have it - we ended up in a great spot under a giant old oak tree, just across the street from the water, and a hop and a skip away from the restroom, the park store, the playground, and the on-site restaurant with plenty of room for the kids to run and play.

In no time I had our little tent up and ready to go despite the fact that I hadn't put it together in years.  And other than the fact that the tent bag was missing a stake and I didn't remember to grab a hammer it was pretty uneventful.  :)

Before long our friends arrived and while they worked on getting their tent setup the kids pulled out cars and construction trucks and ran them all over our site.

I finally convinced Ryan to take a break long enough to make a trip to the restroom and a detour back by the boat shed & launch just before sunset.

The views were absolutely spectacular as the sun went down.  Kevin and I both snapped a few (dozen) pictures of the sunset.  :)


Other than a little accident after I left to run to the store for some smores that left Connor looking absolutely pitiful with a giant fat lip and skinned chin from where he ventured out the of the lighted area and ran face first into one the big boulders lining the road it was a picture perfect day.