Team Arsenal

Alex had a great soccer season with Arsenal.

They moved up to the U9 division, with ten players now on their team.

They play 5x5, plus a goalie, and there are THREE refs for each game.

The field, and the goal, are a LOT bigger.A lot of my pictures look like this one, hard to tell who is who (although I can tell you that's Alex on the right, with his foot on the ball).

We also learned about getting down on one knee as a sign of respect when a player is injured.

This was our first year having goalies, and its hard for everyone.

For the players who find it harder to score.

For the players who have to protect against direct penalty kicks right at the goal line (looking at this photo, it might be time to start playing with cups in the spring. Boys will be boys).

For the parents who have a hard time remembering its just a team of third graders.

But especially for the player whose turn it is to be goalie.

There's a lot of downtime when you are goalie, waiting for the action to return to you.

But when it does - the pressure is ON.

All of our Arsenal players found this a difficult position.

Still, we only lost to one team all season - although we lost to them three times. :( Arsenal hasn't lost a game in five years, so this was a bit tough for some of the boys.

But it was a good lesson to learn, and Alex played his heart out in game after game.

He took no prisoners.

He took some hits.

But he kept on playing.

We love soccer!

Team Chelsea

The fall soccer season is now officially over.

Ryan once again had a great year playing on Chelsea.

Ryan is now in U7, the first year where they split the teams into all boys and all girls.

His friends Andres and Derek returned to the team, and we added several new friends from Spicewood.

 This was the first year they have official refs, and the coaches have to stay on the sidelines.

The kids and coaches all sit on one side of the field, and the parents are all on the other side.

They also play 4x4, moving up from 3x3, so we now have eight boys on the team.

And a bigger field.

Ryan really improved his dribbling, and maintained his fast speed. His one weakness is that he waits until he is right in front of the goal to shoot.

As we've learned from Alex's team now playing with goalies, this is a bad habit he needs to work on breaking over the next two years, or else he will never score once they have a goalie.

Not to mention that when you are as tall as Ryan is, and you wait to score until the last minute, and you are running full speed at the goal, well...

Its not a pretty sight.

This was a bad hit, and caused me to lose at least six months off my life.

But Ryan did learn the advantages of shooting from further back after this hit, at least.

Ryan loves playing soccer.

 And I love watching him love playing soccer.

Just look at how happy he is, to be doing what he loves to do best.

Howl-O-Scream at Sea World

Back in October, we found a day to make a trip to Sea World.

We haven't been for Halloween in several years, so we figured this was a good time to go ahead and buy our 2013 passes, since we'll get the rest of 2012 for free.

Its always fun to see how they decorate the park for the different seasons.

And to watch the special shows that change with the seasons.

Even the penguins got into the spirit of Halloween!

Ryan LOVES the Atlantis ride, but Alex doesn't like how it makes his stomach feel. So while Ryan and I got drenched on a couple of repeat rides...

Alex discovered his own way of enjoying Atlantis...

Watching.

And waiting for just the right...

moment.

And what's good enough for Alex, is definitely good enough for Ryan.

 We love us some Sea World!