Some Pre-Season Football Practice

This year, Nick thought he would give football a try and not play fall baseball. So far, he's having a ball and appears to enjoying football far more than he did baseball. That could change next week when they get their pads and start hitting. He might not enjoy the pounding, but since he is one of the bigger kids on the team, maybe he will enjoy it.

So far the coach has him playing defensive end and tight end on offense. They only have about 17 kids on the team, so quite a few, if not all, will play on both sides of the ball.

Not a lot of great action yet, but I have been anxious to try out my new (to me) Sigma 120-300 2.8 lens. So far, it seems like a keeper. Here's what the lens mated to a Canon 1dmkIIn can do:

Nick gets a bit of coaching on how to run backwards.


Nick runs the ladder drill under the watch of coach.


Nick get ready to practice his tackling technique.

In the unlikely event he gets to play running back, he practices the hand-off.


The coach as said that they will try to throw the ball to Nick a few times. Hopefully, they will.

And lastly, some more conditioning drills.

Sarah will play soccer again this fall and will move up to the U8 (Under 8) league where she will go from being the big girl in the U6 league to being one of the younger/smaller kids in U8. Her season is 1 month away, so when they get going, you'll see some images of her here.

July 27 2007

Too much time seems to elapse between postings, despite my best efforts.

We had a nice visit with Grandma Roey and Pops when they came by last week for 3 days. We had a great time, playing Blokus, Yahtzee, playing in the yard and having bonfires at night. One day we went to see a movie. The girls went to see some movie about a rat. The boys went to see the latest Harry Potter flick. We also grilled out one night and Pops and I went to Nick's football practice (more about Nick and football later). Pops pretty much dominated in Blokus, although Nick did win one game and I lost in Yahtzee too. Oh well, I still had a blast playing.

I think we all had a great time and I wish they had been able to stay longer, but their summer journey was already much longer than they had planned and I am sure they were anxious to get home.

Here are a few pix from their visit.


Here, Pops and Nick are sharing a laugh while reading Nick's new book, The Dangerous Book for Boys.


Sarah and Grandma Roey enjoy a peaceful, lazy summer day on the hammock.



Grandma Roey gets an Airsoft MP5 shooting lesson. No small animals were injured in the making of this blog. And for that matter, the paper target went largely unharmed as well.

But, Grandma Roey got to celebrate her Birthday one more time, this time with some goggles to protect her eyes from all of the candles.
Pops looks like a natural on Nick's chopper. We look forward to seeing them again.

OBX II

Ok, here's part II of our OBX vacation.

We went to the Wright Brother's National Monument in Kitty Hawk one morning. It's a pretty nice place, but spread out with lots of walking and in the hot son, the kids quickly got tired and hungry. We did get to see most of the monument and museum before heading off for some lunch, beach and pool time.

Here's some more about the brothers from Ohio.

I can only imagine the friendly brotherly rivaly as the two battled one another for the longest ride, each bettering the other on their 4 flights.

Here, you can see Wilbur finally bested Orville and claimed the longest flight of the 4 for the day.

From those humble beginnings...

I caught these guys on bikini patrol. Yeah, I am sure they are hard at work scouring the beach for any signs of trouble.


One day, we took a 2 1/2 hour 4-wheel jeep ride on the beach in search of the wild horses. We did find some, but did not spot any wild boar.

Jennifer looked like she was on an African safari.



But, our "hard work" paid off and we did find some horses. The jeep ride was pretty hard as the weather was extremely hot and driving in the sand was a very rough ride and we had the constant fear of getting stuck. We saw quite a few others who were stuck and were working up a sweat trying to get out of the deep sand.

Thanks to Uncle Mike (and Uncle Brian for setting up the parasailing trip), Nick got to take a ride to the clouds. He and Uncle Tony took the 1200' ride, meaning they were almost 800 feet up in the air. He said it was the most fun he has ever had. He did not get nervous and really seemed to enjoy himself.

Here, Nick and Tony get ready for the ride. You can see they are really already getting some air.


Here they are nearly 800 feet in the air. I really needed my wide angle lens to show you just how far they are up. The telephoto lens does not do it justice.

And everyone knows, the boat captain won't let the parasailers return to the boat dry. Everyone gets a thorough dunking. The water was warm and I did not hear any complaints.

But they all come back happy. Maybe they are just happy to have survived the thrill ride.

OBX 2007 - Part I

It's been too long since my last post. We've been busy. We had a great vacation to the outer banks of North Carolina. We stayed at a nice house near Corolla, NC. There were about 40 of us and we actually had 2 houses rented that were 1 house apart from each other and just a block from the beach. The houses were great, each with their own pool.

We did get some bad news just prior to leaving for the OBX when my mom's mom died a few days before our trip. She had a great life, spectacular really. She went quickly, did not suffer and all 6 of her children were with her when she passed. In addition to her 6 children, she has about 40 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Most all of us were there together on vacation, including my mom's dad. I am glad he was able to accompany us. He got to meet some of the great-grandkids for the first time and saw many others for the first time in a long time. I think the trip was good therapy for all.

Now for some fun pictures to change the mood. Here we are. You can count us if you want.

Sarah and her cousin, Malcolm, check out the beach and anticipate the fun they will have.


The first couple of days we had warm water and big waves. We all played in the ocean quite a bit and Sarah learned how to use her boogie board. By the second day, we couldn't drag her out of the water.


Nick and his cousin enjoy the big and warm water.


We took turns cooking dinner for the entire crew and one night, my cousins, the firefighters, who are used to cooking for large groups, made an awesome chicken, beef and salmon kabob dinner.



Grandma Roey shows just how big some of the waves were as she gets hammered by a big one.


Of course, Sarah, Nick and their cousins had a ball playing in the sand.


Nick and friends building a castle and vainly trying to fight the rising tide.



Part II coming tomorrow night will include a trip to the Wright Brother National Monument, the search for the wild horses while 4-wheeling on the sandy beaches and other fun stuff.