Soccer: 2007 & 2012

(This is similar to an entry I posted before, but somehow the pictures got corrupted and wouldn't display, so I'm reposting.)

We've been playing soccer for about five years. I ran across a few pictures from the early years. It's fun to compare them to now.

2007

Adam, 2012

 Adam, 2007

Zach and Scott, 2012

 Zach (in blue), 2007

Halftime talk. 2012

Halftime talk, 2007

Oak Park 2007 and now...

October 7, 2007...Oak Park.

Same place...October 14, 2012. Looks to me like they haven't had a haircut since 2007. Or combed their hair. (Oh, and I had the wrong setting on my camera...so my pictures didn't turn out all that great.)

What a sweet picture of mom with her little boys...five years ago.

Hmmm...not so sweet anymore.

Walking the trails...2007.

 Mom...can we just go? 2012.

Seriously....

 And we're done...

Our visit to Oak Park has become an annual tradition. See more:
Oak Park 2011
Oak Park 2010

In town getaway

Sometimes it's fun to stay in a hotel...even if you never leave your hometown. Scott had a free one night stay...so we packed our bags and headed east...only 30 minutes east, but still!

Swimming...although I heard the water was cold. (This was taken with the new panoramic setting that comes on the iPhone iO6 upgrade.)

Eating at a burger joint we had never been to.

Picking out a movie from the hotel collection. 

And for breakfast...biscuits and gravy, pancakes, cereal, fruit, scrambled eggs, hash browns and sausage.

Nine

Zach turned nine this year.

We celebrated as a family with McDonald's hamburgers, chicken nuggets, and apples. He wanted a red velvet cake with white icing and mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

Zach celebrated with his friends too. Pizza...

and cake (this one is half chocolate, half white).

 All Star Sports.

 The next morning, after the sleepover. Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and fruit smoothie.

Labor Day Soccer Tournament

Our schedule was seven soccer games in two days, with an eighth planned if Adam's U10 team made it to the finals. Zach's U9 team had four games, three of which were played in 18 hours.

The schedule:

Saturday  11:15a
Saturday  12:30p
Saturday  7:00p
Saturday  8:15p

Sunday  10:00a
Sunday  2:00p
Sunday  4:30p

Monday  9:00a  (finals)

The forecast for Saturday was rain, 100 percent chance until 3 pm. Hurricane Isaac had made it's way up to the Midwest, so we spent three hours in the rain on Saturday morning. My hands were wrinkled from being wet. The van smelled like a wet dog.

Scott had to make a quick trip to Target to get rain jackets and ponchos for all of us.

Here's a photo of the crowd.

Zach and a teammate, watching the U10 game.

Zach, after his game.

Saturday night's games were nice...the rain had stopped and the sun came out.

Waiting.

Zach's team got to play under the lights. That's Zach in the red near the ball.

Sunday was hot. The 10 am game was not bad, but the 4:30 pm game was a furnace.
The umbrella was not for the rain this time...watching Zach's 10 am game.

Headed to the last game. Tired.

There's Adam playing goalie.

After this last game, Adam and I stayed in, while Scott and Zach went out to eat with teammates. 

The fields were turf, which meant they drained really well, but the heat radiated off of them, and they left little bits of tires all over the place. Our hotel room looked like a suitcase exploded...wet socks, uniforms, cleats, shorts, jackets, etc., hung everywhere.

Zach's team took second place in the tournament. Adam's team played great, but were up against some tough teams. Two of their games they lost by a mere one point.

Related: Memorial Day Weekend 2012