Here's Andrew, pre-soccer BBQ. He didn't play in the scrimmage - he still can't sprint, but happily he kicked the ball around after dinner and his leg felt okay. Susy offered to iron the shorts.

Before that he had Rian and Kyle over for many games of Haunted Mansion, then several of Hillbilly/Bolo Golf.

Reunion!

We had a great time out on Oyster Bay with lots of family. Many photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/
The group picture came out great. Click it to see it bigger. Then click on "All Sizes" just above it to see it even larger.

Here's Grandpa Del's shot of his grandkids. Rylin wandered off just before he took it.

Andrew gives Conner a few badminton pointers:

Rylin joins her brother on the seawall.

Mali kayaks in - she left with Conner, but Drake switched with her at the island and they came in just after her.

Home again

Busy weekend. Very tired.
Andrew and Mali built a driftwood teepee fort and accidentally knocked over mine and Mali's. Moose had his first salt water experience. There's lots of photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/

Minter Bay II

Mali takes the easy way home.

Minter Bay

We're all up in Washington for the big family reunion in Bremerton. Mali and I came up first - me for work and she to hang out with Dave, Susan, Dalton, and Rylin, then Grandma and Grandpa, who took her for a picnic with John and Lori at Panther lake, and then home to Minter Bay Thursday night. I joined them Friday after work. The weather was beautiful. Mali and I built a fort down on the beach.
Susy and Andrew drove up Saturday morning.

Andrew Injured, continued.

We hoped Andrew's leg would loosen up and work at tryouts, but it did not. He ran with everyone the first half of practice, but by the end he was making it worse so he stopped. He will just watch the rest of tryouts, and hopefully recover soon.

Mali's Return!

Mali is home from horse camp! Everyone got an award - Mali got the Cheerfulness award.
Here's a couple of pictures by Susy. I missed it (again!).

Andrew Injured!

Hopefully it is not too bad, but Andrew pulled a calf muscle Thursday - the last day of soccer camp. Andrew's been working so hard to get ready for try-outs, which of course are Monday. He is icing/heating/stretching it, and he will hopefully be okay to run on Monday.

Quiet House

Our house is soooo quiet with Mali away at camp. I find it eerie. Andrew finds it peaceful. Susy just finds it quiet. Moose finds it boorrrrrrriiinnnnnggg. He's even started paying attention to Andrew. And he's bringing me things to throw for him to fetch. Nancy says Schnauzers aren't keen on fetching.

Andrew is doing great at the high school soccer camp. The coaches are running them a lot, but he, Eric, and Kyle have been preparing most of the summer for it, so are doing fine. The expectation is that the coach will run them ragged the first day of tryouts (Monday) to serve as a reminder that they need to start the season in very good shape. Andrew is probably in the best shape of his life right now, so he's not having much trouble.

I'm heading up to Redmond tomorrow for a day of work and then our company golf tournament at Legion Memorial G.C. I'm looking forward to seeing the Redmond Lubashes - I haven't been up there in over a month.
Saturday Mali's soccer team is working the jamboree - her team is in charge of bottled water.

Mali at Horse Camp

Nancy and I drove to Silverton this morning to drop Mali and Zoë off at CanyonView Horse Camp. They're excited.

Lonely - now happy - Moose

This morning Moose has been VERY needy - probably because we left him alone all day yesterday while we were at the swim meet. We did take him with us to Pablo's when we got home. But everyone else is asleep still this morning, and he's been whining and sticking his head in my lap while I've been trying to work - even after feeding him and walking him to the mailbox and playing with him a little bit here - so I just now walked him over to Alana's and retrieved Max so they could play for awhile.
Alana is at the Shakespeare festival in Ashland with Ryan, so Max is lonely too. The neighbor girl, Shannon, is watching him and the rest of Alana's menagerie. Walking both dogs back was trying for the first couple minutes, then Moose decided he would guard the rear and Max took the front which worked out much better than having them circle me.

Rocio and Matias return!

After 5 weeks in Peru. We tried to beat them home from the airport to be in on the surprise, but the swim meet ran slightly longer than expected. They looked great, but exhausted - they left Lima at 1:00 AM. Pablo grilled yummy stuff and gave us white Sangria, and then we ate Nancy's delicious chocolate cake. Rocio fell asleep on the couch, but Matias was going strong.

Championship Swim Meet

The big Championship Swim Meet was at Mt. Hood Community College today. We actually arrived early - 7:50 - the kids were amazed - they'd never been early before. It was over by 3:30, complete with throwing coaches into pool.
The kids did great - there was some disappointment with Andrew's age group - 13 and Up, since there were a handful of 17 year-olds there. His IM relay team, undefeated all year, took 4th to older teams with kids we'd never seen before. However, he managed to win the 50yd Butterfly, and got second in the 100yd Backstroke even with the older kids in the mix.
Mali swam great, diving wonderfully(!) and getting third in her heat of 50yd Backstroke and we think a second place medal in her freestyle relay and possibly a third in her IM relay. We will find out for certain on Monday.
It was a long day. Andrew's relay team played a game of Risk between heats, and you can just see the game here at the edge of the stands in this slightly out-of-focus shot. There are better photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad, though they are not all as fun as this one:

Soccer, Swim Meet, etc

Soccer CQTs were this weekend, starting at 2:00 Friday. Mali's team did well, once again just missing (1 point!) going on to the PQTs next weekend. There are photos of soccer here:

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Here's our return Saturday, just in time to catch Andrew's last relay - which they won, of course. Below is Andrew, wearing a balloon swimcap bomb.

Poker, Guitar Hero, Soccer, Dale Carnegie

After their brief trip to the school, they came home and played poker. Calee showed up with her pillow and played for awhile, then I drove them to Calee's house where they played Guitar Hero all afternoon.
Susy picked them up at 5:00 and then took Andrew to see Susy's friend Nechama's boy's Dale Carnegie class, and I took Mali to soccer. Mali's team helped their coach teach all the new Microsoccer coaches some fun drills. Our neighbor's were there bringing Abbie to start her soccer career, and also Susy's old Girl Scout Leader partner was there with her daughter Mia.

Mali's almost 5' 2"

Mali told Susy she was 5' 2" last night, but no one believed her. I just measured her and Andrew - Mali is 5' 1¾", Andrew 5' 5¼". They've each grown an inch since I last measured them 35 days ago!
They just left with Rian to walk up to the school and play football.