Scary and awesome

I've played flag football for several years now

and my team finally got pretty good!

But they all decided to move to tackle on the middle school team.

Guess I'm in!

This is a little hard for Mom--

football is her FAVORITE sport to cheer for and watch

but it's a bit terrifying watching ME do it.

I knew I wanted to play defense--

I wanted to do the tackling,

not be tackled.

I'm the starter safety

for the C team

(most of the 7th graders are on C)

Can you see me?

Number 22--

always with my hands on my hips

Tackling is hard to get used to.

I'm good at pulling flags

but this is a different ballgame!

We lost our first 2 games (handedly)

but at least I got to see my long-lost 2nd cousin Cal!

Can you believe he's a 7th grader too?

Sheesh.

ETMS Bison:

The Boys of Fall

 

How 'bout those forts?

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon,

perfect for venturing out to Powell Gardens

for some sunshine and fresh air.

They have a new fort exhibit going on.

We saw the first one years ago

and thought we should check it out again.

They made for some cool pictures:

(it's a bunch of mirrors)

It only took about 10 shots to get some of us

jumping at the same time

A new pirate ship!

(it was our favorite last time)

Can you see the alligator snapping turtle?

They were everywhere!

Everyone still likes to climb

especially Weston

It didn't take us long to explore all the forts.

We decided (ok, Mom and Dad decided)

we should walk through the rest of the park.

Jack and I (Beck) got really into taking pictures.

Mine:

Jack's:

There were hummingbirds everywhere.

Dad was hoping if he held still long enough

one would come check out his honeysuckle 

No luck.

How about this? 

Now:

and 2015

We have a lot of memories of these chairs too!

There's been a lot of good days at Powell Gardens!

 

Fly, Chickens, fly! Ba-gawk!

The Thunderchickens are back in action

and it's our first season on the big field, 7 v 7, with a goalie.

Coach Mike makes sure to jack us up with

pixie sticks before the game!

Our transition to this new play has been hard.

We won nearly every game for the last few years

and it's been shocking to be shut down

our first few games.

I'm not sure what do do in defense.

It's hard to stick to your field position.

We're all trying to follow instructions and directions.

But I still shine as a forward

letting my hustle and grit shine through

I think we'll figure it out.

Just don't make me play midfield

(I really look out of sorts

and a bit pissed off there)

Team Bronco

I reluctantly joined the high school swim team

(see previous posts for details...)

Mom sort of signed me up

and dropped me off.

But turns out, 

I like it.

I like the exercise and challenge,

I've met some cool guys,

and it's fun to be a part of school sports.

A month of practice has led to this--

our first meet.

I was pretty nervous.

It ran MUCH faster than Waves meets--

our meet caller is known to not mess around.

The events are really different too--

nearly everything is a 100yd swim

and there are only 10 events.

Here goes nothing!

I swam the 50 free

and 100 free.

For those of you keeping track:

my first high school 50 free: 31.15

and 100 free: 1:10.21.

Mom and Dad were impressed with my stroke.

I'm just glad I didn't come in last.

Let's see how this season goes!

The whole Cabin fam-damily reunites!

It's Labor Day weekend.

It's Mom's holiday off.

So we're headed to the cabin.

What could be better than that?

I'll tell you what...

EVERYONE is headed to the lake!

Us, Klusmeyers, Mema and Pappo,

Steve and Carol,

Drabenstotts,

Orfords AND Stigges!

We haven't been all together

since 2019!

Oh, and Ranger was there too.

We spent a lot of time on the water

and there was plenty of shenanigans too

(can you see the Cooper moon?)

We also drove four-wheelers

and had shotgun riders too

I pushed a lot of kids on the swing

and we played some chicken on the slackfline

Pappo even joined us

and eventually knocked us all off

(all 7 of us!)

We brought back The Circle of Love

in full force

but the water was what we all rallied around.

Even Cousin Matthew came along!

Even with all this,

we haven't talked about the highlight of the weekend.

Mema and Pappo bought us a boat

for Christmas in 2020.

COVID slowed down it's delivery

so it didn't arrive until Fall 2021.

And summer has been kinda crazy, so...

today was finally the maiden voyage of

The Chumbucket.

We carried it down the ramp

with the help of all the cousins

and Uncle Justin

Just 7 boys in a boat!

However,

even with 7 of us,

we couldn't quite get organized

and didn't have the horsepower

to row all the way to the swimming cove.

So we caught a tow from Dad

But once we got to the cove,

Mema took it upon herself

to hop in and give us a lesson in rowing

We got the hang of it

(thanks Mema!)

but still bailed on our coxswain

We did a lot of jumping and swimming

and hanging out

and catching up

We were really glad Matt came along!

We don't hang out with him enough

We were out for hours,

but eventually the sun was setting

and it was time to head home

Um, even after a day of getting good at rowing,

I'm not sure Beck and I can get all the way back to the dock

Thanks, Dad!

Now, if we can just get in to the ramp...

(which we did, with ease!)

Check out this surprise outside of Osceola:

A sunflower field!

We may have to come back for some pictures!

It was AMAZING to finally have everyone back together

and spend one last summer weekend

doing what we love