Intensity!!

Another soccer weekend...with great success....all our teams won!!

But I have to blog about Evan and how he plays. Evan is intense in everything he does. He's driven, he's fierce and he's very competitive. He has drive and stamina. I can't recall ever seeing him tired and he'd definitely never admit it. When Evan plays soccer you can see it in his face...he's giving 110% all game long. He wants the ball, he wants his team to score. And he couples that with intense practicing. I can tell you that Evan practices soccer EVERY DAY. We have a full size goal in our back yard and he is out there every day after school. When it's raining he has his soccer kicking belt bag thing on in the house and is walking around with it. He's obsessed with soccer. And what a difference it makes. The more time a kid has with the soccer ball the better they get. His footwork is advanced, his kicks vary and are on target. I love his committment and it's great to see it pay off for him and his team. It's so fun to watch and I know Evan loves it!! Go Black Bears!!

Terrific Teen!

Today it's official...Austin is a teenager. And he's terrific!!

Thirteen years ago I prepared myself for a trip to the hospital to be induced with my first child. I was nervous, I knew nothing, and I was so excited!! I wanted to meet the little person that had invaded my body and grown from nothing to a huge moving bowling ball.

That was only the beginning. There is something about your first. Some would say they are an experiment, after all, you've never done any of this before. Others would argue they have it easier since they get all the privileges first. I'm not sure where I stand on that fence, but I know that we've had quite a journey. Austin is so smart, funny, silly, stubborn, strong-willed, good-hearted, upstanding, annoying, crazy, and so many more things.

He ate his first people food (pizza) at 4 months. He walked and ran too early, before he had any depth perception. He was the first of the grandchildren on my mom's side. He couldn't roll off his back until after he could walk. His grandpa Kent says he didn't cry as a baby. He didn't get any teeth until after he was a year old. He rode a bike after trying it for 10 minutes. He's loved soccer since he was 4. His temper has always gotten the best of him and he's channeling it well now. Homework has always been "fun" to him. He's had a lot of hair styles but always the same smile. I've grown up with him these past 13 years and I think he's turning out pretty good....Happy Birthday Austin!!

Soccer...

Thanks to Jacob Farrar for photographing Austin's soccer tournament. I now have serious camera envy.

San Antonio Missions

Th
Thanks to my friend, Lisa and her husband coming to visit us, we got out and visited some things that we had yet to see here in San Antonio. I had heard about the missions tour and had always assumed that they were far away and spread apart...but this is not the case. The missions are all very close to each other (averaging 3 miles apart or so) and only on the south side of San Antonio. So on Friday with the kids in school the three of us set off to visit the missions. All are beautiful and in different degrees of restoration/decay. Four of the missions have operating parishes in them and at least 2 had Friars who reside at the mission itself. Although the history is somewhat controversial with the "conversion" of the native Mexican Indians, the missions are an interesting place to visit. Here is a view of the "Indian Quarters" at my favorite mission, Mission San Jose.These are the lovely gardens of the friars who live at Mission Espada. Next door was a very small chapel.

Here again is Mission San Jose...the most preserved and well kept, and I would guess the largest. The chapel was quite large and some of the original paint was viewable from the outside.


All in all it was a lovely afternoon. Good friends, good sites, and of course good food after!!

Raingutter Regatta

To kick off our Cub Scouts after the summer break we had our first Annual Raingutter Regatta. The boys all made their boats and came prepared to race. The object was to blow you boat to the other end of the raingutter as fast as you could. All the boys in the pack had a great time making their boats and then racing them with a lot of blowing. Evan's boat was red and blue with a tank flag! His boat floated and (despite this picture) went fairly straight down the gutter with his blowing. He did a great job and enjoyed himself!

First Day of School!!

Here's the Smith family representatives in the Comal County Independent School District:

Kindergarten: McKinley
3rd grade: Evan

6th grade: Ethan



8th grade: Austin

We know they will represent our family tremendously and wish them the best this school year!!

FYI: Nina's added "or whatever you want to do" to her stay-at-home mom title! Congratulations on the promotion after 13 years...sorry, no pay raise.

A little fun before summer ends!

With only one week left of summer vacation we had to make it fun. We were going to celebrate the end of summer vacation doing some of the things we love to do in the summer. Besides our annual trip to Utah we LOVE Six Flags Fiesta Texas during the summer. Our family has enjoyed season passes to Six Flags since we were in Maryland, so this is quite a treat for our family. This year was no different with our passes to Fiesta Texas. During the summer we try and go each week and love cooling off in the water park and then riding a few coasters. This year, McKinley and Evan ended the year by going on a big kids coaster. I can't recall they name of it, but they were very brave. Even McKinley went (without Mom) and says she wants to ride it again! For the last week before school we had some free passes and were able to invite our Draper friends to come with us for the final summer day at Fiesta! We had such a good time and stayed until the park closed!! The only troubles we had were right before this picture was taken...a little tiff between brothers who were hot, tired, and hungry!! Other than that it was a great day.



With only one week day left before school started we remembered about some bowling passes the school had handed out at the end of last year and decided to load up and head over to try our hand at bowling. It was a hillarious time with the kids doing really well. It has been a long time since I've bowled, but luckily I was still able to show some moves (and a couple spares!!). By the end of the game, everyone except Austin and I had the bumpers up and were knocking down some pins. It was a great activity that I'll have to remember more about next year.


So goodbye summer...we had a great time and we will miss you.