Photos courtesy of Ryan Prouty

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Cross Country and Baseball and Soccer...OH MY!!!


The peak of craziness and chaos has hit our household! All three boys are in different sports and have started having games and meets. Gabe's first cross country meet was Tuesday. I was working in Venice and so glad I could work through my usual lunch time and leave early to catch Gabe's race. He had a 2 mile course to run at Shamrock Park in Venice. If you remember this race last year, this was the one that he had trouble following the crowd and got off course and had to run over 3 miles! He had no trouble Tuesday and ran an excellent race! I was so proud of him and his dedication to keep pushing through plantar fasciitis (heel pain) and run his race. Here he is at the start line with his teammates. He is the only healthy boy on the team. The other 2 boys are sick with swine flu. It hit the school hard this week. Only 4 runners from his school ran. They are in bright yellow:
There were over 40 runners in his race. Boys and girls run together.

Gabriel came across the finish line in 12th place! He ran the 2 miles in 16:17. Much better than I could ever do!
Riley has moved up into the Majors division in baseball. Here they can steal bases and the pitchers throw the ball very hard! He was quite intimidated at first, but is loosening up a bit now. Here he is playing center field:


And here he is (after getting walked) on first:
He stole second:

AND third!
We are quite rowdy in the stands, now that we have Grammy and Aunt JoJo at all the games too. Riley absolutely loves it when we cheer so loudly for him...though he would never admit that outright...you know, because he is waaay too cool for that!


Riley played an entire season last spring without a win, so when his team this fall won their first game, we were all excited! We celebrated with a trip to Smoothie King!

And Holden is our soccer player. He has wanted to play for a long time and he finally got permission this year. I guess we thought it couldn't get any crazier, so why not! He is doing really well and really enjoys this game. I personally have never cared for it much because I never watched it or understood the rules. I have to admit I didn't really get much out of the first game besides appreciating how hard the kids work! The field is quite large and they do quite a lot of running around. It was extremely hot and humid and they didn't even seem to notice! Here is Holden's team. They have 3 girls on the team and they are some of the strongest players! It was fun to recognize one of the kids from spring baseball who was on Gabe and Riley's team!


Holden has played in 3 games now. The first game he was in, he didn't even get a chance to play on offense, but he was still learning how things went and had fun and we enjoyed watching the team win 3-0.
The second game, Holden got to play on offense and I am happy to say that I do not have a picture or video of him scoring a goal, because I got to watch it happen as if in slow motion with both of my eyes, not through a camera lens!! It was so exciting! He was able to break away from the pack, he drove to the right and kicked it to the left and scored all by himself! Of course Paul was in Colorado, and when I called him right away, he made me cry by shouting "GOOOOOOoooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllll" into the phone all those states away! He was as excited as I was! Holden's team pulled out a win again 4-3 that day. That was the same day as Riley's team's win, so it was quite fun to celebrate both kids at Smoothie King on Sunday when Dad got home. Holden's coach chose him to do the opening kick off at the next game (not sure why or if they rotate, or what, but H was thrilled!) and I missed it when Alayna had to use the bathroom but Aunt JoJo filled me in that he "whiffed"...who's kid is that anyway?? He didn't seem to mind and didn't let it bother him and had another great game. He played more defense than offense and had lots of fun as his team won again 5-4. I have decided that soccer is great fun to watch, especially if your child is playing!
You would think that we would have lots of trouble making it to games/meets and not having to divide up to get to everything, but so far everything has worked out. Riley's games are on Tuesday and Saturday and Holden's games are on Saturday. But the only game all season that Riley is scheduled to play at the same time as Holden, Holden's game got moved up to an earlier time due to a field conflict and eliminated our conflict! When Gabe's first meet fell on a Tuesday, Riley's team happened to have a bye! It has been great so far! I will likely not be able to attend any more of Gabe's meets because they will be in Sarasota and I work in Venice on Tuesday, but I am coming to terms with that. Paul will go to those with him. I will be the baseball mom. It will work out! In the meantime, we are having lots of fun!

4 comments:

Football and Fried Rice said...

Man, oh man, you are busy! I guess you Floridians just go at it all year. here in Iowa, we are preparing for hibernation. Enjoying the last few weeks of daylight and few spurts of sunshine. Putting on the extra layer for warmth & protection. oh, yes, we are going into hiding!!

Stephanie said...

BUSY! Have Paul take lots of pictures! You'll be there in spirit!

Anonymous said...

Wow, what a good time of juggling sports and kids. I love it, and it only gets better and more challenging. You can do it. We are so thrilled that the boys are in their individual sports and doing well. We're sure hoping to see them play sometime before too long. Looks as though they are all three in the right sports. We've said all along that Holden is built like a soccer player. Go, Holden. Talk about agility. We have had some beautiful fall weather and the leaves are now at peak. Later this year due to so much rain, but still scenic. Thanks for the neat update, the kids are such a sight to see, as are the rest of you. Just think Alayna, you are cheerleader for three teams.
Blessings, love, hugs, and prayers,
G. & G. P.

Erin said...

What craziness!!!! I am sure we will hit that stage eventually as well...probably all too soon! So good to see your family and catch up. I love blogs!:) Love, E