Sports, Sports Everywhere!

You'd think our sports schedule would have gotten easier once Jacob's lacrosse season ended, but Carter is now keeping us busy!

This past Tuesday he started lacrosse!  It's just the micro lacrosse program (much like soccer that he did last year, and Jacob did five years earlier), so it's a very low key learning opportunity.  They do a few skills, some drills, play active games like Sharks vs. Minnows, and eventually finish up with a bean bag tossing scrimmage that mimics the feel of passing in a lacrosse game, without sticks and balls and kids who can't catch.  He seems to be enjoying it...but of course he would since an open area to run is pretty much his dream!

Craig put him in a Jacob hand-me-down for his first session, a Hamilton Nationals Joe Walters shirt.  The Nationals no longer exist and Rochester native Joe Walters has been playing elsewhere for years!

Waiting his turn for a drill

Playing defense

He caught me!  Just look at that face!

Here he is running a scoring drill...



I think he was actually supposed to be the defender after that, which is why I kept filming...but I think he got confused.  Oh, well...the other kid didn't seem to care.  So far so good, except that Jacob is so unhappy that Carter is playing the sport he now hates so much that he wants to pretend it doesn't exist.  It's so annoying.

Wednesday was what we thought was Carter's last soccer game.  However, when his coach emailed the reminder for that game, she mentioned two weekend games as part of the annual "Soccerfest" that the organization runs.  It looks a lot like a tournament but seems to be league teams only, with a few "fun" games thrown in.  So we were playing both Saturday and Sunday at 11:10am, which thankfully worked out for us, but meant we'd be sitting in dreadful heat at least one of the two days!

The weather on Wednesday started out sketchy, but managed to clear up in time for a pleasant evening.  Craig couldn't make that game due to a work commitment, and since it was the last evening game and the boys had been wanting to hit up the ice cream stand next to the fields all season, it seemed like an appropriate ice cream for dinner night!  I had what I think was my favorite ice cream (Deer Tracks, though they didn't call it that but it had the exact same composition of espresso ice cream, thick fudge ripples, and toffee pieces), Carter had a shake, and Jacob had soft serve with cotton candy crunch sprinkles!  Yum!

Friday was a brutally hot day, and Saturday was going to follow suit.  Both days were in the 90s with a dangerously high heat index.  Even though the humidity was clearly higher, it reminded me so much of Las Vegas, with how it felt like you walked into a blast furnace every time you came out of air conditioning into the heat.  Even at night it felt like the mid-80s, so it was a shock to the system when you walked outside and there wasn't even a hint of coolness.

It was already in the mid-80s and feeling like mid-90s when we got to soccer at 11am.  Thankfully we've had a lot of hot lacrosse tournaments to get good at this stuff, and if we can survive 6-8 hours in it, we could certainly do an hour!  We brought extra water and a spray bottle, and were thrilled when we found out that our fields actually had some shade--mostly where we were sitting, but it was good for the players during water breaks, too!  We already knew one teammate was camping that weekend, and then found out from the only other parents that were there on time that two other kids had other plans that day, so we were lucky to have four kids, just enough to field a team.  The kids were troopers.  They played so well, and Carter's team won.  He also had a really nice assist!  He even got to lead the handshakes...

He was one sweaty kid, but he really does look good in that uniform, doesn't he?

And yes, those cleats are either solely baseball cleats or maybe just general "sports" cleats, but they were Jacob's and in good shape, so I wasn't going to spend $30 on new ones if this was going to be a one-and-done!

A well-earned rest!

After lunch, Craig had to go work the Knighthawks table at Shootout for Soldiers, the 24-hour lacrosse game that Craig helped emcee and Jacob participated in last year, so it was just me and the boys for the afternoon and dinnertime.  We spent some time in the pool, as it was really the best way to beat the heat!  In there it almost felt like a nice, normal summer day.  The water was warm (although cooler than the air, so it took a moment to adjust), and I was pretty content floating around on my raft.  The boys still managed to make it challenging, of course, because when there's squirting toys or any sort of competition (like a basketball hoop), there will be fighting.  Still, it was nice, but eventually the air conditioning beckoned and we retreated to the house.  When Craig got home after dinner we went our separate ways to shop.  Craig and the boys went to Dick's and some shoe stores (for guess who? 😒), and I went to Kohl's as there were a couple coupons to stack and I needed some essentials.  I ended up with new denim capris (since I can now wear them to work), new shorts (I discovered when we traveled that if I had any shorts already dirty that I could barely get through a weekend with what I have), and ::gasp:: a new bathing suit.  It's not exactly my dream suit, but I've been on the hunt for a structurally sound tankini.  I love my one piece suit, but it's not practical for day-long use since you have to take down the whole thing to pee.  I also like my other tankini, but the way the top is cut around the cleavage, it's a little more prone than I'd like to moving if faced with a small child tugging or a rush of water--say, a waterslide or a quick burst forward to swim.  I've never exposed myself, thankfully, but I'd been looking for years for something more.  Oh, and neither of my current suits look right if I wear them under clothes.  The separates I found seem to fit right, don't squeeze, cover my butt as much as can be expected, and seem to cover and shape as needed up top.  Still not 100% thrilled, but it will do...especially since 85% of my bathing suit wearing happens in my backyard.  Oh, and it was pretty much half the price of most suits.  And I have $15 of Kohl's cash to buy a pair of bike shorts (yes, 90s style tight ones) because they're the only thing comfortable to wear for running or biking in the summer, and my one pair is not enough.

On Sunday morning we rushed around to get to church and be prepared to go directly to soccer.  And I made the last minute decision to take my car in for an overdue oil change before we start hitting a bunch of weekends where Craig is gone.  We then had to rush from church just to make it to the field almost on time.  This time there were five kids, but we were stuck in the sun (and I'd left the umbrellas as home since I expected to be in the shade again--oops).  It was a bit cooler on Sunday but the sun still felt flaming hot on my skin every time it popped out from the clouds.

This game was by far the highest scoring game they've had, and while it stayed tight for most of the game, Carter's team blew them out near the end.  One of the other parents even got a little snippy with the coach about their celebrations (but it wasn't in a bad way--just keeping consistent with the good sportsmanship of congratulating each other).  In the end, no goals for Carter this season, but he played hard and learned a lot.  And he was so excited to get this:

His own medal!

The team also had a chance to dunk their coach in the dunk tank!

She's up there...and no, they did not stand back very far!

And down she goes, first shot!

With the hot weather, apparently Craig was jealous of our ice cream night on Wednesday, because he suggested going to get ice cream for lunch.  We had been talking about going to Lugia's, which isn't far from our house.  We rarely go there--I think because it's a tad pricey--but they have a lot of lactose-intolerant-friendly items for Craig so we wanted to check it out again.  As we walked up and pondered our order, I noticed a camera crew.  It was like a flashback to Toronto!  It was a local TV station, and apparently it was National Ice Cream Day!  I guess we must look like a nice family, because once again someone approached us and asked if we'd go on camera.  My TV days are over, but of course Craig is cool with it.  At first it was just him, but then Carter got chatty!

Of course, much like Toronto, Craig was the only one that made the cut.  I have no idea how long this link will work, but you can see the segment here.  And just when you thought the rest of us avoided the spotlight, they posted the story on Facebook and this was the image they used:

Oh look, it's my head and all of us trying to figure out what to order!

In all of the chaos, I neglected to tell Craig that the sizes are crazy there, so imagine his surprise when his medium arrived looking like this...

Our treats were great, and then it was back home for more pool time!  And Craig did a lot of yard work, too, so kudos to him!  Yay for a crock pot dinner and cooler weather this week (although the fall-like, rainy weather today can go back on vacation for a couple months).  Now we're back down to one sport for a while, at least until we figure out Jacob's basketball possibilities.  Next week is a big week, too--Carter is starting camp #2, and Jacob gets to go to a real basketball camp with a real college coach!  Not looking forward to shaking up two schedules at once, but what is summer without being totally off routines?