Ben's Soccer Game

Befor this week's game Ben had his Soccer Team Picture. Like most other silly parents in attendance I snuck up behind the photographer during the team portrait and snapped this one off : )

The "professional photographer" kept getting angry at the parents and kept asking for us to "stand back behind the while line" ... It was like being 8 years old again when my school bus driver kept saying the same thing.

I really don't have any idea what Ben is doing at this moment. He could be trying to scare someone again. He often makes faces at the opposing team, attempting to intimidate them ...true story : )

Sadly, he missed this goal... but this is still his first year. : )

Ben calls this one his "cannon ball"

San Francisco and Yosemite Nation Park

Bethany and I were really blessed to have the chance to head out to San Fransisco to celebrate our Wedding anniversary. While there we swung over to visit Yosemite Nations park. It was the first time Bethany had been to California.

We had a great time. To no one's surprise, I took over 1,200 pictures. I thought I would just include a couple for our Family Bog.

Allow me to take a moment to thank my kind parents who watched after our kids while we were gone... love you guys : )

[Click on any image to enlarge]

After arriving late on a Wednesday night drove out to Half Moon Bay and enjoyed a bit of time on the beach. ↓

Bethany and I knew we were going to be drive around a lot so we decided to rent a PT Cruiser convertible to make it a bit more fun. ↓

As always, Bethany did most of the driving. I told her it was because she looked so cool driving a convertible ; ). ↓

While seeing Yosemite, we stayed in a small cabin style room just outside the park boundaries. ↓

The views on our first day were incredible. I tried hard to capture and enhance them through some fun photography. Neither of us had ever bee to Yosemite before, but both our parents had been and really recommended it.

(I confess, I think this one came out fairly well. : ) ↓

We asked a older man (who at first seemed nice, and then turned very grumpy) to take our picture. Unfortunately, he complained the whole way through it. We didn't dare ask him to take a second ; ) ↓

We took the winding road up to Glacier Point from some incredible views of the valley. The heights near the edge we too much for me, but Bethany seed to enjoy leaning over the 3,200 cliff. I had to look away as she deeply leaned over the railing to catch a better view

While there, we took a couple shots of ourselves "on top of the world." ↓

It had been about 4-5 month since it had last rained in Yosemite and on our second night there the clouds opened up. At first, we thought the valley was going to be nothing but a rainy mess of clouds... ↓

...but after a little while we caught some incredible views and took a number of really fun pictures. ↓

After enjoying the main Yosemite valley we headed to another part of the park to see the huge Sequoia Redwoods. ↓

After a long wet day having fun tromping in the rain, we stopped off at a really old hotel within the park for a more proper anniversary dinner. ↓

After Yosemite we headed back to San Francisco. I had business meetings that Monday, so we thought we would drive around the city a bit. ↓

After a really fun trip and a wonderful "get away" we happy headed back to Boston and our kids. We'll enjoy the memories of this trip for a long time. : )

Ben's First Ever Soccer Game

David was excited to watch Ben play his in first of many soccer games last weekend. Now we start having the challenge of two soccer games each Saturday. : )

Partway into the game Ben got tired and decided to watch the game from the field. : ) ↓

I have no idea which super cool soccer move this one is ↓

First Day of School

Last week we saw Ben head off to his first day of Kindergarten. Ethan helped him out to his bus stop before he went to his first day of Pre-School ...exciting stuff. : )

Ethan showing off his cool backpack.

Two very excited boys...

Labor Day Weekend Camping

We thought we would inundate you with a bunch of pictures from the fun weekend we spent camping with Becky, Mike and the dogs (Teva and Kodiak). We had a great time hangout on the Delaware River, canoeing, kayaking, and acting super lazy. : )

If you look close, you might see our camp ground.

Ben and Ethan had a blast playing around and eating horrible sugar food.

This was Ethan's first time out in the Canoe. He did pretty well.

David was sitting in the back, steering the canoe like a mighty oak holding firm amidst the storm tossed billow : )

Ok, so there wasn't much storm tossed wind. : )

Having learned the practice from Teva, Becky was using her tongue to cool off in the heat of the day.

We were all getting a bit grungy by the end of the weekend.

After a very wide ranging wilderness hike (less than a 1/4 mile) up to a set a waterfalls, everyone was exhausted... or maybe it was just me trying to be nice to the kids : ) ↓

We were surprised one evening with a Fireworks display, courtesy of our slightly drunken neighbors ↓

On our last morning, David and Mike arose early for a cool morning kayak ride down the river and through the midst. ↓

Facing great rapids, Mike fearlessly rode like a kamikaze through the raging billow giving no thought to his personal safety. ↓