Football 2016

Nicolas enjoyed a successful kicking season at CVCS again.  Depending on where he goes to college he may decide to try kicking after high school.

Seth played Upwards flag football again this fall.  He enjoyed having his dad help coach his team, and just enjoyed this year so much more since he knew the game better.  The other coaches were also a great fit for his personality which gave him more confidence. They finished the regular season in 4th place, but did great in tournaments and ended up second overall, losing in the championship game.  When I took most of the pictures it was crazy sock and hair day, but he loved those socks so much he ended up wearing them EVERY game day!   I love that all the practices (once a week) and games (one on Saturday) are played in a field that is walking distance from our house.  

The Cole Valley football team helped referee all the Upwards flag football games on Saturdays.  Nicolas took his turn for a few hours on two Saturdays.  Usually, there are 5-6 games going on at one time on this field, so I just moseyed over to the one Nicolas was refereeing and snapped a few pictures of him in action. 

More Youth Group Activities

2nd Annual Nerf Gun Capture the Flag

Corn Maze

We took advantage of the Wednesday night special for youth groups.  For one price you gained admission and a cup of hot chocolate or apple cider and a bag of mini-donuts.  Yum!

 The Amazing Race 

We had a super fun night with the youth group in downtown Boise.  I think they had eight stops to navigate with challenging and hilarious roadblocks and detours.  Russ and I were taxi drivers for one of the groups, so I tried to get pictures of Anna's and Nicolas' groups when we were at the same station.

 Completing the task at the Capitol

 At the Old Depot memorizing "I've Been Working on the Railroad."  Anna and Nicolas were chose by both of their teams for this task.

 Learning the "Achy, Breaky Heart" line dance.   This was to be videotaped and sent to one of the sponsors for point determination based on how well they did.  Nicolas' group rocked this one!

 Nicolas' group also did well on this one...completing a Lego project.  No surprise there.

 Who knew it took so long to drink from a slow flow baby bottle?

Now this is something I would like to try:  riding an ice block down Simplot Hill!

Seth's Little Friend

We found this brown praying mantis on the sidewalk a few Saturdays ago while walking home from Seth's football game.  I noticed that it was struggling a little because it had a problem with one of its front legs.  We took it home, made a cozy little habitat for it, and fed it live flies which it caught and ate.  Eventually, though, it died and we were all sad (except Lydia who thought it was totally gross).  Seth was only consoled when I reminded him that it probably would have died sooner if we had not taken it in because of the problem with its front leg.  The cadets at church started an insect collection so this little guy will find his way onto the wall in the cadet room.

This is not the "cozy" habitat.  This is before we moved it to its new home.

Casual Co-op Zoo

Spooky hyenas

Always a favorite, the snow leopard

Prairie Dog enclosure

Anteaters have really cool tongues!

The write-up on the sign outside the enclosure said that the male watches over the females and young diligently.  We had to laugh that this napping guy had no idea what was going on.  No diligence here.