Searching for a school coach and prepping for Collin's Halloween party

After having a very long weekend (see previous post), the whole family started the next week a bit more tired than usual. There were a few things though that were exciting this week that helped us wake up.

 On Wednesday, my school had the Winter sports meeting, which includes soccer! Unfortunately, I had to go to practice that night so my mom had to go to it by herself. Usually, the athletic director talks about what sports are played during the season, and then the different sport groups split up and the coaches discuss what it is going to be like (times, practices, etc). This year, it turns out that they do not even have a coach for soccer yet! The coach for varsity left last year and the middle school coach took his place, so now they do not have anyone for the job this year. Also, all of the good eighth graders that we had last year left, so the team is not going to be as good this year. However, by the end of the week, we found three people that might be able to coach!

 Another thing that happened this week is that we had to find a costume for Collin to wear to his Halloween party this coming Monday! Collin's helper Isabelle had the idea of having Collin dress up as the boy "Russell" from the pixar movie called UP. The character is supposed to be a wilderness explorer, and my mom went all out in putting together the costume, including printing out badges from the actual movie and everything! Conveniently, Russell also has a golden retriever in the movie named "Dug," which Beau will be playing! My mom worked all weekend putting it together, and it looks pretty good.

Collin's explorer costume!

 The rest of the weekend included another soccer game (which we tied 1-1), and some house cleaning. That sums up most of the week, and we have another big one ahead of us! Thanks for reading and tune in next week on TBB!

"Dug"

Hiking at Payson

This was my first week back at school after Fall break, but honestly, it was very uneventful. Five days later, the weekend came and that was when the excitement happened. Saturday was not very interesting, but we did get to go out to eat after we went to church that night. However, we got to drive up to Payson the next morning to go hiking in the woods.

 We got there a little bit before noon and, once we found the right trail, started to journey down it.

There was a creek that continued alongside the trail that started at a spring deeper in the woods, and if you hiked long enough, you would be able to see it. The only problem was that it was an eight mile hike there and back, which was longer than we expected. The good thing was that there was a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. We decided that we would try to get all the way to the end of the trail, and it took about two hours to get to the spring.

 We took a break for a while once we got there, and my dad and I climbed up some of the larger rocks so that we could get to be at the top of the spring. The water was freezing when I put my hand in it,

and there was a little hole through the rock at the top that you could see the water through. Beau was having a blast the whole time because before he was our dog, he was raised in the woods not too far from where we were. When he was not on a leash with Collin, he was bounding up and down the path!

After drinking some more water, we set off back down the trail and, after what seemed like a long time, we were back at the parking lot at the beginning of the trail. Before heading back to Phoenix though, we were able to stop to get something to eat, and then we went back on the highway and got home later that night. That ended our weekend, and we are looking forward to what the next week holds. Thanks for reading and tune in next week on TBB! 

Fall Breaks and the Challenge tournament

Collin in Flagstaff

My Fall Break finally ended today, and school starts back up tomorrow. However, Collin's Fall Break ended a week ago, and he had some fun during his. After having unlimited rest for the first couple of days (which he really enjoyed!), Collin got to go up to the mountains in Flagstaff with dad and Beau. They stayed at a really nice hotel, and had a great time doing all kinds of things! Not only did they hike for a very long time in the nice weather, but they also walked to the Harkins that was near their hotel to go watch a movie later the day that they got there. They also ate lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings once as a treat after doing more hiking. They eventually came back two days later, while in the meantime, I was still at school!

 At last, Friday came and it was the last day of school for me before I had my break. The next day, I still had a soccer game at about noon, but the place where we were playing conveniently happened to be right next to the freeway. After the game, I got to head to California with my mom for a couple of days to visit my aunt, who lives in Costa Mesa right next to the beach! We got there at about seven and the next morning, we headed out to the beach bright and early.

The Xcelerator

 We spent the whole day there, but then went back to my aunt's apartment to wash up before we went to "Downtown Disney", which is right outside of Disneyland, to go get some late dinner. Even though we all went to bed very late after that, we had to get up early in the morning again to go to "Knots Berry Farm" as soon as it opened. We were there the whole day until it closed at six at the end of the day. There were some really fun rides there though, including the Xcelerator, which went from 0-82 miles per hour in 2.2 seconds! I went on that ride with my aunt every time because my mom did not want to go on it! We spent the whole day going on roller coasters like those, and it was a really great way to spend a day!

 Unfortunately, the next day meant that it was time to go back home. My mom and I went down to the beach one last time before getting back in the car to go home, and before either of us knew it, we were back at our house. The rest of my Fall Break was spent with friends while my mom was at work and then having soccer practices at night. On this last weekend before school starts back up, my team played in the Challenge tournament, but unfortunately, we only won one of our games that we played.

 It was also unfortunate that my grandparents from Prescott happened to come down to watch one of our games which we lost pretty bad in, and it was not a very good showing. Admittedly, we did get a little unlucky in a couple of the games. We hit the crossbar and post a total of six times in the first and second game combined! That was the end of Fall Break though, and now it is back to school in this upcoming week. Thanks for reading and tune in next week on TBB! 

With Aunt Kristen and her dogs

Beau in Flagstaff

In the water with Aunt Kristen

Beginning of Fall Break

Hello readers of TBB! I did not have much time to write a post over the weekend, because I have spent the past two days visiting my Aunt Kristen in California! I will be sure to include the rest of my Fall Break as well as Collin's in next weeks post! He also enjoyed his week off a lot, but he is heading back to school today. Thanks for reading TBB, and be sure to tune in next week to hear all about Fall Break!

Collin's Fall break, running errands, and preparing for finals.

This was a normal school week, but the end of it meant that Collin was now on Fall break and I was not. The school that Collin goes to now is a year-round school, just like his last one, but he used to get two weeks of Fall break. However, the school he goes to now spaces out the breaks differently, so he only gets one week. My break is the week after his this year.

 The plan is that Collin, dad, and Beau are going to go up to Flagstaff for a couple of days to go hiking, while I finish up my quarterly tests at school. I just turned in the essays that I have had to do over the last couple of weeks, and now this last week is mainly just about studying the material that we have learned and then taking the actual tests.

 The weekend came, and so did the second league soccer game. After already losing the first league game, this was even more important than the last. Unfortunately, after being up by two goals at halftime, we gave up three in the second half, and the other team ended up winning. It was a really big disappointment, and was not a great way to start the weekend.

 That was the main event of the weekend, and not much happened afterwards. The next day was filled with running errands and Collin's soccer game. Once again, there were not many kids there, which meant the Collin scored a couple of times. The rest of the day included walking down to the park to play fetch with Beau and eating a really nice dinner! Thanks for reading and tune in next week on TBB!

Excited Collin and Beau

Tired Collin and Beau