Soccer Saturday

Daniel had his first soccer game of the Parks and Rec season. The team looked great and won 7-4. Daniel played so well. We were so proud! He played most of the game as forward and then relieved the goalie for the last few minutes of the game. Off to a good start, five more games to go...

Right after Daniel's game we packed up the SUV and headed straight over to Bluffton, Ohio, where Huntington U was playing Bluffton U. We knew we were only going to see the second half of the game because of travel time and walked in just after halftime and Huntington was down 0-2. The game was intense and HU was playing well, but we couldn't get the ball in the goal. With ten minutes left in the game, I leaned over to Rachel and said, "Adam's got ten minutes to score two goals, minimum."

With about five minutes left in the game, HU scored making the score 1-2. So the excitement was building... With one minute left, Adam was taking the ball to the goal. The goalie rushed him and he kicked the ball, it bounced off the goalie towards the goal, Adam kept charging... and... and... and... (how do you like the suspense?) was fouled BIG TIME just before he could put it in the goal. Well, the guy who fouled him was red-carded and sent off the field, and we were given a penalty kick.

We tied up the game with the penalty kick and 1 minute left to go. The game ended in a tie, and after a 10 minute break, they came back on the field for a 10-minute tie-breaker "golden goal" which means the first one who scores, wins.

About 5 minutes into the tie-breaker, Adam got tangled up with one of the Bluffton players and fell as the other guy was kicking and Adam got kicked square in the ribs. Stop the time clock, bring out the trainer, Adam thought he broke a rib or two. After a few minutes on the ground, Adam walked off and play resumed without him. Within just a minute or two of Adam's injury, he was running on the sidelines assessing whether he would be able to return to play. As Adam was running, HU scored. Adam missed it because he was running the opposite way. Rachel missed it because she was watching Adam, but Todd and I saw it, and it was SWEET! So HU won 3-2 in overtime! It was a good soccer day. The game was so good that I ended up putting my camera down and missed all the action shots, so only one of Adam this time, but doesn't he look like a man? Seriously, baby number two has grown up!

Friday evening at the lake

Todd, Daniel, and I took a trip to Celina Friday evening for dinner at Bella's overlooking Grand Lake St. Mary's and then hiking around the lake. When I say around, I don't really mean around the entire lake - It's huge - 13,500 acres huge, and incredibly the entire thing was dug by 1700 German and Irish immigrants for the whopping wages of30 cents per day. Legend says that they also received a jigger of whiskey a day to fight off malaria... right, for the malaria... It took six years to dig the lake, and all the dirt/mud was hauled off by wheelbarrows and especially built one-horse drawn dump carts. It has an average depth of only 10'. I just had to share all of that because I thought it was fascinating.

Anyway, after dinner we explored, rock climbed, caught falling leaves, hiked, chased birds, took pictures and dreamed of fishing. The fish were actually jumping out of the water and taunting us - not just little fish, either - big fish. We have plans to go back Friday evening to fish and hang out - can't wait! I love to fish, and more so, just love to hang out with the guys. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.