First Soccer Games

So far, Chess is loving soccer and has been improving at each practice and game.


Happy and ready to watch Chess's first game.


Watching her teammates.  She is really sweet and cheers for her friends while they play.


After the game.  She followed the ball really well, and loved every minute of the game.


She actually scored an unofficial goal this game.  The ball went out of bounds near the goal, she grabbed the ball and tossed it back in, then kicked it in the goal while no one was around her!  We still cheered!


Getting ready for the second game.  It's hard work to get those shin guards and socks on!


I tried to do a little photo shoot with my soccer player.


She was being silly, but I got a couple cute ones.




Mimi and Poppy came to watch!


Chess got the ball!  She took it down the field a little bit, then one of her teammates scored a goal.


Warming up with Daddy before the third game.


I love this action shot, and the smile on Chess's face.


Chess and her friend, Lyric (she's our neighbor and the girls love playing together), after their game playing each other.


And, to end the post, the ever-popular (and in my mind, unnecessary) soccer snack.
If you want to read more about what I think of soccer snacks, you can look at this mom's blog post.  She puts it much better than I can!

Chattanooga Vacation - Day Two

After we got up and had an awesome, hot, hotel breakfast, we headed to the Tennessee Train Museum!


Checking out some of the old trains.


The caboose.


It was a big train festival, so there were lots of additional activities for the kids to do.  Here the girls are enjoying the petting zoo.





We boarded the train for our 45 minute ride.  The girls went from this:


to this:

pretty quickly.


Those arm rests can cause such contention.


This is Lera's first time riding a pony.


She looks a little nervous here.  The saddle was crooked.


This is Chess's second time on a pony, so she is an old pro.




Sharing some delicious homemade ice cream.




Old-fashioned hand pump cart.


Family shot.


We went to eat at TGI Fridays.


Swimming, once again.  See where Jared is in the pool?  Lera was jumping off the steps and swimming underwater to him that far!


A snack in the room, then bedtime.

I am thankful we got to go on a family vacation.  We had a great time!

Chattanooga Vacation - Day One

We were able to go to Chattanooga over Labor Day weekend and had a great time!  We drove straight to the aquarium on the first day.


Jared and the girls looking at sea horses.


This guy was so creepy.  The lady said it was a lizard, but clearly it has no legs.  Weird.


Tennessee River in the background.


Chess petted a sturgeon, but Lera did not want to touch it.  I don't blame her.  I touched it, but it grossed me out!


Lera really enjoyed all the turtles in this river tank.


Taking a break in the car for lunch.


Popsicle treats before the IMax movie.


The movie was...okay.  Lots of pretty coral reef footage, but mostly about how humans are destroying the reefs, animals, and basically the entire planet.  And Lera almost fell asleep.  We could have done without it.


Petting the stingrays.


I got a butterfly to walk onto my fingers and I thought Chess would want to hold it, too.  But, in this picture, she is saying, "Let it go!  Why won't you let it get off your hand?"


Chess had a sweet moment with this penguin.  I wish the flash didn't reflect there on the glass, but you can see he came right up to her and paused for a moment.  She touched the glass and had such a sweet look on her face.  Then her darted off again.  They were very active and fun to watch.


Lera didn't like being in the shark cage.  Plus, she was tired at this point.


Jellyfish!


An underwater ocean cavern.


So, they have this awesome waterway for kids to play in outside the aquarium.  We said, "You can take your socks and shoes off and walk around, but don't get too wet."


Yeah, right!  Lera actually plopped in almost immediately upon putting her feet in the water.  Ahhh, to be a kid again.


It was hot, and this did look very refreshing.


Before we knew it, we had two crocodiles on our hands.  They were the baby crocodiles and we were the momma and daddy crocodiles, so we were told.


Love this one.


After playing for awhile, we walked back to our car with two dripping wet kids, stripped them down and headed to our hotel.


We ate at a little, amazing Mexican restaurant that night, called Poblano's.  Highly recommend if you're in the area.


Our little hotel pool was crowded when we first got to it, but soon we were the only ones there.


We had a fun time playing.  Both girls are really becoming good swimmers.  Chess can doggy paddle across most of the pool, swim underwater and come up for breaths, and is getting really confident in the water.  Lera is fearless and jumps before she looks.  She swims underwater for a good 10 seconds and can go a pretty good distance for such a little thing.


And finally, night time.  We had a great first day!