Busy Weekend

Me and Derek trying to stay warm at Adam's early Saturday morning soccer game

Helen and Derek

Adam is number 9 (closest to camera on the right)


Packing up after the game

End of the season party

Adam and the rest of his Manchester United team

Adam in the cart at Target while we wait for Derek to try on some black pants he needs for his band concert

Derek's hockey game on Saturday afternoon

Calling the head coach, who was out of town, to tell him that the team won the championship

The little kids line up at the duathlon on Sunday afternoon

Helen in her volunteer tshirt

Adam waiting for the race to start

Derek during the bike portion of the race

Adam leading his age group into the bike transition

Adam on the bike - after the shoelace incident

Derek heading for his bike

Helen and another volunteer wait to hand out medals to the finishers

Adam heads out on his bike

Derek after the race

Friday night activities are nice in that there's no school the next day, but they kind of put a damper on kicking off the weekend. This fall Adam had soccer practice on Tuesday and Friday nights. Derek had hockey practice on Monday nights and games on Friday nights. So our Friday nights were always booked with soccer and hockey. I'm sure the guy at our local Mexican restaurant is wondering what happened to us.

On Friday night Derek had a 9 pm hockey game and then we had to turn around and get up for Adam's 9 am soccer game on Saturday morning. It was cooolllddd!

Adam has a great team this season. All the boys are good and the coaching has been terrific. The result is that they have creamed all the other teams and the other teams have complained that Adam's team is a stacked team. I'm an organized guy, but Adam's soccer coach takes it to another level. He had handouts of plays at the first practice for the boys to take home and study. The practices were fun but very tight. At the end of season party he had a sheet for each boy with a personal breakdown of each boy's performance in each game along with a DVD of personal and team action photos that he had taken himself. I told him during the party how impressed I was with his coaching and organization.

After Adam's game we went shopping for black pants and black shoes that Derek needs for his band concert next week. We finally got home, ate lunch and relaxed for a moment, before heading back out for Derek's last hockey game.

Derek's team was in the championship game against his coach from last season. It was a great game. Derek's team went up 2-0, but gave up a goal with seconds to go in the 2nd period and another early on in the 3rd. The other team scored again with a couple minutes to go in the 3rd period to take a 3-2 lead, but Derek's team scored with about 10 seconds to go to tie the game up and send it to a shootout. Derek's team won the shootout 2-0 and the championship.

It was nice setting the clocks back on Sunday morning. The kids relaxed and piddled around. Derek played some video games and Adam had a big war with his army men. Helen graded papers while Adam gave her blow by blow updates on his war. The team that Helen picked lost.

In the afternoon we were in charge of drinks for our swim and tennis club's chili cookoff, so we started getting things ready. The boys were also participating in a duathlon at a nearby neighborhood and Helen and I were volunteering there as well. I went to the duathlon to help with the setup while Helen finished getting things ready for the chili cookoff.

The duathlon was fun and the little kids were really cute. Derek and Adam both did well. Derek is not a natural runner, but did a good job. Adam is a natural runner. He had a pretty good lead on the rest of his age group heading into the bike transition, but his untied shoelace did him in during the bike portion. He said that his shoelace wrapped around the pedal and he fell down. It took 3 of the adult volunteers to get him untangled and back on his way. He ended up 3rd and was disappointed. I am always getting on to him about his untied shoelaces so I congratulated him after the race and then we talked about one of my favorite topics - the consequences of not taking care of your business.

After the duathlon we headed over to the chili cookoff for some food and visiting. The kids were tired and wanted to leave early so Helen took them home and I stayed to help clean up. With the time change and the busy weekend it felt later than it actually was and we had to keep the kids from taking a nap. We were all worn out and in bed by 8.