Imagine...

Imagine that you are a ten-year-old boy who has a fascination with all things football related. You play tackle football, and you have a game in some town you've never even heard of. You and your family pull into the stadium an hour and a half before your game. Yes, that's right. A stadium. You walk up to the entrance, and get your first glimpse of the field. Artificial turf. Your heartbeat speeds up. You start bouncing around. Especially when your dad says "Holy cow. I never got to play on artificial turf!" You watch your classmates on the other Buhler fifth grade team absolutely crush their opponents. Your turn is coming! As game time approaches, you and your teammates line up under the goalpost. The sound system starts blaring the deep, ominous bells "dong....dong....dong" and the announcer starts the lineup. You run out on the field and high five your teammates as the announcer says "Luke Berning, number 85!" and the crowd goes wild!!

Well, okay. Your mom and siblings go wild and the rest of the crowd claps. The ominous bell ringing is the prelude to "Hell's Bells," maybe not the most appropriate song to play before a fifth grade football game! But, the boys couldn't hear the lyrics, just the music. It really was a fun game. Luke's team won easily, defeating Maize 31-7. Luke made some good tackles and loved every minute of it. He is lined up here in the middle of the picture - closest player to us. Hard to see, I know.

Again, he's lined up on our side. Number 85!It was an incredible place to play fifth grade football - Newton must have a lot of extra tax dollars laying around! They're going to think the Hutch High practice field that they have to play on when they play Hutch is awful.

In other news, Jackson played his first flag football game Sunday. His team won also, although the opponent's coach told his team that THEY won. He was quite a piece of work. Anyone who yells at his six and seven year old players like he did should be benched for the rest of the season. They're little kids! It's just a game! Jackson was oblivious to any of that, thank goodness. His coach is a lot more laid back. The way he should be! Here he is showing off his mouthpiece, which he is very proud of:

And here he is, sprinting down the field. He's the second from the left.

We spent the early part of the weekend in Syracuse visiting Marilyn. It was a lot of fun to see old friends. Aubrey spent most of the time with her good friend, Amy. Jerry and the kids toured the Sand Park. There wasn't room for all of us in the utility vehicle, so I stayed behind and visited with the guy who runs the place. It was interesting!We went to Johnson Saturday morning to watch Paige and Amy run in the cross country meet at the golf course there. Paige easily blew away the competition - look at those long legs! This picture was close to the start of the race - the girl in front of Paige is the one who beat her last week. Paige caught her shortly after this picture and was ahead the rest of the race. I got to see my dear friend Karin for about two minutes before the race started. Karin was flying to Dallas for her sister's 40th birthday party, and the airport was right across the road from the golf course. Good timing!