Soccer Season Has Begun

 Our boys moved up to U16 (Garrett), U14 (Bryce, and U12 (Griffin) for soccer this season.  Garrett is on a team with many of the boys from last year's squad who all moved up together.  He is helping to hold down the defense.  Bryce has two coaches that he has had before (Francisco and David).  He gets to play with his friend Jared, who is a shutdown defender and has helped Bryce in his transition to playing goalie in the first two games this year, after never having played there before.  Griffin knows a few of the kids on his team from previous years of having played and so far is playing primarily defense (he would love to be playing goalie).

Bryce #8 gets ready to dive to make the save.

Bryce prepares for the corner kick.

Griffin practices his picture pose for Mom.

Griffin's team plans their halftime strategy.

We all play soccer...We are brothers!

Garrett #7 controls the ball in the defensive zone.

Garrett discusses the strategy with his teammate, Schultz.

The ball is in our possession, get up the field.

Garrett about to send the ball up field for a pass.

Garrett defends the inbound throw-in.

Bryce is the goalie this year.

Idaho Visit after the Rafting Trip

We concluded our rafting trip and drove back to Nampa, where we reunited with Joy's family.  We enjoyed eating, shopping, and some excursion activities.  One of the highlights was going to the Demolition Derby at the racetrack in Meridian.  We saw multiple types of races with the more memorable being the demolition races including the Tow Mater figure 8 backward race with a lot of collisions.  The night concluded with the trailer races with the goal destroying the trailers that each vehicle had attached.  By the end there was carnage of parts of trailers all over the track that the survivors had to navigate through.  We also conquered some fears by going on all the water rides at Roaring Springs, which included the steep drop tubes that all our boys had avoided the last time we were there.  Additionally, we got to see Brittany and meet her boyfriend Blake when we got together to play tennis.  After playing in the heat, we all went to Dairy Queen for Blizzards and food, but this would turn out to be a very interesting hour long wait for our food with blizzards that weren't able to be flipped over.  Due to the long wait, we applauded when our final food item for the group was brought out about an hour later.  Many stories were told in the meantime.  The boys really enjoyed getting to hang out with Ryan both during the day and at night-time.  We also got to visit with our friends, Tim and Christie, who moved to Boise from our current city of residence.

Grandma gave us lightsaber candy for the plane.

All the boys sharing laughs, screens, and food.

The cousins (6) dab together.

2 years apart going up:  Logan, Kaleb, Griffin, Bryce, Garrett, Ryan.

Breakfast at the chicken place, then good-byes.

Learning NBA2K19 from the master, Ryan.

Uncle Aaron takes Griffin for a ride.

Grandma and Gramps with their male grandkids (and Ryan)

Boy cousin power!

Coming up with a plan:  Grandma, Aaron, Kaarli, Joy.

Happy boys at the racetrack ready for action.

Our part of the section:  Christy, Roger, Gramps, Aaron, Kaarili.

Another benefit of the racetrack:  hanging out with Tim and Christie.

Saving seats for our crew on their way.

The eventual winning trailer for the Eve of Destruction.

One of the races lines up for the beginning of their race.

Ok, so I am getting a little big for this little swing that I have taken pictures on for the last 14 years.

Garrett gets to drive a tractor under the watchfulness of Ryan.

Ryan shows Griffin and Bryce how to knock out the male carrot row.

It's farming time.

Visiting Roger on the combine.

The party van on the way back from rafting trip--five boy cousins unite.

Seeing Aunt Jeanette, Grandma, and Cousin Ryan before the river.

Aunt Jeanette really liked Griffin's backrubs.

Playing football at one of rest stops on the way to the river.

The Final Days on the River

In the last two days, we finished our time on the Salmon River and joined up with the Snake River.  We had our final night near the confluence.  Brett and Joy were finally together on the tandem kayak and had to work REALLY hard together to fight against the hard rushing river to make it to our campsite.  They were almost going to come rescue us...but we pressed through.  Then the kayaks were deflated and we tied all the boats together for a motorized excursion to our ending spot up in Washington.  We passed the tri-state connection area on the river between Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.  We had a final toast on the river and then a great banquet back at the Red Lion after a great first shower in 5 days.

Map of the trip we went on.

The large flotilla on the way up the Snake River.

Brett didn't do much lounging on the big rafts.

Tribute to Kylo, our cat, whom Bryce was missing.

Mom doing morning yoga with the other moms.

The cousin table and Adam, 14, from England.

Last night, slept outside under the stars.

The sun is up, it is about 6am.

Equipped with our life vests, but relaxing before the start.

Garrett and Dad, after the "lazy river" cost a shoe.

Griffin swam the "lazy" river successfully.

Joy finally agreed to join Brett in the tandem kayak...

We did great together on the rapid sections, but went crooked on the calm parts.

Gramps and Garrett telling stories.

Don't look at the great columnar basalt behind us, look over there, says Uncle Aaron.

Brett relaxing in the kayak and letting the river take him.

Brett (aka Grandy) plays frisbee with Griffin.

Bryce cools off after we reached camp.

Gramps takes a seat by the hand washing station.

One of our tents, set up by the crew before we arrived at camp.

Tent row on the sandy beach.