On our way to Ohio, we decided to take what Mark and I dubbed "The Great Northern Trek." Mark had never been to Mt. Rushmore, so we drove pretty far out of our way to visit the monument. I'm not fully sure if it was worth the extra hours we took getting there, but we did have a great time visiting. The Black Hills area of South Dakota was very pretty. We even saw a bunch of big horned sheep right off the road. The monument is cool, but only holds the kids' attention for about two seconds. However, there was a Presidential trail that went to the base of the monument. It mostly consisted of a boardwalk with lots of stairs. Not terribly stroller friendly, but the kids had a blast. It circles back around to an art studio where they have sculpting demonstrations - however, it was closed when we were there. But the monument is an amazing feat. Also, our trip to Mt. Rushmore let me check off both Minnesota and Wisconsin from my list of states to visit. I only have twelve left!
Right before we left for our Ohio trip, I had my sister-in-law Jess come over and take some pictures of the kids. I wanted a cute fall picture of the three of them, some 3 month old pictures for Henry and some soccer pictures of Matthew. We took the group picture and then when I took Matthew to put his soccer clothes on, Jess took some pictures of Hannah, Henry and her son Daniel. However, Matthew threw a fit, and we never did get any soccer pictures taken. Oh, well. Two out of three isn't bad.
At the end of September, Mark's dad was in town for work. He arrived late on a Thursday night and stayed at our house. However, since he got in after they were asleep and left before they were up, the kids didn't actually believe that he was staying at our house. On Saturday morning, Mark, Anna and Elwin hiked Twin Peaks. Then in the evening, the kids had a fun trip to Dunkin Donuts with Grandpa.
Matthew learned "I Am a Child of God" for the Primary program, and is singing it all the time. On our trip to Ohio, he would ask me, "Are you a child of God? Is Hannah a child of God?" He would even point to random people at rest stops and ask, "Is he a child of God?" Super cute. So here's a funny video the my two silly gooses.
Matthew started Preschool right after Labor Day. He goes Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings for a few hours. Since we only have one car, I specifically chose the only preschool in my neighborhood so that we can walk there if need be. Even though it was my only option, it is actually a fantastic preschool. The teacher is a friend of mine, and she is wonderful. Matthew seems to be having lots of fun. Look how big he is getting. I can't believe he goes to kindergarten next year.
For Labor Day weekend, my brother Jacob came up with his family and we had a fun Pingel get together. My nephew Daniel turned one, so we had a birthday party on Saturday at a park in Woods Cross. It was fun to watch all the kids play together. We had a cookout for dinner and then the men went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch a UFC fight. We had a pretty quiet Sunday with games, and then on Monday morning we hiked the Green Pond Trail at Snowbasin. It's always fun to see family.
And so it begins. Now that we have a minivan, it was the perfect time to become an official soccer mom. I signed Matthew up for the U5 AYSO soccer league here in Layton. They play 7 games in the Fall and then another 7 games in the Spring. His first game was the day after we got back from California. He was terribly excited for his game. I was going to buy him cleats to use, but his feet are too small; I couldn't find any in his size. For the younger kids, they have a combined game and practice for an hour on Saturday morning. First they do a 20-30 minute practice on half the field, and then they play a short game against the other team. There are no refs; the coaches just monitor the game. There are hardly any penalties: Picking up the ball is discouraged, but not a stop-the-game offense. Else, the game would stop every two minutes for something or other. There aren't any corners or goal kicks; every out of bounds is a throw-in. Last but not least, we don't keep score.
For his first game, I noticed that Matthew is the shortest kid on his team. And it was so cute how all the boys' shorts went down to their shinguards. Matthew's team was the Alligators, and he was #6, which he told everyone who would listen. Matthew did fine at practice, and did a great job the first quarter of the game. He sat out the second quarter, and went back in after halftime. About a minute into the third quarter, he just starts bawling and has to come out. "I'm never going to win! No one is sharing with me." I basically predicted this melt down and probably should have done a better job preparing him for the fact that we don't share in soccer. He cried the rest of the game, and then cheered up for his snack. After that, we had a discussion about sharing in soccer, and a no crying during soccer rule, and the season went much better. In his second game, he got a few "goals." He wasn't particularly good at stopping after the ball went out-of-bounds, and his goals were all from breakaways after the game was supposed to stop. He was awfully proud of himself, so I didn't have the heart to explain that his goals don't count.
Mark, Hannah and Henry came to his third game, which was perfect because he got his first official goal. Half the time Matthew kind of spaces it as he plays and is in no man's land, but occasionally, he manages to break out of the pack around the ball and break away to the goal. I think he got two goals that game. He seemed to soccer most every game after that. Except for the game that Benjamin, Jess and Daniel came to. That game was a slaughter by the other team. This one kid could actually play, so he would just get the ball and run to the goal every minute, it seemed. I swear I saw two kids pass the ball to each other in the game, which was so far advanced of any of our kids. But the other team gave all the fans popsicles, probably to ease the pain of the beating they gave us. All in all, it was a great season for Matthew. He got some of the basics down, and he had a lot of fun.
