Sunday, October 23, 2011

Genetically wired for soccer

Soccer time, homies!  I know it was my rents' favorite sport growing up, and that there might be a little, tiny Kappel family pressure to fill their shoes, but I......actually......LOVE soccer!!  Oooh, it's so fun.  Run, run, run.  Check me out!

Oh, yeah, yours truly did get a goal!  Wahoo!



Check this out, the kid doesn't even know where I'm heading with these moves!

And, of course, Chloe's on my team!



I know that was a short one, but I love this stuff.  And here, in the desert, we're playing under the lights (not even football players at Michigan got to do that til recently) and it's so gorgeous in the cool evening heat of 29.  Ya know, we're all really starting to settle in and like it here.  Shhh, don't tell.

Joshua Tree

Our home school also comes with field trips.  Which are probably more frequent than in a public school setting.  But my home school is waaay better, anyway, as we all know. 


Here, we're heading for more elusive Ranger Badges.  And I've got some friends with me to help.  That's Lyla, Hayes (obviously), Lilly and Chloe.


We're all hard at work.


How cool is this?  Don't miss Hayes!



Lilly and I, heading for an adventure.



Oh, the little brothers came, too.  Trey couldn't handle the hike.  Good thing Ms. Rachel was there for his support.




Check out how high we got! 




The little dudes, having a snack.  You'd think they did more than just ride on their mothers with the appetites they brought.  My bro is in the grey-just to clarify.



Will we succeed?  Oh, Mr. Ranger, we did the best we could.  Ohh, I hope my work is good enough.  My teacher is sooooo strict, will he be just as bad, I mean good?



The waiting continues.  He left us in charge while he checked our work.  Told us to help anyone who may come up to the desk.  Luckily we knew our first customer.



CHA-CHING!  WE DID IT!  Another Junior Ranger Badge in the books.  Nice work ladies!



And he even gave one to Hayes, too, for spirit.



JT (as the locals call it) doesn't stop there.  We took our Dad back not too much later.  Different spot, same great climbing rocks.  Or bouldering, if you want to get technical.




Look closely, bottom left, you'll see us with Daddy-o.



Wait for it....  Now we're middle left.



Mom and Y waiting patiently.



WOW, look how far away we are now!



And BAM!  Pretty high, don't you think?  Hayes may have given Dad a small heart attack with his ridge walking, but it was AWESOME!



And we shall now all clap for Y's amazing feet of learning how to use the Camelback.  Good job, bro.  It's the little things that we celebrate, too.



He's pretty at home in the National Parks, too.



Then we pulled a little switcheroo and took Mom to the top of some stuff.  Funny, huh?  Hayes was weighing down the rock or we would've gotten it.



Some cool Joshua Trees.  And yes, it was getting as hot as it appears.



Dad and I having some serious conversations on the walk back.



Life is fine in 29


Oh, my poor mother.  She uploaded all of these photos months ago but I'm just now getting the time to fill all of you in.  At least they'll be there when we grow up and look back on all of this.  Reeder here, btw.  We're just so wonderfully busy here in the 2 9.


So, this summer (which really lasts all year) was marked by Y's ability to act like a big kid.  We're still waiting him to take off on his own two feet-but he tries his best to keep up with Hayes and me any chance he gets. 

For instance, the backyard play and snack sessions.

And we still take regular trip wherever.  Went down to the big city (Huntington Beach) to hang with a couple of Mom's college friends.  Ms. Jaclyn has a pretty awesome daughter that we hung with, too.  Here baby was, well, a boring baby, but the day was fantastic.




Homeschoolin.  Since you know I do this regularly I sometimes feel the need to share my wonderful teacher with other kids in the neighborhood.  Here's me with one of my besties, Chloe, doing our self portraits.



I also feel the need to share my wealth of knowledge with my brother.



Another excursion "down the hill" resulted in some serious jumping.





Check out how high Hayesy went!




These pictures were so long ago I can't believe my different hairstyle.  Getting off track, sorry.  My turn!




I had a blast!




And don't think we went alone.  No way!  We dragged (really) our awesome neighbor Ms. Tina and her son, Aaron, with us.  This was really moms' friend test.  She shopped for swimsuits with Ms. Tina-she passed!




My office.





And when Dad comes home from a long day at work we relax, catch up, and just hang-ya know?




Ok, so this is funnier than it looks.  Dad was keeping his office a secret.  We think he was afraid that we were going to come in unannounce, act like a bunch of banshies, and terrorize the place.  So, one Sunday when he was catching a few hours of work during naptime we did just that.  We snuck up, found his car, and went looking.  Surprise!  Guess we may be good Marines one day too, with our incredible stealthness.




Hayes being Hayes.




We'll continue on with our life stories for you :)!