Going through the motions

I haven't written in a while because I am absolutely just Not Feeling It. Most mornings in the last three weeks I've had to scrape myself up off the floor and zombie through the must-do list, so Beachbucket-ing pretty much falls by the wayside. We do not have a housing solution yet, and we aren't going to tell the boys anything until we do, so I am just going to leave the subject there without further comment.

In the meantime, people have actually had to live their lives, so let's talk about that. Dave has added "soccer player" to his multi-faceted list of talents after playing in an all-dad soccer tournament fundraiser last week. Notice how in the picture he looks like the kid brother compared to all of these enormous guys on his team. They defied all odds to make it into the final game, and then lost in overtime - but they put up a valiant effort.

Dads' soccer is funny because when someone gets hit or falls down there's a collective groan from the audience, especially from the wives who know they are going to have to hear about that particular hurt for the next week or two. But despite that (because of it?) the whole thing was enormously entertaining.

Last weekend we had the annual family campout, for which Dave's and my enthusiasm was about a 1 out of 100 (with 100 being the enthusiasm level of our friends, who plastered us for days with emails about what kinds of camping equipment, foods, and diversions they were bringing to the event). We first decided not to stay over; then Luke was completely distraught, then I volunteered to stay over with Luke, and then Dave finally decided he would do the camping. After an 11pm bedtime, and waking up to the rainstorm at 5am, it wasn't his best sleep ever.

But when the sun came out at around 8am on Sunday morning, everyone was raring to go for the fishing derby. Zach was the picture of determined cuteness while holding his fishing pole, and since the photographers were all taking pictures of him from every which angle, I expect to see him on the cover of one of our city parks and recreation brochures any day now. Luke staked out his own territory with a single-minded focus to catch something besides a sneaker.

As it turned out, Zach won the top prize in his age group (a new kids' fishing pole!) for catching two turtles. Luke got an award for the most unusual catch - an orange - which netted him a new bait and tackle set. And then after all of the camping and fishing equipment was finally wrapped up, we packed everyone in the car and went off to look at another house. If we don't find one, maybe it will be a tent.