“Shall we go on an adventure?” … “No” … “Why not?” … “They’re boring” … “Oh, okay”.
After this brief exchange (with Toby) we embarked on a quiet weekend at home. It had been a reasonably quiet week altogether.
We took Harry to his first night of soccer training on Thursday evening. We got there early to make a good impression. We needn’t have bothered! Only one other child turned up – Isaac – and the coach called Ed. Ed didn’t inspire us with any great confidence and believe that he is the man to take Harry’s soccer skills to the next level! Apart from stating that he didn’t really want to do the training again this year (but they couldn’t find anyone else) and that he “couldn’t be relied upon” he looked, with all due respect, like a gentleman who should be sat down taking it easy with his grand kids. He didn’t have a heart attack as he put Harry and Isaac through their paces but I was worried throughout the session!
At the end of the training he informed us that Harry needed to work on his sprinting (because they play on a sand/soil/ash type surface which are very tiring), practice some more with his left foot (as two footed players are better than one) and improve his shooting accuracy a bit more. Despite this he rated Harry as up there with the best for his age group. Which is more than can be said for the feedback Isaac received. I’m not sure Isaac will be back next week.
Harry will be back next week, however Friday afternoon was spent talking to the coach at Issaquah soccer club and they are much more like what we’re looking for! The Director of Coaching is the son of Alan Ball, former England captain and World Cup winner. He used to run the Portsmouth FC academy and he brings over proper qualified soccer coaches from the UK to train their ~4,000 kids that they have registered with the club. Training begins the week commencing the 18th July and we will be taking Harry and Toby along. Toby is rather enthusiastic but then he was when he went to rugrats the first time – I’m sure he’ll last longer this time though!
While I was busy on Friday afternoon working (sorting out soccer training), Dane came round to play with Harry and Toby. He mainly came round to play with Harry but it’s sort of like a play with one, get one free deal with Toby! After the initial showing off part had died down they spent hours in the garage making dens in with the boxes that we still haven’t got rid of. I’m not sure we should get rid of them either with the amount of time they have both spent playing in the garage this weekend!
They were going to spend the night in their on Saturday but they quickly changed their minds when they released what that actually meant!
On Saturday morning, after the adventure discussions, we went to Sammamish Club to check it out as a way of reducing the size of my belly! While it may not be the most glamourous of clubs, it’s dirt cheap and has classes and a gym for the belly shifters plus it has a pool and tennis courts which we can take the boys to use. We signed up for a 3 month trial (another positive is they don’t tie you into 12 month contracts) which if nothing else will enable Sally to go to the gym for the 3 weeks she is out here – so there shouldn’t be any withdrawal symptoms there!
After signing on the dotted line for the membership, we watched England lose on penalties in the women’s World Cup – doesn’t matter where you are in the world we still lose on penalties – and then we went over to Phantom Lake to see what it was like. I drive past it on the way home from work each day and it looks pretty but now was the time to check it out. As it turns out, there isn’t an awful lot to do there but it does have possibly the most extensive spread of lily pads in the world. That may be a slight exaggeration but it was still pretty impressive. Almost as impressive as the lily pads are the houses that surround the lake. Many of them had, amongst other things, giant slides from their garden into the lake. I think we may have been in a somewhat exclusive area of town!
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After this very busy morning we went home for a nice burger – which kind of demonstrates why there is a need for the gym membership! The rest of the day was a nice relaxed time sitting in the sunshine in the garden which is quite a sun trap considering the height of the surrounding trees.
Fortunately for Toby there were no adventures planned on Sunday either, just the first batch of waffles from the waffle machine (and the second batch – slightly less burnt!) and a trip to see Cars 2. This was much more agreeable than a trip up and over the mountains to the east and down into the Washington desert, which sounds ever so boring. Maybe next weekend …