Soccer Camp

Well, Tyler braved 90 degree weather and the usual Illinois humidity for five days of soccer camp with the Chicago Fire.  He was very excited and played really hard.  He never complained about the heat.  On his first morning of camp I woke up to find him laying out his soccer socks and cleats.  He had already eaten breakfast and was all dressed (this was at 6:45 a.m.).  I think he was a little excited.  This picture is of the coach signing his shirt.  The coaches (Chicago Fire players) are almost all from England and have these great accents, it is fun to listen to them talk, and then watch the kids look at them and try to understand exactly what they just said.  Tyler had a great time!

So, our latest adventure was a camping trip with the Fords.  We drove all the way to Yellowstone!  Well, Yellowstone Lake, Wisconsin that is!  By the time we got there, we felt like we had driven all the way to Wyoming however.  We enjoyed the traditional campfire activities, s'mores, singing, and trying not to worry too much about children poking each other's eyes out with marshmallow-roasting sticks.

 

Here is Steve playing the tunes...

and here is Tyler through a curtain of smoke...

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After a decent night's sleep... (I must pause here to share the mystery of sleeping children.  How is it that you can lay three little boys out in their sleeping bags, each side by side, and wake up in the morning to find that they have all traded places, some are even vertical instead of horizontal!  Do they roll right over top of each other and don't even notice?  Do they play musical sleeping bags in the night?  Next time I think I will bring a camera and record the boys sleeping, I think it would be more entertaining than you might suppose!) oh yes, after sleeping on the hard and rocky earth, we hit the sand and the water.

Sydney especially enjoyed playing in the sand with this borrowed shovel...

But, when the owner of the beloved little yellow shovel had to go home,  it was not pretty.  This is what followed...

and then this...

It takes a lot of energy to throw a really good tantrum, I usually enjoy a good nap afterwards too!

More Vacation Photos

One of our favorite things while on vacation were the Fourth of July festivities.  We enjoyed the hot air balloon launch (even though we had to haul 4 kids out of bed at 5:30 am... oh and Grandma and Grandpa too).  The boys even got to help put one of the hot air balloons away.  They thought that was  pretty awesome.  We also had fun at the parade... we haven't done that in years!  So, here are some pictures from those fun events.  Enjoy!

The Gordon Children aspire to be as tall as Shawn Bradley... With as tall as their Dad is, they just might make it!

We just got home from our vacation to Utah, and thought we would share some fun shots from all the exciting things we did.  We got the opportunity to tour the BYU sports facilities so here are some fun shots from that excursion.