Bronco Football

After a rough season with Maumelle Wildcat football in 2010, Russ decided to coach in the Little Rock Pop Warner league in order to give Alex a fair shake at the football experience. I have to say that he has done a phenomenal job of giving all of the kids equal playing time and truly emphasizing teaching over winning. That being said, they are still undefeated with only one game left in the regular season. The first play-off game will be November 5th.

Alex has definitely had a better season. While he mostly plays defense, he has scored a couple of touchdowns...moments of sheer joy, I tell you! Russ recruited a couple of Alex's buddies to play on his team which has definitely helped with the team comraderie. We run a car pool service from Maumelle to Little Rock every Tuesday and Thursday night for practice!

While I'm not sure football is going to be "his sport", I'm certainly glad that he has had an experience to work in a team setting learning the basics of the game and most importantly learning the importance of good sportsmanship. It's been a good season...

Pep talk coming off this field. Love this shot!

The Maumelle crew: Ryan, Wyatt, Alex and Jackson

Russ and one of his assistant coaches. Thought this one was funny!

Touchdown, Galbraith!

Blocking

Love this boy!

Water break...the heat was rough this year.

Three point stance

Huddle

Another great run, another touchdown!

Soccer Season

It's soccer season! Actually, it's been soccer season since the end of August...I'm just not at the top of my blogging game! Carter is loving the game and not the practices which is fairly typical of his little personality...he wants the glory not the pain! He's on an awesome team this year. Todd Melton is his coach and he has done an incredible job harnessing all the "boy energy." As of this post, they have only lost one game and that was to Karter Pawelczak's team (the Beckham of 7-8 year old soccer players) so we really don't count that loss! These are a few of my favorite action shots. I love, love, love that he sticks his tongue out when he is concentrating super hard! Precious!

Let's Go Hornets...

The brand new Maumelle High School football stadium was open for business on Friday, October 7th. It was hard not to feel a little hometown pride when standing in the bleachers with over 3,500 fans. Wow! It was fun to see so many familiar faces crowded into one area! Have I mentioned that we LOVE living in Maumelle?

The Galbraith fam all decked out in our Hornet gear.

The Hornets taking the field! We went to Razorback pizza
before the game and arrived JUST IN TIME!

It was so crowded! We were relieved when we saw Kim Pawelczak waving at us and pointing to empty seats! She saved the day...even if it was in the student section! Chaos! The Newsom's also joined us...not sure why Landry is so sad.

Action shot

These guys were hopping around the bleachers throughout the

night. Carter was more fascinated with them than the actual

game...ok, I might have been too!

Final score: Maumelle Hornets 29, Nashville Scrappers 26

It was a nail biter! As Russ kept saying, "This was Maumelle

history." Glad we were there.

Drawing with Mimi

Since they were old enough to hold a crayon, both of the boys have loved drawing pictures with Mimi. When she came for a visit a few weeks ago, they drew Halloween pictures...and giggled!

Carter messed up and drew two noses on his witch!

Holding their finished masterpieces...Carter's with only one nose!

You Want Me To Do What?

The boys are in a frenzy trying to save money for their Disney souvenirs. When the opportunity presents itself, I try to give them extra odd jobs in addition to their regular chores. I have gotten into the bad habit of throwing our "mail to be shredded" into the shredding bin without actually shredding it. To say that it was overflowing, would be an understatement. I knew two little boys that would be perfect for the job...apparently, they didn't feel the same way! In typical Galbraith fashion, Alex worked diligently and Carter showed his flair for the dramatic...he claimed "the shredder cut his finger" and "he needed a break!" Give ME a break!

Riverfront Park

Russ had to go to Chicago a couple of weeks ago which left me two cute boys to entertain on a beautiful fall day. What to do? Invite a couple of friends and head to Riverfront Park in the Rivermarket area. The boys LOVE all the tunnels and water fountains. It's out of the way so it's always a special treat when we go!

Owen, Carter, Alex and Jax on top of the climbing rocks

More climbing...Owen got his cast of the week before
so I wouldn't let him go very high! He wasn't too thrilled with me,
but Lisa would have been even less thrilled with another fracture!

They discovered that dry leaves would trickle down the
little stream into the river...

...they made a game of "racing their boats."

It was a bit cool, but why not? Alex and Owen were a

bit more conservative...we didn't bring any towels :)

Cool shot! After a couple of hours of park fun, we

walked down to the flying fish for a late lunch.

Love my boys!

Shortest Camping Trip EVER...

The boys went on their first camping trip EVER on September 24th (I am WAAYYYY behind on my blogging!). There is quite a story behind it...

Carter's friend Isaac Wilson had extended several invitations for Carter to go camping with his family. While we trust the Wilson's, Russ really wanted to be there for the boys "first camping experience." Please keep in mind that we are not campers or they would have had said experience before the ripe old ages of 8 and 11. Anywho, with that sentiment in mind, Matt Wilson, Isaac's father, graciously invited Russ and the boys to go with them on an excursion to Petit Jean Mountain. I am not exaggerating when I say that we have absolutely no free weekends until the third weekend in November...soccer and football consume the bulk of our Saturdays. September 24th was no exception...

Knowing there was no such thing as a "good time", Russ agreed to meet Matt on the mountain around 7:00 pm. This was the earliest time we could arrange due to both of the boys games and the Arkansas vs. Alabama game (priorities!). I'll save the gory details for another post, but Arkansas lost and it wasn't pretty. This sad state of affairs always puts Russ in a funk for a few days...literally. As soon as Russ snapped off the remote, he said that he wasn't feeling well (in his defense, he had complained of being really tired...but who isn't?). I replied with something snarky like, "Sounds like you have the Razorback virus. You'll be fine. The Wilson's are waiting on you guys...go!"

Fast forward to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday...Now, the boys were supposed to get up Sunday to hike and fish and do other manly things. I was expecting them MUCH later in the afternoon. The door flies open at 11:30 with Carter complaining about being in trouble (let's just say he didn't display his finest GUEST manners), Alex mumbling about not sleeping well and leaving too early...and Russ? Holy Hannah! He is burning up with almost 103 degree temp and not too happy with my diagnosis of a Razorback virus...who knew?

Apparently, they arrived to Matt having set up the entire campsite (including the 10 man tent they would ALL be sleeping in) and preparing dinner. They ate, they told ghost stories, they roasted smores...they piled into a tent where Russ' fever spiked and his cough got out of control. He says he kept stumbling out of the tent and walking into the woods in an attempt to not wake everyone else. They were up with the sun. Matt made a traditional breakfast (campfire eggs, bacon and hashbrowns) that Carter complained about (where are the pop tarts? I'm pretty sure this is where the poor manners entered the picture) and Russ was too sick to eat. He tried to rally and go fishing, but his strength and patience were fading. They were in the car by 10:30 and home by 11:30. Can we say total bust? They all want to try again...we'll see if they get another invitation.

*** Side note, today is October 16th and Russ STILL has a vicious cough. I may be moving him to a tent in the backyard very soon :)

Carter, Isaac and Alec

Roasting marshmallows with Mr. Wilson.

He caught one!

Too cute not to post...and to be honest I only had a hand full of

pictures to work with! Apparently photography is not high on

ones list of priorities when they have a raging fever in the wilderness.