Yesterday we measured Maya and she has grown 1 inch in the last three months. My little girl is slowly dissapearing and a very nice young lady is taking her place. All my efforts to delay this transformation have been in vain.

 
Next week I leave on a solo coming of age adventure. I will turn 50 on the 29th and have decided to spend the last 4 days of my first half century camping in the back woods of Yellowstone National Park. This evening I practiced setting up my tent, shown here without the rain fly, in our bedroom. The first time it took me five minutes, the second was down to four minutes. With a little more practice I think I can hit three minutes (valuable if you are pitching in driving rain or snow).

 
I finally got some time today to build a storage system for the kayaks. I fashioned a harness and set of pulleys for each kayak allowing me to store them near the ceiling of the garage and lower them onto the car when ready to transport. It is a rather elegant solution and I am pleased with the results. Earlier in the day I was in action on the soccer pitch. After playing the entire first half I had to pull myself out when my previously injured groin muscle began to give out. After building up a 2-0 advantage it was very difficult to watch from the sidelines as we gave up two goals and had to settle for a tie.

 
Next I took Nico to his game. His team fought to a 0-0 tie. Nico played the entire match at center-mid. Almost every significant scoring opportunity for Concord came off a distribution pass from Nico. He was a beast on the field and is seen here unleashing a rocket. His combination of strength and grace is a joy to watch.

 
Later in the day Jeanine and I watched Maya’s soccer game. Her team lost to a much stronger opponent but Maya had a tremendous game. She played sweeper and center-mid doing a great job at both positions. Her brothers would have been very proud to see how good she has become.

 
Jeanine asked me to sharpen about a dozen of her cooking knives this morning. Maya offered to help and I taught her how to use the wet grinder. She sharpened two of the smaller knives entirely by herself and assisted with the final honing on all the knives. She did an outstanding job and continues to amaze me with her ability to tackle work requiring such finesse.

 
Kyle’s high school soccer team was in action this evening. They played Arlington High School which is very close to my office and I was able to drive over after work to see the match. Unfortunately I did not have a long lens with me so I settled for this art shot of two parents. The boys played very well and came away with a 1-0 victory.

 
I never know what I am going to see out of my office window. Today the ten story building across the street got a new air conditioning unit. Something very enjoyable about watching a crane in operation. Probably a little overkill but I couldn’t help thinking it would be handy to have my own for putting the kayaks on top of the van.

 
The boys have decided to sell their Foosball table which they received as a Christmas gift when they were younger. With Maya’s help they cleaned off all the dust and polished the wood. I helped with the photography and it is now listed on Craig’s List.

 
For Family Night we went geocaching (treasure hunting using GPS latitude and longitude coordinates). Our first geocache was appropriately titled Witch Tree (N 42° 25.785 W 071° 19.153)located near Flint Pond. Chloe joined us for the adventure. Caches are generally filled with little toys and nick knacks which you can trade for items you bring with you. Kyle exchanged a Japanese banner for a superball. We did a second geocache in the Hapgood Woods.

 
Kyle and Chloe let me take a rare portrait. I am rather pleased with the results and hope they like it as well.

 
Nicolai at the Willard Ice Cream social with his friends.

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Nico scored with a header in the second half but his team was unable to pull out the win. We wonder each season whether Nico will be able to cope with the challenges of playing competitive soccer with one leg. Opening the season with such a pretty goal suggests he can still hold his own.

 
Nico’s soccer team opened their fall season today playing on the new turf fields at CCHS. I was only able to shoot for a few minutes before torrential rains began, the remnants of hurricane Hanna.