Ethan had his first soccer practice on Sunday afternoon. This year he is playing on a team with his best friend Henry. His team is called Cheetahs. The coach this year is excellent. He did a really good job of bonding with the kids - a good strategy to get them to pay attention. He also had a lot of fun games for the kids to play to learn the different soccer skills. Here is a picture of the team doing some warm up drills. It was a really hot day almost 100 degrees and pretty humid. The kids were good sports to stay out there for an hour long practice.
The picture on the top left is of Ethan and Henry listening to the coach as he explains the next game they are going to play. You can tell the kids are listening intently.

After soccer practice, we headed over to Henry's house for pizza and birthday cake for Henry's dad Tony. Before we went home, all of the kids took baths and got into their PJs. Here is a picture of the boys, and Henry's sister, Ella.

Last night Friday, September 10, 2005, Ethan rode his bike without training wheels for the first time! Santa brought Ethan a bike last Christmas. Ethan is really fast and good at riding the bike with training wheels. Last night he asked to try it without. He did great. He was really good at keeping his balance. We are now working on stopping and starting. He has learned how to reverse the pedals to put on the brakes and is getting better at getting off the bike without falling. This morning we went out for another ride. This time we practiced turning corners and getting on the bike. Before long he will be zooming all around the neighborhood on his bike without training wheels!

We went to Corpus Christi for Labor Day weekend to visit Gail and Grandpa Billy and see their new house. When we arrived at the new house, there was a big surprise for Ethan in the backyard - a big wooden playscape complete with swings and a slide. There are also kids next door his age, so now he will have playmates when we go to Corpus.

A big highlight of our visit was our daily morning trips to the beach. Ethan loves to "surf" on his boogie board. He is getting so good that he can catch waves on his own. He is becoming quiet the surfer.


We also had the opportunity to explore the local wildlife at the beach and discovered a new little animal. After much debate about whether the animal was a chipmunk or a prairie dog. I decided to ask a park ranger. It turns out we were all wrong and the animal is a spotted ground squirrel. They live in little burrows in the sand dunes, and according to the park rangers, "like to eat dead dragon flies off the grills of cars." They also hibernate in the winter. Here is a picture of one of the little guys.

This is my first posting on this site. I am hoping to keep it up to date. Kaira gave me the idea to do this, and it is a good one. I am posting so my family and friends can keep up with Ethan. I am starting with our trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bond in Phoenix, Arizona last June. We spent a week in Arizona, and took a fun trip to the Grand Canyon. We camped for four nights at Lake Kaibab near Flagstaff, Arizona.

This was Ethan's first real camping experience and he loved every minute of it. We camped near lake Kaibab and went fishing for Trout. Ethan did not catch any fish, but he helped mom, dad, and grandpa reel some in. I think his favorite parts of camping were finding sticks to throw in the camp fire and building his own log teepee. Even though it was june, the weather was just beautiful. It was cool in the mornings and evenings and not too hot during the day - thanks to the surprise rain showers and hail storm. Ethan is still talking about how we got caught in a rain storm at one of the shuttle bus stops and had to take cover under the trees.

We took an old fashioned steam train from a town near where we were camping (Williams, Arizona) to the Grand Canyon National Park. It was about a two hour ride with entertainment from cowboy singers along the way. They even staged a surprise train robbery with horses and all. This was Ethan's first encounter with cowboys, and he was a little scared at first. In the end though, he got used to the idea and even agreed to pose for a picture with one. We also went to Slide Rock State Park near Sedona, Arizona. Slide Rock is a natural water attraction where you can slide down slippery rock rapids and natural slides. It is very beautiful there - the rocks are deep red. We all took turns going down the different rock slides - even Grandma Bond! Grandpa Bond was our official photographer and got some great action shots. Here is a photo of Ethan riding down a slide with dad. We all had a nice time and the evening ended with a nice meal of Mexican food on the patio of a restaurant in the town of Sedona.
The Grand Canyon itself was just amazing. It is impossible to catch all that beauty in photograph. I think we all would like to go back again for more adventures.