Soccer Games and S'mores at the Ridge

 Grandma and Grandpa Betteridge were in town for Amelia's upcoming baptism and Theo and Tessa's upcoming blessing. They had about 3 days at the Ridge before then to get it ready for winter. We went up and joined them for dinner and s'mores one night. We got up there kind of late because Alec had a soccer game, but there was enough daylight to walk around the property a bit, measure space for a mini cabin and swing on the swing a bit. As we walked by Grandpa's new tractor, Alec asked if he could drive it and to all of our astonishment, Grandpa said yes! So Alec climbed in and drove it backwards and forwards a bit.  It was kinda scary to see my 12 year old son behind the wheel of a big new tractor, but he did great and listened well.

It got dark pretty quick and was getting late on a school night but we still roasted marshmallows over the fake (propane flames over fake coals) fire since there was a ban on real fires with embers. I LOVE going up to the Ridge and enjoying some raw nature. 

It has been fun to watch Alec play soccer for his Middle School team. The coach and 85% of the team are hispanic. Alec says he sometimes can't understand the coach... and when I went to their first game and heard the coach speaking in Spanish half of the time, I can understand why!  I'm proud of Alec for sticking with it, even though he doesn't enjoy it as much as he thought he would (losing all of their games so far, is tough!).  It has been nice to see the coach trust Alec more and more by giving him more playing time.  The rest of us try to not yell encouraging commands (since we know this bothers Alec) and just cheer for the good. Max likes to run onto the fields, and Theo squints in the bright sunlight while Gwen, Charlie and Freddy play on nearby playgrounds or fight over who gets to kick our one soccer ball.