It's Fun to Win!

 Thomas had a couple of friendlies for his Club Soccer league in Franklin, TN last Sunday.  I only got to drive through town on my way to the fields, but I know I'd love to go back again sometime to explore.  It looked like such a cute place!

There is Thomas, to the far right in this picture.  It looks like they were beating up on this poor orange team.

Ha!  They were :)  I don't have pictures of the first game because Tom left with Thomas and Marie before church started and I held down the fort in our 3rd grade class before heading to Franklin.  I got to the first game about half-time, and they were doing well.  I'm so glad I made the trip over, even though we had to take two cars to make it work.

 

Here he is on defense, which is where he usually plays on this team.  They did a good job of guarding the goal this week -- the first game the other team didn't even score and during this game only 1-2 balls got by the defense and the keeper.  

  Here is the team at half-time. . .this is their assistant coach, Dave.  It's fun to win and it seems this team does a lot of winning when the coach isn't there. . .hmmmmmm. . .his assistant, though, is the coach's younger brother so I guess it could be said that he taught him everything he knows?

And Thomas is FAST.  I know this and yet am always amazed at his ability to out-run almost every other player on the field every time.

A couple of the fans (Tom and Marie)

These fans weren't as interested in the game as they were the dry-erase games I had in the trunk to pass the time. 

(B's brother, Frederick, Margaret)

It was a beautiful October day. . .clear skies, nice temperatures. . .I spent a good part of my time with the camera in my hand, trying to capture a picture of the soccer ball in the air against that perfect sky:

And, although it wasn't *this* corner kick, Thomas did have a chance in the second half of the second half to make a few and one of those kicks curved perfectly into the goal for a SCORE!

And here are those happy boys, after their second win in back-to-back games, making their victory run:
(Thomas is on the far right)

And the happy parents making a tunnel for them out on the field with congratulations to go around:

I wish so much the following picture would have been in better focus because I just love the ease of it. . .Marie had gone over to the other side of the field to see her brother and his friend MJ (who traveled with us that day) and this is them walking back together toward us:

And, before we headed out to dinner with the team at Chili's, Marie snapped my Picture of the Day:

Ha!  What do you know?  She got it perfectly in focus :)

Beautiful day, Lord.  Great games to watch, Thomas.  What a blessed life we have.