game days

nothing better captures the essence of a fall weekend like attending friday night football games and saturday morning soccer games. this weekend, we got to do both.

friday evening found the meiste's headed for kzoo. our mission: to support cousin carter. (the kids' cousin, my nephew). carter is a sophomore on kalamazoo christian's varsity football team. this is the first opportunity we have had to root him on as i had either been working at teermans or the weather had been less than desirable for game watching. so we were excited. brad's excitement was obvious by his interesting efforts at talking with an accent the entire trip to kzoo. not sure what accent he was going for, but it was mildly amusing, and then annoying. my own excitement got ratcheted up to a new level when we found a kfc on our way that involved a buffet. heaven.

keep in mind all are still struggling with colds. and crabby. so we had to wake them up from their carseat slumbers in order to obtain our dinners. bear was especially anticipating some pop. so when the people in line ahead of us did not run to the counter to place their order bear shot ahead of them and yelled to us that he got us a spot. brad gracefully scooped up bear and tried to explain the whole concept of a line. beautiful as that explanation was, bear heard not one word as he proceeded to hurl himself onto the floor and cry. the volume and intensity of the tantrum escalated until brad picked wes up by his coat, literally choking weston in the process. i ducked and ran to a booth, the babes all in tow. maxer went over to the soda to direct brad in his flavor choice, only to drop his entire cup of diet coke all over the floor. we quickly scarfed copious amounts of fried chicken and were back in the veen before the authorities were alerted.

fed and re energized, we again took to the open road for kzoo christian. however, when we arrived, it became glaringly obvious that the game was not actually held at this venue. an empty stadium met us, along with a portapotty. so while all the potty trained meistes peed, we frantically called anyone who may know where the game is actually held. then, in desperation, we just called anyone who may have heard of the wenkes. we connected with austin, carters older bro, and were once again on our way.

craig met us at the gate, and we gathered up everyone and their cold weather garmets and their snacks and their activities and made our way to the bleachers. so perhaps we missed the first quarter, we were there nonetheless. i made up for my severe lack of knowledge about the game by engaging the boys in facts i did know: carter is number 72, look at the scoreboard, see how those boys are running, etc. though the game was intense, i found my gaze mostly locked on my cuties: the little honey girl looking like a pink marshmallow, the boys zooming cars back and forth to eachother on the bleachers, maxer ringing the cowbell whenever we encouraged him to do so. adorable.

in the end, the comets lost. carter's season came to a close amid fans and family alike congratulating the players efforts. we again loaded the veen and headed for home only to repeat the gametime process for maxer's soccer game bright and early at 10 am the next morn. here are the incredibly cute spectators, all wore the exact same outfit as the night before.

thankfully, bradley was able to join us for this game! maxer did so well. he is improving like crazy. he literally, almost had a goal. though we were down 2 players, we managed another victory for team silver. celebratory doughnuts followed this escapade.

here are the future soccer players, aka the younger brothers of maxer and his teammates. notice who is captivating them all, ayla jo.

sunday was a day of rest after all these games. we had the privilege of michael hidalgo back at ridge, the zoerhofs for an omelet lunch, and many rounds of trophy hunter for brad and the boys. a blessed day to recharge us for the week ahead!