Soccer + Corn Maze + Dump = Epic Saturday (The Backlog!)

Shane wore his bandana again to tap his inner samurai/ninja/warrior spirit. He happily ditched me to talk to Jet and a player for the other team.

Gabe was out of town, so Coach drafted a younger kid to fill out the roster.

Shane's been the full time goalie from the 2nd game on this season (and he's happy about it!).

We were up against Teal. They're the only team to beat us and currently undefeated in the league. While, they don't have a player equal to Gabe, they have 4 different kids who are athletic, competitive, and skilled (Mario, Mia, Raiden and Micah? Not 100% on names).

Shane played well, but he couldn't keep them all out. Without Gabe to press the offensive, Teal spent a lot of time on our side of the field.

Jet seemed to relish his role as the designated goal kicker. His dad would joke on the sideline that Jet might be in the NFL one day....as a kicker! 

I like this sequence coming off of a Teal corner kick.

The "Yes Sir's!" successfully cleared it that time!

Shane stopped one goal shot by diving on a ball.

It was hard to tell from the video, but he said he got his hand stomped on. 

He laid the for a long while as the other players took a knee. The Coach came out to collect him. I'm always tempted to go out myself, but I hold off unless it's something major (and thank God, that hasn't happened!).  

I can't remember if the game was already over on time or if he went back out. I do know it ended up being fine. We lost, but not by a lot and we didn't have our best striker. We'll get one more chance to take them on in the end of season tournament.

After soccer, there were still important things to do around the farm like taking out the trash.

I declared a dump day. Carrie said she didn't feel well, so she'd drive, but she wasn't loading or unloading. 

I got to work.

So.....uh....remember when I said I was currently obsessed with Chobani flips?

In my defense, I've only eaten 1 of the Cookies and Cream ones (Shane claims those). Carrie helped off and on, too...

But, yeah. It was mostly me.

I burned off any Chobani calories lingering in my system by doing most of the trailer loading.

I made Shane deal with some of the recycling. It would've been nice if he found a pair of scissors and accidentally got a haircut, but no success.

Shane helped me unload the recycling when we got to the dump, as always. I handled the trash on my own.

And if that wasn't enough, I drove about an hour to take Shane to Liberty Mills Corn Maze. The Youth Group was running through a maze in the dark!

We listened some to our audiobook, but Shane mostly played on his Switch for the ride up (Super Smash Bros, maybe?). 

A few older boys said something like, "Oh no, it's Shane!" He immediately started shining the flashlight in their eyes, so they may have had a point.

I want to do a corn maze in the dark. Today, was not the day. If the goal is to build Shane's independence, he's got to do things without me (even the fun ones I want to do!).

I kept a window down in the car to listen for people to get back. It was a good thing, too, because they walked by the cars without stopping! I heard some patented Shane noises. I hopped out of the car and caught up to the group just outside the store.

Andrew said that in the beginning, some older kids jump scared the group. Shane screamed! He hid behind Andrew before sheepishly coming out. Apparently, he was a help with the map.

It was a long, dark drive home, but it was worth it for a good memory. I hope Shane remembers conquering a corn maze in the dark!