IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN

(ABOVE: Brennen pointing out on the field)

It's that time again - well almost anyway.....

It's Gator ball season for Brennen. What is "gator ball" you ask? Well, gator ball was brought to Indiana by our high school football coach after he watched the Floridian football teams invent it there in Florida. Basically gator ball is flag football involving passing, receiving, and running the ball. However, there is no tackling in the game of "gator ball." In the best words of my girlfriend Jenny, it keeps the boys in shape and ready for tackle football come July when their Fall football season begins. Although Brennen doesn't enjoy gator ball as much as he does his tackle league in the fall, it still keeps him "moving" and "going" in the realm of football while he awaits his tackle league to start. He misses being able to tackle and it quite honestly drives him crazy that he can't in the game of gator ball. However, it's still good exercise for him and it makes for great practices before the fall league rolls around.

The one good thing about gator ball is that they are spared having to be in full equipment out in the spring/summer heat. They are required to wear their helmets and mouthpieces but their shoulder pads and padded football pants can wait until July. (for their fall tackle league) Although they still get hot, it's nothing like what they go thru in full equipment during the tackle season.
Another fun thing about Gator ball is that it is basically like backyard football. (As Brennen's coach referred to it) It is just a good ol' game of backyard football amongst boys on multiple teams. As parents, gator ball makes for an exciting night. It's a fun and great game to watch play out. Last night's game was no exception. We had a beautiful and sunny 81 degree day here in Indy yesterday and as evening fell across the fields, it made for a gorgeous night altogether. Although I'm eager for fall tackle to begin, we are all enjoying being back out on the fields again. After last Fall's winning Superbowl season with Brennen's team, I'm afraid that we are all spoiled by the record they held and I worry that this next Fall season might be hard to live up to what we experienced last year. Who knows - we'll see - maybe Brennen will end up on Coach McCoy's team again and we'll do another Superbowl season repeat. Either way, we are looking forward to the next 7 months of football.


(Brennen is in the center here with the black face mask on his helmet. He's hunkered down and ready to stop the kid with the yellow penny on his helmet that is coming at him.)

FUN, FUN, FUN! Having a telephoto lens on ol' Razzi (my SLR camera) to capture these shots makes it even funner for me -as Brennen's Mom. It gives me a great chance to work Razzi's skills and prove what she is made of from clear across the other side of the field. I love capturing shots of Brennen that make it look as though I was standing right in front of him taking the picture when we all know I wasn't. As a photography enthusiast, I'm guessing that there is something similar in feeling to having a BIG powerful telephoto lens to maybe what a male feels like with a big ol' loud & powerful engine in the hood of his favored and most sleek hot rod car. I donno-I'm just guessing on that but it was the best word picture I could come up with to describe what pulling out a camera with a big ol' telephoto lens attached to the front of it feels like. Just recently, I've locked in on an even more powerful telephoto lens that I'd love to have. In fact, it is the type of lens that would make for an awesome Mother's day gift, birthday gift possibly, etc. etc. etc. Ha ha! It's a 70-300mm lens that in one word...just "ROCKS!" I like to joke and say that I could capture a shot of the man on the moon with that lens.

Look at this shot above - he's just getting so big. My girlfriend Sarah sent me a note about a photo of Brennen on my myspace page recently. It was a picture of him on the beach in Florida when we were there a couple of weeks ago. Her note read like this...."I know you don't want to hear this, but he looks so much like a "DUDE" here." :) She was so right too! It was a shot similar to this one above-a moment caught in time-captured candidly. One where where he looked so big-so grown up-and soooooo looked like a "dude." What a scary thought! :) :(

I love you dude!