This was a year of growth and change. She left her old team, wanting a challenge and that is exactly what she got. From the moment the team was formed she was challenged.  Challenged in the amount of playing time she received. Challenged in the ability to make friends and become part of the team. It wasn't that she was excluded per se but that she found it difficult to connect with the girls. Most of them had played together from a young age and through high school. She was the outsider. She was also one of the oldest and started attending community college as a junior. One of her teammates was just a freshman. There is a distance there. She started work and was juggling more than one schedule. It was difficult. She grew and continues to grow. At the end of the season, she wasn't sure if she was up for another year. It was stressful trying to get a work schedule and a soccer schedule to mix when the soccer schedule came out the week of and the work schedule was done a week before. And yet I saw growth in her ability to work things out. I saw her grow as a player and contribute to the team. She is a passer and does well passing the ball into space and trusting her teammates to be there. I saw more physical toughness against other players but not over the top. I saw her do things that she wanted to do regardless of what her teammates thought. She is her own person. One of the complaints her coach has about her is that she is tough on herself and she is. She is also tough towards others as well.  She doesn't give herself slack and expects the same with her teammates. That will be both an asset and a liability for her. I wonder what her next year will bring.  More soccer? Who knows.

There aren't many activities that we all want to do.  We have a hard time finding movies to watch let alone spend a couple of hours out and about together.  Lona mentioned geocaching and I practically forced everyone to participate.  The app that Lona has not only gives her the place and clues to the geocache with the signal it lets her know if she's close or not. We scoured the first sight before we understood the first clue and we left a trinket attached to the small tube. The second location was just across the road and it was Job's idea to lift the bottom of the light. I would never have thought it was loose or could be lifted.  On to a park that housed at least three different locations. We ran into another couple that was searching for the same thing and apparently there was a get together later that day for geocachers.  They also have names for themselves or their group.  We just used Parks Family when signing the piece of paper in the small plastic tubes.  It was fun and gave us a diversion for the afternoon.