Sport

It probably is not a surprise to most people that Australians are into sports and sporting events. It also is probably no surprise to those who know me that I am not into sports much at all and refer to myself as being a "sport agnostic" as opposed to a fanatic!  But I haven't discouraged my kids from engaging in organized or individual sports.  (Weirdly I'm a superfan of the Olympics, but generally not much else other than the odd running race that is televised.  But I digress...)

Sports (which are referred to here in the singular) are a social activity, and great way for kids to learn about teamwork, confidence, work ethic, and to meet people.  Since we have arrived in Adelaide, we have asked Baxter and Miles to choose some type of activity they want to participate in while we are here.  Miles is a hoarder of things, including activities.  He would try all of the things; we have the roller skates, learn to juggle kits, bikes, and more to prove it!  Miles has been playing soccer for the past few years and it's been his favorite sport; he has also played futsal in the winter which is a faster indoor-type of soccer.  Here in Adelaide I managed to enroll Miles into a (free) futsal group for ages 7 & 8.  He has loved the weekly meetings, and even convinced his friend Caiden to join for the past few weeks.  We're all signed up for next session which begins in October. Here's Miles (in the bright green on the left) doing futsal drills. 

Baxter is a reluctant sports guy, but he has a lot of energy to burn.  We've tried to find something for him to do, which was definitely a battle.  Finally, we found that the local trampoline park has a "Flight Squad" course for small group lessons, and he enthusiastically requested trampoline as his activity.  After a month's session of classes, Baxter finally achieved his goal of doing a backflip on the trampoline (check out the video here).  He has definitely been working hard on it, and has even started to do some conditioning (core and arm work) to help him move on to cartwheel-backflip combinations that he hopes to learn next!  Of course, Miles wanted to try it so we are allowing Miles to do a class once a week as well, so both boys have 2 days a week of trampoline activity - one in a class format, and the other an unstructured one.

Jeremy continues to work from home, so he takes numerous "walk + think" breaks so he's quite expert in our local neighborhood as a result.  He and I have been running or walking on the beach weekly, and we've done lots of family hikes in the hills.  I've found two different female running groups - one I met through a friend connection from back in Columbus (thanks to my SRTT friend Emma!), and the other is a local group that meets regularly for group runs.  It has been a joy to have others to run with, and I've gotten to know a lot more about the community and culture by chatting with the locals.  Anneliis, Amalie, and Hoang are three new friends that have gotten me hooked into the trail running community here; they are all ultra marathoners, but I haven't been bitten by that bug quite yet.  I've done a 25k and a 15k trail races here within SA, and I hope to sign up for a half marathon in October.  It's lovely to have new friends and maintain some fitness at the same time.  Below is a photo from the 25k trail race in Murray Bridge, SA.