Chinny, Chin and Chin: September 2007

Visiting the Russillo's

We finished up our mini-vacation in Camden with Joe, Sal & the boys. Enzo has grown a ton since we last saw him. It's hard to believe that some day Brady is going to be running around like Michael and Enzo! Maybe he'll stay this age and size forever though....

This picture had about a 3% chance of being successful

Brady put a hat-like item on his head for the first time, thanks to Michael showing him that there's nothing to fear. Unfortunately, we have no picture of it!

Brady liked putting the helment on Michael too

Brady vacuumed to help pay for our stay

Dirt, Dirt, Dirt. I love dirt.

My first visit to the beach

We found our short stay in Kennebunk, Maine to be a great time. We ate lots of unhealthy, but tasty food, saw the Bush vacation compound, and visited the beach twice. It was Brady's first time at the beach so we didn't know how he'd fare. We know he likes water, dirt, and random things he can find on the ground, but we didn't know if he'd like the ocean waves and sand. He LOVED it there. We barely could get him out. The water was freezing cold and he wanted to just keep running into the waves. He had so much fun on the first day that we had to go back the next morning before heading to Camden so he could play some more. We had great weather and highly recommend Kinnebunk for a day trip.

So Brady, tell me what your really think of the beach?

Brady didn't have his swim suit on day 1, so he went just without pants

I love sand!

The future of the NFL is safe

We just got back from our first mini-vacation. Brady has never left the state of Massachusetts so this was a big event for us. I'll post sets of pictures from our trip north which involved stops in Kinnebunk, Camden, and Portsmouth. Although I typically post pictures in chronological order, since today is Sunday and Sundays in the Fall are all about football (plus I'm writing this as the Patriots are racking up the Chargers on national televsion), I thought I'd start with pictures of a game of a flag football game I went to on Saturday.

We stayed at chez Russillo in Camden, and I got to see Joe coaching and Michael playing in their third game of the year. When I was coaching football, I always wanted to get my hands on films of the games from parents or pictures so that I could review things and see what could be improved. So Joe, here's some material for this week's practice....

Wjay a kdb by alkjasdf as@ hw'a dkdjfasi nasdfj jmaio ej;a jaji ad snfnu endj lelai jaebcsow; im nasn nesn lsadf foi #4-nothong BEAY!!!

Sorry, I can't type and jump around at the same time. That's supposed to say "What a catch by Adalius Thomas! He's going to go all the way! Touch down Patriots!! 24-nothing BABY!" Okay, maybe I shouldn't blog during Patriots games....

Pre-game prep. The team seems ready, although one kid seems to be playing "robot that ran out of power"

For non-NFL fans, this is a matchup of the Redskins vs. the Eagles, so what they did is found two bunches of kids that absolutely hate each other and formed these two teams. Notice how the blonde girl in the Eagle jersey is staring the Redskins down.

The Eagles figured the the Skins would be trying to run the ball up the middle, so they brought in their beefy nose guard to clog the middle of the field. (this kid was like twice as big as everyone else)

Michael hustled everywhere

Joe, note the poor ball handling here. Form the V over the tip of the ball and tuck the ball tight against the chest....

Michael chasing down an opposing runner

Something is wrong here. Either one kid is offsides or two other kids are REALLY slow getting off the snap. Based on the fact that Michael is in the proces of taking the snap, I think Joe needs to work on his players' speed off the line of scrimmage.

Michael is cleaning out his eye here, not his nose.

A beautiful pass from Michael.

A bit of an early release, but still a nice pass.

Michael barking out the cadence

This kid was fast. I'm not sure he was so fast that he'd be five yards ahead of a defensive player who dove for him as this picture implies.

A new year, new hopes and aspirations

Last weekend was the first weekend after Labor Day which marks the start of the NFL season! Last year the Patriots were 30 seconds away from going to the Superbowl where they would've ultimately avenged their 1986 Superbowl loss and pummeled the Bears. This year the Pats are bigger, faster, and better. I hope the Bears make it back to the Superbowl so we can lay it on them like they did to us (46-10 for those who don't remember).

Anyway, enough of the bitter memories, last weekend Brady and I had a ton of fun watching the games together. By 5pm my eyes were burning from watching so much continuous TV. Obviously my eyes are not in regular-season shape yet, but give me a week or so. Brady was not up to the full challenge either, as he passed out at 6pm on top of Irene. He didn't wake up until 6am the next morning...