You could lead ships into port with the brightness of my daughter's smile.  At 6 she has the boundless energy and enthusiasm that is contagious to be around.  No matter how hectic a schedule you can be sure this one will manage to make you smile too.

It was a soccer double-header Saturday and double-header soccer pictures Sunday in Paso Robles.  Saturday started early with her brother Ethan's game.  It was a gray morning and another day where Ethan played mostly defense, not exactly something 6 year old girls cheer for.  Campbell found a large paper dowel and drew pictures in the dirt baseball diamond nearby.  She came over several times begging me to look at what she had done.  With my attention split watching Ethan's game she had to wait until the half.  When I walked over I saw that she had drawn a picture of us.  "This is you, Dad, and this is me."  Mine had spiky hair and her's had a small bob but we both had smiles.  Makes me wish I had not waited 5 minutes to see it.  Certainly it has been trampled or raked over by now, but I think the best part is that she'd draw it again given the chance and any kind of medium.



There were several hours between games, time for lunch.  Campbell is proudly sporting the gap in her front teeth from her newly lost tooth and showing us the other front partner isn't going to last long either with an easy wiggle.  Lunch was a little down.  Ethan was pouting from either the lack of food or high fructose corn syrup or the fact that I wouldn't buy him toys when shopping for a birthday party gift for his friend, Dante.  Campbell powered through knowing she would get a lot of attention with Ethan staying overnight with his friend.  Changing into her soccer clothes in the back seat of my car she was ready with only 5 minutes to spare before her game.  Now the sun beat down on us and only a breeze kept non-participants from a general grumble.



Campbell played well, but didn't score like the prior week.  Her team, "The Green Geckos" lost to "The Purple Peacocks" (why don't pro sports franchises have such names?).  We dubbed their best player Mia Hamm as she looked a foot taller and ten years older than the other players cutting though them like a butter.  But what I liked about this game was the innocence of the girls.  During a throw in right in front of us one of the "Purple Peacocks" screamed "I'm open, I'm open" to which my daughter and another girl instantly enveloped her in punitive defense so tight we had to laugh.  At this level enthusiasm rules and strategy is some way off.

A few minutes later, and again right in front of us another one of the "Purple Peacocks" better players cut off one of the Geckos and started turning the ball up the pitch but the smaller Gecko fell.  Without hesitation the other player stopped and said with a voice of genuine kindness and concern, "I'm sorry are you OK?"  I turned to my friend , and we both said "Awwww."

Cute or not, 3 hours of soccer and another 3 hours in between games makes for a long day, we bid Ethan the best for his sleep over, dropped him off, and drove south.  On the way home we stopped in SLO for a girl's shopping adventure.  Getting really lucky on parking we only had a few strides between us and the Cal Poly store.



Leave it to Campbell to find the cutest things in the store.  I ended up getting her a t-shirt instead as her zoo of stuffed animals probably doesn't need another inhabitant.



At Abercrombie & Fitch and Gap Campbell liked perfume.  She tried a little but at one point tugged on my shirt and announced how the paper cards work near the perfume so you don't have to put every scent on you.



And, let's face it, girls like trying stuff on.  Here she is trying her best model post with the lips.  It'll be a few years before anything here fits, and that is good news to my bank account.  She already plays dress up games on the computer with closets full of virtual clothes, look out.

Sunday was not nearly as fun.  I got up even earlier (8AM) for the trek back to Paso Robles.  Like the soccer games the soccer pictures were spread out, and a business so complicated I took pics and notes for a potential blog on that one alone.  There were 4 hours between shoots, so much time we got in a sit-down lunch and a movie in the theater.  The movie, "Alpha and Omega", was a 3-D ATM drainer presented in a poorly configured screen with a predictable plot.  It wasn't bad, but when you can't make my kids giggle more than a few times you need to head back to the drawing board (or expensive animation software as the case is now).

At about 4pm, the obligations complete, I headed home.  It was a weekend with a tighter schedule than I keep at work, but I have to tell you I enjoyed it thoroughly.