Green Demons

Here are the dominant and sportsmanlike Green Demons! 

Soccer Celebration

Sunday was a beautiful day for Sophia's last soccer game of the year. Third grade soccer is a hoot to watch. All of these girls worked hard throughout the year at practices and games. They showed remarkable sportsmanship and toughness. I am proud of each of them!

Sophia got to play her favorite position in her last game - goalie. She has gotten serious about it when she is trying to keep goals out, and she does a great job. I love to watch her and her friends learning the game and figuring out how to work together!

Now, a few weeks off before basketball picks up again. A lot of these girls will get to stick together. They love being part of a team!

St. Louis Soccer

Last weekend was the home opening match of the St. Louis Football Club. The stadium is way out in Fenton, which is about 30 minutes away (25 minutes farther than we drive for entertainment typically). It was not the last time we'll be making the drive.

Before the match started, there were lots of fun things for kids to do. Hoops contest, kicking contest, the Bubble Bus!! And, of course, the Team Store...

The match was sold out, which meant 5,500 or so? That's not a ton of people really, but the atmosphere was so much fun! Lots of energy and excitement.

Sophia got into it much more than I thought she would. In case you were wondering, she's the kind of kid who yells out "RED CARD!" any time one of our players is fouled by the other team. She's also the kind of kid who goes crazy when the team scores.

As she learned from her time at Quakes matches with our family in California, Sophia will not leave a soccer match without obtaining signatures and pictures. Here she is getting a signature from the goal scorer, St. Louis native and former Quake, Brandon Barklage.

Like I said, that was not our last time out there, and hopefully in the years to come we can get season tickets if it's going to result in this response...

Officially summer

School is out of session. The pools are open. But it's officially summer because I have a sunburn. Yep. I'm careful, but it happened anyway. We had a great couple of days in Kansas City. A night and two days at Great Wolf Lodge. Sophia was excited that one of the wolves was girly.

Most of the time was spent at the pool, of course. Sophia's swimming lessons are already paying off. She had a blast playing in the pool nonstop.

Our weekend was capped off with a soccer match between my San Jose Earthquakes and The CoMo and Stewartsville VanDykes' Sporting KC. It was a great match. The good news is that all three goals were scored in the net right in front of us. The bad news is that only one of them was scored by a Quake. Sophia enjoyed some quality time with Casey during the match. Asking lots of questions. All the kids did great. It was a great time.

Today is just a relaxing day to catch up on rest and laundry. I love three-day weekends. Hope everyone has had a fantastic and relaxing Memorial Day weekend!

Fresh

 

Last night, Erick went to the Portland Timbers game with Brian. He bought a jersey for Sophia, and I think it's going to be a challenge to get this off of her. This afternoon we we went to pick some fresh raspberries, and although I don't love the team, I do love this picture.

Should have done that a long time ago

Tuesday morning, Erick and I set out on a roadtrip to Nashville. We haven't roadtripped together since before Sophia. It was only five hours, but a good enough drive to remind me why we don't do that with Sophia. It was also a long enough drive for me to impress Erick with my ability to sing along to very obscure old country western songs. When he changed the station because he couldn't handle that any more, I started to practice my newly learned beatboxing skills. Needless to say, the station was changed again.

Another quick stop was made in the "metropolis" of Metropolis, IL. We had to see the giant Superman statue. Glad we saw it. Doubt if we ever make that effort again...




The object was to get to LP Field in time to see the US Men's National Soccer team compete with Paraguay. Nashville was a really great city. Not sure why, but I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I'll definitely be going back there. We spent some time prior to the game in the downtown area at the Wildhorse Saloon. After that, we headed to the game with 30,000 soccer fans. It was an exciting environment. I can only imagine how fun it is with a full house for a Titans game. The US lost the match, but it wasn't embarrassing by any stretch. A couple of missed opportunities and one that made it for the other side. All in all a great showing, and we had an absolute blast at the game.

After the game, we were very hungry, so we walked over the pedestrian bridge back into downtown. Every place we went into had already turned off the grill. That was a major disappointment. Finally, we found some food. After we wandered around a little more, we ended up in a place called Robert's Western World. We had hardly sat down when we looked up to see a group of interesting people walk in and sit down at the table next to us. Landon Donovan, the most well-known player on the team (arguably in American soccer), along with the goalkeeper from the game and a couple of other players were just looking to relax after a disappointing loss. It is probably nice to be a famous soccer player in Nashville because you're not going to be bothered a lot. In the entire place, there were about six of us who knew who they were. Erick and I carried on a conversation with Keeper Hahnemann, a beyond nice guy. I also can't say enough nice things about Landon Donovan. He was gracious and kind. Stylish and humble. I'm officially a fan. Erick had Hahnemann and Donovan sign his new red jersey. Now it's a wonderful keepsake from that trip. I'm glad we have it since we were having such significant technical difficulties that there is no record of the pictures of Erick and I with Donovan. That was pretty frustrating, but I don't plan on forgetting how that all went down.




The next day was just taken up by a long drive home. I wasn't quite as slaphappy or entertaining. I wish we could follow the team to every game, but it would never happen quite that way again.

Back to real life - or almost. Sophia and I are excited today because Erica and Ava are on their way for a visit. Can't wait to hang out with some great friends. Seriously loving this week.