Region 8 Soccer in the House!

Soccer started in August.....of 2013....before school even started....when it was still about 50,000 degrees outside...when all I really wanted to do on Saturdays was go to the beach.

Soccer ended last weekend.  Now I'm no mathematician, but I'd say that's about 7 months!  And yes, it felt that long for us.  HOWEVER,  Derek was STOKED this season.  It was, without a doubt, his best season yet and it was so much fun to watch him to begin to show his athleticism, leadership and endurance!  

 During the regular season, Derek was on the "Dynamite Zombie Warriors"  (his suggestion, incidentally).  Here he is with Coaches Elgin and Fernando the day they won first place against "The Steaming Volcanos" ( these names kill me).  That made 2 championships in 2 years for Big D!

Dynamite Zombie Warriors!!

There appear to be 2 rules in AYSO:  1) Everyone plays (which is good), 2)  Soccer games are every Saturday for the rest of your life. ( not so good if you ever want to have a life outside soccer)  So, immediately following regular season and tournament of champions, it was right into All-Star season.  Admittedly, it was a blast to watch these boys.  This is our 4th straight season doing all-stars between Carissa and Derek and this is the first time that one of their teams has won games, so it was satisfying!  

Although,if you ask Derek what his favorite part of the tournament was, he'll tell you it was , "Playing in the trees with Elijah and throwing the peapods at each other".  This, despite the coach's strict warning to, "Go rest and DON"T SCREW AROUND!"  Yeah, right!

Despite the screwing around between each of their 5 games, they won all of them and thus were champions of the Area, which is roughly the entire San Fernando Valley, including Burbank.  

Of course it couldn't end there, so 6 WEEKS (!?!?!?) later, we headed to Bakersfield for the Section finals, which is about 1/4 of the state (there are 4 sections in Cali).  Teams came from as far as San Berdu, out to Ventura and up the Valley to Tulare.  I honestly expected the boys to be destroyed in their first game, but wouldn't you know it- they destroyed Santa Barbara, which was especially satisfying.   They eeked out a tie against Tulare and then won their final game, putting them into the semi-finals the next day.
 Grayson had fun hanging out with another 7 yr old younger brother.  The boys were so stoked, especially to win in a rainstorm in front of our huge crowd!

Unfortunately, the semi's were rough, and we took a beating from Santa Barbara's other team, but they were clearly superior in every way, not some rag tag group thrown together at the end of the regular season.

 Despite the disappointment, the boys were back to screwing around, kicking balls at each other, throwing each other into the bushes, and having a great time within about 5 minutes.  Medals always help!
 

 It was great fun for all of us, watching these 9 and 10 year old boys play their little hearts out.  Personally, I'm ready for a break, but wouldn't you know- tournament team practice starts NEXT WEEK!!  What have I gotten myself into??

Badly Needed Camping Trip

To end our longest non-camping streak EVER!- we turned our 3 day President's day weekend into  4  and headed north to Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara county.  We were nearly derailed by an overzealous head volleyball coach who tried to snatch Lee away for a pre-season tournament, but Lee held strong and we took off as planned on Thursday night after, of course, soccer practice.  We found a perfect little trailer for rent ( 89 bucks a night!), loaded it up and arrived at Refugio at about 10:30 pm in time to snag one the last 2 remaining sites.  Luckily, at Refugio, every site is close to the beach, so you always win!

                     
Friday morning, the boys were up early and ready to find a new posse.  There were kids galore at the campground and Derek and Grayson found 2 blonde haired blue eyed look-alikes to build forts, dig holes, ride bikes, play basketball, etc.

                             
 We actually had a lot of open space at our site!

 Our trailer was 24 feet, but had a slide-out on the other side, thus quite spacious for this family of 6.

 We were in site 50 :) And might I add, that I nailed it on the camping food this time.  I prepped so much beforehand, that dinner prep took me almost no time each night, and clean-up was nearly non-existent.  Winning!

 On Saturday, Carissa took the board out just before dusk.  She stayed perfectly dry...until she came in on a wave...

 Lots of bike riding at Refugio.

 Brooke's outfit of choice for the majority of beach time.

 Perfect, perfect weather.  There were numerous dolphins and according to the boys, even a whale, although I cannot verify that.  On Friday we were lucky to have the Wilson family visit us on the tail end of their stay cation.  Always a treat!

 We rode our bikes a couple of miles down the coastal path to El Capitan a few times.  We were astounded by how dry it was compared to last year.  The drought is real and it is bad.

     

same tree- one year ago exactly

 El Cap is rockier than Refugio, so we spent hours building towers...

 and then knocking them down with rocks.

 We hooked up with another couple and shared boards with them so that we each could go out with our spouses and, in our case, with Carissa.  Grayson even went out, but just barely past the break.

 I had to wrastle this girl to get her into her sunsuit!

 Lee is ready to start training Grayson, who is surprisingly good at pepper!

Such a perfect weekend.  We played so hard we were asleep by 9 every night- but our souls were soothed with the balm of sand, waves and sun.  Until next year....

Not Afraid of 40

I've spent the better part of my late 30's dreading my 40th birthday.  It seems so old, so late, so final.  It's always been this scary deadline in the future, looming, laughing at me, knowing that sooner or later I'm going to have to face it.  Until...I decided to embrace it- much like I've started embracing 75 degrees on Christmas, never hearing English at Costco, and 8 month youth soccer seasons.  I can't change it, so I may as well enjoy it.
With that in mind, I composed a list of 10 things that I will accomplish during this- my 40th year.  The 3 main requirements for my list were:

1)  It couldn't depend on me spending a lot of money.
2)  It had to be difficult for me- something that would really make me work hard.
3)  It had to be something I've never done.

Technically, I should have begun in December, as my birthday falls on November 21, but let's be honest- I wasn't going to do any of these things during the holidays, plus I was still dealing with the fact that the next birthday would be THE ONE.  So here it is- a little belated, in no particular order, and scaring me to death:

My 40th Year "Bucket List"

1)  Run one half-marathon per month.
2) Climb Half-Dome in Yosemite.
3) Take East and West Coast Swing Dancing classes, and go to a swing club to use my moves.
4) Catch a wave on a SUP, legitimately.
5) Learn Chopin's "Valse, op.64, no.2"
6) Re-read and study Talmage's  "Jesus the Christ".  **Technically I've done this, but I was in the MTC and therefore in a spiritual cocoon, so I figured I need to do it as a "real" person.
7) Plant and harvest tomatoes and an herb garden.
8) Complete a 50 mile ride on my bike (location TBD).
9) Complete a triathlon.
10) Read a literary Classic.

Writing this down hopefully makes it more likely that I'll actually do these things, and accountability tends to have that effect, as well, so hopefully I will have something to report on as the weeks tick by.  In the meantime, I will worry less about the wrinkles and sagging, and more about the person that I continue to try to become.