Summer games, sunshine and smiles!

We had a great time as a family down in Cedar City. My oldest daughter was playing with the Avalanche soccer club as a guest player (since she plays for USA currently) Avalanche is truly the elite soccer club for girls in the state of Utah. Some may say that Sparta is better but having watched Hailey for the last 3 years in competitive soccer, I would say Avalanche is the best....AND THE MOST EXPENSIVE! (which is why Hailey, at 11 years old, does not play for them)

Anyway, we felt really priveleged that she could have this experience. She has a friend from school that plays for the club and she invited Hailey to come since some of their regular team players would be out of town.

Hailey got to stay in the SUU dorms. (yes, I was a little nervous since this is the first time she was doing something with friends, away from home, sleeping over, and mom wasn't included, except to be a spectator.)

So we left at 11am on Wednesday. Hailey's first game was at 5:30pm and we had to get her situated, then we had to get us situated. We took our trailer because there were no rooms available in any hotels. Lucky for us we had a trailer.

About 30 minutes outside of Cedar, we hear this funny rumbling sound. We pulled over to find that one of our trailer tires had not just popped, but exploded. There was tire stuff all over the road behind us. Changing a tire on the scary side of a highway with big rigs mere feet away going 70 miles an hour really gets the blood pumping. I chose wisely with my attire that morning and wore a bright green shirt. So while my manly husband was under the trailer trying to jack it up, I was standing at the back of the trailer, pacing back and forth, trying to make eye contact with drivers so they wouldn't collide into us. I am amazed at how courteous big rig drivers are. Most of them, that could, pulled over into the other lane. But the small cars and trucks, very few were courteous that way.
(I began wondering if I am as oblivious as they were so now I will pay attention to others off on the side of the road)


Anyway, it took about an hour to get that figured out only to find that the spare was pretty flat. (Luckily the trailer has 2 tires on each side) We drove to the next truck stop, filled it up with air and carried on with our journey.

We made it just in time for Hailey to get into the dorms, change her clothes and leave to warm up for her game.

We took off to Kannaraville, (a darling town of about 300 people) to park our trailer and get back to watch Hailey.

Ok, so we made it back to Cedar about 10 minutes after her game started. She played awesome!!! They actually had her start, which we thought was so amazing since she had only 3 practices with the team before this.

The team they played was a year older, and BIGGER. They unfortunately lost, 2 -1. But Hailey was beaming. She played an older team, started, and played striker. She had a few shots on goal but their keeper was AMAZING!!

So, I had to say goodbye to my sweet little girl as she embarked on her much anticipated independence and we went back with our 3 other sweeties to our trailer and had a great time that night at a park that was right next to where we were camped.

The next morning we got up, cleaned up and took off for another game.

Hailey looked pretty tired. I don't think she got a whole lot of sleep the night before. But she sure was having fun!

The team they played that morning were huge and strong. Our girls were strong but this team was stronger!Within the first 5 minutes, their team had made 8 strikes on goal. Thank goodness none of them had gone it but they were attacking hard from the get go.

The best part of that game is Hailey made the one and only goal for our team. The thing I love about Hailey is her determination. She saw an opportunity and ran hard. There were 2 of the opposing team that were sandwiching her, trying to get the ball away from her and she just kept going, used the outside of her left foot and kicked it in the goal! I was so happy for Hailey. She was pretty happy too. Unfortunately, they lost.

We drove to a park with a creek running through it and the kids played hard and had a blast. Hailey and the team played some team building games, and I just loved watching her smile and have a good time. I think the best part about being a mom is watching my kids smile and laugh and genuinely be happy. And that we are happy being together.

The 5 of us left the park to go hang out for a bit, while Hailey went back to the dorms with her new friends to rest up for the next game.

We went to this museum...Iron Mesa something or other for about an hour. The best part for Emilee, they had rocks that she could add to her "collection". Then we went to the Pizza Factory for dinner. Paul and I love that place and we were excited that we could take the girls there, since they don't have one anywhere near where we live. Abby prefers running around playing with her food, but an enjoyable time nonetheless.

We went to another game of Hailey's at 6:30 that evening and it was sunny, but cold. That was a tough game for the girls. And not just the team, but Abby too. The team had to win this game or they were out of the tournament. They played their hearts out, scored 1 time and lost. It was a hard one, knowing that their fun had come to an end. I hate to admit that I was a bit relieved since Abby had had enough soccer.

Hailey got to stay one more night with her friend at the dorms. They had opening ceremonies that night, a much smaller version than what they do at the Olympics, and a concert with the Jazz bear and the Blaze dog there. Hailey went to that. We bought tickets but I did not want to take Abby there, only to have to try and keep her quiet. So we went back to our trailer and played games as a family and relaxed. I was sad we missed the ceremonies but I had to say no...bummer.