AYSO All Stars Tournament

This past weekend Madison participated in the AYSO All Stars tournament. Her team was called the Shooting Stars.

This was her last experience with AYSO because her competitive team is going year-round competitive in the fall next year. They played 4 games over the weekend and took home the 1st place title. It was a great ending to her time with AYSO. This was the first tournament she has won and she was super excited. She even told me later that she thinks the Patriots (spring team) can win all the tournaments now.

That night we took Madison to pizza to celebrate and on the way out the door she was putting her medal on and showed it to Chili dog and said "see this Chili Dog, that is the smell of victory".

Soccer @ Squaw Valley

Madison's spring competitive soccer team occasionally scrimmages a soccer academy team in Squaw Valley California. The venue is amazing, there is one large artificial turf field tucked away in the pine trees. There was a squirrel taunting Chili Dog most of the day, there were lots of birds in the trees too.

Olympic (Squaw) Valley was the location of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games so at the turn to the park where the soccer field is located, the Olympic flame still burns.

Madison plays right defense and mid field. Here she is getting ready to take the ball from the other team.




Another of Madison's specialties is the throw in. If you look closely, you can see the ball here in the upper left hand corner of this pic.



After the game some of the parents met up at Starbucks in Truckee for coffee. It ends up being a pretty long day with the drive and the game.

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.

Davis World Cup

Those of you wondering what we have been doing with ourselves the past couple of months, soccer!

On Memorial day weekend we traveled to Davis, California the most dog and bike friendly town I have ever seen.

Madison's team the Patriots did great in the tournament especially when you consider that last year we decided at the last minute to pull out of the tournament because the girls were just not up to speed. This year we made it to the quarter finals and played 5 games over 3 days.

We stayed at a KOA in West Sacramento in a camping cabin. On the last day of the tournament before check out we let the "kids" have some fun and rented these recumbent style bikes. Shortly after taking this picture Brent almost lost control and crashed. He used his mad skills and recovered.

The cabins had porch swings so every night after all the soccer and once Madison was safely tucked into her bunk Brent would head up to the campgrounds store and buy us a 4 pack of cheap Sutterhome Chardonnay
(the mini bottles) and we would sit on the swing and unwind.

Chili dog enjoyed the front porch and did a great job of protecting us from bears and stuff. Overall it was a great trip with lots of excitement and not to far from home. Brent and I want to return to Davis just the two of us and take our bikes so we can take advantage of all the bike friendly features that Davis has to offer.

WNCC Soccer Tournament

This past weekend Shayna and I played in a one day soccer tournament that was a fund raiser for the local community college soccer program.

Last November I was playing on a Futsol team when I broke my ankle mountainbiking. I only got to practice for about a month and then play in one scrimmage before my MTB accident. Besides watching my girls, and coaching that is the extent of my soccer experience.

When this tournament came up Coach John asked if Shayna and I wanted to play. I had not run since my accident so last Wednesday I went and got new running shoes and then went for a one hour run to see how my ankle would hold up. It was fine (my muscles were not) so I decided to do the tournament.

Our first game was at 9:00 in the morning followed by one at 10:50, 12:30, and 2:10. Our team was basically the Futsol team with some additions. The ages on our team vary from as old as 40 (not me) to as young as 14. Some of our ladies played in college and one just got a free ride scolorship to college. What we did not know was we would be playing againt all college teams.

In our last game one of the cute little college girls asked if we had won our last game. I just started laughing and said "no sweetie, we are just a bunch of old ladies out here trying to have some fun". After that the word spread and they took it easy on us and started laughing with us when we would miss the shot or fall down.

Needless to say, we lost every single game and I am not sure we even managed to score a goal all day. Our oldest player tried so hard that she had a bruise on her ankle the next day!

Shayna and I had a great time together at the tournament and shared the pain the next day not being able to walk, stand, or climb stairs due to the pain.


We have both decided to play Futsol next season together I am very excited. I am going to get us some Futsol balls so we can practice in the cul-de-sac all summer cos mamma has no foot skills.