State Cup 2012

This weekend was the start of State Cup, the final tournament of the season and the one we have worked all year to prepare for. Last year, we had a fantastic season and a disappointing finish at State Cup so this year we were out to prove how much we have grown.

Our first match up was against FC Murrieta at the San Bernadino Soccer Complex. We have faced this team several times before, but knew they would come out strong to try and beat us. We started off strong and Taylor put in the first goal of the game in the first minute and 40 seconds of the start! Although not our best performance, we finished strong and won 3-0.

On Sunday morning, we arrived confident for our game against Orange County Premier...a team we knew little about. No joke...their keeper was probably 5'6 and 250 lbs, but our girls could not manage to put a single goal by her. We had more missed opportunities than I can count and just couldn't get our act together. We even said we looked like the Bad News Bears and lost a devastating 2-0.

We had a few hours before our next game and enjoyed some team downtime to try and erase the ugliness of our morning showing. The parents and coaches did lots of reflecting and head shaking, but the girls go right back to being kids!
Allison was a good, supportive sister coming to all 3 games!
Mary and I also shared some wonderful baby time with our newest Hawks family member, Joey.

Our morning loss led to a must win situation for our afternoon game against San Clemente United if we wanted to advance to next weekend's round of 32. Again we started off flat, allowing an early goal as our defenders just watched. But our girls would have nothing of it and quickly responded with a goal of our own and then another. We led 2-1 at half and added 2 more for security in the 2nd half. The 4-1 victory gave us enough to advance to next weekend! We are excited to represent Temecula and play San Luis Obispo on Saturday. This was not the type of soccer we usually see out of this group so we are hoping they find their "A game" because they are going to need it to keep advancing.

However, our start-of-the-season goal was to advance to the 2nd weekend of State Cup and we just achieved that. The hard work has paid off and we hope to see them exceed their goal next weekend!!

Mud Bowl 2012

The Hawks Shootout (this year remembered as Mud Bowl) was held this weekend in Temecula. Allison's Allstar team entered to extend their season and it proved to be a wise decision!The girls played so well, battling against Club teams that had been together for at least a year. Allison had some of the best goalkeeping I have ever seen her have and kept all of the games close. We played under the lights Friday night and beat Vista Storm 4-1! On Saturday, they beat United FC 3-0 and this morning tied Oceanside 0-0 to advance to the Championship this afternoon. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch because Taylor's game was at the same time.

They played FC Blades for the title and lost 1-0. According to the other parents, we came out flat and struggled to put one in the net. In the 2nd half, a ball took a bad bounce after Allison dove for it and went over her body and dribbled into the net...a bad break for sure! Some tears were shed and her pride wounded, but within minutes, the girls were back to themselves and celebrating a great accomplishment.

Coach Mike presented them with the Finalist medals.

Best buddies who are nothing but smiles getting to play together!The Allstar season has come to an end, but this group has so much talent so I'm sure we will see them on the field again...maybe even some on the same team soon! My favorite moment of the weekend was when I picked up Allison at Leslie's following the championship games. She told me her team voted her "MIP" and asked what that meant. I corrected her by saying "MVP" and told her what it stood for. Any hint of frustration or disappointment was wiped away and the California burrito from Aztec for dinner didn't hurt either!
This was the first time both girls played in the same tournament which meant lots of back and forth with 8 games in 3 days. Luckily I was able to see all but Allison's championship. Allison's team got really lucky with the weather and fields, but the GU12 girls had to battle it out Saturday morning in the rain...beating French Valley 2-1. Then we played Saturday night under the lights in a mud pit, literally. Girls were slipping and sliding everywhere, but they had a ball and beat FC Blades 2-1.

Sunday morning, the sun was out and we were up for our toughest battle of the weekend. We had never faced Long Beach but heard they were tough. It only took one breakaway for us to put one in the net and hold the lead...advancing to the Championship on a 1-0 victory!

Although a good problem to have- Charlie's U8 boys advanced, Allison's Allstars advanced and our U12 girls all advanced to the Championship creating a scheduling nightmare. After much thought, Charlie felt he needed to coach the boys in his last game with them which meant I would coach the U12 girls and Matt would go with Allison. Such a bummer, but these girls made me so proud. We put Charlie on speaker phone before the game for his traditional pep talk and I followed it up with my own.

The girls started off very slow, but delivered a huge 4-0 victory with 3 breakaway goals by Jenna J., Jenna P. and Ashley. Taylor finished it off in the 2nd half with a beautiful rainbow shot over the keeper's head!
It only seemed right to wait for Coach to arrive to pass out medals and take pics with the trophy so we stood on the quickly darkening field and waited for the group shot. This team amazes me everyday and I love being a part of it. We keep piling on the championships, but it never gets old and I know they have so many more accomplishments in their future!
The best part is I get to share it with this one, even though she will be taller than me any day now!

Visit with Grandpa Al

Grandpa Al flew out from Phoenix for a long weekend visit. It has become tradition for him to bring his "bag of crap" for all of us!

This year, the girls got luggage tags, curling irons and makeup compacts. Can you sense the excitement?
We had a nice time watching the NFL playoffs, playing lots of Mexican Train Dominos and going out to dinner a few times. We also loved seeing The Adventures of Tin Tin.

People's Choice Awards

For the 2nd year in a row, I was more than excited to be a seat filler at the 2012 People's Choice Awards. We all got "dolled up" and met at Joy's for our caravan to LA.

Our check in was set for 2:00 so we had just enough time to get lunch at Yardhouse before parking in the structure and getting our wristbands. Then we waited in our set lines, anxious for our turn to make the walk to the Nokia Theater.
What a good looking group of ladies...even though we felt old compared to all of the 18 year olds in tight skirts and high heels.We had pretty good seats again this year...center section about 20 rows back. Some of us were constantly being moved to fill seats while others were lucky enough to stay in one spot the whole show.Kaley Cuoco, from The Big Bang Theory, was this year's host and she was great!
Some of the highlights were Robert Pattinson accepting the award for Water For Elephants (our favorite, although I didn't love his shaved head)
the cast of Bridesmaids winning Best Movie Comedy
Faith Hill performing her new song
Betty White, who will soon turn 90
Morgan Freeman winning the Movie Icon Award
The 2 Broke Girls cast winning Best New Comedy
and the cast of How I Met Your Mother winning Best Comedy.
Jenn and I were lucky enough to stay in one spot once the show started and had a great time fulfilling our duty as seat fillers. As soon as the confetti was released, we quickly spotted the rest of our group, comparing notes on who saw who.

Although it is a long day leading up to the show, it is such a fun Girls Night Out and experience many never get a chance to be part of. Hoping it works out again next year...

Yucaipa President's Cup

The alarm went off at 4:50am and we were on the road at 5:30 for our 4th annual trip to Yucaipa's President's Cup. It was a cold start to the morning, but the girls were all fired up for their 1st game against Barstow.
Allison played in goal all 4 quarters of each game, allowing only 3 goals in the tournament! We beat Barstow 2-0 in the 8:00 game and had a little down time before our noon game against High Desert.
Olivia, Madison, Allison, Kylee, Reanna and Carly enjoying some time between games.
Allison and Sydney
We captured all of the girls lined up watching our other TVSA all star team playing in the game before us...too cute!

At the end of Day 1, we had a 2-0 win over Barstow and a 2-2 tie against High Desert. The 2nd game was a much tougher one. Allison allowed 2 goals in this one...a solid shot she couldn't reach and then a dribbler through the legs. Allowing that goal made her mad and she said she "flipped a switch after that"! In the 2nd half, she saved quite a few and really impressed our sideline. She was busy back there all game.
On Day #2, we had quite the cheering squad. Adri, Emily, Lauren, Taylor and Maylie drove up with Hank and Leslie. They made signs and brought pom-pons...remembering their time at this tournament a few seasons ago.
Coach Mike gave our girls a pep talk before the 11:00 game against Colton. We needed a win to advance to the championship and it was a tall order.
The team did their cheer behind the banner the big girls made...
and ran through it before taking the field!
Our girls played their hearts out, but couldn't put one in the net. We lost 1-0 to Colton so we won't be advancing to the Tournament of Champions. We are bummed that the official tournament season is over, but are excited to play in the Hawks Shootout in a few weeks.

Annie

We had a Girl's Night Out with dinner at Rosa's Cantina and a great time seeing "Annie" at the Old Town Temecula Theater.


It was so fun seeing our neighbors, Alana and Rachel in the play. Alana was the maid, Mrs. Greer and Rachel, was one of the young orphans. The girl that played Annie was absolutely fabulous and we all fell in love with the 3-legged dog that played Sandy. We all loved it and now the girls can't stop talking about doing theater camp this summer!

Ice Skating in 85 degrees

Ice skating in Old Town was one of the items on our Winter Break Checklist, but we didn't expect to do it in 85 degree weather. It was more like large puddles than ice, but the girls had fun anyway.
Taylor, Lauren and Jenna
Reanna, Lorien and Allison
Allison spent a lot of time along the railing, but lasted longer than any of them. She was getting pretty good by the end, but the heat was too much to take.
Taylor was even a good big sister and helped get Allison off of the rail for a while. Just as we were packing up and dying of heat exhaustion (not really, but it was hot)...
it started to snow! A perfect end to our ice skating adventure!

Tournament of Roses 2012

On a whim, I thought about taking the girls to this year's Tournament of Roses Parade...Matt was working, the weather was perfect and I have been wanting to experience this with them. After a few phone calls with my parents, we were set up with the best possible scenario.John, the owner of this Chevron station, had made a spot for us to park in their lot, enjoy the amenities of the RVs and sit atop the canopy in the bleachers seats above!!
We got to take this cool scissor machine up to the built in bleachers...an experience in itself!
Once in our seats, the Stealth Bomber flew by to signal the start of the parade!
John spoiled the girls with cotton candy and water bottles for all.
Perfect weather with a perfect view.
The parade led off with this beautiful display and marching band.
JR Martinez was the Grand Marshall.
There were so many amazing breeds of horses and miniature ponies...
and marching bands from all over the world, including Sweden, Japan, Puerto Rico and our favorite from right here at Camp Pendleton.
The highlight was truly the floats...this one was the first with Kenny G playing as it rode by.
Oregon vs.
Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl later today.
Our favorites were the Trader Joe's wagon and the
gorgeous tropical float with working volcano.
One of the highlights of the day was meeting these amazing soldiers from the Wounded Warrior Project. They sat with us in the bleachers and had amazing stories to share. It was an honor to meet them.
We really enjoyed our time with my parents' friends, Al and Martha. They spoiled us rotten and were a lot of fun to visit with. This was an amazing experience for all of us and one we hope to do again to ring in the new year!