Dixie

At the end of June, Sean and I went down to Dixie with Cottonwood's girls soccer team. They needed a mom in each condo, so I volunteered along with another lady named Diane. Since Sean has been helping to train the girls this summer, the coach asked if he could come down with me.

Although we have been to St. George quite a few times, it was never in the middle of summer and never when the temperature was over 100 degrees every day. Needless to say, it was very, very hot!

We had 18 girls to take care of. We split them up into two different condos and were responsible for breakfast, lunch, dinner and transportation.







They had two games each day. Luckily they only lasted an hour, so we were able to get the girls back into some air conditioning pretty quickly.

On Wednesday, their coach took them to the Pizza Factory for lunch.





I threw in this picture to show you the bread sticks. If you have never tried these beauties, you are missing out. (Insert image of Sean rolling his eyes.) They were so amazing, seriously, I have never tasted a more delectable piece of heaven. I am not going to admit how many I ate, but it was a lot!

Thursday they were each given a movie ticket and since Eclipse had just come out, there was really no question what movie they wanted to see.

The girls played really well and won most of their games during the week. Friday night they had an all-star game where each high school team got to pick a player to go and play in the game. They all voted and Katie was picked, she was pretty shocked and extremely excited.

Before the game they got some paint and decorated their faces with Katie's name.



I have to admit, it was pretty exciting sitting in the Hansen Stadium watching my daughter play soccer. I have to keep reminding myself that she isn't even 16 yet and I still have a good 3 years before she leaves me.



After the game we went back and had banana splits to celebrate.





It was an exhausting week, but I had the time of my life. There was very little drama, and it was so much fun getting to know all the girls a little better. Diane and I worked our tails off feeding, cleaning and chauffeuring. We would fall into bed exhausted every night. I can't think of a better way to spend a week of vacation and have already signed up to do it again next year!

May and June

The end of the school year kind of snuck up on me and now summer is almost half-way through!

Spring soccer season was nothing short of a nightmare. It rained so much that 90% of their games were canceled. One would think that that would be cool for a stressed-out, over-worked mom, and while it was cool that I got to spend a few rainy evenings at home, it was NOT cool when it came time to make up the games. For almost 3 weeks straight we had a soccer game scheduled for every single night!

Here is a picture of Katie's leg when all was said and done. You can't see it very well, but her ankle is swollen and she has bruises from the tips of her toes to her upper thigh!




She not only had her games, but Sean double-rostered her so she could play on his team too, she literally had 5 games one week!

Next on the agenda was a trip to Cedar City for the Summer Games in early June. Sean took Courtney's team down and recruited a few of Katie's teammates to go with. Katie is on a Premier team, so her and her friends have no problem playing with girls a few years older than they are.

We rode down with Courtney and one of her best friends Maddie. Here are a few pictures from the 4-hour ride.





We had some very exciting games.








The girls played their hearts out and won every single game. It was very exciting to go to the finals and play in the Eccles Coliseum. We won 2-1 even though the ref made a horrible call on Katie's breakaway! Sean was "Justifiably pissed off!" That is what he yelled at the ref anyway. It has become one of Katie's favorite sayings.

Sean has worked so hard with his team, it was so good to see them get the gold.