Busy December!

Britton snowboarding in our field on Christmas Day.  Nut case.

We'd gotten 17 inches of snow by the time Christmas day rolled around.  First white Christmas I can remember.  It made the day even better.  

Cameron said goodbye to his best friend Calvin.  They moved to Utah and Cameron is still sad about it.  We miss you Gappmayers!

Aunt Iva came to town and the boys talked her into giving them their wrestling season haircuts.  Of course, I had to be in on the decision making of what could be done and Jordan ended up with some type of mohawk thing.  They went from the mullets to the mohawks or fohawks or whatever they are called these days.  I made Jordan shave it off this past week though as I couldn't let him go to church like that!  He was not real pleased about it but oh well!

Cameron celebrated his 10th birthday with his friends.  We had a football party, cake and opened presents. 

Patriots game with Dad and Uncle Hans who just happened to come to town for the game as well and found out we had tickets.    The boys are big Patriot fans and were excited they got to go see their first NFL game and their favorite team.  

Maple Valley Rapids U10 Developmental Team Champs!

This past year I decided to coach Cameron's select team.  This was the first ever U10 Developmental team to be formed within the Rapids FC.  This was one of the most fun coaching experiences I've ever had.  These kids have some serious heart and are an absolute joy to coach.  Cameron was on the team of course and I really enjoyed watching him play and develop under my watch.    The kids were so coachable and at this age, it's like starting with a blank canvas.  I'm extremely passionate about the game and my coaching.  I spend hours learning more and more about the game, how I can be a better coach, analyzing the games and implementing training sessions to better the team.  

I selected the team in March and we started training in May.  We played in two tournaments over the summer and did pretty well considering these were our first games ever played together on a bigger field.  We started our regular season in September and played 14 games.  Cameron had a great season and even got a Hat Trick in the second to last game.  He also scored the only goal in one of the last games that kept us in first place.  Our team was playing up a year and we won our division.  We only lost one game the entire season and managed to squeeze out the win by one point!  Pretty exciting considering the kids we were playing were much bigger boys than my little guys.

It was so fun to watch these kids develop thru the season and to see the results of my hard work coaching them.  I love the game and coaching but there are some days when I'd rather be just a normal soccer mom and be huddled up in a blanket with my hot cocoa like the rest of the moms.  Most of the time though I'm happy to be out in the cold, rain, sleet, snow, sun, roughing it with the boys.  Who would have ever known I was called a barbie doll in my past?? Seriously....those folks who called me that wouldn't know me now!  HA!

Love these boys!  Well done champs!