Monday, March 31, 2014

Boston's Vegas Tournament

Right of the heels of our Hawaii trip we headed out once again the following weekend for Vegas for Boston's soccer tournament.  We planned on taking the whole family, but Ethan had already missed his first two football games because of Hawaii, and he didn't want to miss another.  We arranged last minute  for a ride to his game, and the Hawkins offered to watch him.  Of course, Sophia saw her chance to spend all weekend with Reese, so she asked if she could stay as well.  Tirza was great enough to take both, and so it became a trip with just the big kids.  It was kind of nice to take a trip with just the two of them.  Not because we didn't want all of them, but it gave us more time to spend with the older two.   We got into Vegas around 8 on Friday night, and immediately hit the strip.  We parked at one of the Casino garages and was shocked at what was going on in the casino.  Times have changed.  There were half naked girls dancing up on the bar tops.  We were covering Boston's eyes and quickly got them out of there.  Boston's reaction was "EWWW" with some laughter....so glad that is the stage where he is at right now, because it could have been a much worse experience.  Aubrie was just disgusted and confused as to why any girl would to that.  We walked a bit of the strip with them, and landed at Hard Rock for dinner.  The service was AWFUL, and definitely gave us a story to talk about!  It took so long that it left us no time to go to the M&M store or ride the coaster.  We told them we would hit it Saturday.   
Saturday morning was our first game, and my alarm did not go off.  I woke up 10 minutes before we were suppose to be there for warm ups.  Boston threw his clothes on and Ben took him to the fields while Aubrie and I got ready.  Boston team played a great game and won.  After their win it was time to eat, since we missed breakfast.   We found this great Pancake House, Baby Stacks Cafe.  I got the Red Velvet pancakes pictured below.  Ben Got Orange Cream, and Aubrie got the Banana Fosters...the best of all three. Boston got French Toast...Shocker.  We told the team about this place and we all tried going the following morning, but the wait was way to long! 
 Our second game was later that day, so we had a huge chunk of time to do what we wanted.  They boys were not allowed to swim, coaches orders, so we hit the outlet mall.  Aubrie was on a mission to find shorts, which she never did, and Ben and the boys made out big time at the Hurley store.   The second game was on the windy side.  We played a team from Utah who was very good, and the boys left with their heads hung low with a score of 4-1.   That didn't keep them from having a great time in the hotel pool that night.  The boys swam while the adults talked.  Before we knew it, it was late and we didn't have time to take the kids to the strip for the New York roller coaster.  They were bummed, but I had no desire to go there in the first place.  That coaster is the worst....it throws your neck all around, and super bumpy.  I'm sure they wouldn't have noticed though.
The following morning we had one more game before the championship.  The weather was FREEZING, and the parents were all laying on the ground to keep out of the wind.   Everyone thought for sure it was going to rain, and some parents went to their cars for refuge from the cold.  Luckily it warmed up a bit by the time their game started, but the wind was really bad.   The other team had the wind in their favor the first half, and we were able to keep them from scoring.  The second half we were doing well, and the other team got a red card, so we were one player up and crushed them.  That took us to the Championship to play the Utah team again.  They were a really good team, and so the boys knew it was time to give it all they had.  In between games, we got some lunch, and drove by my old house.  It was sad to see it so run down and different. The pulled out all the front landscape and put in concrete....so ugly.   It was such a beautiful house when we lived there.  It was one of the more expensive, custom neighborhoods, and now it is the GHETTO!   It's always fun to check out the places I lived.  The kids couldn't believe I lived here once.  LOL

The Championship game the boys played hard!   It was a shut out game until the last 5 minutes, and then the other team got a goal.   It was a let down, but they also realized how much better they did.  The Utah team thought they had it in the bag, and they only got one goal on us.  






 This is my favorite picture of the trip.  The boys praying afterward.     I guess they had fun, because this is what it looked like on the way home!