Oregon with My Littles

Landon and Parker tried out for the Seattle Starz and they both made the team!  Believe me when I tell you that this is a big deal.  Landon had several teammates from his Skyline team try out and none of them even made the B team.  I should probably know the rankings but Landon would tell you the Starz are ranked pretty high nationally.  Some of their teammates travel as far as two hours away to attend practices.  Lucky for us, their practices are right here in Sammamish.  Landon and Parker were all smiles as I dropped them off for their first practice.  Landon was on the team in the fall and after the coaches saw Parker playing at some of their clinics, they asked me if Parker would consider trying out.  He made the team and thankfully they gave me a pretty good family discount.

Now for my rant.  Full disclosure: Travel teams are the worst.  Whoever got the brilliant idea to monetize youth sports had to be affiliated with the airlines.  Paying lots of money to travel to different States is so lame (especially for this non-athlete mother).  But for lacrosse, it really makes a difference since it's a new and growing sport where competition can be sparse in certain areas.  If my kids played soccer I'd really be annoyed at traveling when there are soccer teams everywhere.  Pretty sure it wouldn't be that hard to find a good team to play against that doesn't require a flight somewhere.  With lacrosse, it's a little bit different. But I still feel like I got suckered into something that makes big promises to my kids but is really just going after my wallet. I digress....

Luckily they play three tournaments and two of those are the same. Randy and Landon flew to CA for Landon's first tournament and the following weekend I drove to Portland with Parker and Henry for Park's first tournament.  It was actually really fun having Henry along with us.  We got to rode trip in the CIA (my Expedition).  It's so comfortable and Henry made a comfy little bed for himself and slept for most of the drive (that took an extra two hours because traffic was so terrible). 

Parker is #17

These four boys all play for Skyline.  It's pretty impressive to have more than two kids from the same local club on the team. 

The hours in between games is what kills me.  Henry and I went back to the car so he could watch a movie while I read a book.  Thankfully it wasn't hot in Oregon that weekend.

We had one king-size bed for the three of us.  Oops!  Good thing they're little.  And so cute when they sleep.

Our hotel was just down the street from the temple so of course I made them go before I took them to see the movie Inside Out 2

Parker's team won all four games so they played for the championship and won that too.  Hooray!  The other teams weren't that good but don't tell them that :)