Marcus Lacrosse

 

Marcus is having a great lacrosse season this year!  Last year was rough.   He had a few injuries and being a freshman is always lame but he overcame.  This year he is faster and playing better than ever and he gets a lot more playing time.  They have only lost one game so they're looking good.  Go Cougs!

Seattle

We never go to Seattle.  But I had to take Parker to his lacrosse game on Bainbridge Island and convinced Henry's BFF and brother from another mother, Jack, to come with us.  We got to the ferry terminal and found out we wouldn't make it on the next ferry so Parker was going to be late to his game.  Not cool when your team needs your mad skills.  I desperately sent out a text to the team and managed to get Parker into a stranger's car who's son also plays on the team.  Hooray for nice people who don't judge my bad parenting and arrived super early to get in line at the ferry!

While we waited 45 minutes for the next ferry, Henry and Jack went exploring with me.  These two held my hands and were more than a little scared of all the people.  Seattle has completely changed the waterfront which was news to me, so there was a lot to see and these little boys were more than overwhelmed by everything.  It was kinda cute taking them into the city for the first time that they'll remember.

Driving onto the ferry is always cool

Bringing card games to play on the ferry ride is proof I'm not that bad of a parent.  On the way back we even had a bunch of Parker's teammates join us for games.  This game is called Mantis and I highly recommend it.  Henry usually beats me every time. 

The Champion

Parker managed to do what no Ball brother could do that has gone before.   Parker's team won the championship basketball game for rec basketball!  No one could be more surprised than we were.  His team was not great.  At all.  But it's rec and that's fine.  They lost about half their games.  But none of that mattered because all that counts is winning games in the single-elimination playoffs and you're good to go.  And that's exactly what happened.  They came.  They played.  They won.

Parker is also in the middle of another fun lacrosse season.  Pictured above was when Parker was in the penalty box for two penalties.  Another first for the Ball Brothers.  Parker is sporting the number 45 because he's the 4th out of 5 brothers.  Get it?  

His team wins about half their games and Parker gets about half his shots in the goal.  He's really good at dodging and telling the coaches when he ready to sub out :)  It's hard to believe my sweet little Parker is almost a teenager.  In my mind he's still a sweet 7 year old obsessed with Legos.

Colorado Springs

This is me catching up on summer happenings.  One big event that will be forever seared into my brain was my first trip to Colorado.  Landon and Parker were both scheduled to play in a huge tournament there and since I have never been, I was the unlucky parent to go on this trip.  It was bad news from the start.  

Flights were insanely expensive.  Like we could've flown to Europe for the same price.  I tried to save money where I could and found us flights that arrived later than I would've preferred at 11:30pm.  Not great but to us it would feel like 10:30 so I figured it wouldn't be terrible.  I was so wrong!  Our flight left late and then landed late after circling around Denver twice.  Pretty sure we had a new pilot in training.  He was the worst.  And by the time we landed and got all our luggage at a baggage claim over a mile away, I was in a terrible mood.  Then we had to get a rental car.  And the line to pick it up was so slow and all the while the clock was ticking away and my boys were still awake and about to get no sleep before their games the next day.  We finally got our rental and drove 90 minutes to our hotel in Colorado Springs.  We arrived at 3am.  I think the last time I stayed up that late was my freshman year in college.  My contacts were glued to my eyeballs and I was just so thankful we made it to the hotel without any mishaps.  Luckily Landon and Parker slept in the car because Landon had to get up at 6:30am for his game.  Poor guy.  I literally prayed that both of us would be able to function on no sleep and it was a serious miracle because we did! 

The tournament was not great.  Are you noticing a theme with this trip?  There were teams from all across the country and the venue was enormous!  It was at the Air Force Academy and there were thirty fields.  It was massive!  Naturally the boys teams never played anywhere near each other so I walked back and forth in the hundred degree weather, trying to find them.  Yes, you heard that right.  There was a crazy heat advisory.  Gatorade was sold out at the grocery store, it was that bad.  We saw several players get loaded up into ambulances for heat exhaustion.  It was miserable.  But we persevered and lost a lot of games.  

 

That evening we managed to do a little sight seeing and we were pleasantly surprised with the red rock beauty of the Garden of the Gods.  We ate a delicious BBQ joint that someone recommended and the boys and I filled ourselves on brisket.  We slept great that night and were like a well-oiled machine as we packed up our stuff, got plenty of ice and water, and checked out of the hotel in record time to get to early games.  By the time Parker finished his last game I was so done with the sun and lacrosse.  I applied countless coats of sunblock and somehow managed to escape without a sunburn.

So much brisket!

hot and tired and ready for a shower at the hotel that we spent a total of like ten hours at

After all the games (and mostly losses) we raced off the fields to get to church so we could see missionary Megan.  I gave her the biggest hug! She isn't a hugger but she hugged me back so I knew she was happy to see us.  She is just so awesome and her companion was great fun too.  After church and pictures, we said our goodbyes and found a yummy place for lunch before checking out the Denver Temple.  Hooray for temples!  Then it was back to the airport and the end of the longest three days of my life.  I'm happily letting Randy take over all future lacrosse travel from here on out.

Landon and San Diego

*I'm posting all out of order.  The previous post explains how awesome (for Landon and Parker) that they made the elite travel team, Seattle Starz.   I also explain how not-awesome this is for my wallet.  But the boys love it and they get to see parts of the country they would never see otherwise (because why would I ever leave the most beautiful place on earth?).

Randy and Landon flew to San Diego for Landon's first summer tournament.  Landon got lots of playing time and their team won the championship.   Hooray!!

I love taking the boys to all the temples at their tournaments.  I can't wait for them to go inside one day!

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 :)

Lacrosse

Another season of lacrosse has come and gone.  Ethan played middie on the high school varsity team and sometimes played in JV games as well.  Landon played on the 7/8 team as attack, and Parker played on the 3/4 team wherever they needed him to be.  Sometimes we had 4 games/week!  Insane doesn't begin to describe our schedule.  We ate dinner together only a handful of times for months straight.  Miraculously everyone made it to their games and practices at the right time and location every time.  Things got a little tricky when Marcus started coaching and we didn't have enough cars to get everyone where they needed to be while the Audi was in the shop, but we made things work.

Landon is #2 because he has two older brothers and two younger.  Landon's team has so much fun together and definitely has the most heart.  They love the game.  But they lose a lot.  Poor kids!  But Landon plays well, and scores most of their goals and is loved by the coaches and players alike.  He picked out the photos to go on the blog since there are million pictures taken of every game and I have no desire to sort through them all.

Parker is #4 because that's the jersey they gave him and he's happy with it because Marcus was also #4.  Parker mostly plays middie because he's a fast runner, but he often rotates through all the positions.  Parker has spent hours practicing in the backyard with his brothers and it shows.  He scoops up the ground balls and never misses a catch.  His coaches love him.

Ethan is #15 because someone else took his #5 jersey.  He played on the varsity team but got most of his actual playing time in the JV games.  I loved going to the JV games!  The team was really good and Ethan usually scored a lot of goals.  The varsity team had a great season though and with a few nail-biting wins, they made it to the State Championship game.  So exciting!  This was Coach Sam's last year at Skyline after coaching for probably almost 20 years or something.  It's a big deal he's leaving and we hoped he'd coach the boys to another State Championship win.  The final game was so good until we lost in the final seconds by one point.  I was yelling and screaming so much I lost my voice for several days.  Losing a close game just hurts.  It's like watching puppies being slaughtered!  Big boys out on the field sobbing after playing their hearts out is just plain sad.  I can't talk about it anymore. 

Proud brothers after winning the final play-off game.  We are going to State!

Sending the team off on the bus for the State Championship

This is a really bad picture of the team way off in the distance with some cool clouds in the background.   It was 100 degrees on a Friday night in Richland.  We drove three hours to play this small-town team.  Ethan played really well and we creamed them.

Please ignore sweaty Ethan in front of the Columbia River temple that I had no idea existed.

And we can't talk lacrosse without mentioning Marcus since it's still very much a part of his life while he's home.  He was in Utah for some rehab and attended a Farmington lax game.  That team just loves him and had him say some inspiring things to the players before the game started.  Marcus is in the middle of that huddle.