This past weekend was Kaiden's first tournament with her new RUSH team. It was the Washington Invitational in Fredericksburg, VA, hosted by FASA. We drove up Friday afternoon and got all checked in to the hotel. Friday night was pretty uneventful, we unpacked, got settled, hit a drugstore and pretty much went to bed.

Kaiden had two games on Saturday and she played GREAT. They won their first game and tied their second game. In the first game, the first goal was an assist from Kaiden and the second goal was a GORGEOUS kick from the goalkeeper, stopped by Kaiden, touched two times and then shot directly in the goal by her. It was amazing. Second game she did not score, but was spot on with her passing. They scored high enough in the first two games to make it to the semi-finals on Sunday.

Unfortunately, Sunday was a lot of sitting around in the hotel lobby waiting for the weather to calm down (and making ugly faces for photos).  We were on a 1-hour delay, then a 2-hour delay, then all games 15U and under were cancelled all together.  The girls were REALLY disappointed and wanted to play and try to win their flight.  The coach huddled them all up and gave them a pep speech and told them all how proud he was of how good they had played.  Then he told them about how the weekend tournaments away are what build the memories that you remember for a lifetime.  Because the girls spend SO MUCH TIME on soccer fields training, it is the weekend travel trips that form the bulk of their childhood memories and he did not want this weekend to be a bad memory because their semi-finals were cancelled.

So he found a bowling alley down the street from the hotel and apologized to all the parents if they thought they were going to get to start driving home... but too bad because they were going to have a bowling tournament! All the girls got into groups of four and competed on the bowling alley for the highest score in bowling. It was hilarious and the kids had an absolute blast!!! It really did make the weekend memorable for them all. And we were all already so proud of how well they played.

Above was the standings PRIOR to the tournament being cancelled. Kaiden is on Academy Blue. Hopefully next year we will get to come back and win the whole thing!

Kaiden spent her very first week away at sleep-away camp last week.  She and her friend Britton spent the week at Triple R Ranch.  I dropped them both off on Sunday evening, got them all checked in, registered for all their "extras," put money in their Trading Post accounts, made up their bunks, ate dinner with them and then passed out hugs and kisses and left them for the week!

They were assigned to the "Rough Rider Girls" Bunk. They both picked top bunks that butted up to each other, so that they would be head to head! Plus, that would make is easier for them to share all the Teen Mags they brought and the 4,500 pounds of junk food that they both brought for the week.

They were kept busy all week long with tons of activities.  Kaiden HAD A BLAST! I do not think that there was one activity that she did not enjoy. The following were some of the things she got to do:

Horse Sense – Learn what is involved in grooming, saddling and staying safe around horses.
Horseback Riding – Every camper gets the opportunity to mount up and take a ride.
Critter Corral – Meet our small farm animals and learn why each one is important.
Archery – Campers master the bow and arrow with time at the archery range.
Nature study by the pond – Become more aware of our environment as you study living organisms.
Outdoor Living Skills – Learn to read a compass and enjoy a nature scavenger hunt.
Camping skills – Learn to build a campfire, prepare shelter and enjoy some roasted marshmallows.
Canoeing – Campers get on the river to explore and perfect their strokes.
Water Fun – Enjoy the Water Slide, swimming, diving boards and games at the pool.
Challenge Course – Cabins work together to overcome the challenge of our low ropes course.
Climbing Wall – Scale to the top of our 40 ft. high climbing tower and ring the bell.
Wally Ball – This fun indoor games is like volley ball in a racquetball court.
Knock Out – Enjoy learning this dodge ball game from Israel.
Flying Squirrel- Get harnessed in and take flight as your cabin mates help launch you into the air.
Technical Tree Climbing- Use ropes and rigging to safely ascend to the tree tops.
Golf Carting - spend some time driving around n a golf cart.

She loved everyone that was in her cabin. They had a lot of fun working together all week earning ducks to go towards the "Duck Wars" - this was by far Kaiden's FAVORITE part of camp. Earning ducks, then having a night where it was an all out duck war trying to steal ducks from the boy's side. Boys and girls were competing all week to earm the most ducks.  Everything they did earned them ducks. Make it to the top of the rock wall?  Earn a duck.  Canoe without hiccups? Earn a duck.  Memorize a bible verse?  Earn a duck.  The big Duck War night was basically like a HUGE game of "Capture the Flag" except, they were capturing Ducks.

One thing about camp, is you are supposed to get mail.  Apparently you are a nobody if you do not get any mail.  I am sure most of the kids at Triple R got post cards from mom and dad. Kaiden and Britton got letters from Ross Lynch and Zac Efron... their pre-teen crushes. Complete with embarrassing fart and throw up stories from each.  When I went to pick them up on Friday night, they both immediately told me "WE KNOW IT WAS YOU THAT SENT THOSE LETTERS!!!"  Still pretty funny.  Next year when they go to camp, I will come up with new people to send them letters from!

This was Kaiden in the car 10 minutes after picking her up and pulling out of the camp parking lot.  SHE.WAS.DONE! She had gone so hard all week that she just physically and mentally died as soon as she knew it was safe to do so. When we got home, she went straight to bed and slept over 12 hours. She woke up and looked at me and said she could not wait to do it again next year!

Ashton has been spending a lot of time on the fishing pier with his dad. He loves it. Hea wears his visor and glasses just like dad, sits patiently and catches a ton of fish. That is "bro time" with dad. He is absolutely turning into a mini-Todd.

Kaiden attended Virginia Wesleyan College Marlin Soccer Camp last week, and could not say enough good things about it... she LOVED IT. With temperatures at 100 degrees every single day, I could not believe how hard she worked and made it through it - I could have never been out there that long and worked that hard in the heat.

They spent their mornings doing drills and the afternoons breaking up into teams and competing. Kaiden's team was DC United. She played in goal all week and focused on goal related drills every morning.

After a week of drills and games, they held an awards ceremony for the kids. Kaiden won "Keeper of the Week" for the girls, winning a shirt. It was awesome and she just loved working with Coach Conner, who is the keeper for the Virginia Wesleyan Boy's soccer team.

Her team won overall in the games portion of camp, so they all won Virginia Wesleyan scarves.  The scarves are really nice and Kaiden loved it!  They also all received camp shirts and a Virginia Wesleyan soccer ball.

Each kid also received an evaluation from their coaches.  Kaiden received two, one for field and one for goal. Both were fantastic!

What a fantastic week it was for her. I certainly would reccomend this camp for anyone wanting to work on their soccer skills.

Kaiden will be going back next week for the second session of the camp. We are VERY forunate that Aunt Kelly coached at Virginia Wesleyan for a while, and is able to get Kaiden involved with the camp.

We had a fantastic 4th of July and subsequent 4th of July weekend, filled with neighbors, friends, family, cocktails, swimming, etc.  The adults all enjoyed themselves, while the kids pretty much left the adults alone!  Doesn't get much better than that.

Kaiden did a great job of teaching an entire group of kids at a BBQ how to play "Root Beer Pong" on a state of the art Beer Pong table, complete with ball washing cup station.

Ashton spent as much time as he could swimming.  He could have cared less about "Root Beer Pong" or eating or anything else.  Just wanted to swim.

It was a great holiday and weekend, that's for sure!