Washington State Cup Tournament: April 26-28th

What a wet, muddy, slippery, and cold week-end to spend in Issaquah....and what a great and fun week-end to watch premier soccer!!

These were brand new white when we arrived.  We had to buy Harper new shoes at Target cause these were so wet.

Me, Ry, Logan, Colby and Harper headed over on Friday after school.  Presley had a birthday party to go to that evening and Dave was finishing up work.  After we won on Friday evening, they decided to drive over and join us for Saturday's game.

Harper and Logan at the Burger King in North Bend

This tournament was a single elimination tournament so once you lost, you were done.  I had made a hotel reservation for Friday only and we scrambled to find a hotel on Saturday night.  But, we'd do it all again to watch our Wenatchee boys WIN the whole tournament!!  Woo Hoo!!

Friday night we played a Tacoma team and won 4-1.  Saturday we played an Eastern team, XIFA, and won in a nail biter 3-2.  And Sunday, for the championship, we played RSA Elite, a team we've lost to twice, tied once, and won once.  We won over RSA 2-0.  It was so much fun to watch awesome play all week-end long.

Pictures courtesy of Cindy Abouammo and Kelley Gillin...

After the final whistle blew...Washington Boys U11 Champs!!

So proud of these boys...can't wait to see them compete together in the years to come.  

Edited to add this note that came a week later...Logan grinned from ear to ear as he was reading. 

Washington State Cup Qualifier Round

The Wenatchee Fire boys team needed to qualify for the Washington State Cup.  They competed against teams on the Eastern side of the state, including Spokane and Coeur d'Alene.  We played in Moses Lake on this week-end (4/19-4/21),  playing one game on Friday evening, one game on Saturday afternoon, and the final game on Sunday morning.  Each game was worth 10 points (6 pts for a win, 1 point for each goal up to 3 points, and 1 point for a shut out). Wenatchee won the tournament with 29 points total.

All of the above photos are courtesy of Cindy (Omar's mom), who puts together a photo CD of each player.  This is the only picture I took of the week-end...these two precious kids lining up to give high fives to the champs.  They are troopers when it comes to traveling.  

Spring Break: Great Wolf Lodge

The week after Easter was the kids' spring break.   Amy, Mylee, my mom, and me and the kids were planning to head to Grand Mound, Washington to enjoy the Great Wolf Lodge.  Alyson was on her 8th grade spring break trip to Washington D.C.  Amy, mom, and Mylee were about 15 minutes out of town when Tona called my mom to tell her Grandma was going to have surgery on her broken hip that day so Amy turned around to take mom back to the hospital.  I am so thankful that Amy was not much further into her trip because as it turns out, it was very important for my mom to be there and not with us. That left me and the kids with an extra long break at North Bend where we were planning to meet up.  We spent that time shopping at the outlet mall there until Amy and Mylee caught up with us. Finally we finished the last leg of the journey and immediately checked in and headed to the indoor water park.  I don't have many pictures because I was worried about all the water but we had a really fun time.  All of the kids really loved the wave pool...that little Ry is such a great swimmer.  And Logan and Presley loved the big kid water slides, which were so fun.  Amy and I would take turns going with them and staying with Ry and Harper.  Mylee stayed alone a few times with the little ones too.  Mylee really liked the challenge of crossing the floating lily pads which she had to cross by hanging onto an overhead rope.  Harper and Ry went down every slide they were tall enough to go on, but they both really liked the hot tub.   It was such a fun trip for Spring Break.    

This was in the morning waking up Mylee. 

Ry and Harper on a roller coaster type arcade ride...I love Ry's expression.  

Easter Sunday: March 31

We woke up and celebrated Easter at our house before heading to the Tri-Cities for the day.  I was trying to get out early because I wanted to stop by the hospital to see my Grandma because the doctors had discovered on Saturday that she had a broken hip.  So it was a quick morning of baskets and breakfast, quick stop to see Grandma and Papa Nelson, quick stop for coffee, and we were on our way.

Harper, Logan, Rylan and Presley: Easter 2013

On our way to the Tri-Cities

Walking into Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital

We went directly to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital and visited with Grandma and Papa Berries and my mom.  Dave, Connie, Holly, and Mike showed up too.  After our visit we headed to Papa Berries house for our big egg hunt.  The kids like to find their 2 name eggs--one real egg and one plastic name egg with $5.00 from Papa and Grandma Berries. My dad had hidden his "golden egg" and all the kids were excited to try and find it.  It always has some money in it too.

Samee was getting lots of congratulatory hugs because her and Nate had gotten engaged on her birthday, about a week before Easter. 

Mike, Logan, and Ry trying to get some hints about where to find the golden egg.

Logan directing Ry and Harper to where the golden egg may be hiding. 

Everybody searching in the general area.  Papa kept calling out hot or cold.  Nate finally found it.

Ry relaxing with Dave and Mike and Logan vs. Dad and Thomas

Cousins (and Geezer)

The Grands and Great Grands with Papa Berries

Grandma and Papa with their grandkids

Sisters and hubbies:

Nate, Samee, Dave, Leanna, Amy, Thomas

My Family

A late night drive home with Logan's feet up on my seat. 

Grandma's Service: April 24, 2013

Grandma's service was held on Wednesday, April 24th at Mueller's Funeral Home.  We drove down in the morning and met everyone at Mueller's.  All of Grandma's family walked in carrying a rose to be placed in a vase at the alter.  Each child's family had their own color (ours was yellow).  We all kind of got separated so Rylan ended up sitting in the middle of Papa Berries and my mom.  My mom shared afterwards that he held one hand of hers and one hand of Papa Berries the entire service.  At one point, people were standing and sharing memories of Grandma and we all laughed and Rylan told my mom "this is not a funny time".  I think I might have warned him once or 100 times in the van that this was not a time to be silly.  My cousin Holly played the harp and the piano,  my cousin Cristy gave the eulogy, and my dad put together a video to be shown.  It was all really beautiful.

After the service we all went downstairs to have a light lunch and visit with family.  My Papa's brothers and wives both came (Jack and Nancy and Jerry and Gloria) as well as my mom's cousins Helen and Connie and their husbands Rick and John.  My Grandma Kreider and Aunt Linda and Uncle Kelen were there.  Some of my Grandma's neighbors were there and even a childhood friend of my uncles was there.  One lady, Velma, shared a memory of my Grandma during the service, that she remembered when my Grandma and Papa were dating and she was in their wedding.  My mom's friend Louise and Tricia's mom Sue and her husband Dev attended.  There were quite a few people who had such loving memories and I know my mom enjoyed seeing and talking with everyone.

After the luncheon we went back to my mom and dad's house and had a spaghetti dinner with my Papa and his brother Jerry and wife Gloria.  The kids were happy to play with Alyson and Mylee and to get out of their nice clothes.  Logan and Grandma did the back to back measurement and it appears Logan is now about a half inch taller than his Grandma.  We stayed until about 8:30 and let the kids sleep in in the morning and then took them to school for a half day on Thursday.