Wet and Wild....

 

We headed out for a Sconnie tourney for the weekend.  It was a large weekend tournament with 20 fields, 130 teams total (10 in Grace's division) and over 300 games played.  All of this done in a near constant rain.  We only snuck in a single, albeit a win, on Saturday before the rest of the day was called off due to pending thunderstorms.  Grace played D in that game, but had a great power D move and coast to coast run for a shot on net.  She Scored once in the opening game of pool play and then picked up another 4 goals in Sunday's bracket play...one of the goals was her taking and winning the faceoff and then running the whole field for a shot and goal.  The fields were slick and muddy but the girls played strong enough (1-0-2) to get into the 3rd place bracket and ultimately win a place on the podium...no there wasn't an actual podium or any hardware but we did get all have a damp ride home

Father's "week"

 The game is way to fast for photography but we have been playing a bunch of pickleball.  All variations of teams, Merrick & Ella, Amy and I vs. Grace....even a match were Grace was teamed up with a "rando", Steve, literally off the street...'he got an extra paddle, can I play?"  It is a very social game we are finding out.  And we did learn a few new rules.  Merrick and I finally made it to the sporting clay course for a round of shooting....it was, as always, as humbling as it was fun and I am sure we will get out again this summer.  Nice, challenging course with a lot of wildlife including deer and a scarlet tanager.  Merrick, Amy and I headed to TR to see the new place and touch base with everyone on Father's day.  Ella made it back from a camping trip for some Father's day burgers and the girls even set the Kubb court for a quick round (Amy and I beat the three kids) before the sunlight was gone for the day.  Merrick headed in after the game and was in bed soon after in order to get to work by 6 am and the girls, both working later, hung around the campfire chatting (Grace was amped and might actually have a sore jaw from talking this morning) before I too had to wander off to bed before my work alarm went off.

Hard earned Hardware

 Grace has been collecting some hardware and building a solid recruiting resume for LaCrosse. She was ranked in almost all categories in the state (top 5*) for goals, assists, ground balls, forced turn overs..... if there was  stat that didn't pertain to goal keeping she was near the top.  She took home the MVP for her team at the annual awards banquet and then was nominated for Player of the year by the newspaper for this quadrant of the state...Pretty cool deal for Sophomore playing in her second year of the game.  She is traveling a bit now for to play with a state level tourney team this summer so that will be fun to see what level of competition comes with that 'leveling' up.

*Apparently there is some debate about the accuracy of this statement, but as a proud parent I certify it as correct