Regionals

On Friday, our family split ways so that Mikayla and I could attend the "Regionals" tournament for her volleyball team, while John and Brayden stuck around town for a lacrosse team dinner, breakfast, and the varsity game on Saturday.

While John was bummed to miss out, Michele and her girls were pleased with the arrangement as they volunteered to take their place in our hotel room.   They haven't had a good chance at a get-away in a while, and for them, hunkering down in a hotel room with free breakfast, a housekeeper, and an indoor pool was just about ideal.  Their only bummer - the fact that we had to leave and be away for the mornings to early afternoons of each day.  ;)

We got some swim time in on Friday evening before Mikayla got a decent bedtime so she'd be up and ready to be at this place by 8am.  This is the first year they've held the Regionals here, and I have to admit, it was quite exciting - especially after navigating to it easy enough and finding a parking spot not too far away in the midst of "Scary Portland".  

With lots of time slated for getting there and finding parking, we found ourselves with plenty of time to kill.  We wandered around, took pictures, and for me, the highlight, was listening to one of the talented players in attendance belt out "The National Anthem".  It gave me chills and I felt like it was a special thing indeed that Mikayla was able to participate in an event that was honored in such a way.

This picture doesn't even do justice to the enormity of the space.  I had my doubts that it would work, but it was really very well organized and nice to have chairs lining the courts so there would be no dragging blankets or lawn chairs to stake our spots.  

The original "Four Amigas" from last year's team - still just as tight, and now even more skilled. 

We were ranked #15 going into the tournament.  Not bad considering there were 54 12's teams represented, and our team is the "2nd" place among our 12's age group in Webfoot.  However, we ended up being matched against the #7, #3, and #11 ranked teams - so we lost all of our matches.  We did start the day in an outstanding manner, though, by winning our first set in a dazzling fashion.  But, we lost momentum.  It's okay, it was expected and nobody fell apart because of the results. 

Particularly not Mikayla - she was jazzed and ready to hang out with her cousins.  They had a good time returning to the pool and playing "Headbands".

The next day was pretty much the same.  During some of the downtime, I went to town French-braiding hair...these are the same four girls from the earlier pic.  

A collage put together by Michele of the fun they all had. 

Our adventures ended with a trip to the Woodburn Outlets - picked up some fun items for the girls and just enjoyed being together.  Definitely a great girls' weekend.