Weekend in Dallas

( I still need to post pictures from our mini trip to Nashville but I'm working on editing a few so it will be a couple more days. )  Moving on, last weekend we went up to Arlington for a soccer tournament.  J has joined a club team this year so he is now at the "next level" when it comes to competitive soccer.  His team trains 3 times a week at a very high level and he's getting in better condition and learning more technical skills to add to his existing level of play. He's really enjoying it and luckily for us, R is the asst. coach so he's handling a lot of the practices etc.  They will average about a game a week and they will also play some tournaments as well.  This is much different than recreational soccer in that each child must earn his spot on the team and earn playing time.  If they don't work hard in practice or in the games, they will not play.  So we headed to Dallas for the weekend for the tournament.  This was supposed to be a good "experience" for the boys but we didn't expect to do very well because the gene pool in Dallas is obviously much greater, so their talent is usually much higher.  Anyway, the boys played 3 games and not only was it a great experience, they did awesome and played so hard.  They lost 2 games and tied one, which doesn't sound great but we really wanted to see how they compared to the other teams and the boys handled the pressure and level of play and matched each team.  It was so exciting to see.  The game that they tied, J got 2 goals and an assist so that boosted his confidence tremendously.  They played really hard, never gave up and matched each team they played.  Very fun!!  

Team huddle

There goes Big Foot (that's his nickname because of his powerful kick)

Pretending to be like Daddy

I didn't' get a whole lot of action shots during the game, so hopefully next time.

Team dinner on Saturday night

On Sunday we decided to head to Six Flags over Texas to spend the day on the roller coasters.  (My favorite)  We went with some family friends  and had a really good day.  It was extremely hot (like 100 degrees and humid) and it was fairly crowded from Labor Day weekend but we still had a nice day and got to ride quite a few rides.

Log ride

Watching the cowboy show

The Boys

I think this is just so precious!!

They had fans and misters everywhere to try and keep people cool.

On the swings

At lunch time, the heat was getting to us all, so almost everyone decided they would rather just go back to the hotel and swim.  I LOVE theme parks and there was NO way I was leaving without going on all of the rides I wanted to go on, so I stayed with whichever kids wanted to stay and ride the big rides.   We made our plan, all rode the rides we wanted to go on and closed down the park at 10. They were such troopers, especially considering the temps and that we were all up by at least 6:30 am for a soccer game.   Here are my 3 BRAVE kids

Last ride of the night.