Friday, August 27, 2010

More ReAL

So I just had to post about this because I am so incredibly excited (and humbled) by it. This past Tuesday evening I got a call from someone at ReAL. I didn't get to my phone quick enough, so I listened to the message a few minutes later. It was a representative from ReAL Salt Lake stating that I had been selected to be the "Mom of the Match" for the Sept. 18th game. This is sponsored by OhMyCrafts.com. So how did this come to be?

I saw at one of the games a Mom being honored and thought how cool that would be. So I mentioned this to my husband. A few weeks later, we (because he wouldn't do it without my help) filled out an short application to see if I would be chosen. After a few games passed, I figured I probably wouldn't get selected, which was fine. There are so many amazing Mom's out there. But I guess I just needed to wait a little longer. I'm so humbled to be chosen for this. Here are the fun things I get to enjoy:

4 tickets to the game
4 pre-game passes to watch the team warm up on the field
Recognition on the field before the game starts (this one I am terrified about)
and a gift of some kind from OhMyCrafts.com

I am so excited and very nervous for the game. I think I'm going to be giving my parents our regular tickets so they can come to that game. But I can get some other tickets (not sure the price) if anyone is interested in coming to that game. Anyway, nothing like this has ever happened to me before, so I was really excited to share the news. I'm sure we'll have some cool pictures and video to post after the game.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Meet The Team

I don't do nearly enough posts on here about our ReAL Salt Lake team. We used part of our tax return this year and got season tickets to ReAL. It has been one of the BEST choices! We have been able to make most of the games and enjoy every single one.

This past week they had a day to meet the team. So we went down to Rio Tinto Stadium this past Saturday to meet some of our players. It was a lot busier than I had anticipated it would be. Even though some of the lines were worse than ones at Disneyland, we waited so we could meet some of our favorite players. We didn't get pictures of all those we met, but we do have a few. We have a couple favorites on the team... although we love them all! I'd say at the top of our list would be Javier Morales, Nick Rimando, Kyle Beckerman and Alvaro Saborio. Although as I'm making this list, it's really hard to narrow our favorites down. We have so many wonderful players, and after meeting some of them, it's nice to know what really great people they are. So here are a few pictures of our experience meeting the team.

Meeting Chris Wingert. We didn't get pictures of the rest of the guys at this table, but we also met Collen Warner and Andy Williams. All of these guys were really funny and seemed very down to earth.


Meeting our awesome coach, Jason Kreis. As a player, Kreis was amazing! As a coach, he has been incredible! It was really great to meet him.


Javier is probably our favorite (or at least tied for our favorite). It is incredible to watch this guy out on the field. And he is from Argentina, which makes Ryan happy! :)

This is Ned Grabavoy. He was a lot of fun to meet and had the coolest autograph by far.


Another favorite that I didn't mention. Will Johnson. He is one of my favorites. He is so quick out on the field and seems like a very genuine person. (Ya know, since I met him for a whole 30 seconds.) :)



Just an idea of one of the lines.


This shows a few lines, but doesn't do it justice. It was insane!

I think this was Alex's favorite table. Meeting Kyle Beckerman! He was so shy about meeting most of these guys. In this picture, Kyle is signing Alex's shirt. He would probably wear this shirt every day if he could. Next to Kyle is Jean Alexandre.

Chris Schuler signing our ball.

Meeting Alvaro Saborio! This was another very exciting one! Saborio has done extremely well this year, already with 8 goals this year! He was really nice with Alex, even if Alex was ridiculously nervous.


Some other players that we met, but didn't get pictures of were:
Robbie Findley
Kyle Reynish
Tony Beltran
Nat Borchers
Pablo Campos

My biggest regret not meeting was Nick Rimando (goalie). His line was one of the longest (tied with Kyle Beckerman). But Nick's was almost completely in the sun. Ryan was waiting in line when they closed it down for the day. I wrote on Nick's facebook page and he said we could hopefully work something out to get his autograph and picture. :) I sure hope so.

The other regrets we had not meeting were Fabian Espindola and Robbie Russell. Russell was at the same table as Rimando and Espindola was down at another end of the stadium.

We had an amazing time! We were able to get a poster, ball and shirt signed by most of these players. We are really hoping we are able to get season tickets again next year... as long as we're still living in Utah. :) Ole, ole ole ole... ReAL Salt Lake!!!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Getting Ready For School

I have always enjoyed going school shopping. I get giddy seeing all of the school supplies at stores... I know I'm crazy. Right now, Alex doesn't need most of those things, so we skip through most of my favorite stuff. Last year and the year before, Alex didn't really care about getting new clothes. He did like picking out his backpack, but that was about it. So I have been used to picking out all of his clothes and shoes. Well this year has been very different. Alex wanted to be very involved with everything! We went shopping with my Mom, since she was so gracious enough to want to buy some school clothes for Alex. (Thanks Mom!)

Alex wanted to look at everything we pulled out. He had an opinion about everything. He would tell us if something was his "style" or not. And he was very specific about not having any character shirts this time. (We did get some Phineas and Ferb shirts, but those were cool, so it was ok.) He was really sweet about it and it was actually kind of funny to watch him look at all the clothes. We went over to ShopKo and he found a shirt that he LOVED! I really don't like to pay more than $5-$8 for a shirt. This one was $12. I told him it was bit expensive. He looked at the price tag and said, "You're right, it is kinda pricey." He went over and put it right back. He was so mature and sweet about it that I almost told him to go back and get it. :)

My favorite thing so far about shopping, was getting Alex's shoes. We found some really cute Nike shoes at Kohl's for a really good price. Again, my Mom was really sweet to get these for Alex. He wanted to wear them over to the next store. I told him he couldn't wear them yet. He threw a little fit about it, but got over it quickly. Once we were home, I let him try on his new shoes. He told me he had to make sure they would make him fast. After running around like crazy he said, "Mom, these shoes make me faster than I ever have been! I think I'm going to be the fastest kid in school this year with these shoes!" He has wanted to show his friends his cool Nike shoes and keeps them in a specific spot right now. :)

Although it has been an adjustment not picking out what I want, it has been so much fun to have a little boy that WANTS to shop with me. Alex has already picked out his outfit for the first day of school and tried it on. He is somewhat excited for his first day, although I am not. I will really miss my little man. 2nd grade, here we come!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Camping Trip #2

We are officially done with summer vacations now. We had a wonderful time camping with the Nielsens this past Wednesday through Friday. The weather was beautiful! We got up there in the afternoon on Wednesday and set up camp. The whole weekend was spent relaxing, playing games, talking and laughing. We have so much fun when we spend time together and this was a trip we had been looking forward to for a whole year! So thank you to our wonderful friends for inviting us again to come camping with them. Here are some pictures of our fun time together.






















Farewell summer! Until next year!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Camping Trip #1

Last year we had camping trips all throughout the summer. Well this year has been a little harder because most of the trips seemed to fall during the time Ryan was working. And the fact that Darek is mobile and independent now. This past weekend was a neighborhood campout up east of Huntsville. It's an annual trip Alex, Darek and I were able to go last year as well. Ryan was working last year and was again this year. But my wonderful friends Tammy and Kaylene wanted to go and agreed to help me out with my boys. (Did I mention what AMAZING friends I have?)

We went up on Thursday late morning and were the first ones to arrive. Last year we found a nice secluded area to put up our tent. It's not that we are recluses or anything, but with a baby last year and a 2 year old (that likes to throw fits) this year, we thought it best to keep our distance. I won't go through an hour by hour schedule, but we had a great time playing games, getting rained on, running and riding through huge water puddles, playing in the river, having a water balloon toss (in which I did not get wet) :), and much more. I have some very fun pictures and will comment on those as I go.

Alex's friends taught him how to play Uno. He LOVED it!

Alex

Alex's buddy Ben

Awww.... too cute!

We never got fully in the water cause it was quite chilly. But we did get our legs in and it was nice once they became numb from the cold.

Darek was CONSTANTLY at this water spout. I was always telling him no and finally decided to put him in his swim shorts and let him go crazy. And he did exactly that!


He was getting a bit cold, but was not going to stop for anyone or anything. :)

After a pretty good rain storm, we had some massive water puddles. I think this is the best present you could give any kid. We were running through these puddles for about an hour. And it would've been all night if had been up to the boys.





Darek loves his Tammy and Kaylene!

But isn't quite sure about their kisses. ;)

My big tough guy

Goofy or not, he is adorable!

I think my boys think of Tammy and Kaylene as their Aunts. I know they love them and I think that Tammy and Kaylene love them too.


We had a great camping trip. We leave for another one tomorrow with Reese, Tammy and Kaylene. We enjoyed their camping spot so much last year, we really can't wait to get up there again. Especially Ryan. He needs this break pretty badly!