Champs week 2014

This year, both kids traveled to Germany for championship week.  Sam for soccer and Tommy for baseball.  Mike and I threw around going on vacation to Barcelona or Lampedusa for a few days while they were both gone, but we ultimately decided to go to Germany and catch some games.  While a quiet beach vacation would have been nice, I am glad we went to the games.  Plus, I just love Germany and it was fun to go again.  We had some issues with finding out when and where Sam's games were, so we spent the first morning in Luxembourg checking out a small town with a castle and then walking around Luxembourg City.  Then we headed back to Germany to hit a soccer game.  On the way to the game, I got a nice text from Sammie letting me know in such a kind way that she was sorry we had missed the game because she had scored a goal.  I was bummed we missed it.  Way to go Sammie!  As you check out the pix below, Sam is #13 and has on a pink headband.  I loved the headband because it made her really easy to pick out on the field!  The pictures are from several games that we were able to see.  The girls played hard and ended up finishing 3rd in their division.  Most of these girls won't be here next year due to moving or graduating.  Sam had a great time with them and is going to miss those who are leaving!

Having some fun during warm-ups

I assume this is a pep talk.  The team they were about to play is
a strong team.

I love the tongue out!  She makes all sorts of weird faces when she is running!

So soccer and baseball only overlapped one day for games.  So we didn't have to do too much splitting of our time.  Tommy's team was the only baseball team in division 3 so they played up a division with bigger schools.  Our high school is very small and fielding soccer and baseball/softball teams in one season uses up about 85-90% of the kids in the high school.  This means that some kids on our teams are playing the sport for the first time!  Our coaches do a good job of taking kids from having never played to getting them to learn the sport and be able to contribute to the team.  Tommy is one of the primary pitchers, and he was the starting pitcher for most of the games this year.  However, he had to play multiple positions because as they rotated pitchers, the positions of the other players rotated.  I think he played most of the infield positions this  year when he wasn't pitching.  Here are some pictures from Tommy's games….

He makes some strange faces, too!

I think the conversation on the mound went like this…"I am fine, don't take me out,
just let me finish this inning, I can do it….."

Tommy lost this negotiation, but in the final game of the week,
he successfully negotiated to pitch when he wanted to

The boys played hard, and finished 5th out of 12.   The kids had a blast during the time they spent in Germany.  While the games didn't always go how they wanted, the experience was so much more than just the games.

The week we got back, was the spring sports banquet.  The kids both received academic letters in addition to lettering in their sport.  

Monet's Garden

To get to the Normandy coast from Disney Paris, it was about a 3 hour drive.  In order to break the time up, I decided we would stop and tour Claude Monet's gardens.  We opted not to do his house because they only allowed a small number of people in at a time, and we didn't feel like waiting.  The gardens alone were worth the trip!  Below are some pictures from his garden, I will probably just let them speak for themselves…

Normandy

Back in April, when we went to France, we not only spent time in Paris, we headed to the normandy region.  While you could easily spend a week there exploring the region, we had about 2 days and only hit a few places.

We stayed in a small town called Ouistreham, which is on Sword Beach.  Our hotel was across the street from the beach, but we had a nice view.

A view of the British monument from our room

The kids standing up at the monument


There was a cute little food stand on the beach.  Sam and I had awesome hotdogs that were served in baguettes, the only way they should be served if you ask me!

Of course we hit the American Cemeteries while we were in the region.  This is the Brittany American Cemetery.  We were allowed to climb to the top of the bell tower, which allowed for a beautiful view.

Cemetery and battle sights are not all that there is to see in Normandy.  We also went to Mont Saint Michelle.  A beautiful building and town built on a piece of land that becomes an island when the tide comes in.  It has been used as a prison and an Abbey. The streets are narrow and winding going up to the Abbey, which sits on top of the hill.







We hit Utah beach…..

Omaha Beach…..

Pont du Hoc….

And Normandy American Cemetery

We also spent time in Monet's gardens, but I will save that for a post of it own.