Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend started when I picked up the kids early from school on Friday and drove down to Virginia Beach to pick up Bret at the airport who was flying in for the weekend.  What normally is a 3 hour drive took 4 1/2 hours because of all the traffic heading to the beach.  The kids had been praying all week for Grayson that he would be happy in the car and I told them that their prayers were answered because he only cried for 45 minutes of the entire trip!  No small miracle when it comes to Grayson in the car.

That night we had a picnic on the beach and it was so wonderful to be together as a family again.  We actually stayed until about 9:30 and had to drag Abby out of the ocean.  That girl is such fish when it comes to anything with water.

The next morning we met up with McKenna's team at this huge soccer complex for their first game of the day.  McKenna and Kelly (who were still feeling the affects of sprained ankles) got their ankles taped by the athletic trainer they had on sight.

 Go Navy Force Disasters!

There were teams from all over the East Coast.  The first team they played happened to be from Pennsylvania.

 McKenna had a great game.  Playing amazing defense and midfield positions.  The coaches told me that their strategy for McKenna knowing she was not going to be there for the Sunday games was to play her so hard on Saturday that she wasn't going to be able to walk off the fields.  They came pretty close, she worked her little heart out with very few rests despite the heat and humidity.  It was a tough team they played, but were able to pull out a victory winning 4-3.

During lunch we slathered the girls with frozen wash clothes and tried to keep them in the shade as much as possible so they could rest up for their second game.

 The second game they played a team from the area and won 9-0

 She played a little in the goal

 And laying it all out had some great stops...

 After the second game we went back to the hotel where the team was staying and swam that afternoon with them.  That night we had a pizza party all together before our family wished them luck in the next days game and hit the road to come back home.  This was one of those times where it was hard for McKenna to choose the right.  Her team was playing in the semi-finals Sunday morning and she felt like she was letting her team down by not playing on Sunday.  It made it even harder when we got word that they lost 2-0.  But she knew she made the right choice and never questioned it even though it was hard.  Bret and I were very proud of her.

Monday morning we got up and had a little Memorial Day devotional with the kids, went swimming and then on the way to take Bret to the airport we stopped by an old cemetery that had veterans buried there as well as soldiers from the civil war and the kids put flowers on some graves.  It was a neat tradition that I'm sure we'll continue for years to come.