Las Vegas

Last weekend, Samone had a soccer tournament in Las Vegas!!! It was a great trip!!! We left Friday about 11:30am. It was about a 4 hour drive and the kids did really well up until about the last 30 minutes. That's when Adrien started getting ancy!!! We were  hoping to swim for awhile when we got their, but it was too cold!!!  So we made dinner in our room (Full kitchen so we brought lots of food) then headed down to the strip to walk around and check it out!!!  The kids loved the Fremont St Light Show!!!!!!

Samone's 1st game wasnt until 1:30, so we had breakfast and went to the pool for a bit. It was still pretty chilly, though, so swimming didn't last long!!! It was a chilly day, but great for soccer!!

Once again, Samone's team is playing in Division 1 and these are some tough teams!!! We lost all three games, but they played great!!! Our first game was 1-2 with Samone scoring our 1 ! The second game was 2-4, Samone scored 1 and Morgan scored 1. The last game was 0-1....All 3 games were so close!!! All were exciting and everyone played great all weekend. I really believe they are so close to starting to win in this new Division. In Division 2, they were winning all the time, so it is great to being playing some tough competition and be pushing them as a team!!!

After the last game on Sunday, we went back to our hotel to pack up and check out. Then we walked along the strip. We went to the M&M store and spent $18 on M&M's !!!! Crazy!!!  Then we had lunch at the Harley Davidson Cafe and headed back home!!!

It was a great trip and another great tournament!!!! Our next tournament isn't until the weekend of April 24th in Prescott!! That is going to be, once again, another tough tournament!!! But they will do great!!!!

Spring Break

Well, it's hard to believe that Spring Break was actually 2 WEEKS AGO!!! I need to get better about keeping up with my blog, but the busier we get and the more I have to share...well, the busier I am and the less time I have to sit and get it documented!!!!

But, our Spring Break was WONDERFUL !!!!!  We took our first family ski trip. We only went to Sunrise, just under 3 hours away, but it was a great first ski trip for our family.

We got to Show Low at about 5pm on Sunday night and had dinner in town before heading up the hill to the resort. We decided to stay at the resort because it is only about 1 mile from the ski slopes. Anywhere else is about a 20-30 minute drive. The rooms were old, tiny and worn down. But we still had a great time. We swam a little in the indoor pool before heading to bed.

Our first day of skiing started out cloudy and chilly, but it was still great. By afternoon, the clouds were gone and the sun was shining!!! The kids, and us, were loving all the runs!!! The kids just AMAZE me with their skiing!!! They are so so good! And, I must say, I was doing pretty darn good!!! I never fell and I was really getting fast!!! It was great!!!

After the first day, we just hung out at the resort. We swam for awhile, then gave the kids showers before heading to eat at the resturant at the resort. When we got back to the room we were all so exhausted that we just fell asleep.

Day 2 was AMAZING...EXHILERATING!!! Blue skies all day, great runs, perfect snow!!! We skiied 3 Black Diamonds. The kids were amazing. They went down every slope like it was a bunny slope. I did good. I got down every slope without falling and I don't think I looked too bad!!!!

After skiing this day, we drove about 20 miles to HonDah Casino to eat at their resturant.  When we got back, we took the kids swimming again before heading back to the room!!!

We left the next morning, stopping at Nonnie's on the way!! It was a great trip!!! Great Memories!!! I love my Family!!!!

OUR SOCCER MARATHON!!!!

SO, Needless to say, things have been pretty busy in the Marquez household over the past 3 weeks. Ironically, the busier we are, the more I have to write about, but the less time I have to sit and actually do the writing!!! But I love my crazy, busy, insanely-sane life!!!

WE HAVE HAD A WHIRLWIND OF SOCCER OVER THE PAST FOUR WEEKS!!!

HERE IS THE RECAP:

FEBRUARY 13TH 2 Open League Games Vs AZ Hammers and Cisco Black

We drove down to Phoenix Saturday morning for some beautiful weather and some soccer. Can't say it was the best the team has played, or the best they CAN play. They were all a little slow starting, but this is the first time they have played a game in over a month, and we have only been practicing indoors due to all the snow in Flagstaff....so we saw them struggle a bit. Samone wasn't happy with her playing after the first game. She can be hard on herself. But she also knows when she is and is not playing her best. She went out there for the second game and really shined !!!

FEBRUARY 20-21 GILBERT ARSENAL TOURNAMENT

So, this was a wet, cold, cloudy, MUDDY tournament....AND one I think I will never forget. I really think this was really a huge turning point for Samone. This weekend, at this tournament, I watched my daugter go from a girl who plays soccer to a SOCCER PLAYER!!!! The first game the girls played in this tournament will probably go down in history as our hardest, most disappointing loss ever!! To start off with, they played the first half of the game in the rain!!! UGH!! And the team just looked awful on the field. They looked like a group of girls who had never played soccer before!!! It was that bad. Even Samone, she just looked lost on the field half the time. She was losing the ball to girls who were NOT as good of players as her. They are a great team but they did not look like it. It was a very somber atmosphere. All the parents were just taken aback at what happened on the field.

After that game, we left to go check into our hotel. Samone was very upset, but because she knew how poorly she played. We got to the hotel and I made some lunch. Then she layed in bed resting while she and I talked. Then she took a shower and off we went to the second game.....

AND THAT IS WHEN IT HAPPENED!! Samone played strong, hard and 110%!!! She was amazing!!! It was a close game. We didn't win, but it was close. And, Samone played AWESOME!! That is all we ever tell her, "Play your best, that is all we want to see-youout there playing your best!!" She was a different kid after this game. She was happy and bubbly and GLOWING!!! She KNEW She played her best!!!

On the way to the hotel, we told her: You can either play your best and feel like this after every game, or you can play half-heartedly and feel like you did after that last game. At that moment, I think she realized she never wanted to feel like she did after that first game again!!!

The next day, for the final game, they played against Cisco Black. Now we had just played Cisco last weekend in an open league game and lost 6-2. So this was a big game for us. The thing that really added some excitement to this game was that half the field was in MUD!!! At first ALL the girls weren't sure how to play in it, kinda tapping the ball and trying to avoid the mud...BUT THEM, Samone was tripped and fell right in the mud....from that moment on she was on fire!!!! It was a GREAT game to watch and we ended up winning 2-1 !!! It took awhile, but they finally got warmed up!!!!

FEBRUARY 27-28 BLACKHAWK INVITATIONAL

Well, this was a pretty special weekend for several reasons. First of all, Kendall and Adrien stayed in Winslow with Nonnie and Papa. We have never gone to a tournament, or really anywhere, without them. We pretty much go everywhere and do everything together as a family. We are not the parents that leave their kids with other people while they go do their own thing.  We just like being together.  But, I have to admit, it was a nice treat for David and I to get to spend some time alone with Samone. We left Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel and went to dinner at STAX! It was a lovely, relaxing dinner! We went back to the hotel and went to the pool for a bit before we had to get Samone in bed!!!  I know Samone really enjoyed the extra attention!!!!

We havent' been having much luck this half of the soccer season with weather!! It was another chilly, cloudy day with the possibility of rain looming over us all day long!!! But, at least for Saturday, the rain held out and it was actually quite nice!!

The first game was our toughest one of the tournament...against the #3 ranked Blackhawks!!! HOLY MOLY...What an AMAZING game!!! The ENTIRE team was ON FIRE!!!! Samone was dynamite....she didn;t score, but had lots of great shots that JUST BARELY missed!!! The Blackhawks ended up beating us in the last few minutes of the game, 1-0, but unfortunately their goal was accidentally knocked into the goal by one of our players. Poor thing, she was so upset!! But it happens...and a tie or a win would have been AMAZING, but to lose on 1-0 and to watch the team play so so so good - it didn't even feel like a loss!!!!

Our next game was against CCV Red, and just another UNBELIEVALBE game!!! The shots that they were making!!! Samone scored 4 points that game....all amazing!!! She was just a soccer-star!!!  And the whole team just played phenomenally!!! It was such a great day.

So, we headed back to the hotel, got some dinner and hung out at the pool with some fellow players!!! Headed in for bed AND WOKE UP TO POURING RAIN!!!  We found out at 9am that the rest of the tournament was CANCELLED!!!  Super duper bummer!!!!!

So, we would have liked to have played our last game cuz I really think we could have won!!!! But, we went and had breakfast with some other players and families, then checked out and headed to Happy Valley to do a little shopping and eat some lunch before heading home!!!!

It was great to see Kendall and Adrien again!! It was a really great tournament!!!

MARCH 6 OPEN LEAGUE VS BLACKHAWKS

Our last Open League Game!!! AHH!! So, Samone and I went down for this one and left Dad and the kiddos behind. We were down three players...and two of them were strong players. And the Blackhawks had 14 players there!!! OH NO!!! This is the team that beat us last week 1-0, and that 1 being a goal one of our own players accidentally scored for them!!!! So we thought we had no chance!!!!  But, once again, AMAZING game!!  Oh, Samone was even better than ever. Control, thinking about her plays and passes, communicating, getting the ball past those defenders EVERY time!!!  I was so proud!!!

So, once again, we lost 1-0, but they only scored in the last few minutes of the game!!! And that is amazing considering we only had one sub!!!!

So, now we have a 2 1/2 week break before heading to Vegas!!!!! Go Flagstaff United 2000!!!

OUR NEW PETS!!!!!

So, the kids have been asking us lately why we don't have any pets. I tell them we are too busy and just gone too much and it wouldn't be fair to the pets. Truth be told, neither David nor myself are really animal-lovers.  Oh, and we are gone too much.

So, one morning we wake up and I open the kitchen blind and what do we see???  Only about 15-20 DEER!! And I am NOT exaggerating one bit. They heard us, saw us, but didn't do much else. After I came home from taking the kids to school, there they were, just walking along the road.....

And, two weeks later, they are still hanging out. I must say, just one of the MANY perks to living in the beautiful forests of Flagstaff, Arizona; to have deer crossing your street and lounging in your backyard!!

I LOVE FLAGSTAFF!!!!!!!