Let's Party, Lacrosse Style!

Before the end of the Cactus Cup Tournament Russ promised the boys a pizza party at our house if they played hard and did their best. 

Let's get the party started!

These guys (Alec, Gary and Brady) might look a little tired but that's cuz the party was just getting started and they had played six lacrosse games in the last 24 hours and won 4 of them!!

They probably ate 6 or 7 pizza's and drank 10 2-liter bottles of soda that night and partied for 3 and 1/2 hours!!

Kyle showing off his new medal!

McKay showing off for the girls, Sarah and Hannah.

Collin striking a pose.

How many boys can you put on a trampoline and then pull off one by one?

Holy sagging trampoline. Please don't break, please don't break!

Before.

McKay's mom, Beckie, dropped by with a mountain of chocolate cupcakes for the boys to inhale. She wrote "Gilbert Tigers" along the sides. 

After. Thanks Beckie! YUM!! 

We had some other surprise visitors, or should I say party crashers?!!

Kira, Savanna and Macey heard all the commotion and started throwing pretzels over the fence at the boys on the tramp. OF COURSE we invited them in and they were FUN!

We were so glad that Ryan and Jennifer stayed and kept us company during the party!

Their daughter, Sarah, and our Olivia cranked the party up a notch and jumped in the 65 degree pool! (Well, Olivia really just stood there).

Andrew Cope started it all!

Then  Andrew E.  jumped in too and the Andrews had fun together!!

Right at the end Alec decided to join in the coldness!

Nate, Ben, and Robert texting and keeping warm inside.

Dayton found a new buddy, Nellie, one of our Italian Greyhounds.

Gary just chillin' and looking stylish.

Let the WRESTLING BEGIN!

Last time the boys were over they wrestled with Russ. This time we got out the mat and the boys had fun matching up with him and each other.

Rustin and Brady were a good matchup and are still friends!!

Alec giving Nate a run for his money.

Robert trying to show Clint who's boss!

Russ was always taking on more than one boy at a time. What started as one or two always ended up as 4 or... 10.

Rustin and Kyle had a blast trying to prove who was stronger.

There were lots of other match-ups. In fact, they wrestled for hours! We kept saying, This is the last one! Even the girls and one of the moms (who shall remain nameless) got in on the action. No co-ed fighting though!!!!

No one got hurt other than a little blood in Rustin's mouth from his braces, an aggravated thumb injury of Andrew C. and boy did Russ have a sore back the next morning! 

The Cactus Cup

Rustin and his teammates on the Gilbert Jr. Tigers had a great weekend playing 6 games and getting a bronze medal in the Cactus Cup this weekend!!! They played two games on Friday night (not pictured). They lost the first game to a team with a record of 9-1 (The Mustangs). We won our second game against the Broncos and it was an awesome victory over a tough team!

Our first game was at 9am Saturday morning and we won that too!  We played the Warriors and beat them pretty handily. In this picture Rustin is doing one of the things he does best, knock the ball out of his opponents stick.

Now the chase is on!

Clint standing over Brady who'd been knocked down. Not happy!

Rustin with his eye on the ball!

This next game was against the Outlaws and it was a nail biter! If we won this then we would be in the semi-finals. 

Rustin with his stick up ready to hack at the ball!

Take that!

Love that shot up in the air!

At the urging of the parents, Russ ran over to the team to let them know if they hung on for the win they would be in the semi-finals! He got almost as many cheers for running across the field than the boys did. 

Rustin takes a shot to try and lengthen their one point lead.

Goalie watches the shot fly up in the air after it hit the top bar of the goal. 

So close Rustin!!

We won anyway and Rustin was sweaty, exhausted but very happy!

They were all happy and stopped their celebration for a second to pose for a picture.

The next game was against the Scorpions who beat us earlier in the season in Tucson. We fought hard (as you can see, Rustin looks very uncomfortable) but lost by two goals! 

Get up! We have another game to play for the bronze!!!

Chloe and Ashlie and other players' little sisters entertained themselves during the games by sledding down the grassy hill on cardboard scraps.

Miranda, Tess and Jenessa (Nate's sister) who all play on the Gilbert High School's J.V. team practiced lacrosse between games and had fun showing the boys how you catch and throw without a pocket!

Lacrosse never looked so good!

Chloe tries surfing the grass on her feet!

Not as easy as it sounds.

"Hey # 27 I dropped my contact!"

or 

"This is a green line, it means if you go past it, you are out of bounds, Ok?"

 Actually, I have no idea what he was saying.

Whatever it was, it worked because Rustin had an amazing game!!!

Rustin doing the faceoff! He got the ball!!!

Rustin took on the biggest and fastest guys on the team and had the bruises to show for it. It only spurred him on to work harder!

David meets Goliath!

O.K. Perspective makes him look a little bigger than he really is but we was much bigger than Rustin and a head taller than our tallest player, Trenton! Earlier in the game Rustin ran headlong into him trying to push him out of bounds and it didn't work but he and his teammates were able to shut this guy down!

This is where Rustin gets a big bruise on his shoulder. You can see the ref calling a penalty on the other guy. 

This ticked Rustin off and he made some amazing moves down the field with the ball to help his team secure the win!!!

Taking them on with no regrets! 

The whole team played amazingly well. Some of my favorite parts were Gary and Andrew's teamwork from behind the net and into the goal. Collin's amazing quick, low and deadly shots. Andrew Cope's incredible defending skills and using his stick like a saber to harass his enemies and get the ball. Kyle Palmer's seemingly magic ability to always come up with the ball and never let it go until he's ready to shoot. Of course,  Trenton's wheels and brute strength mixed with great talent, Addison,Brady and Luke's amazing ball-handling skills. 

All the boys did great and appreciated the MANY MANY shots that their brave goalie, Alec, blocked!!

Whistle blows and we win 8-5 (or something like that)

The tradition of storming the goalie continues!

How many Jr. Tigers fit in one goal? Lots!

Coach John handing out the medals!

Yeah baby!

Happy Midi!

Trenton, Andrew and McKay soak coach with cooler of ICE!

Coach Chris barely avoids the coldness.

Coach is a good sport.

Jr. Tigers are majorly goofy!

Back to front: Coach Chris, Coach John, Andrew, Kyle P., Trenton, Collin, Clint, Dayton, Luke, 

Ben, Nate, Kyle, Gary

Andrew C., Alec, Brady, Addison, McKay, Robert

Rustin and Clint.

I am proud to say that is all from memory! No cheat sheet! After having the boys over to our house many times for parties and just relaxing between games I know them all by name based on their faces, not just their numbers!

Thanks for a great season tigers!