Hoopfest 2011

We had a fabulous Hoopfest weekend. The weather was great. The company was lovely. The basketball was exciting. We made it through another year injury-free (unless you count Jonathan's bruised rib from one overly aggressive player's elbow Sunday morning) and that is all that matters ;). Team Mose and Socks played well and had fun. And I was reminded, yet again, that deep inside myself is the heart of a competitor. That is a nice way of saying that I have some serious competitive issues. They don't come out often anymore. I'm a twenty-eight year old stay at home mom, after all. But sheesh. I was stressed-out each and every one of the 20ish minute games and it took me about ten minutes to cool my anger when they lost in overtime Sunday afternoon by one, after leading when the time went out and scoring another point after that (winning by two, basically). Grrrr ;).

I have consoled myself the last few days by acknowledging that I'm only at my worst while watching my husband. I mean, I don't care a bit if we're watching sports on TV. And I am more worried about how my little brother is responding to adversity during his matches than whether he's dominating the scoreboard. So that must mean I won't be one of those crazy moms cheering on my little girl, right? It may not really matter, though, because right now Clara is much more interested in watching bugs, dancing, and swings than she is anything sports-related. But still...

The two days spent downtown were great. Here are some of the pictures we took, documenting the weekend. And please notice Clara's face in every. single. picture. At least it's slightly better than turning away from the camera, which was her signature look a few months ago.

The boys: Chris, Neal, Cody and Jonathan

Add the wives: Bethany (+ Ella), Carly, Amy (+Clara), Stephanie (+ Quinn)

Andrea and her boyfriend, Parker were here for the madness as well! It was so fun to see Andrea (as always) and to meet "Big Parker", as we affectionately dubbed him. Since Clara already knows and loves a kindergarten aged Parker, we thought the distinction might ease the complication. And Clara really did love Big Parker immediately. As did we!!

A few action shots:

And the rest of the fans, of course...

Devouring seaweed snack between games. Yum!

This little girl is quite smitten by her daddy. She loved cheering him on with an enthusastic "Go daddy go!"

Sharing a post-match smoothie.

And the finale: the victory pose Andrea taught her!