Hallissey Tournament, Year Five

We had another epic weekend in Boise for the annual Hallissey basketball tournament sponsored by a Catholic church down there.  This was Glenn's fifth year of coaching a team for this tournament.  You can review many of our memories of this event here and here.

New this year, Glenn switched from coaching the girls' team to coaching the boys' team.  This was Ellea's first year of not being on the team after four years of participating on the court.  She started in 5th grade and it's technically an 8th grade tournament.  Glenn usually takes 7th and 8th graders along so she had a more years than most kids get.

Morgan will get to have the same experience, as he was on the team this year as a fifth grader.  He mostly took stats and got to experience the game from the bench, but he also got a couple minutes of playing time when the team had a nice lead.

They worked hard and made it to the championship game which is always exciting.  Glenn gets to announce each of his players.  He started with the youngest players, so Morgan went first.  Here, he's fist bumping the officials.  (I just realized that, looking back, Nicole also wore #12 when she played three years ago.  Funny!)

They played their hearts out, but they were playing a team that was strictly 8th graders.  They had played this team once before in the tournament and lost by 20 points.  The score was much closer for this game (it was often tied or one or the other team had a lead of a point or two), but the other team pulled ahead in the end.  Glenn's team played some great ball and gave it their all.

Second place is nothing to be ashamed of, but those were some sad boys.

So proud of these two.  Glenn had so many random people approach him after the game and tell him what a great team he had and how fun it was to watch them.  Can't wait to watch number 12 improve his game and continue to grow.  He's already got a great understanding of the game and really seems to enjoy it.  Until next year.....

Agreeable and Lucky

One of the highlights of the recent Boise trip was the stay in the hotel, of course!  Morgan loves pool time, but couldn't talk anyone into joining him the first night.

He talked one of his agreeable sisters, Nicole, into joining him the second day.  Ellea was watching a basketball game with her dad.  The rest of us need a break from basketball.  Just for a minute.

And they had fun.  I love it when one of my girls agrees to do something with their brother, when you know they're maybe just trying to be nice.  And they do that a lot.  So lucky, that boy.  And me, too.

Craziness Abounds

Glenn took some funny pictures on his phone while we were at the Boise basketball tournament.  My kids sure enjoy those luggage carts you can use at hotels, apparently.

Not sure where I was when this craziness took place.  Gratefully, somewhere else.  I'me sure the hotel staff really love this sort of behavior...... :)

Golden Corral

We ate at the Golden Corral for the first time ever while we were in Boise.  My children got ridiculously excited about all the options at this all-you-can-eat buffet.  Especially the dessert options.  (Me too - big surprise)

Of special interest was the chocolate fountain.  Whoever thought of installing that thing clearly is not the one to clean up the mess it makes.  My favorite was the strawberries.  Love a chocolate-covered strawberry.

This young man ate more dessert than entree items, I'm sure.  Cotton candy was one of many sugar splurges he made.  The mom in me wanted to tell him to eat more vegetables first, but I decided to not be a killjoy.  Just this once. :)

Special

Some families do lots of traveling by car.  Ours, not so much.  A four-hour drive to Boise is kind of a long time to us.  We might have to work on that.  But I've never been a huge fan of long car trips, so that might be tricky.

 

When boredom sets you, you start taking random pictures of the other passengers with mom's new phone.

Or fabulous selfies.....

So pretty!

And the shenanigans continue.....One of the Arby's sandwiches had a "special" sticker on it, so it promptly went on brother's forehead.  Go figure.

Cousin Love

We had a cute little visitor during our tournament games in Boise last weekend.  She and her family joined us for two of the games and Morgan and her really enjoyed one another.  He told me she's one of his favorite cousins.  :)

Little Kaitlyn decided she's going to play basketball someday soon.  She was actually a little annoyed during the game to see the players using the ball without her!

Look at that face.

Cute as a button!

Not sure what this face was about, but I love it!!  She's really concentrating.  I see future basketball star written all over her face!

Exhausting and Fun

We had a crazy busy, whirlwind, basketball-filled weekend in Boise this past.  Our fourth annual pilgrimage for the Catholic 8th grade tournament.  They won their first two games (woot, woot!), then lost one which put us in the "losers bracket."  Then they had to win the next three games to make it back to the championship round and they pulled it off!  That made for SEVEN games in less than 48 hours.  Crazy!

Sadly, the championship game was against the one team they lost to earlier in the tournament and they played their little hearts out, but didn't quite beat them.  It was so close!  They were sad.  Heck, the adults were sad, but they still walked away with the 2nd place trophy which is nothing to sneeze at.

Glenn giving them a pep talk after the final game.  Those were some sad girls.  Losing is hard.  Just like life.

Glenn and his assistant coaches.  Nicole and her classmate, Chaye, have helped him the past two years (after playing for him for two years).

Ellea's played for him for four years.  Not sure what next year will bring now that both our girls have "aged out."  Maybe switch to coaching boys since Morgan will be that age soon.  The kids insist he has to coach someone!  It's tradition!  It's fun!  (It's exhausting!!!)
 

Good job, girls!  You should be proud.  I am.

More Hallissey

The Hallissey Basketball Tournament was a fabulous time. As I said in yesterday's post, we lost game one, but we won games two and three on Saturday morning. Game three was a major nail-biter. We were ahead by one point for the first half and then behind by one point for most of the second half. At the final buzzer, the score was tied at 28. The ref called a foul on the other team at the buzzer giving one of our players the chance to win the game with a free throw. No pressure there!!! Our Prairie crowd erupted in screams when she made the shot with nothing but net!! Phew! Game four was hard fought, but the girls were just out of steam and that was the end of the road for us.

One of the dads suggested we head over to Dairy Queen to celebrate our great tournament. Two of the dads split the bill which came to almost $100 for all of the team and their parents! It was a great ending to a great weekend. Gotta love those Blizzards (especially the chocolate ones!)