Camp OFFA

In June 2011 Tegen and Traysen participated in a football camp called Camp OFFA. It was a three day camp at one of the local high school's. It was awesome, there were several NFL players that helped teach the boys different fundamentals of football. They separated into different age groups and worked on fundamentals.

 At the end of the camp they got medals so this was the medal presentation.

 There were SO many kids there. We are all hoping they put on the football camp again next year!

 At the end the kids were allowed to get pictures and autographs from the NFL players. Tegen and Tray's other friends wouldn't do it but Tray was right there in the middle of things. He loved getting the autographs and pictures.

We are going to have peel that red sweatshirt off of Tray now!!!

Spring Flag Football

Tegen and Tray are playing indoor arena football this spring. Ed and Christian are coaching both teams again. The boys are in heaven! They love football so much and I love watching them play!

Our first NFL game...

Santa brought our family tickets to the Arizona Cardinals game for Christmas. We loved (almost) every minute of the game! For some reason these pictures uploaded all out of order. #11 is Larry Fitzgerald- Tegen's football hero! He was playing with an injured elbow that day. We were kind of upset because when we got to the game we found out that this was basically a "throw away" game for the Cardinals. They had made it into the playoffs the week before so they benched all their best players (except for Fitzgerald). So they didn't care AT ALL about winning. It's a good thing too because they got their hiney's kicked!

This is Kurt Warner- the quarter back. I really admire him as a person. He seems to be a genuinely good person- but what do I know?

We convinced the popcorn/peanut guy to take our picture. Ed had to buy a $6 box of cracker jacks from him though!

This was outside the stadium before we went inside. It was SO hot that day. We loved it!

This is the whole team warming up...

This was almost the end of the game. We got killed 7 to 33.... YIKES! To top it all off we were surrounded by Green Bay fans.

Gotta love the foam fingers!

This is when they were being called out onto the field- going through the tunnel...

These nachos were $8 a piece. If you ever go to a game bring lots of spending money! Ed and I had a $6 coke. What a total rip off. I really wanted water but it was $4.75 per bottle. I decided that I didn't need water that was laced in gold that badly!

Huge team huddle before the game. It was kinda cool to see all those players that we watch on t.v. all in one spot...

Okay- those were completely out of order but oh well. You get the idea. We had a blast even though our team got trashed. The only bummer that day was that Tegen's camera got stolen. I was so upset- so was he. At the end of the game we stood up to leave and Tegen realized that his camera wasn't in the drink holder where he put it. He got the camera (a really nice one too) for Christmas so it was brand new. It just makes me so sad to realize that there are people out there who have no moral conscious whatsoever. I'm guessing that they'll feel pretty good about themselves if they ever realize that they stole a 9 year old's Christmas present. The saddest part is that he had taken a ton of pictures of our whole trip and the game and he lost all of those memories. Darn it! Other than that we had a fantastic time and we would love to do it again someday!

Football, football and more football...

Football has totally consumed our lives since the beginning of August! Traysen was in flag football again this year and Ed (with one of his friends) coached his team. It was so much fun to watch both Ed and Tray out on the field. He had two practices a week and games on Thursdays and Saturdays (yes, that's 4 days!). Tray and Tegen both became obsessed... seriously... obsessed with football this season. I have never seen them love anything as much, except maybe dirt bikes. They would wake up early to play outside before school, they played at recess, they played after school and then they would go to practice or a game. If they weren't playing it outside they played the new Madden NFL 10 on the Wii. They seriously loved it!
Tray played running back and receiver. He improved so much compared to last year that I can't wait to see how well he plays next year! Their season only had two losses. They were awesome! This picture has Ed and Christian (the other coach) out on the field with the boys. I think that they were as excited as the boys were!

Tegen started Grid Kid this year. Wow- what an experience! For those that don't know it's for young boys when they first start out in pads and helmets and full gear. I had no idea when we signed Tegen up that it was going to be so SERIOUS! They had 2 hour practices 4 days a week just to play 7 games! There were 5 coaches who were awesome! They called Tegen and his friend Zach "little men" because they are so tiny. Tegen was the smallest kid on the team with one of the biggest hearts. He loved it! He tried so hard even when he had to go against a kid twice his size. I think the coaches did a fabulous job in letting Tegen play even though he was really small and inexperienced. This year definitely left a great impression and he can't wait until next year starts! He looked so big in all that gear!

Tegen was number 67 and he played safety and corner. Their season was 5-2. They only lost to the two undefeated teams on the league. They were awesome!!!

We got lucky this year and had great weather up until the second week of October. At least we didn't have to sit through too many cold wet games. As much as my boys loved it I have to admit that I am really starting to enjoy the game of football too. Go boys!