STATE GAMES OF MISSISSIPPI

The Vicksburg Soccer Organization U8 boys and girls decided to put together Rec+  teams at the end of the regular soccer season in order to play in the State Games of Mississippi in Meridian (teams and individuals from across the state compete in soccer, baseball, and a bunch of other sports over the summer months). Cora was super excited to join her first Rec+ soccer team (they named themselves the UniSharks, not to be confused with narwhals, who aren't ferocious enough), play with her friends (and some of the better VSO players) over the summer, and go stay at a hotel with a pool (every kids' favorite part of traveling!)

Arriving at the hotel, carrying All The Things that she thought she'd have time to play with:

Before dinner...

After dinner:

We ate at Brickhaus - tasty pub style food and too many beers on tap to count:

Getting ready to walk in the Opening Ceremony parade:

The ceremony was held in the central town courtyard. They had bands, mascots, flag girls, a few skydivers (one carrying an American flag and a couple after dark that were covered in LED lights), music and dancing, and a few former Olympians running in torches, followed by fireworks.

The next day the UniSharks had 2 games (one was a tie, the other a loss, but Cora scored a goal and they all impressed us with their ability to adapt from their usual 4v4 game to a 6v6 game with a goalie - they hadn't practiced for it, we made the change last minute because no other 4v4 teams registered for the Games):

(Hannah, Miranda, Addi, Harper, Allie, Cora, Chloe, Addie, and Cameron)

Warming up:

Game one:

Snowcone break (it was HOT):

Game two (these girls were MEAN - lots of shoving):

What the brothers did during the games (in our new shade tent):

Team lunch at the mall's food court (we don't recommend it - not much there):

Then we retreated to the hotel pool to cool off (and one of the parents bought a giant box of popsicles):

Once the kids were tired, we rinsed off and got dressed for dinner (walking across the street to the steakhouse) with the other families that were staying at our hotel (Cora thinks little "baby" sisters are the best and she basically adopted Emma, Chloe's sister, for 24 hours):

Poor kiddos were exhausted by the time we got them to bed. Thankfully it wasn't too early of a wake up the next morning...

Game three (and our last game, since we lost and didn't advance):

The whole experience was great for Cora (learning new skills, learning to lose gracefully, playing with her friends outside of our normal day-to-day) and we're really hoping to keep the team together in the fall for some tournament travel!