It has been a while...

So I just noticed the other day that I have not updated this in almost three months and that is a lot of time to cover with two growing boys. It has been a great summer for us. We have been on an oceanography cruise were we saw a pod of dolphins and a blue whale. We have been to the beach and the boys fell in love with that and can't wait to go back. We have been to Disney (we earned free tickets by doing service). I have been to Denver for a romance readers convention.

As always there is rugby. Mike is coaching and loving and will be applying to UNLV to earn a degree in Sports training. Mike and Mat have gotten so much better, they have been able to meet Jamie Roberts of the Cardiff Blues, and Jamie Heaslip from Ireland this summer.

That is what we have been doing here in blazing hot Vegas.

This never happens in regular sports

Thursday was just a normal day in our life, I worked the boys went to school, Mike looked for a new job, and we had rugby practice. Not so out of the ordinary, then we got to rugby practice and it wasn't so normal anymore.

As we got to practice we were told that a pro rugger (professional rugby player) from France was in town and was going to stop by the practice. I was then faced with the deliema of running home to find the camera or using Mike's phone because I had left mine at home quite by accident. 

A little while later I was called over to translate as there was not one but four pro players there to play with the kids. They played a pick up game of rugby with them and the kids loved it. I got some great footage and will shortly be posting it to fb and on here. They guys are from the Montpellier France rugby club. 

As we were talking after the practice all the parents that were there were saying that this never happens in other sports, where the pro's just drop by a little league team to play with them. The main coach is now trying to see if he can get some All Blacks (that's New Zealand's team), little Mike is wanting some Sprinboks players, and big Mike wants some Irish. Me I just want a little warning before hand so that I can have my camera ready. 

Catching Up

Where does the time fly? So the last time I updated this was in February while we were at 7's. That was a lot of fun and we were excited to see the USA win, they didn't win the big prize but they won the best for their division. As the team went around after they won and received their award they remembered Mik from when they had met them before the games and pulled him down to walk with them for their victory walk. Mat flirted with all the girls around us. Mik was excited to see his team South Africa go as far as they did, even though they had to play Fiji. The big winners were Somoa, they beat New Zealand.

Rugby continues to rule our lives as they boys season has gotten under way. Mat plays for the Blues and Mik the Chief's. Mat's team has won every game, which doesn't make Mik very happy. Mat scores at least 2 touchdowns with at every game and has been team MVP once. Mik scores most of his teams touchdowns and is team MVP every game. Mike is now one of the coaches for the boys team, I am the parent liason, for the league, and am playing for the womens team the Lady BlackJacks.

Mike and boys are also in the play Savior of the World, which will open at the end of this month and run for a week. Mike is a Roman Soldier, a townsman, Samuel the Lamanite, and the apostle Matthew. It has been a great experience for us as a family. We are hoping to make it an annual event, like a lot of the families have done.

I FINALLY finished my masters degree and am now just waiting on the final audit of my degree to be awarded. The starts the job hunt all over again. With all the budget cuts and NV's requirements for a teaching license I am going to be looking in the private sector and the colleges for jobs.

It has been a crazy month and April is looking to be just as busy. We were just looking at our schedule and realized that we don't have one free night this month.

USA 7's Day 1

Today was the first day of USA 7's Rugby Tournament in Vegas and we had tickets. It was definitely an experience. Everyone was so nice we exchanged names and visited through out the day. We saved seats when we went to get food and to go to the fan festival. The games were 14 minutes and very intense. Unlike in football when you constantly stop the game there is no stopping in rugby. There were several times when a player went down hurt and they played around him, or moved across the field and played away from them. There was no stopping of the game at all, no matter what. They only time the game stopped at all was at the end of the quarter. The most intense games, were between South Africa and Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, and Samoa and Kenya. England and Wales were also great teams. Here are some of the pictures that we took today, and some from yesterday also when they got to meet the USA Eagles and also happened to run into the team from Fiji. I'll post all the pictures and the videos on my facebook page.

Rugby

Last Saturday as I was sitting with the other moms at rugby one of them told me that I should start playing with the women in Tue and Thurs nights. I laughed them off and told them that I was to old to play. However as I thought about it, and remembered my goal to get back in shape for 2010 I decided why not.

So last night I went thinking that I will do my best especially considering that I don't know much about rugby beyond what my kids have taught me. Well last night they brought in a guy that used to play professionally and with one of the worlds best rugby teams. He did the teaching and the drills last night and we had a scrimmage game.

I LOVED it. Yeah my body ached a bit but it was one of those feel good aches. I am excited to go back on Thurs. Next week I can't go at all as we have commitments those nights, but every other time I will definitely be there.

Our new thing

The week-end the movie Invictus came out we took the boys to see it, thinking that they would love the game rugby, which they did. The next week-end they were invited to a free rugby little league clinic because the huge rugby tournament is in Vegas this year. They holidays happened and they didn't have it for a couple of weeks, and every week-end they asked it they had rugby. Last night I told them that they that rugby was back on and they had clinic today.

So I went today and signed them up for rugby little league. After their clinic today there was three college rugby games so they got to stay with their best friends and watch three actual rugby games. One of which was BYU. As my boys are HUGE BYU fans they were super excited. From 10-5 today it was all Rugby and they loved it. We then came home and watched the movie Forever Strong which is a rugby movie.

I had to get a picture of Mat as he wore his BYU hoodie to rugby today not knowing that they were going to be there.