The Ficek Family: September 2012

Corn harvest which takes a couple weeks each fall is in full swing at the dairy. Willem continues to say this is the best time of the year. He loves to check out the harvest if he has time after school and tells us he loves the smell of the corn. "It's the best smell in the world!" he tells us. Nev and I got to take it all in on Friday when Amber came to visit with Jacoby and Nia. We first went to the fields behind James and Jenn's house and they loved riding on the harvester with Alan...

Alan was great with them and after their ride, he spent time explaining the irrigation pivot to Nev and Jacoby...

The kids then had a blast playing in a little patch of corn that hadn't been cut yet. They ran through the rows and chased each other. We then spotted a little bunny rabbit and a baby bunny that were probably a little traumatized that their home (the corn) was being cut. The kids chased the bunnies and had fun finding them in the corn rows...

After lunch and picking up Willem, Cade and Elle at school, we headed to the fields behind our house where Rafael was harvesting. Willem joined us which Jacoby especially loved. The kids got another ride on the harvester and just loved checking out all the action. Willem was really in to finding corn ears that were left in the fields, he collected them and then threw them into the unharvested corn so that as little as possible of that good corn would be wasted. Jacoby and Nev had fun helping Willem out...

After a few fun pictures, we watched the dump trucks dump the corn silage on the concrete slab and the bulldozers packing the corn silage pile. Thank you, Amber, for making the trip down to Eugene and spending a great great day with us!!

Our summer weekends were very full. I love it, but it was actually, maaaybe, a little too full even for me this year! It was so busy partly because Gabrielle was transitioning from her EMFC U13 Athletica Blue team she’s been on for the last 3+ years to the team at her own age group, EMFC U12 Sol Blue. So she played for both team this summer. Cade also played for multiple teams as his regular team (EMFC U15 Boca Blue) is transitioning to high school; as a result, he also played for EMFC U14 Juventus and he also guested on EMFC U15 Boca White for a couple tournaments. Finally, Willem played on his EMFC U11 Juventus team and guested on the EMFC U10 Dortmund team too. Here’s a little run down of our summer weekends mostly for our kids and us to look back on (be warned, it's a bit long and I won't be offended if you skip to the pictures at the end :):

June 15-17: United Cup in Portland for Cade (Boca Blue) and Elle (she played for both Sol and Athletica). Cade’s team was 1-0-2 in group play of the top division (beating SSC Santos 3-0, tying Velocity AK 1-1 and OSA 0-0) then lost in the semi's to SSC Santos 1-2. Sol got 3^rd out of 5 in the top division with a 2-2 record beating CUSC 2-1 and WUSC 4-0 and losing to THUSC 1-2 and NEU 0-2 (they played well showing they can compete with premier teams). Athletica had a tough weekend against good teams in the top division losing 0-1 vs Vancouver and 1-2 vs Valencia and beating ESUFC 4-0; they were disappointed to lose 0-1 to THUSC in the semi's.

June 22-26: Seattle Regionals for Elle (Athletica) and Cade (he played for Boca Blue and for Boca White for the final two games) AND Capital Cup in Salem for Willem (Juventus). Elle’s Athletica team did great in the Regionals’ top division, beating Tyncastle 3-1 and tying CrossFire’s B team 2-2 and Vancouver Timbers 1-1; they then outplayed WA Rush in the semi’s but lost 1-2. Cade’s Boca Blue team had a rough weekend losing 4-1 and 3-0 to XIFA and Eastside WA; they beat Missoula 2-0. Cade then played the last two games for Boca White in a 5-1 win (Cade had a goal and 3 assists) and a 1-0 PK win in the final (Cade made his PK) in the 2^nd division of the tourney. Willem’s team struggled in Capital Cup tying Boardman 3-3 (Willem scored a goal) and losing 0-8 vs Pacific FC and 0-11 to Chelsea . Willem played great however, working so hard in all the games; he usually plays goal for a half and on the field at forward the other half.

June 29-June 6: Vegas vacation with family

July 6-8: Clash at the Border in Vancouver, WA for Cade (Juventus). Juventus did well in the 2^nd division of this tournament. They went 2-1 in pool play with a 2-1 win vs. WSA Cheetahs, 3-0 win vs. Pacific FC Predators and a 1-2 loss to Cascade FC Green. They then won in PK’s in the semi-final (Cade made his PK) vs. LASC Crystal and lost 1-2 in the final vs. ESUFC Black. Cade did great with 5 goals total in the tournament playing mostly center mid and some forward.

July 13-15: CrossFit Games in LA for Chad and me while Willem played in PCU Challenge in Portland with Valencia (Uncle David took him). Also, Elle and Nev got to go to Sunriver with a group of my friends (thanks Brandy :). Will’s team played in the top division of PCU which was a real challenge; the team lost all their games but showed growth throughout the tourney and Willem was tough and worked hard as always.

July 20-22: Beaverton Cup in Portland for Elle (Sol) and Cade (Boca Blue). Elle’s Sol team had a tough weekend in the top U12 division but kept the games close against the top teams in the state. They tied NEU 1-1 and lost 0-3 vs ET Red, 1-3 vs WT TS Copa and 1-3 vs 3 Rivers SC. Elle played great and got a lot of minutes in every game; she played mostly at center defense but also tried some center mid and a little forward. Cade’s Boca team played well in the top division, winning their group with a 2-0-1 record. They beat LOSC 1-2 and HFC 3-0, then tied WT Copa 0-0. They lost in the final to Seattle United Copa 0-2. Cade played great at forward getting three goals!

July 27-30: Nike Cup in Portland for Elle (Athletica) and National Finals for Cade in Chicago (Boca White); Athletica had a tough weekend in Portland in the top division with 0-1 losses to Valencia and Lake Oswego. They tied OR Rush 2-2 but their 0-2-1 record was not enough to advance out of pool play. Elle played well at outside left back. For info on Cade’s tourney see separate Chicago blog post.

August 3-5: Bend Cup for Cade (Boca Blue), Elle (Athletica) and Willem (Dortmund); see separate blog post. All the kids’ team did great in this tourney and our kids played very well as well. Fun tourney J!

August 10-11: No tournament but tryouts for Cade in Eugene…but I was actually home for the weekend (Chad took Cade hunting for a couple nights after tryouts).

August 17-19: Mt Hood Challenge in Portland for Cade (Juventus), Elle (Sol) and Willem (Valencia). Elle’s Sol team did great in the top division of this tourney. The went 3-0 in pool play with wins over THUSC Silver (1-0), NEU (3-1) and Crossfire B (1-0); they then beat BSC 4-1 in the semi’s and lost (without their key starter Brooke) in the final vs THUSC 0-3. Elle played the whole game in the semis and final and did great at center back and center mid. Cade’s Juventus team went 2-2 and ended up losing in the consolation final of the tourney’s 2^nd division. Cade scored 3 of the team’s 5 goals and assisted one other. Willem was so much fun to watch with his 6 goals (of the team’s 12 total goals) and many saves in goal including 3 great saves in PK’s in the consolation semi-final. His team went 2-3 overall in the 3^rd division of the tourney with wins over HSC (6-4) and WUSC Navy (3-2) and losses vs. Albany (1-2), Corvallis (1-4) and ET Black (1-5). Will played half of each game in goal and half as forward.

August 25-26: NW Champions League games in Portland for Elle (Athletica) and ODP tryouts for Cade in Eugene (he made the local ODP team). Athletica played well with a 2-1 record the first weekend with wins over Issaquah (2-1) and FC Nova White (2-0) and a close loss to Washington State Champ NW Nationals Red (3-1).

Sept 1-3: No soccer but Chad takes boys hunting/camping and the girls and I spend the weekend with my sisters!

Sept 8-9: Fall Soccer League in Portland begins!

Here are a bunch of pictures (not in any particular order) from the summer tournaments. I didn't take my camera along to many games mostly just Bend and Chicago which I posted earlier so there are a lot of iphone pics as well as some pictures borrowed from other parents...