Abby's Club Volleyball team qualified for Nationals which was held in Indianapolis, Indiana this year. We decided to make one big road trip out of it since we had plans to be in Utah this summer as well. Instead of driving to Indianapolis and then back home and then driving up to Utah, we decided to make a big circle. The girls and I left together to drive up to Indianapolis a couple days before Abby had to be there for the beginning of the tournament. I felt comfortable driving because most of the leg that I drove by myself was through places I had already been. I made plans to stay with friends and relatives on the way so it broke our road trip up into nice, drive-able chunks. Here we all are as we headed out on our way.
Our first big stop was in Wichita Falls. We had to stop for ice cream at Braum's and we even met up with Abby's friend from Kindergarten, Ella. She met us for dinner and ice cream and the girls caught up with each other while we ate. We would have stayed with my family in Wichita Falls, but they were already out of town so we kept driving after dinner to be able to stay with my nephew, Matt, in Oklahoma.
We got in pretty late, but Matt and Taylor were happy to host us for the night. It was our first time meeting Mollie in person, so the girls were so excited to see and play with her the next morning. We had fun visiting with them before we continued on our road trip.
I forgot to take a picture of the Oklahoma sign, but we started taking pictures of the state signs as we entered new states. We figured we were going to pass through 12 states on our grand journey through the Unites States. Here's Missouri!
We stopped for the second night in St. Louis Missouri, with our friends, the Wray's. Steve and Amy were some of our closest friends when Tyler and I were just dating and newly married. Amy's family grew up with Tyler's family in Utah and we've stayed in touch as best we could since we've all moved our separate ways. Steve and Kathryn were out of town when we stopped by for the night, but the rest of the kids got to hang out, play video games, and visit. My girls loved their hover board and left there with plans to save and earn their own money in hopes of getting their own hover board for Christmas.
We picked up Tyler from the airport in St. Louis and he was with us for the last leg of the drive to Indianapolis. We passed through multiple states during that last morning, so we got pictures of the Illinois state line and Indiana state line.
We ate dinner with some of the volleyball team families, and afterwards while visiting in the parking lot, we saw a ton of lightning bugs. My girls thought they were so cool. I was able to get some pictures of them holding the bugs and with my live feature on my camera, I could save the frame when the lightning bug was all lit up. We thought it was pretty cool. The girls got stars on their faces the morning of the first tournament day. The cheerleaders were ready to cheer on Abby's team.
Here's the team warming up before their first round of pool play. Going into the tournament, they were ranked 57th out of 64 teams, so they started 4th in their pool on day one. They play a lot of games and tournaments throughout the club season, so we weren't too worried about our rank going into the games.
With three games in their pool play that first day, our girls ended up winning 2 of the 3 games. They even beat the 8th ranked team. They were hard fought games, going to three sets every time. We were pleasantly surprised to see that all the teams were pretty evenly matched. We were worried that we'd get to Nationals and just get killed by every team, but it was fun to watch very close games and see that our girls were at the same level of ability as all the other national teams in their division. These pictures are from before they started and after they won their last pool game that first day.
The girls left the first day of pool play happy and upbeat. I took this picture as we walked through the long halls of the convention center on our way back to our hotel.
We stopped at a mall for lunch and I took a picture of the teams as they all ate together in the food court. They also took some time to walk around and just hang out, so after stopping for a rest at an arcade, I took this picture with Abby and some of her teammates: Ally, Emily, Kendall, Abby, and Gigi.
During the 2nd day of tournament play, we played some more difficult games. I believe we went to three sets for many of those games as well. We won 2 out of 3 games again. However, the game we lost was so close and such a heartbreaker. We were up like 24-20 to win, and they came from behind to beat us and then they won the third set too. We really should have won that game. Here are a few shots of Abby playing during that pivotal game. They played so hard, but just a few mistakes make all the difference.
Abby and Andrea found Sophia Kepler from their Hornedo team who was also playing at Nationals. Sophia moved out of El Paso after their 7th grade year, but the girls have kept in touch since then and were so excited to be able to see each other and get a picture when they met up at volleyball tournaments like this one. Tessa and Aubrey are showing the one little line where it says "El Paso Stars" as one of the participating clubs that was at Nationals.
They had the USA Volleyball backdrop by the tournament entrance, so after day 2, we stopped to take some pictures. Here's one with Abby and Diya and Emily, and then one with just Abby. At Nationals, with so many games played in a row, Abby started having her ankle wrapped before games and wrapped with ice packs after the games to keep the pain down. Abby's such a hard worker and tough competitor. We love watching her play.
On the third day, our first game determined which bracket we would play our final day of games in - gold or silver. We ended up losing that game, but watching them play, they should've/could've won in our opinion. They made too many silly mistakes and the other team just outplayed them. It was too bad because winning that game would have put them in the bracket with the top 16 teams of our division. But by losing that game, we were put with teams that would place between like 32nd and 39th. Here are a couple shots of Abby hitting and passing during that game. We still cheered them on and enjoyed watching them play their hearts out.
Abby's team ended up 37th overall at the end of the tournament, but going in as 57th we were happy with the outcome. They even beat teams that ended up 8th and 4th in the tournament, so they really did play exceptionally well. They took fancy team photos and we purchased a picture with a frame where the frame is made out of pieces of the volleyball floor, so Abby was happy with the memories she made there and we were happy to be a part of this Nationals team. We are so proud of them all and we had such a fun time watching them play and compete.
The sisters enjoyed cheering the girls on and were especially happy when they got to spend the day at the bounce houses that were set up in the convention center. Tessa really was happy too; she just wasn't happy to have to stop playing for a picture.
After leaving the tournament, we found a church building right next to the Indianapolis temple where we went to a sacrament meeting. Since it was Sunday, the temple grounds were closed but we took some pictures in the parking lot the separated the temple from the church building. We started our round about journey to Utah by traveling up through Chicago on our way to Wisconsin. We stopped for Chicago style pizza on our way. It was huge, thick and delicious pizza.
We made reservations at a Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin, so we drove across the state line and made it Sunday night.
The girls did not know we were going to a Great Wolf Lodge until we pulled into the parking lot. They were very excited. We even got one of their "log cabin" rooms, so the girls were super happy about their bunk beds and their own tv in their "room."
We spent all day Monday going on the rides, slides, and pools. I never get very many pictures since we're around water all day, but I did grab one at the wave pool. And we stopped in our room to each lunch and took a picture there with the cool "campfire" light. The girls had so much fun!
The lobby of the hotel was pretty cool too so we took a picture there when we passed through. I love all of their decorations and picture spots.
I took my camera on one trek through the pool area to grab individual shots of the girls, so here's Aubrey doing the lily pads and rope course. And here's one of Taryn going on one of the kiddie slides. She hurt herself the first time she went down because it whipped her around the corners a lot faster than she was expecting, but she gave it another try and decided she still liked the slide.
The tube rides were our favorites and these slides shot you out right into the laze river, so the girls went on this slide multiple times. Here's Abby and Tessa each taking their turn as they came off the slide and headed their way into the lazy river.
Right next to the Great Wolf Lodge building was a little shop that sold souvenirs and specialty foods. We made a stop as we left town to get some famous Wisconsin cheese. The mouse and cheese statue outside the front entrance was too cute to pass up for a picture.
As we continued our journey towards Utah, we passed through Minnesota and South Dakota. At the state line of South Dakota on the road we took, they were doing a lot of construction; so we never even saw a welcome sign. After a few miles into the state, I ended up taking a picture of this billboard because it said South Dakota on it, just so we could document that we really were in South Dakota.
We stayed at a hotel in South Dakota that we knew had a slide and the girls were very excited about getting to try it. With the long drive, we were worried that we wouldn't make it in time before the slide closed, but we got there with 10 minutes to spare so the girls each got to ride the slide two or three times, before they closed it off and the lifeguard went home. We ordered dinner to eat in our room, and the girls continued to swim and play while Dad ran to pick up the food. The kiddie slide and lion mouth kept the girls entertained enough after the big slide closed for the night.
As we continued driving the next day through South Dakota, we made a stop at the Wall Drug store which had signs on the highway for hundreds of miles leading up to it. We just took a quick break there, but I did get a bell and the girls got a few souvenirs. It was a cute little town that was full of places to take pictures, buy trinkets, and eat home-cooked food. I was surprised by how pretty the rolling, green hills were as we drove through South Dakota. There were some really pretty views and it was a pleasant drive across the Northern US.
Our main stop for that day was Mount Rushmore. Tyler and I had never been to Mt. Rushmore either, and Taryn even made the comment as we drove up the winding roads that it was awesome that we were all doing something together that was a first for all of us. I took so many pictures because there were so many angles and places to see it. The view was awesome and it was amazing how big and vast the mountain is where the carvings are.
They had all 50 state flags lining the walk way that led to the picture spot for Mt. Rushmore. We took pictures all along the way and we traded spots with another family so we could take pictures of each other and have everyone in the picture together. I really liked how they had all the tourist and picture spots set up so you could get good views and pictures of the mountain.
We had Abby take a picture of just me and Tyler in front of Mt. Rushmore too.
We decided to take the long walk/hike to get other views of the mountain. The hike also takes you to some spots where you can learn about the people who sculpted it and did all the hard labor and work of carving the side of a mountain. The entire hike was a little over a mile long with a lot of steps, so the girls liked counting all the steps to see how accurate they were with the signs that warned how many steps it would be if you took a certain path. I really liked this view of Mt. Rushmore as we walked up closer to the side of the mountain.
At one of the stops, we were surprised to see sister missionaries who were set up to talk to anyone who wanted to discuss family history or the church. We chatted with them for a minute and found out that they go there every day just to visit with the tourists who travel from all over the world to see Mt. Rushmore. I thought it was very cool for the the girls to see sister missionaries serving their missions and setting that example for girls like mine.
After leaving Mt. Rushmore, we headed down towards Utah, passing through Wyoming on our way. We stopped to see the Wray's again who had traveled from St. Louis to Wyoming while we were in Indianapolis because Amy's sister, Jennifer, lives in Casper, Wyoming.
So we met up with both of their families at Five Guys in Casper to have dinner together and visit one more time. Steve was not able to make this trip either so we missed seeing him again, but we did get to see Kathryn who had recently returned from her mission to Russia. She's so grown up even though I still think of her as the little toddler who was at our wedding. We used to babysit her when Tyler and I were first married. It was so fun to see all the kids together from our three families. We used to spend all our Utah Christmases with the Hall families until all the families got too large, but Amy and Jennifer were the two girls of the Halls that were best friends with Tyler's parents as they grew up together in Utah.
We love having mini-reunions as we meet up with friends from long ago. We had a great time on our adventure across the United States spending time with friends, family, and each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment