First sevens tourney

Today we woke up bright and early for the first sevens tournament of the summer!  I was a little excited and a little not because I have a cold still, but I LOVE sevens and I scored my first try at the same tourney last year.

A brief explanation: "regular" rugby has 15 on each side that play 2 40-minute halves.  There are "forwards" and "backs".  The forwards are bigger, stronger girls that are a part of the scrum (the big mob of people you've probably seen pics of), they tend to not run the ball very far, and do a lot of tackling and most of the rucking (pushing people from the other team off the ball from over a recent tackle).  The backs (me) are usually the fast/agile people on the team that run the ball distances, run plays, and only usually have to tackle more open-field tackles and they are usually just the backs from the other team.  The goal is for the forwards to get the ball out to the backs so they can score.

Sevens is seven players per team, for 2 7-minute halves on a regular sized field.  The ball is moved super quickly, and pretty much everyone is playing a "back", even the regular forwards.  I love it because I get the ball a lot more.  Forwards hate it because they are not quick and usually hate running.  It is like the longest 7 minutes of your life because you have to run so hard and far the whole time.

For some reason (hah) my coach decided to put 2 sides for us in the tournament, and we only had like 2 subs.  My team had 3 people get injured the first game because our ref was awful (don't get Andy started) so it was rough.  Oh, and my entire team was forwards except for me.  And apparently everyone forgot how to play sevens.  I seriously had to run all over the field, was yelling at people to pass the ball the whole time (forwards don't pass much, but sevens that's all you should be doing), and tackling people left and right.  I was pretty proud of myself though.  We didn't win any games though (really bad calling, ref) BUT I scored in the second game :)  A girl was tackled and I ran over, ripped the ball out of her hands and ran to the try line. I can't run long distances with these short stubby legs, but luckily muscly legs are good for agility and speed for sprints so I am pretty good at getting through people!

I totally thought I didn't get any bruises today...nope, not happening.

Andy's idea of a coozie is Sawyer's jacket

Sawyer and the medical kit

Sawyer and Renner had rice-picker hats

Cones can not only be used as hats, but as shoes as well

Tuckered out.  I can't believe he fell asleep

Next we stopped at Ashley's for Brandon's BBQ.  He is back for 2 weeks from Afghanistan for R&R so they had a little party.  Sawyer and Brea were so cute.  I didn't get any pictures though :(

Afterwards we went to look for stuff for Sawyer's party.  We stopped at Target and Sawyer was mad at me for not letting him in the cart basket, but that quickly changed when he found the "Cars" bedroom stuff.  I found a car rug with the roads on it and he was just staring at it going "whoaaaaa!".  I decided to get it for his birthday present.  It was the CUTEST thing, he insisted on carrying it through the whole store.  It started to get heavy so I held it, but he insisted on keeping his hands on it. He also kept saying "mommy?  THANK YOU!  daddy? THANK YOU!"  It was so sweet.  He even had to hold it all the way home.

We are worn out!  Sawyer and Andy are cuddled up watching Shrek.  Tomorrow we clean the house and I have more pics to take :)