Beauty from Ashes: Soccer Saturday

Today was FULL of soccer! Josh had 2 games, Emily had one, and the kids were signed up for the Lauren Holiday Experience, too. For those who don't know, Lauren Holiday is on the U.S. Women's National Team (soccer), and they recently won the World Cup--and her club team won the NWSL Championship a couple days ago for the 2nd year in a row. She is retiring after the USWNT Victory Tour, so this is likely one of the last times she'll do an event like this (anytime soon anyway).

Both E and J had a couple friends at the Lauren Holiday Experience with them, and Jeff was out on the field as a "helper" coach during the clinic part of the morning. There was a Q&A time, and they handed out some questions ahead of time to a few kids to get things going. Josh was supposed to ask one, but he passed it on to Emily, so she got to talk in the mic and ask Lauren what her favorite smoothie is (the event was sponsored by Smoothie King). After the Q&A, they did a little bit of the USWNT warm-up drill, and then we got in line for autographs and smoothies.

Emily's friend and teammate, Madeline, is currently undergoing chemotherapy for osteosarcoma, so E and her friend asked Lauren to wear a Madeline Strong bracelet and we got a picture of her in it. She also signed a picture of our Manchester team for Madeline. We were so excited to get to meet her and have her help us to support sweet Madeline. (And Josh smiled and got a picture and autograph, too--he is just a lot more chill about the whole thing.) ;)

It was a great Saturday of soccer that finished with a nice win by Baylor--my favorite kind of Saturday in the fall! Now if only I didn't have a red neck and red cheeks....oh well! It was worth it!

D, E, and K waiting for an autograph