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| Back in January Tanner's DYNAMO team had decided they'd like to participate in a "College Showcase" Soccer Tournament, and with Coach Blaine's help they decided on one that Blaine had been in way back when he was these boys age. So the boys started planning on going to this tournament, knowing it was in July but having time to think of ways they could make this trip feasible with different kinds of Fund Raising events. So we've had the opportunity to sell Car Wash Vouchers, to working at the Real Soccer Stadium Concession stands, and working at the car wash on a few Saturday's and then for 3 days Tanner and a few of his friends worked for Mike at his job and helped them move their office from Midvale to Draper. Its been a great blessing and they have worked awfully hard to get to Minnesota for the Schwan's USA Cup Tournament. |
In the early morning of Tuesday, July 17th the boys were asked to wake up and be at the airport by 6am for their flight to Denver then onto Minnesota. Their first game was at 5:30 Central Time, and we would be patiently waiting to hear word through texts on HOW they were doing on each game.
This picture is what the boys did to pass time while waiting for their connecting flight from Denver to Minnesota.
***All pictures are courtesy of facebook, Twitter from the team and Diane Walton (Nate's Walton's mom who was the one & only fortunate woman & MOM to go. Hopefully there aren't any Privacy Laws I violated. And in no way, in any order of days or times they did things. I just posted them in this order.***
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| Tanner, Nathan Henley, Ryan Morrin, Nate "Ginger" Walton, Andrew "A" Anderson, and Braden Vawdrey |
On the Flight- Not sure WHAT Tanner did that he was sitting next to the Coach...jk- It's because they were in alphabetical order- Gillett, Hale.
I believe this is the Denver Airport, runway
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| This picture was taken from the Twitter page of Jarrett Nielsen, and I really like it so I thought I'd make sure to post his comment too- "When people look at us they think team! When we look at each other we think family! |
This was a PUMA sponsored tournament
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| During the course of the time the boys were in Minnesota, there were a number of "Black Flag Warnings" issued, which means, "Get off fields immediately & seek shelter" for Lightning and Tornadoes. |
These were just a few of the pictures that they took when a Warning had been made.
So they found shelter in the ONE van that they had at the time, and squishing into.
and this was another time
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| and another time, but this time it was at a Super Target. And it looked like they had a GOOD time, for instance...check out Tanner! Jerry Henley was the other Team Parent who was able to go. |
Then in our third game we played and this is the game that was filmed by a professional tv crew and we will get the DVD soon. Tanner said he felt like the game went really well & they played really good. They played against a team that was undefeated and we ended up Winning them 1 to 0, in which we were able to move on and play in the playfoffs the next day, Friday morning. But it would be against the team that we had played on Wednesday & tied, and the same team that hurt Nathan.
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In this playoff game, Friday morning it sounded like we were both playing really well. We didn't get many texts at all during the whole tournament but this one was bothersome because it was a MUST WIN to move on game. But around the last few minutes of the whole game we finally got a text that said we were UP 2 to 1 with just a minute to go or so, when the text came in it said we tied & needed to got into 2- 5 minute OT's and if there was still no goal then into a shoot out. This was due to a critical foul on our part that happened right before the end of the game then, they scored from half field. So we waited and waited and then got a text were we were going into a shoot out, but then on facebook we got a Black Flag Warning and all games were going to be postponed!!!! So we text Diane, the mom that was there texting us and asked her, she said, "they let us move forward because we were to the Shoot out but that we lost." We lost in the Shoot out, they missed 1 but we missed 2 . We were done, that was the end of our tournament run- We lost 6 to 5. It was so sad and disappointing for these boys who have worked so hard, and for months to get themselves there. But in the end they had a good time, they made it memorable and grew closer as a TEAM= FAMILY. The rest of the time they got to swim a little, went back to the Mall of America, slept in, went to Batman the NEW movie that came out while they were there.  |
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| This is Nathan's eye just after getting kicked in game number 2. |
At the Mall of America
This is the roller coaster ride that they boys were able to go on
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| Funny story here...Carlos had a "rat tail" or a "jedi braid" when on Thursday I guess they were talking about how Carlos didn't like it anymore & wanted to cut it off. That's when Jerry Henley, Nate's Dad picked up a pair of scissors & went over to him and CUT IT OFF! So Carlos twitted about it & said, "Yeah goodbye rat tail |
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| After games, marathons, etc. Blaine and Matt have told the boys to take a "Ice Bath" to help your sore muscles so the boys did just that...had an Ice Bath, but it looked like for Gavin, it didn't last long at all- |
This is a video that Carlos had posted for us onto facebook the morning of Tanner's birthday- It's pretty darn funny to hear them singing and everything.
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| Before the boys/team had left I had run over some $$$ to Diane to get a Birthday cake at Costco in Minnesota for Tanner & the boys to celebrate on his birthday since we weren't there to celebrate with him. I heard that she had a Princess Tiara and a Dinosaur to choose from...so she got the dinosaur! Tanner was surprised that they did anything, he thought it was gonna be just like any other day! That day was the day they WON their game too- YeaHHH!!! |
He also got some fb messages, some Tweets and this cute Instagram from his cousin Morgan. In which she was supposed to be holding the note that is next to her in her car seat. And it read, "Happy Birthday cousin Tanner We Love You!" He absolutely LOVED it! so much so he posted it to his Twitter account for everyone to see.
Welcome Home Tanner & We (heart) our Firemen
And this is the fb message we posted on Tanner's fb page for his Birthday! In which it read-
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