GA Soccer in Oceanside

As I mentioned, Sadie had her biggest travel trip for soccer to California, specifically Oceanside! We flew in to Orange County & out of San Diego:

We stayed a few blocks from the ocean & it was beautiful:

We got there around 6:30/7:00, checked in, saw a few friends then went to bed early since she had a team breakfast at 7:30 the next morning. They had one of the early games and thankfully the weather was beautiful on Friday - sunny & warm:

and these girls were ready to play:

Their team plays in the GA league, which is a national development program for Girls Academy. Every club has their top team represent their club for each age group & Sadie's group is the youngest. It is mostly geared for older girls, follows the high school soccer schedule & is used for college recruitment. So this was not a tournament, but simply 3 league games. One of the rules in this league is they only allow 1 game per day. Friday morning they lost to a California team 5-3, but honestly, they came out timid & we lost a few girls to injuries. Unfortunately, we just found out one of our girls tore her ACL & it happened in this game. 

Since we played early, we had the rest of the day to enjoy so Coach T took the girls to the San Diego Zoo:

Let's just say it was a little chaotic trying to keep up with 17 girls & all of their families! I spent most of my time making sure I saw Sophie instead of looking at the animals. In fact, this is the only animal picture I have:

She was having fun running around with the big girls & thinking she was a part of the team:

We did ride the sky tram from one side of the park to the other and that was Sophie's favorite! The views of downtown San Diego & the zoo were beautiful:

It was a fun afternoon but thank goodness we have already done the San Diego Zoo so I didn't feel like I missed too much. 

The next morning our game was a little later so team breakfast wasn't until 9:00. You had to pay for parking at the soccer complex so we rode to every game with another family & I swear it looked like we had a beauty salon going on in the back of our car because someone was always getting their hair done:

It was basically the same temperature as the day before & later in the day, but it was cloudy, misty raining & super windy. This was literally how Sophie spent the entire game:

I believe she had Bryan's phone & was watching a show. Ha! Meanwhile, I usually don't take action shots at the game but I tried to catch a few on my phone:

and then she got hurt. She fell, literally right on the sideline in front of me & as soon as she hit the ground she yelled "my wrist!" I think she tried to break her fall. Her coach took her out of the game & thankfully she had played most of her minutes so the trainer looked at her, iced it & then she was good to go. They tied this game 1-1 & honestly, we had a horrible ref. She was young & inexperienced. We actually had another goal that they called back & shouldn't have. 

That afternoon we headed to Carlsbad, another beach town to shop & hit the beach:

Unfortunately, it was still windy & cool but that didn't stop these girls from making the plunge:

until the waves hit them!

Of course we had a few smart girls who decided not to take the plunge & just enjoy the scenery:

including the moms!

As soon as we got back to the hotel the girls got in the hot tub to clean up & warm up:

We had team dinners both nights & then Saturday night everyone stayed up a little later since it was our last night & our game wasn't until lunchtime. Unfortunately, the weather was just like Saturday but even windier but that didn't sway these girls - we walked away victorious with an easy win 2-0 against a team from Colorado:

Another pic with the soccer moms!

We had booked a later flight because we didn't know what time our game would be but thankfully we booked it to the airport & were able to get on an earlier flight with a few of our friends:

With the time difference though, we didn't get home until 10:30 Sunday night. It was a late night to start the week but overall, a fun weekend! We don't usually take Sophie to all of her out of town tournaments, but this one was fun since we made a little vacay out of it.