A Joy . . .

This girl and our new experiences with her volleyball adventures have been such a joy. Even the first tournament with all it's loss and then the second tournament with all it's wins (this past weekend in Pittsburgh!). We've tried airbnb apartments, weaved through downtown streets of kinda big cities, figured out parking and convention centers, kept everything charged, books packed for down time, shovels in the back of the car just in case and even kept on going while counting 19 semi-trucks overturned on the side of highways and turnpikes. We drove by them in sunshine with clear roads...mostly.

With lots of times to observe lots of teams, it's unique and awesome to see Liv's team link up during every timeout and before and after every game. Having been in individual sports, and even on guys' teams (tennis) in my sporting experiences,  and then having watched boys basketball and hockey for many years now, I started this volleyball journey thinking this kind of stuff was a bit fru-fru (sp? (-:), especially when, between every point they join up in the middle and essentially give each other a pat on the back and say, "we got this," "my fault," and stuff like that. Totally a foreign world for me. But as this weekend went on, really what I saw was a team being built, a team that works together, supports each other, moves together on the court, really cool.

And, even though Liv and I have rolled our eyes a little bit about it, this volleyball club brings together a big sister/little sister relationship between the older girl teams and the younger teams. Here's one of Liv's "big sisters" cheering her on with this tournament's "assignment," make a  poster board for your "sister" and go cheer them on at one of their games. Livia did the same but I wasn't at that game.

At the end of another win!

They just so happened to win 8 out of 8 games to reach the championship for their division. A lot more fun than the previous one were they lost 5 out of 5 games, ha!

Moms have a bit of, "wander around and find things to do" time during these weekends. I find it enjoyable. This weekend I observed LOTS of steel in the Pittsburgh Steelers hometown! (-:

Right out the back door of the convention center, which was filled with 36 volleyball courts. It's a bit exhausting to do a weekend like this, but I am so grateful for it!!

💖