Sunday, Monday and Home!

Sunday...

Having finished all of our friendly matches....we headed to Liverpool where some of us visited the Beatles Museum....

Then it was off to the Liverpool game...

I must say I missed it because Will and I had a hot date in Liverpool!  Lunch and then the Tate Liverpool Musuem...

Andy Warhol

The coolest Ant Farm you have ever seen!  They are all connected by tubes....

After that it was back on the bus for a little re-cap of the trip and time to recognize all the Men-of-the-Matches:

SB v. Arsenal - Julian

Wimbledon - Martin

Reading - Jack and Patch

Burnley - Jake

ManCity - the entire back line.... Ryan, Zyrus, Patch and Wyatt

Skem North - Gabe

Awesome job boys.  I do believe ALL of the boys on the trip improved over the week and they all showed up to every game ready to play.

Monday...

I think Billy woke up giddy.  He was bouncing around all day...

ManU v. ManCity at Old Trafford.  

The boys learned songs on the bus and EVERYONE showed up in Red.

Unfortunately it wasn't the result that any of us wanted....but the experience was priceless. 

Tuesday...

Those of us that had stayed for the game headed back to the airport (again, these boys will play footie ANYWHERE).

We have all made it home safe and sound...so glad to be back in 70 degree weather, green everywhere, flowers blooming, but none of these boys will ever forget this experience.

THANK YOU!!!!

Again, a million thanks to Barrie Love and EPL Sports, http://eplsports.org/tours/

Barrie made this experience so effortless on all of the parents and the players part.  All the hours of fundraising were completely worth every penny.  Thank you Barrie, Pete, Katrin and your drivers- what an incredible and organized team. 

Thanks Mick for lining up some of the opportunities to play such incredible teams and of course finding a way to get so many of us into the ManU game!!!  

Deanna, hotel and flight coordinator extraordinaire. Thank you.

Ryan- money man, thank you.

Maren- Team Manager and so much more.  ALL of the parents thank you for all of the work and hours you have put in not only on this trip- but all year long. We are lucky to have you as 'team mom.'

Billy, thanks for taking a vested interest in our boys. Great teams have great coaches and our boys are lucky to have you.

Parents- you all rock.  Obviously your kids wouldn't be here with out you.  But they got to experience all of this because of you.  Thanks for all the hours of hard work, the hours of driving to practice, tournaments, etc. 

Littles, you were awesome.

Anyone else who I have forgotten...thank you....

Boys, hope you enjoyed the trip of a lifetime. 

Make sure you give your parents huge hugs and thank-yous!

Until the next trip....

Cheers!

Saturday

Saturday morning, having been able to sleep in a tiny bit, we were up and at it and headed to one of the most fabulous facilities we have seen on the trip.

Skem North's team presented a great challenge and both sides played hard and aggressively.  In the end SB was up by one with a final score of 6-5 SB. 

Skem North's team and families were wonderful hosts. (They also managed to present the warmest day we have had yet!) After the game we all joined in the club house/tea room for lunch and refreshments. 

(Their 'tea room' had plenty more than tea!  We are all trying to figure out how many flamingos we have to put in peoples yards and garage sales we have to do to get a 'tea room' in Santa Barbara????  Any donors out there want to help us out???)

John with Ray.  Ray follows our blog!!! Hi Ray! :)

Ray's son, Jack, who happens to be the Captain of the Skem North team.

After lunch, Billy presented the Skem's coach with our customary football...

It doesn't handle quite the same way a 'real' football does. :)

Then the Skem team presented us with gifts, a flag and signed match ball...very cool!

Man of the Match of the Skem North team.

And then Mick Luckhurst was discovered... :)

And because they hadn't played enough football yet....the boys headed back out to a small playing pitch (seriously, this facility was awesome) for a little World Cup game...

Having to get back for another professional match, we all got back on the bus...

Mr. Flood led the boys in an impromptu trivia session...

Back at the hotel, we discovered that a couple of rooms that had views of the pitch, left the windows unblocked so we could watch!  While a bunch of the group watched Bolton vs. Wolves from inside the stadium, a few of us had our own 'box' inside the hotel. :)  We even had a great view to watch some Wolves fans escorted out of the game...exciting stuff.

Celebrating that there are no more matches to be played on this trip, the boys stayed up and went bowling and the arcade.

And Owen managed to win a year's supply of chocolate. :)

We had a fantastic day.  A perfect way to finish up the 'business' part of the tour.  

Thanks again Skem North for your wonderful hospitality!

Friday

Friday was a big day for the boys...the opportunity to play against Manchester City's Academy team!

After breakfast, we all got on the bus and did 'The Count.'  We do this every time we get on the bus or meet up in a large location....don't want to loose anyone....

We arrived at the ManCity training facility a little early.

The ManCity staff was very accommodating and gave us all a presentation on the Club training philosophy, a video of their new facilities that they are building as well as Q&A time.  I think we all found it very informative as well as motivational.

Well, most of us anyway....the Littles might be getting their fill of sideline soccer....

The match did not end in our favor, although the boys fought HARD and played EXTREMELY WELL!  3-4 Man City.

After the match, we all moved on to the National Football Museum

I heard it was really cool....but to be honest, I was too tired to head upstairs to take photos...but the cafe had a great mural on the wall... :)

Mori was hungry again (Yumi, we think Mori may have grown 6 inches on this trip.....you may need to have some new clothes ready for him ;)  ) so we headed to a traditional English Pub...

Sandy 22 LOVES being here!

And proof that the boys do too....

Cheers!

Wednesday and Thursday

Wow...so much to blog about....

Wednesday morning was a bit of a rush while we all bustled about packing up to leave our hotel at Chelsea and head north to Bolton.

After a quick bus ride, we arrived at Reading's training facility.  I cannot express how happy the parents were to be out of the wind to watch a match.  The boys played fantastically and pulled off a 3-1 win against Reading.

The Queen Mum, distributing hand sanitizer to her royal subjects.....

One of Mr. Yonally's amazing photos.....Ryan's header for one of the goals.

Thursday was a big day for our coach....Billy was positively giddy as we boarded the bus for our stadium tour of Old Trafford, home to Manchester United.

After our stadium tour and (empty your wallets) visit to the mega store it was up to Burnley Football Club for another friendly.  The boys in Burnley were as rugged as the weather there, but even so, SB pulled off a 3-1 win!  Go SB!

You have to pass an old castle and a flowing river to get to the playing field...

Really, playing football with a castle in the background???? I hope the boys appreciate this, truly amazing.

And, because I keep mentioning how darn cold it is, I have supplied photographic evidence. 

After dinner, it was time for a little catch-up in the homework department...

except for this Little, who was having a smashing time chatting it up with the "Bigs."

Until next time.....