Nelson Family Blog: NELHS Tournament

It's been about a month since I have blogged, I am already falling behind! This past month has been filled with basketball and colds. We also had a SuperBowl Party in there.

We will start with the SuperBowl. We hosted a party at our house, and mostly invited people from church. The game was pretty boring, the Seattle Seahawks ended up beating the New England Patriots. But, the company was good. We had about 20 people over, and we smoked a pork loin, made some wings, chips and dips, and then people brought over food as well. We also played some SuperBowl Bingo with prizes, which ended up being a hit. During the 4th quarter, the kids got bored, and they ended up making their own Super Bowl commercials, which were pretty entertaining, and better than most of the actual commercials.

We also had 3 more weeks of basketball games on Fridays. We ended up losing twice to Good Shepherd and then beating Cornerstone. Emma and Elliott played well in their games, and it's been really fun to watch them improve from the beginning of the year.

We all got pretty bad colds a couple weeks ago. We were all hacking, blowing noses, not sleeping well, and just generally not feeling well. It was not fun. But, we made it through without missing too much work or school, so that was a good things.

This past weekend, we went to the NELHS basketball tournament in Waco, NE. We combined with Good Shepherd to form a team. We headed to NE on Thursday after work. We stopped in Beaver Crossing for supper at a bar and grill, and then got to the hotel at around 7:30pm. The kids went swimming while we unpacked and got settled. We had an early morning the next day.

We ended up going 0-4 on Friday, but we could have won 2 of the games for sure and we lost one game by 1 point, so we definitely had our chances. It would have helped if we would have had more practices with the combined team. Once they had some games under their belt, they were playing a lot better. The kids both played really well. Emma played a lot, she hustled, she scored points and rebounded and just overall played well. We were super proud of her and I really hope she keeps playing basketball. Elliott didn't log a lot of playing time (he's only in 5th grade) but when he did play, he hustled, played smart, and did well.

After all the games on Friday, we headed back to the hotel for pizza, pool time, and just general hotel silliness. The adults visited in the lobby, while the kids played football outside and then ran around the hotel. It ended up being 70 degrees on Friday, so it was a beautiful day.

On Sunday, we packed up and checked out of the hotel, and then headed to Waco for one more day of games. We won our play-in game 41-13, had a devotion, and then we had to play the #1 seed. We ended up being within 5 points with 3 minutes left in the game, and we lost by 9. It was an impressive game for Bethel, and I wish they could have played that well the whole tournament. After the loss, we hit the road.

We stopped at the Nebraska Crossing shopping mall again, and we had some fun shopping. Elliott got a jean jacket from GAP that he is really proud of, tennis shoes, baseball cleats, and a duffle bag. Emma got some Gap shorts, a hoodie, a baseball cap, and a couple other odds and ends. It was fun. It was a little chilly for an outdoor mall, but we had a good time.

We got home at around 7:30pm and got unpacked, did a little laundry and even watched an episode of Bones. Then, we all enjoyed our own beds and space for the night.

Sunday was a recovery day. We went to church, the choir sang, and then we basically just got laundry done, picked up the house, and then rested. I was down and out with another cold, and basically just wanted to rest and relax. And the kids were tired from their 6 games in 2 days, so they were happy to lounge around as well.

Today, it was back to reality. I am finally feeling better, and everyone else is feeling healthy and rested. We are having a nice, quiet evening tonight, and then we have Lent and basketball practice coming up this week. And then this weekend is another basketball tournament. This time we head to Watertown for the GPLHS basketball tournament. Then, after these crazy weekends, basketball will be over for the year. Time is just flying by already this year.