Friday, October 05, 2012

NaBloPoMo Day 5: RSL game and Apple Days

It's day five of my own National Blog Posting Month.  My self chosen theme: "past adventures that we haven't been able to blog about as well as what's happening currently."  Today I will talk about Saturday, September 22nd: Olsen and I went to a Real Salt Lake soccer game and he got to go to Apple Days in River Heights.




Apple Days is an annual festival that they have in River Heights.  It consists of many activities such as a 5k run, a kids parade, a real parade, kids bicycle barrel races, movie night, rides and games, lip sync contest, tennis match, etc.  Since Olsen and I were going to the Real Salt Lake game later, he only had time to do the bike race.  The bike race was a "barrel race" where each kid went individually and it was timed.  It took place in a small parking lot near the tennis courts

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They had age categories of up to 6, 7 through 10, and 11 to older.  Olsen was able to do a practice run to get the course down
Olsen - Bike Race 3

Then he did his timed run.  Each kid was able to do 2 timed runs
Olsen - Bike Race 5

Because of the age group, Olsen didn't win.  Although, he was the fastest 4 year old with no training wheels! Jovie had fun watching her brother and all the racers with her rainbow dress and cat face
Jovie's cat face

After the bike races, the kids decorated their bikes to ride in the kids parade that was to take place a little later.  Olsen had fun putting streamers and balloons on his bike and riding it around
The kids ready for the parade

The balloons kind of get in the way

Jovie also liked the balloons and found a tennis ball
Jovie with a tennis ball

Pretty smiling baby

Jovie Belle!



Here are the rest of the pictures from Apple Days




Olsen went to his first Real Salt Lake soccer game on Saturday, September 22nd.  RSL was playing the Portland Timbers and with a win, they clinch a spot in the MLS playoffs.  Driving down to Sandy wasn't that bad but as soon as we got there, there was a ton of traffic.  We wanted to get there at least an hour before kickoff, even then, 20,000 people were trying to get to the game (the game was already sold out).

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Olsen really enjoyed all of the activities that were going on before the game, outside of Rio Tinto stadium
The bounce house


Olsen trying the ring toss


Once we got in, we walked around the stadium some and found our seats.  Olsen REALLY wanted a hotdog, so we got hot dogs (and he got a special drink, a strawberry banana Sobe)
Olsen with the ketchup face


Olsen drinking his Sobe


We saw a dude with really crazy hair and Olsen really liked Leo the Lion (the RSL mascot)
Crazy hair guy


Leo waves the flag


There were streamers everywhere and before kickoff, the RSL song was being sung
More streamers on the field




Though, once the game actually got started, Olsen started to get bored.  He liked all the craziness that was happening before the game, like streamers being thrown, kids running on the field, kids coming out with the players, singing songs, etc.  Olsen's favorite player, Fabian Espindola, scored a goal on a free kick (11 or so minutes in) but Olsen cared only slightly.
Espindola goal celebration!

About 25 minutes into the game I decided Olsen was bored enough and should probably go to the bathroom since he hadn't gone in several hours.  That was rather a mess because of how gross the bathrooms were for the poor little boy.  While in the bathroom, we missed the second RSL goal.  However, the boy enjoyed walking around some.  The halftime show featured a bunch of local mascots (even Big Blue, from USU) to play a soccer game).  Olsen somewhat enjoyed that, but maybe wasn't crazy enough for him fully.
Half time mascot challenge

When the second half started, they brought out a huge RSL flag to drape over the crowd and then have it move around the seats.  Olsen enjoyed that.
Giant flag in the stands


After awhile, we needed to walk around the stadium again because Olsen was getting restless.  He did find a big throne to sit on and a place to pose with pictures of the players
Olsen sitting on the throne

Do you think this wall held up?

We visited the little store in the stadium (which was a total zoo and extremely overpriced...) and walked around a lot.  We eventually saw Portland score their only goal (from walking around) and took the shuttle bus back to our car.  Olsen mostly had a good time but got bored pretty easily.

Here are the rest of the pictures from the RSL game

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