Fort Collins Cup

Gage opened the competitive soccer season with a three day tournament in Fort Collins.  Many of the best teams in the region were all in attendance and it made for some fierce competition.  We arrived at this sports complex that had close to 24 fields all set up.  However, with COVID restrictions, teams with ages U11 and below were allowed a single parent at the field while teams older than U11 were not allowed to have any fans at the field.  These ridiculous pandemic restrictions produced walls of parents all huddled tightly in the parking lots together (much more tightly than if they had been able to be spaced out among the 24 fields of grass) trying to watch their kids from afar.  Sometimes, or most times, I question if the people making these rules understand the unintended consequences of their decisions.

In any case, Gage's team lost the first game on Friday night and then won the morning game on Saturday morning.  We didn't want to drive back to Broomfield just for an hour before the afternoon game so we packed lunches and headed up into the hills above Fort Collins to cool off a bit and kill some time.  We arrived at this wonderful Poudre river park and settled in.

Gage certainly had fun wading out into the river.  There were quite a few tubers going by while we were there, but this part of the river flattened out and many had to walk a bit or scooch their way through.

 It was a great weekend of soccer and some good time to have one on one with Gage.  He surely missed exploring with his brother but we did alright on our own.  Gage's team ended up losing the afternoon game which meant they did not have to play on Sunday in the championship bracket.  While disappointing for the team, we were not that sad to avoid one more trip up the Fort Collins for the weekend.