WHOA! (and crawfish)

Ya...well...I have a life ya know ;-) Here...I'll prove it ;-)

This past weekend was the annual crawfish boil for the rugby club. LOTS of fun...BOAT loads of fun (you'll get it in a sec)

300 lbs!

All the kids "helped" keep the crawfish wet before going into the boiler...the crawfish into the boiler that is :-)

SUCH a beautiful day! 

It's always a great time. There's lots to do besides eat...there's slosh ball...which I don't really feel like explaining so think baseball, but with a cup of beer in hand and a keg at 2nd base. And there are the BOAT races (racing drinking game)...

It was the foreign players versus USA LOL. I was laughing so hard I could hardly contain myself. There is video but it's not mine so sorry I can't share it here. So each player stood across another player and the race began: chug your beer as fast as you can and when the cup is empty, place said cup upside on your head and your teammate next to you could chug a lug...and so on and so on. The foreigners won the first race, USA won the second and in the end, USA pulled out a dub-ya in the 3rd race LOL.

(ya I'm not sure what was going on in this picture LOL)

Of course with all the kids running around that day, we had to do something for them too...like mice races. The kids LOVE when we have the mice races. Some even try to take them home...

Boys will be boys! (yes those are 2 mice) 

And because the "grown ups" had a "race" the kids wanted to have their own race too, but just running :-)

That's Big Daddy giving Juju a quick pep talk. Juju ended up winning too :-) My little runner!

May has been an incredibly BUSY month for us. The week before the crawfish boil, our rugby team (D1 & D2) OFFICIALLY became the #1 teams in Texas and secured our spot in representing our great state at the sweet 16s taking place this weekend in Dallas. If we win big this weekend, we travel to Colorado next for the finals! LET'S GO BLACKS!!!

I miss you guys! And when you miss me, I'm just an instagram pic or keek away :-)

We are officially "in season"

Boy oh boy...what a weekend! The first of many sports filled weekends for the locker room. Saturday kicked off the new rugby season for Big Daddy. We drove to Rice University for the first rugby match against HARC (Houston Area Rugby Club).

*Big Daddy is #14...yum!*

It was supposed to be 50 degrees...but it was like 40s...with wind...and rain. We held strong...we kept it together. Well the dudes were fine, I was shivering my tiny bum off! LOL.
Here are a couple of shots at the beginning of the match. You see, I have every intention of taking great pics, but I get so involved in the game that, well...screw the pictures! And when I mean I get so involved, I mean I pace the field just like the rest of the team. And I holler. LOUD. And I curse. And you get the picture. I get very emotionally involved.

lined up for kick off

first scrum

line out

that's my guy right there...I thought I had zoomed in but meh whatev

There was also a "major" injury. (Now I say major, but everyone, including myself, were not too phased by it.) I took pictures, but I don't think I'll post them here LOL. They are pretty gruesome. A guy on our team got elbowed super hard in the head and literally knocked out for about 10 seconds. When he got up, his ear was messed up...BAD. He left the game and we were told later that he had to get 10 stitches and his ear drained. Yeah. 

our cold family right after the game. Oh and we won 26-22 :-)

and another...we were photobombed LOL. That's Pierce back there without his shirt...he's single ;-)

The drive back to Austin SUCKED!!! Like SUCKED! It was raining and the wind was blowing, and there was fog, and I was tired...and yes I had to drive back. I mean dude just played 80 minutes of rugby, I couldn't make him drive...even though he did say he could.

Sunday morning we all slept in, well except for Big Daddy. He had to go to 7s training at 10am. (He was selected for a 7s team that would be competing in Las Vegas in February.) After he got home, it was time for a quick lunch and then off to Juju's first football practice of the season.

tossing the ball around before meeting his coach for the season

huddled up with coach Jimmy. He got #14 for his jersey...that's also Big Daddy's number in rugby

he got to play center LOL

Oh what a weekend! And it's only week 1! We have at least 12 more weeks. BamBam doesn't start soccer until the spring (March I believe), but once he does, we will be completely booked. A rugby player, a football player and a soccer player. I have affectionately been dubbed the cheerleader. Pretty fitting if I do say so myself.

4W - Austin Rugby Club

I've totally mentioned (a lot) that Big Daddy plays rugby. He started playing when we moved here in 2010, and he loves everything about it. He's actually quite good for never having played before...like EVER. What helped him to adapt to the game was that he played football for a long time. At one point he even played semi pro football. He's ridiculously athletic, which everyone seems to love about him. Perfect sport for a man's man if you ask me. Hard hitting, no thinking, just smash = Big Daddy. 

The whole rugby community is super excited for rugby's come back in the 2016 Olympics. Rugby continues to grow here in the states which is awesome! Granted, it may not be such a big deal like it is overseas but we'll get there ;-)

website

WHO: 

Facebook

WHAT:

The Austin Blacks are a United States rugby union team in Austin, Texas. They compete in the Texas Rugby Union and the West Rugby Union of USA Rugby. The Blacks are the competitive men's team of the Austin Rugby Club. We compete at 2 different levels: Men's division 1 and division 3.

"Austin is only the second club in USA rugby history to have two teams compete at the National Championship Play-Offs in the same season with our Division 3 team also winning the Texas Championships." *source* 

(that was the first year that Big Daddy played with the club...he scored the winning try in that D3 championship game)

WHEN:

Season officially begins for the Blacks on Saturday, January 5th, 2013 in Houston against the Houston Athletic Rugby Club (HARC). Our DIII team will play at 2:00pm followed by our DI team at 3:30pm.

WHERE:

Home matches are played at the ARC field here in Austin:

Burr Field

6013 Loyola Lane, Austin, TX 78724

We play all over Texas and are playing in both Las Vegas and Chicago next year as well.

We, the women behind the men of the Austin Rugby Club (which really was myself and another chic), also started a support group last year...we are called the Belles. Open to all the women supporters of the Austin Blacks.

I know, I know...such a formal sounding post LOL. So unlike me huh? But hey, this is rugby...it's serious business ;-) And I'm just so excited!

If y'all are in the area, you should come watch our team play. See for yourselves how awesome we are. I promised this year that I would video tape the games, so expect a lot of behind the scenes goodness here and of course on my YouTube channel.