Each year has a different theme. This years theme:
"Around the World"
Each team picked a country, and dressed up as citizens of that country. While this is certainly fodder for grandiose stereotyping, we did our best to keep it tasteful.
Mountain Adventure Tours picked Japan. This was very welcome news to me, as one of my friends here donated a full leather samurai outfit straight from the actual set of Xena: Warrior Princess. I don't want to brag or anything, but I was TOTALLY the best dressed at the tournament. Many thanks to Michele for the costume. Though we won't get into why she had it in the first place...
Each team had to have both men and women, as well as at least two kids. Being a kids camp, we had a plethora of tiny humans play on our team on and off throughout the day. While some may suspect this would cost us on the scoreboard, let me just say that the rest of our team made sure to play hard when it came down to it, to ensure we stayed competitive.
We came in 2nd place, losing only to a team whose two "kids" were 12 and 14, and one of them is ranked 5th in the nation for downhill skiiing. Not exactly on par with our 5 year olds who still didn't know where first or second base was. (Both on the field and up the shirt)
We played hard, stayed true to our Japanese stereotypes, doing flying kicks and making ninja noises at every opportune moment.
Afterwards, we went swimming in a river, had some champagne (of the MGD variety) and hung out until the sun went down. It was the definition of a great day.
Thanks again to Michele, not only for the samurai costume and wooden Katana blade, but also for taking 90% of these photos for us.
Enjoy!
[caption id="attachment_1324" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Fierce"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Veggie Burger Deliciousness"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Mat and Auggie"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Bidsy Pep Talk"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Tearing off sleeves (to show our guns)"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Another win for MAT"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Auggie and Spencer"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Whit and Mat"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Beware of our women, lest they become UNLEASHED"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Team line up"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Injury time for Jesse = twisted ankle"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Intimidation Part 1 - The Crane Stance"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Intimidation Part 2 - Follow thru KICK TO YOUR FACE"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Samurai Concentration"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Abbiamo Vinto! We Won!"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Auggie, keeping up morale on the bench"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Mat demonstrates the... well... it's some sort of dance"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="On to the next game"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Sportsmanship Succeed"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Afternoon Champagne"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Hannah-san"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Me, myself, Joey"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Hannah's super smile"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Ian and Kirsten"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Lovers"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Bidsy and Tess"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="I don't know Tess very well, but I liked this photo of her"][/caption]
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="630" caption="Mat"][/caption]
-JoeySee