[Kylie under her umbrella]

Over the weekend I went with Mom to the Hmong soccer tournament held in Westminster, CO.  On Saturday we went somewhat early so it wasn’t too hot which was nice.  We left just when it was starting to get really hot.  On Sunday, we went in the afternoon just to buy some food and it was so hot that sweat was streaming down my temples.

It’s been about three years since my last visit to a Hmong soccer tournament.  The last time I went, Kylie had just turned one.  I know it’s all about the soccer games but I rarely watch them.  I’m more interested in what the vendors are selling and usually gravitate toward the clothes and jewelery.

Mom goes every year and buys a ton of Hmong movies.  She’s a bargainer so she’ll try whatever she could to reduce the seller’s price.  In the booth photo-ed above, she bought three movies from them so they gave her a free music CD.  Originally, they wanted her to buy another movie before giving her the CD but she told them she had already bought two movies and since she was going to buy a third one, they should include the CD.

Mom also bought a few movies from this vendor.  One of them was a documentary of General Vang Pao’s funeral.  I watched a little bit of it at Mom’s house later that day and it was pretty emotional.  I’ll need to watch the whole thing one of these days.

These are Hmong herbs and medicine.  I have no idea what they are used for.

More herbs and medicine.

There weren’t too many vendors this year.  I wonder if it’s just the economy because in the past there were rows of them.  I think there were only 6 or so vendors.  It was the same with the food vendors.  There’s usually about 5 or more but there were only 3.

The food is always the best part of the tournament.  We ate Hmong sausage with purple sticky rice.

I remember taking photos of this vendor’s Nava drinks during the Hmong New Year…LOL!  Here they are again.

Kylie loves Nava.  She’s not so big into the tapioca pearls or the white and slimy green things or the crunchy red things.  She just goes for the liquid.

I could never go to a Hmong tournament without ever getting papaya salad.

It was extremely spicy but OH-SO-GOOD!