Region 2 Championships

We had no intentions of going to Boise the weekend before spring break, but after Alyssa qualified as a floor specialist at the state meet, we couldn't deny her the opportunity to once again travel with her team, even if for only one event. Travel meets are some of the best experiences for a competitive gymnast and she had missed out on so very much during her recovery from not one but two surgeries!

It felt so good to see her lined up next to her teammates as they made their way to the arena for the mandatory practice session on Thursday. Jon had continued on to Rexburg to get Caleb, who had just finished his first year of college. I was sure looking forward to seeing him. This was just an exciting weekend all the way around!

AGC is a force to be reckoned with! They are easily the most dominant gym in Region 2 (one of eight regions that make up the United States.)

I delighted in watching Alyssa goof around with her teammates. Gosh we'd missed this!

We had dinner with some of our favorites at PF Chang's that night.

Lys can't eat fortune cookies, but she kept opening them because she kept getting such appropriate messages:

Meanwhile, Jon was busy helping Caleb pack up his apartment and taking his favorite roommates out to dinner.

Caleb and his roommates, Hyrum and Ben.

Caleb said it was bittersweet to leave BYU-I. He especially looked up to Hyrum, he was a great example for Caleb.

The girls and I cheered on Lys' level 10 teammates on Friday and then on Saturday, having reunited with Jon and Caleb, it was finally Alyssa's turn to compete.

She was the very first competitor of the night.  And she once again nailed it.

Way to go, Alyssa! Now, let's go to Disneyland!

Natalie Turns 12!

She'd been counting down to her birthday for weeks! Natalie opened a few presents first thing in the morning.

She quickly put on some of her new duds before rushing out the door.

Natalie has been working hard as a tech for the school musical. We had to forgo the traditional family birthday dinner because she was busy running the spotlight for that night's performance.

On Friday, though, I picked Natalie and her friends up from school and took them to Hello, Cupcake in Tacoma.

We had reserved their party room for a couple of hours. The girls got to order a drink and decorate two cupcakes each.

Emma, Sophie, Camryn, Sydney, Natalie and Ava

Before and after:

Next, they played games and Natalie opened her presents.

Then we walked down the street to have dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory.

This delightful birthday girl has a delightful group of friends. They had such a fun afternoon that they weren't ready to part ways once dinner was over. The group came back to our house to hang out together for several more hours.

12 is a milestone birthday and this girl really looks forward to graduating from primary, moving into Young Women's and going to Girls' Camp.

Happy Birthday, Natalie! I couldn't possibly love you more!

The Comeback Kid

It had been two long years! I hadn't done meet hair for two years. She hadn't marched into a meet, warmed up with her team, saluted the judges or touched a piece of competition equipment in two years!

Though Alyssa had mentioned to us multiple times that she'd hoped to possibly be able to compete floor by season's end, she never addressed it with her coaches. The week before state I just happened to be talking with her coach (whom I had not seen in a very long time) about her rehabilitation, when I blurted out, "Would she be able to compete at State? Is that even a possibility?"

Her coach was very supportive of the idea and encouraged her to try, even though none of us were totally sure she was ready. He would need to pull some strings to get her petitioned in, but by that night, he texted me to say, "Alyssa is approved to do floor at state!" Then he added, "She can do it, whatever happens, happens. I'm just happy she gets the opportunity to be with the team and compete." Coach Brent set the bar low, telling her to shoot for a 5.0, which was his way to tell her that score didn't matter.  We would spend the next several days telling her that just stepping back on that floor was a success. And that was the truth.

Alyssa was not yet cleared in her physical therapy regimen to do back handsprings on the floor. Without it, she would be missing a necessary requirement, so we knew to expect a lower score for that reason alone. Additionally, her cardio strength was also not yet where it needed to be to comfortably make it through the end of her routine, so we legitimately wondered if she'd have enough gas left in the tank to land the last pass. Still, she was excited for this opportunity and as her parents we were insanely proud.

Just two days before the meet, she was able to add the back handspring into her middle pass, bringing her routine to a 10.0 start value. Though we had a portion of the usual competition nerves, it was just such a special moment to watch her salute the judges and step onto the floor.

Her feet hit the floor on the last pass and the tears I'd been trying to hold back fell out of my eyes. "She did it! She did it!" I kept saying over and over. The fact of the matter is, she had a lot of people in tears, including Coach Jill who is known for being exceptionally harsh and not very soft-hearted. 

Her score of 9.3 qualified her to regionals as a floor specialist and earned her a sixth place medal. It had been two years without a medal around her neck.

Alyssa's dear friend and teammate, Maison ,and her mother, my dear friend, Michelle, drove all the way to Vancouver to support Alyssa in this big comeback. They had been in Vancouver the day before for Maison's meet and drove all the way back the very next day to be with us. We were so touched by their efforts to support us.

Alyssa's coaches took to Instagram to pay tribute to her strength of character and determination.

Congratulations, Alyssa! You are amazing in countless ways.

On to Regionals!

Ask in Faith

Alyssa took on the job of planning this year's New Beginnings program for the young women in our ward. The hours she spent preparing and caring out the event fulfilled the requirements for one of her Personal Progress projects.

Together with Linsey, they decided on a theme, ideas for the decorations and elements for the program.

In all honesty, this was a great deal of work for me as I helped her through the process, but everything turned out great. 

Though I did all the painting and potting for these favors, she did all the lettering by hand.

It ended up being a lovely evening.

Lots of Laughs

We felt a little guilty seeing another Jim Gaffigan show without Caleb. We missed having him with us, but we had a fun weekend with lots of laughs at Jim's show in the Yakima SunDome.

It was a fun way to end our otherwise uneventful mid-winter break.

A Valentine's Day Surprise

Caleb was due to be home from school right as spring break was starting. Jon and I decided we really wanted to go somewhere as a family. We posed this hypothetical question to each of the kids separately: "If you could go anywhere for spring break, where would it be?" We were somewhat surprised when Disneyland made each of their short lists.

Jon was able to find some cheap flights to LA, so we were soon planning our trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. Because I love surprises, I wanted to keep it from the kids for the time being.  In fact, for a moment I thought about trying to pull off one of those tell-them-when-it's-time-to-leave-for-the-airport kind of surprises. But I decided that while that might be fun, it would deny them the joy of anticipating the trip, so we decided to give it to them as a Valentine's Day gift.

I made a yummy dinner and individual chocolate cakes, with a card at each place setting.

During dinner they opened their cards...

When we called Caleb to open his via FaceTime, we woke him from a late nap. It took him a long time to comprehend what the surprise was. Maybe because he was so drowsy?

Such a fun surprise!

We started our countdown right away.

Disneyland here we come!

Snow Days!

Snow days in Seattle are blissful. Everyone loves a day off of school, but because it gets cancelled for snow so infrequently, our kids know how to make the most of it.

These particular snow days, however, began with quite the headache at our house.

It was Saturday night and I went into the den to get something from the desk.  As I stepped on the carpet to reach something on the top shelf, my stocking feet became soaked.

"Jon! We've got a problem!" I shouted.

We moved the TV stand away from the wall and the water-logged baseboard peeled effortlessly away, revealing mold underneath.

Because the hot water heater was located in the garage on the other side of this wall, we determined that it had a slow leak that was sending water through the wall and onto the carpet of our house.

I made calls to our insurance agent and a plumber who was able to come out within a couple of hours. Though the plumber offered to replace our water heater on Sunday, we told him we felt better about him coming back Monday and we would do without hot water until then. He showed us how to turn the water off so that we could leave it on for a hot shower before church in the morning, then shut it off.

The McInellys invited us over to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, so we hardly missed the hot water. We were much too busy eating delicious food and watching the Atlanta Falcons blow their 23 point lead. Each time a commercial came on, we'd peek outside to see if the snow that had started in the early evening was still coming down. The large flakes were falling fast and they were accumulating!

When we finally got the call that night that school would be cancelled the next morning, we let out a cheer louder than any football play had elicited that night.  Elation for kids and this teacher! It was 10:00 at night--and Sunday--when the kids went out to sled on the street and we didn't even try to stop them.

I measured nearly 7 inches of accumulation when we arrived home that night:

The snow continued to fall through the night, reaching 9 inches by morning.

Thankfully, our trusty plumber was still able to make it to our house by 8:30 am on Monday, though he told us it took him 20 minutes just to get into our neighborhood.

Jared was busy being the ultra fun dad while Jon and I were dealing with various workers tending to the damage done by our water heater.

Since I was essentially homebound, I made a dinner of chili and potato soup for the snow-loving bunch to enjoy once they'd eked out every possible moment of their time in the snow.

Hooray for snow days!