February 2024

I'm trying to convince myself that I would use a season pass so I took Kylee and Averi up to Targhee again.  And I think that's when I realized that three times in one year is maybe enough.  We had fun though.  Kylee had a hard time with her hamstring, especially trying to strap her boot in her board.

Sadie had her surgery and she did great!  She was nervous about the IV but it was easy.  The doctor said he cleaned it out and her knee looks great now so she should be good to go soon.  She is nervous that her left knee will have the same problem, but I told her we would cross that bridge it we come to it.

Sadie also got her braces off this month!  Hallelujah! Nobody has braces in the house for a little while.  Here is her before and after.

I helped out at Kaden's Valentines Day party.  These kids are the cutest.

Dylan got me a Valentine's gift.  His young men's group dipped strawberries as an activity to give to their moms.  How sweet!

Kaden's bball season is almost over and they will be moving up to real basketball next so we wanted them to get some practice so they scrimmaged the boys older than us.  They did really well!

Sadie trying to rehab her knee.  They told her to do the bike, but we don't have a stationary bike at home (other than mine on the trainer but that doesn't fit her) and the idea of being on a moving bike was making me nervous.  She did this for about 30 minutes just the one time.

And finally, I got to have lunch with my friends for Kehau's birthday.  Love them!  I do have other friends that I see quite often but we don't take selfies every time like these guys do.

 

Dance Districts and STATE!

 Districts:

Four years of soccer and three years of dance and Kylee had not been able to go to State yet.  Her team worked so hard! They had to place 1st or 2nd in at least one dance to make it to State.  If they made that with two dances, they were allowed to bring a 3rd dance to compete for the all-around.  And that's exactly what they did!  They got to take three dances to State.  We were so happy we were crying.  All the hard work and finally in this last moment it paid off and she was going.  One more thing that was icing on the cake, Kylee won the whole drill down for Districts so she got a medal for that too.  She's done well in the past but never won!

The juniors competed just for fun, but this was two days after Sadie's surgery (this was the final comp she had to miss) but she came and hobbled around and watched her team anyway.

During the showcase that we had driven back for, they had a friends and family drill down.  Sadie and Kylee and Kaden and I all did it and had fun.  It's really hard!  Kylee won that whole thing too, eye-rolllll.

We made posters for the girls and their State sendoff dinner.  Of course I used Taylor Swift lyrics and I was teary-eyed all day.  It made Kylee tear up too when she saw it.

We also got these posters that we brought to wave around and cheer for our girls.

State!:

State Sendoff at school

They had fun at State!  Ryan and I went to watch them too. 

I got a little emotional during their last dance, knowing Kylee will likely never dance like this again.

Then of course there were the results.  The competition is fierce!  There are some really big schools with a lot of talent.  It was fun to watch them all.  But our girls took 4th in Military!  Making it to State was cool enough but to get a plaque and everything?!

Sad but also happy that she's finally done and can let her hamstring heal a little bit! (spoiler: it doesn't heal, it hurts all through soccer season but she does seem to run a little better as time goes on).

St George

Kylee and Sadie were both supposed to play in the St George tournament this year.  Unfortunately they are both broken...  Sadie had surgery a week before, so she was for sure not playing.  Kylee was able to play but not in her regular position, and not starting.  Also, Kylee's dance team (and Sadie's but she couldn't dance) were doing their end of year showcase on Memorial Day at 7pm.  The championship game is always on Memorial Day and there's no way for us to get back by 7 if they play.  Kylee had to choose between playing in the final game or going to the dance showcase.  She decided her soccer team would do just fine without her (they did, they won it all) and we would leave to get back for dance.

Nothing makes me happier than watching my car thermometer rise as we drive south towards St George in February.  It was 64 degrees when we pulled in, which is optimal workout temperatures. Normally we would leave our house on Thursday night and stay in Provo or something so we wouldn't have to drive the whole way and worry about something happening to our car.  But I wanted to play in my soccer game Thursday night, so we stayed until Friday morning.  Averi rode with us too.  We got to the field an hour before game time because that's what they do at tournaments.  There is a running path right by the fields so I hurried to fit in a run real fast.  It was awesome!  Makes me so happy.  Then I quickly put a lot more clothes on to watch their game as the sun was setting.  64 turns to 55 pretty quick when the sun sets and while either 55 or 64 are great for running, they are not great for sitting and watching soccer.

I went to my favorite running area the next day.

These girls won all their games and did awesome!  Kylee is having a hard time not being able to play like she's used to.  She has had to learn to play defensive mid, and that takes time to learn.

Every year we go to St George, and every year Kylee rests and does nothing on Sunday because she has so much soccer.  But this year I knew she wasn't going to play as much and it's our last year and Zion is just something you need to see!  So I applied for Angel's Landing permits, which we didn't get, but we hiked to Scout's Lookout anyway.  I told her it would be like 2 miles up.  It was probably more like 2.5 but whatever.  It's also quite a bit of climbing.  And the girls were sore from soccer and Kylee is in constant pain even just walking.  So you could say she didn't have a great time.  But hey, they came and were good sports mostly.  She was happy to sit in the car while I did the River walk by the Narrows and then we drove through the Mount Carmel tunnel and saw the sights up there.  The views are awesome.

We also went to the team BBQ on Sunday and found Averi a ride home with someone else so she could stay and play in the final.  I went for a run in the morning, trying to soak up the last of the warmer weather, then we dropped Averi off with a friend and hit the road.  We even had time to stop for Everbowl in Farmington, which is our favorite!