February went out with a Bang

I am glad to be done with February . . . it was an okay month, but with Ben gone the whole time pretty much, it was definitely a lot to handle. I mean, I managed it all just fine - but I am pretty sure my patience was hanging on a thread and that it had to do with just managing everything on my own for so long. The calendar doesn't look crazy, but it was quite busy!

The last weekend in February was pretty busy and exciting. The girls had their first gym meet in the Denver area. It was their first meet of their season, as well as their first meet in their new levels. Lucy is now in Gold and Emmy is in Platinum. Miles also had his State Climbing Competition in Denver that same Saturday. He was one away from qualifying for state. But his team had him continue to workout with them as if he were going to state. He took the bus up with them Friday. As the team checked in on Saturday morning, one kid was a no-show and so Miles was able to compete! It was so exciting. And Miles had his best comp ever - meaning, scoring his highest points ever. It was awesome. His JV team took 4th in the state. The girls varsity team took first! Miles had a good time with his team. Aiden Bugarin, one of the boys' best friend from Montrose who moved to the front range (boooo) last year, showed up and hung out with Miles for a bit at the climbing comp.

But I am getting a bit ahead of myself . . . The girls and I headed out on Friday morning. The state had had a bunch of storms earlier in the week - with feet dumping in the high mountains. The roads were mostly okay for us - sometimes wet, sometimes a bit of slush on the roads, but not too bad. We got to Jim and Diana's place and then got ready for a session at the temple - baptisms, of course, and Lucy's first time. Jim was able to come with us and so it was extra-special.

I love this picture!

We had a good evening that night with Jim and Diana - eating some yummy sweet and sour meatballs and even having a good visit with the missionaries.

I went on a delightful run the next morning. When I got back I had texted Miles a couple of times to see if he was able to get in to the competition. Otherwise, he would just be belaying all day and we didn't need to go and watch him belay. :) He finally responded that he got in (!) and so the girls and I got ready and headed out to watch him.

We were able to watch Miles for about an hour. The climbing comp was about 45 minutes from Jim and Diana's - but only a short 15-minute drive to the girls' gym meet. How perfect. So we watched Miles get a couple of bouldering routes and it was super fun.

Miles ended up taking 19th out of the 36 in his division. Which is great by itself, but even better considering Miles pretty much came in at the bottom slot . . . yay Miles!!!!

Then we headed over to the gymnastics gym. Lucy's competition was first. Jim came to watch as well. Diana wasn't feel too great and so she stayed at home. It was fun having Jim there for Lucy's meet! Lucy did well - although she had an unusual fall on bars and so that was a bummer. Her beam was awesome (9.25 score) and her other events went well, too. She was a couple of tenths away from qualifying for state and so she was a bit bummed about that. She has two more meets and so hopefully she can qualify!

Cute gym hair and checking out her medals. :) 

Lucy ended up placing on everything except bars, including a 3rd place on the beam and 8th all-around.

Next up was Emmy's meet. She gets soooo nervous and so I just get nervous for her! It's rough. :) She started off on bars and had a great warm-up. During her competition routine, she had one near-miss on the low bar - she was supposed to do a squat-on to the high bar, but didn't quite make it. Luckily she has a "sole circle" skill and was able to recover without a fall (and with, frankly, a higher skill ha). All was going great until her dismount - she just over-rotated and so fell on the landing. Dang it. She was soooooooooooooo bummed and upset and frustrated. She cried. Her coach, Miss Jess, was great and worked Emmy through this. But Emmy was still just so upset and angry, really. I think having beam up next added to her worries. Beam is probably her worst event and she just didn't want to fall again - especially as a fall on bars is not normal for her. Anyways, she was able to stick her beam routine. Even though her score was not super-high (8.15), she was happy and was able to relax and enjoy the rest of her meet. Her floor was awesome - but just a bit too much awesome power on her front pass. Oh well. It was the highest front-hand front I had seen all meet and so that was cool. I didn't get any pictures of Emmy, but she ended up placing on everything except for bars (just like Lucy!). She ended up with a 7th-place all-around, which she was excited about. But, like Lucy, she was a couple tenths off of qualifying for state. So let's hope this Saturday's meet the girls can do well and qualify!

We went out to eat afterwards and got back to Jim and Diana's after 9pm. It was a long day, but a good day.

Here are a few videos:

Miles climbing at state in Broomfield, Colorado - G1 Climbing gym.

I thought I could add the girls' videos, but apparently not. So you can see Lucy's competition here and Emmy's competition here.

February so far

First up, the end of January . . . which led to February, of course. :) We've been busy with just life - not many picture-worthy activities. Just life mainly! But here are some random pics of life the first few weeks of February:

Miles painted this picture of Bella. Just like he did of Brigham (did I post the Brigham picture?). He takes slightly-silly photos and then paints them. They are excellent re-creations!

The girls got their new competition leos! (Which are ridiculously and insanely over-priced!) They have missed the first few meets, but will have three meets back-to-back weekends coming up soon! They are both excited and oh-so-nervous (Emmy, at least).

Lucy got a new pet - a fish name Sushi. :) Let's hope she survives for a while . . . Lucy's been busy this week - she went with a friend on Monday to price out buying a fish and all its "stuff." Wednesday we went and actually bought all the stuff and set it all up. Thursday she had school and then a choir performance and then straight from there to a birthday party. Friday was skiing all day and then pretty much straight to another birthday party! Then Saturday was playing with a friend all day and then in the evening taking the friend to the gym while Emmy and I cleaned. One busy gal.

We had a fun YW activity last week: TP and trash-bag brides. :) The boys even joined in the competition. Fun times.

Some of the boys.

Emmy and Emelye (pronounced Emily) in their lovely dresses! So cute.

It looks like I helped - but I really didn't. I think I placed one piece of tape. :) These girls all got super into it and spent way longer than we thought on it. It was great. Oh, yes, most of the YW are taller than myself.

The kids were off on Friday and so we used our Epic Pass and went skiing at Crested Butte. It was a beautiful day and the sun was much-appreciated! Emmy and I probably would have quit if it wasn't sunny, ha. It was cold (like 10) starting, but with the sun it wasn't too bad! The boys came but we only saw them when driving, at drop-off, lunch time, and pick-up and so I didn't get any pics of them. Jonas' friend Aidan (a different one . . . not our one-and-only Aiden) came. I think the boys had a great day! We girls had a fun time, too.

Here we were in line for our first run of the day. See the beautiful blue-bird sky behind us?! 

Silly us thought we could eat our poor-man's sack lunch on the deck - but apparently those tables are reserved for paying customers . . . After I had gotten out all our food (we were still waiting for the boys) and spread everything out, someone came and told me I had to go eat our food downstairs - inside at a "cafeteria." So lame. But whatever.

Ben's missing in our pictures because he's off in San Antonio, Texas learning how to be a soldier. He's having a pretty good experience. He's been working hard but is now enjoying a 4-day weekend.

Last week they were all "in the field" living up at Fort Bullis. Ben rocked it on the rifle-shooting with a perfect (and obviously the highest) score: 100%, 30/30. Wow, I will not get in a gun-duel with him apparently! 

I think these are all friends from his training last summer in Oklahoma . . . ? I know the gentleman standing next to him was his roommate. Pretty cool. He's gone for a month and so tomorrow marks the half-way point. But who's counting?

Next weekend we head up to Littleton. I am excited to see Jim and Diana as we just haven't seen them much since the whole Covid thing came into our lives. The girls have a competition on Saturday in the Denver area. Also, Miles' climbing team has their state competition. Unfortunately, Miles missed out making it to state by 1 person! 27 got to go from the Western Slope - and Miles ranked in at 28 (out of 57). (Jonas was 41st.) We're hoping a miracle happens and that Miles gets the chance to compete! Cross your fingers, say a prayer, whatever for him. :) It would be so cool if he could get a chance his senior and final year to compete at state. 

Miles has applied, well almost, to BYU-I. Actually I did it for him. I didn't mean to - I just had to get it started because of a March 1st deadline. We had seen earlier that the deadline to apply for fall semester was like September (like 2 weeks before the semester started!), but on Wednesday of this past week, I saw that the grant (i.e, scholarships) deadline was March 1st. So I spend my whole day working on the FAFSA application (some federal loan application requirement for all college students) and his college application. I thought he would have to write something, etc., but nope. Not for BYU-I. Lucky Miles! I think Provo requires like 4 essays . . . aiyiyi. We're getting his transcripts sent, his seminary teacher did her recommendation, his bishop did his ecclesiastical endorsement, and tomorrow Miles meets with a stake presidency member to get his endorsement. Then we hit "submit" and his application will be official. Crazy!

Florida

Emmy's gymnastics team, but only including the Platinum and Diamond levels, had planned a trip to Florida. Yes, there was a meet to compete at - but that was just an excuse to go and have a fun time in a fun place after such a cruddy couple of Covid years. Emmy actually wanted me to go as one of the chaperones, so I signed us both up. We didn't know when we signed up what date the meet would be - it could have been on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. So Emmy knew there was a chance she'd have to miss out on the competition . . . or, if not the competition, then another activity the group would be doing on Sunday. 

And, as it happened, our team was scheduled to compete on Sunday. Emmy was quite devastated, to put it mildly. I actually think it was ideal - otherwise she would have missed out on something that she would only do in Florida, like the amusement parks, etc. She gets to compete in Colorado with her teammates all the time, so to miss out on that was kind of ideal really. But I think it made her feel silly to be going to Florida but not competing. I think she also felt like a "true" gymnast athlete to have a meet all the way in Florida. So I got it and was bummed for her. I did reach out to a BYU gymnast, Angel, that had a story in the New Era a few years back. The article was about her choice to not compete on Sundays - even at the cost of national-level competitions. Anyways, Angel responded to me and was amazing. She then even emailed Emmy and it was super-sweet. It didn't make Emmy happy to not be competing, but hopefully it helped in some small way.

Anyways,  so we still went to Florida and had a great time. We flew out of Montrose on Thursday at noon:

Emmy and Ruby. There were 11 girls, 4 chaperones, and 2 coaches on this trip. On the way out, we flew to Houston, then from Houston to Orlando. As we were landing in Houston, our next flight was already boarding to Orlando. So we booked it, as in literally running, through the huge airport and made it just in time. It was intense, but a memory-maker event for sure. Emmy commented, "I felt like we were in the movies." Adorable.

Orlando and the surrounding area was huge and beautiful flying into at night.

After getting our rental cars (and the girls and pregnant coach getting lost in the airport for 45 minutes), we all got into a car and made our way to the coast to Cocoa Beach. We stayed at a hotel that was a 3-minute walk to the beach. It was an ideal location. As soon as we got settled in on Thursday night, around 10pm, we went for a walk to the beach.

The girls were excited to finally be at the beach and were excited for the next day - Beach Day!

The girls all had to turn their phones in at 9pm and then they would come to the adult room and grab them and breakfast in the mornings. It worked out well. Here are some of the girls, starting with Emmy, Risha, Abi, Anna, Keira, Audrey, and Brecken in red. 

Luckily, Friday turned out to be the warmest day of our entire trip - so perfect to spend at the beach. It was in the low 70s and cloudy. The water was quite cold (freezing in my opinion), but the girls were in and out of it all day long having an absolute blast. I managed to dip my toes and maybe got up to my ankles, but that was enough for me! We saw a small shark close to shore - plus lots of dolphins. We rented boogie boards and the girls loved riding them. It was really just a great day for them.

Abi, Anna, Risha, and Emmy - trying to get up the courage to get in the water. And once they did, they pretty much stayed there all day except for lunch break. :)

Emmy, Audrey, and Kiera. 

Cute pose! Top girls: Emarie and Ruby Jane. Middle standing row: Audrey, Abi, and Kiera. On their knees: Brecken, Anna, Risha, and Reese. Finally Olivia and Emmy. :)

Gotta love gymnasts on the beach!

KJ, on the far left, is their head coach. :)

That night we ordered pizza and just hung out at the hotel. The pizza slices were the BIGGEST slices I have ever seen. Like one slice equaled a regular 1/2 pizza. It was crazy, but also delicious. 

The next morning, Saturday, we packed up our stuff and made our way back to Orlando - Universal Studios to be exact. It was a cool and drizzly sort of day. The drizzle and humidity made it feel soooo cold! But the rain did let up completely by early afternoon and so that was good. We all started out together, then the girls divided up into a few groups and the other moms and coaches just did our separate things as well. I hung out with Twyla, who doesn't do the mask thing and so we just walked around, ate, etc. It was fine with me - I didn't feel the need to ride to the rides (pretty sure I would have ended up with a migraine), especially with it being so cold. The rides would have pushed me to freezing, I am sure. The girls had such a great time! Emmy's stories were fun and her group got in about 5-6 roller coaster rides.

Emmy and hot butterbeer (from Harry Potter). We (as in the whole group) waited in line for like 45 minutes for these. They did not disappoint. So warm and so delicious.

That evening we checked into our rooms and the coaches took the girls to Applebee's for dinner. Us moms went to some sushi place (similar to a Benihana actually) and I got delicious salmon. The girls had fun at the hotel, ordering Door Dash, running back and forth and up and down to each other's rooms, swimming for like 10 minutes in the outdoor freezing pool, etc. It was fun watching them having a blast. :)

On Sunday, Emmy and I were pretty much doing our own thing. We were together in the morning, then they all went shopping for an hour while we stayed back at the hotel. Actually, I had agreed to order their lunch and pick it up - and whoa was that an ordeal. But luckily it wasn't too late . . . The girls came back, got ready for the meet, ate lunch, and then headed to another hotel for their competition. Emmy and I drove to walk around the Orlando temple. It's beautiful, of course. But it was still quite chilly (colder than Saturday) and so we didn't spend too much time out of doors. But we got a few pictures and then headed to church. There was a service from 2:30-4:30, which was perfect as that was pretty much when the other girls were competing. The youth at church even invited Emmy to their activity that night, ha. She didn't go of course, but it was still nice and welcoming. After church, we met up with the group at a hotel for a buffet dinner. After that, it was back to our hotel and lots of giggling and fun for the girls.

Monday morning we were up bright and early and met at the hotel lobby at 5:10am. The four of us chaperones had dropped off three of the cars (Emmy and I were staying an extra day and so I kept one car) at the rental place the night before - to make it easier and quicker for Monday morning. The group had reserved 2 Ubers and me (ha) to take them to the airport in the morning. So Emmy moved into my room and went back to bed, while I drove a group to the airport. I got back by around 6 and tried to sleep, but it wasn't too restful. 

But, anyways, Emmy and I got up and then headed to Disneyworld! About a week before the trip, Emmy sent me an email asking if she and I could stay an extra day and do something fun. I didn't think her coach would be too excited about that so I had Emmy check with her. Her coach, KJ, was super excited, gave Emmy the flight information so I could change it, etc. So I worked on changing our flights, adding an extra day to our car rental and hotel room, and purchasing tickets for Disneyworld (Emmy's choice.)

I am glad we did Disneyworld, but I am not sure I need to go back ever again. The roller coast rides are much more geared for elementary-age kids. It was SUPER-DUPER crowded - and we were there on a random Monday in January?! Strollers and old-people carts crowded the pathways. Lines were atrociously long - one ride that Emmy really wanted to do, something like the 7 Dwarfs Mine Shaft, never had a line shorter than a 140-minute wait. Needless to say, we didn't do that one. Our first ride of the day, Space Mountain, was probably a 90-minute wait. But it was super fun. :) The other attractions/rides were probably closer to a 45-minute wait. It's just that you pay so much money and then get to do only a handful of the rides. But whatever. It's an adorable place and felt very nostalgic . . . or something. I loved just being with Emmy - and not 15 others, ha. It warmed up to the 60s and the sun even made an appearance! It was a delightful day. 

We took the ferry ride (as opposed to the monorail) over to the Magic Kingdom. The morning was still a bit chilly and thus the ferry ride was freezing! But it was still a bit fun.

The cutest caramel apple ever. Oh, the girl is pretty dang adorable, too.

Emmy bought this cute sweater, plus some super-cute Mickey mouse Vans (shoes).

Random "parades" would happen - which mostly meant workers were yelling at everybody to get behind the yellow lines. It was actually annoying. But Emmy, even at 14, still loved seeing the princesses. :)

Yep, we twinned it up for the day! We went a couple days before the trip and found these shirts at Target. Cute. :) (And way less expensive than the shirts at the park, of course!)

Space Mountain was a blast! My smartest move of the day was buying a "lightning pass" for it again in the evening - at 5:55. The timing worked out perfectly: we had just finished up one ride (perhaps Pirates of the Caribbean) and trekked it over to Space Mountain and made it at exactly 5:55 (even though they give you an hour lee-way). We got in to the ride in less than 10 minutes - which was way less than what the current wait-time was: 80 minutes. It was the perfect way to start and end our day at Disneyworld!

We had such a fun evening that night: going out to dinner (back to the Benihana place as it was next to our hotel and delicious and Emmy wanted it), picking up treats at CVS, and then watching a movie (You've Got Mail).

Tuesday morning we got up at 5:45, checked out of the hotel, dropped off our rental car, got shuttled to the airport, and got on our flight back home. This time it stopped at Denver - which had gotten some good snow! When we had loaded for our flight to Montrose, the plane had to be de-iced for about 15 minutes. All went well and it was a great trip and I was happy to have gotten to go (although that night, after getting our "bill," I was a little less happy . . . haha.) All the gymnasts had a wonderful time and that was truly the purpose of the trip!

Another Driver

 So Jonas passed his driving test last Thursday and is now an officially licensed driver. In some ways it relieving - because it means I don't have to be in the car with him driving anymore. In other ways, it's terrifying as this is the riskiest thing he will most likely ever do. But he's a good driver and so all should go well . . . 

A few other fun happenings so far in 2022:

The first Saturday of the month we "kidnapped" the new YW and had a waffle breakfast. Even Lucy was surprised when a group came and nabbed her! We have 6-7 new youth and had a good time that morning. 

I didn't get all the pictures of all the YW, but here are some:

Then last week, in between working (I had to pick up an extra shift last week and this week due to my other-half having Covid . . . ), I got the chance to go cross-country skiing. It was awesome and beautiful!

Me, Heather, Liz's sister, and Liz. I don't really know Liz nor her sister well (obviously as I can't even remember her name . . . it was kind of different . . .). The ladies were all fabulous and we really had a great time.

A little late, but here is December's 2021 calendar. . . 

Emmy and I leave for Florida in the morning!!! I am sure I'll have plenty of pics to share of that trip!