{C} Abiqua Fall

Glad that one family member enjoyed Memorial Day in the beauty of nature....

What has T been up to?

Breakfast in bed?

Why not!

Love that this guy asked :)

T officially graduated from swimming as he completed the highest swim class offered at our swim center.  He really wants to join junior swim club with J but he was reminded that he has baseball and he can only be one place at a time!

I loved the student led parent conferences - this student had a great display of all of his work.  He is rocking the 2nd grade.  Art and writing continue to be his favorite subjects.

A little cookie face at the public library community event.

My sister-in-law has taken it upon herself to host a monthly dinner at her home for those of us living in the area (Rich has one brother and two sisters still living in Oregon).  I am really grateful for her willingness to do this in an attempt to develop closer ties between the cousins.  This picture is classic when you consider my 2nd grade T playing chess with his 12th grade cousin.  Proof that chess can span the age (and size) gap.

 

 T is my third child to become fascinated with Pokeman....luckily we still have the cards that C collected and that J added to.

 A family friend comments every time he in our home about a picture of a bird that T drew last year and that was in the local art festival.  So T took it upon himself to draw a smaller version of the bird and deliver it to this friend.  T's first "commissioned" work.

 T's class had two field trips this month.  The first field trip was to the City Hall.  The second field trip (which I was able to join him on) was to Salem to watch the play "Junie B. Jones". 

 T is still playing baseball and is loving it!

what has J been up to?

J has lost so many teeth this spring that I really think the dentist ought to have given us a break when we took him in for his dental cleaning!

There was one day in March that he lost THREE teeth in one day!

Not only has he "lost" teeth but he lost a tooth before getting it under his pillow and attempted to plead his case with the tooth fairy.  I think the tooth fairy must be pretty awesome because she came through on the note.

I loved snuggling with J during general conference and watching him write down the messages that he heard.  Makes this mama's heart happy.

Some "cookie face" at the community library.

 

 Field Trip to watch the Timbers 2 team play soccer.

 (which I got to join him on)

J's class hosted moms for a special "Recess & Tea" before Mother's Day.  J and his buddies basically schooled me in basketball on the playground but I'm not holding it against him.

 J is working toward earning enough money for an electric scooter.  I love that he created this note to put on the fridge to monitor his progress towards earning the $100. 

 J and T have taken over C's job of delivering flyers for a friend's cleaning company.  Not bad $ for two young boys and I love their enthusiasm to get out and work.

J is also still swimming the Junior Swim club in Canby.  He wraps that up in a couple of weeks and we need to decide what he is doing next in his pursuit of swimming.

Rich turns 49

At least two of my kids asked why we weren't doing a bigger celebration for dad's 50th birthday.???
Poor guy....he is only 49 and nobody wants to be aged to 50 before their time.

 A Happy Birthday shout out to our hard working dad and husband!!!

{C} Physical Therapy

C ended his basketball season with knees that were really hurting him - which didn't surprise anyone when you take into consideration that he grew 6+ inches in less than a year....and those growth plates are still wide open!

Physical Therapy was encouraged and so with the completion of the basketball season, he hit PT on a regular basis.  The good news is that he is feeling much better and we are hoping that that is due to the exercises he has been doing and not just as a result of taking the break from basketball.  The PT told him that she would have him ready for summer ball and she kept her promise...C has officially been discharged from PT as of today and next week is summer hoops tryouts!

Keeping our fingers crossed for pain-free basketball!

{K} Encore

K has been singing with the Encore Youth Choir since last September.  

It is a non-profit choir that is made up of high school aged kids from 27 LDS wards in the Portland area.  The experience has been fantastic and she has really grown to love the music and the group of people.  I am so grateful that she has had the opportunity and glad that she will continue to sing with them for the next two years. I am also grateful for the Encore president and director who spend countless hours in behalf of these youth.  These kids are amazing! 

Some of their performances this past season included singing at two firesides that Elder M. Russell Ballard spoke at here in Portland, singing at the Grotto during the Christmas season, performing at multiple sacrament meetings and performing at multiple firesides.  They also held a handful of social activities and ended their season with a retreat to Mt. Hood this past weekend.

{OSU Day of Service} Food Bank

Each May Oregon State University coordinates a huge Day of Service, encouraging alumni and family to participate in projects in their local areas.  Rich is a proud orange alum and we always join in the service.  This is the first year that we chose a project that wasn't outdoors and I think the kids really enjoyed doing something different.  

We ended up at the Beaverton Food Bank - packaging, weighing. labeling and boxing pasta.  It was really fun to watch the kids work so hard and enjoy doing it!

{K} OSAA State Championships

This girl of ours qualified to run at the State 5A finals in the 3000m - a once in a lifetime opportunity (they only take the top two from each district!)

So of course we took the boys all out of school and made the drive down to Eugene, OR to the Historic Hayward Field on the campus of University of Oregon.  This track is a dream come true for K....it's where Steve Prefontaine ran and it is where Olympic runners compete for a chance to run in the Olympics.  And today K's name was on the reader board and she was running on that track!!!

I have been to a lot of track meets so I know how inefficient they can be so I LOVED the efficiency of today's meet.  They had a lot of races to get in and they ran a tight ship.  K's race was the second race of the morning and they were out there right on time, all lined up and ready to run....

I love that K had two YW leaders there in the stands cheering her on...one of them is a coach for another team but she sat with us and cheered on the blue!

K had been seeded 11th in the state and she took 11th place.  She had really hoped to come in 8th so that she could be awarded "All State" but there was an issue with her stepping over the line and she thought that she had been DQ'ed so she started to leave the track, only to be told to keep running - which she did but still in her mind she thought she was out of the race so she finished but maybe without as much push as she would have given it otherwise.  I honestly think she would have come in 8th or 9th had that misunderstanding not occurred - kind of one of those "if only" situations.  But she finished and was all smiles - she loved being there, she recognized that it was an amazing opportunity and never once said "if only".  Now she knows the official guidelines (which is three consecutive mis-steps to DQ) and we just have to get her back there next year to try again.

{K} WHS Track & Field

K has fallen in love with running!
She has run consistently since cross country ended, all in anticipation of track season beginning.
Man oh man, she was excited for that first day of track practice. Part of me believes that some of that love of running really extends to the fact that she is a golden retriever at heart and, as such, she is about as social as they come.  Give her the opportunity to hang with friends every day after school and she is all over that.  The running is just bonus!

Unfortunately there weren't many sunny days this season.  I have to credit all these runners with their commitment when the majority of their practices and meets were done in the rain.

We were all glad when the weather cooperated!

This season had its good and its bad (and then luckily more good) for this daughter of mine.

The GOOD....

K ran a lot faster this season than she did a year ago.  

She found "her" races - which were the 800m, the 1500m & the 3000m.  She is a distance kid!

K ran varsity for most races.

The girl's team ended their season 7-0 & placed first at districts....in fact, cool fact - for the seniors that ran the past four years at WHS, they have not lost a single league meet during their high school career.  K's hoping that that streak continues for the next two years.

Probably my favorite memory of the season was their mid-season home meet.  I was helping at the finish line and it was raining so hard that they were just trying to get through the meet as fast as they could.  Because of that they were combining any race they could and they combined the 3000m - varsity, JV, boys and girls all together.  It was a huge heat!  K took the lead for the girls and never gave up that lead - each time she came around the announcer overhead would announce her name as leading the girls.  In the end she PR'ed by nearly 20 seconds, she came in ahead of a lot of guys and the overhead announcer declared that her time had just put her 10th place IN THE STATE for 5A in the 3000K.  I loved seeing her excitement at that news and knowing it was her hard work that got her there.

The BAD...

Last track season it was shin splints...

During cross country it was low iron...

This track season it was knee issues related to her IT band.

The pain started mid-season and never did completely go away which resulted in her being pulled from races, having to skip practice and even DQ'ing in an invitational run when her knee gave out and caused her to knock a cone.

She practiced all winter long and started the season so strong that I know she was disappointed when she had to pull back.

 

Ending on a GOOD...

Despite the pain, that girl DID NOT QUIT!

She kept running and kept pushing and ultimately ended up qualifying to compete at districts in TWO races. Because of her injury, coach wanted her to focus on the 3000m and so she only ran the one race.  She went into districts seeded in 2nd place and she went out there and gave it her all - ultimately knocking over 20 seconds off her PR and taking 2nd place in districts and qualifying to run at STATE!!!

So proud of this girl and her grit!