Rachel's basketball season

Rachel had a good time playing basketball this year. She made the A team and it was exciting watching them because they were a great team. Rachel had some friends on the team that made it pretty fun: Evelyn Allen, Hayley Sanders and Adrienne Howard all have siblings that would cheer them on, so the younger kids had fun together. 

Our neighbor, Joanne, came to a few games and took some pictures that she shared with me. 

The team played well all season, only losing one game in the regular season and they ended up winning the league championship for the first time in 13 years for the school. They were very proud of that great accomplishment.

At the banquet Coach R recognized the players for their hard work all season. Rachel's nickname was Socks since she always had fun and sometimes mismatched socks.

The girls qualified for the state championship hosted here in Tucson. There were 4 teams and they beat 2 pretty well, but the 3rd team was really tough and they ended up losing to them and coming in second in the tournament. Still, not a bad showing. After the first game of the tournament, Coach took them out to McDonalds for a special treat. They all had fun hanging out and eating whatever they wanted. 

It was a great season and Rachel had a lot of fun. I am looking forward to not having practice until 6pm every night and games most Mondays and Wednesdays. It definitely complicated our already very full Wednesdays. 

January

Time has gotten away from me and the blog is not being kept very up to date. So here's a shot at trying to catch up, a month at a time.  

We wrapped up Winter Break and got ready to head back to school. No one was ready to get back in the swing of things. It definitely took our brains a while to reengage.

Since Megan's birthday is in July, I went and ate lunch with her at school on her half birthday (birthday lunch is a tradition I try, but don't always do). She was, of course, ecstatic about getting a sub sandwich for lunch. Definitely her favortie!

Ryan got to go to a special primary activity at the scuba place. It was the birthday package and they got to use scuba gear and breathe underwater. The boys sure had a lot of fun and Ryan would love to go back sometime. Ryan's best friend, Derek, has been going with him to primary activities, so combine that with having his cousin, Ben, and they sure have a fun time together, though I sometimes feel sorry for the leaders to have to try and wrangle all that energy.

The beginning of the year is heavy on Ward Conferences, so I missed our ward a few times as I went and visited other wards as the stake YW secretary. It was good to get out and meet the young women a bit. I put my new Cricut to work and made stickers for all the YW in the stake with the youth theme for the year: Trust in the Lord. It was a lot of weeding, but the kids pitched in and we got it done.

Jacob tickling or checking for gnomes or something:

Ryan finished up his karate class and moved up to a green with blue stripe belt. He also earned the most improved award out of the whole class. He loves karate, but is taking a break right now, trying out Urban Gymnastics.

Random pictures Rachel probably thought would never see the light of day:

Her hair is down nearly to her butt, but she wanted to see what it would look like if she cut it. 

For my birthday I decided to try and collect 41 pair of pants for Casa Alitas since I was turning 41. I way surpassed my goal because of great friends and ended up donating 67 pair of pants.

Annie and McKenzie got to go to the temple for their first time! Good times were had by all (despite Rachel's face trying to persuade us otherwise).

Mom, Savannah and I went to Wicked for an awesome girls' night out! We should do those more often. The show was great and I know Annie and Rachel would have loved it. Maybe next time!

The next day we were all up early to head to the Bubble Run. It was the worst weather possible for a race, especially one that involved bubbles. It was super windy. In fact they cut the race down from a 5k (3 miles) to 2 miles because of the wind. These are those brave souls who ran the race: 

On the actual course the bubbles blew off to the side before they even hit the ground so the runners didn't really run through bubbles, but at the finish line they had a bubble cannon so the kids could get some bubble fun in anyway. Even though they were all cold and ready to get out of the wind, they still had a fun time playing in the bubbles. Our neighbor, Shannon, was even good enough to come out and cheer them all on. We have the best neighbors. I almost opted out because of the wind and I was driving them.

End of 2021

 The last week for the year was nice and relaxing. Jacob didn't have to work. We didn't have anywhere to be for the most part. Rachel was invited to special basketball practices for players the coach was considering for A team. She went twice over the break, but skipped most of them in favor of relaxation. She also went to the temple with her YW group. 

Cari came to visit, which is always exciting. We went to the park to play with friends. The Reimanns and the Allens and some Howards came. The kids played kickball and the moms stood around and talked. Fun was had by all.

Our neighbors, Joanne and Eileen brought over a bag of toys they said Santa had left at their house for us. The kids loved all the toys and games they brought over: bingo, balls, colored pencils, games, and more.

A big hit while Cari was here was playing drawing games. They played blind portrait where you draw someone without looking down at the paper, fake artist, and the monster body game.

^Doesn't Rachel's portrait look beautiful?

We went to the Pima Air and Space Museum to explore all the cool planes: 

That NASA helmet says J. Campbell! It was meant to be!

The playground at the air and space museum is pretty awesome!

Haircutting party! Cari and Ryan both got their hair cut. Ryan wanted an R cut into his hair.

I got lots of puzzles for Christmas and spent some good relaxation time putting them together. Ryan also likes puzzles and helped a lot. I think Rachel pitched in on this one, too.

We went to the park again while Cari was here. It started raining, so we headed home, but Megan wanted to run (she's been enjoying running since she ran in the Mica Mountain 5k) and Cari was willing to run home with her despite the rain.

They got home dripping wet and ready for some hot chocolate!

For New Year's Eve we went to Todd and Savannah's house for the party. Besides food we enjoyed some games and fireworks and sparklers.

Pie Face was a big hit.

And an indoor snowball fight with Grandma took place.

We topped off the evening with a piñata and watching the countdown to the new year online. 

After the countdown and more snacks we headed back to our house where all the kids tried their best to stay up until midnight. And they all made it! 

Rachel went to the New Year's Dance at Sahuarita Stake and had a good time. She got back pretty late, so I had to stay up even later than just midnight, and I'm not good at late nighters like I used to be in college, but I survived.

Happy New Year! 2021 was not as drama filled as 2020, but we were still happy to say goodbye and move on to 2022! Cari headed home New Year's morning and we got ready to get back into our regular routines again (though that proved to be very difficult-a relaxing break made going back to work very difficult!).