Snow much fun

 Towards the end of February we had more snow that we usually have here in Tucson. The first snow fall happened during the nitric acid spill, so we were stuck inside under shelter in place orders. We looked at the acid snow from inside, but never went out to play in it. 

The following week was Rodeo Break. It did not snow in Tucson, but the Wednesday of that week, the day before trek started, all the Mas and Pas and other leaders were at the trek site getting ready and it snowed there. Luckily the 3 days of trek were nice weather. Then the day after we returned, Sunday morning, it snowed here in Tucson. Later that same week, on Thursday it snowed again, and stuck really well. 

The desert is beautiful when it snows. 

The next day was bright and sunny and warm. Megan and Ryan had field day at school, sweating by the end of it by the end of their time outside, on the same field where they were playing in the snow the day before. It was a fun way to end the 3rd quarter and kick off Spring Break.

Annie invited friends over for a party to kick off Spring break. She's found great friends at school this year, for which we are super grateful. Sofia, Annie, Courtney and Laura:

Ryan wrapped up another Hoopz season, with their team getting 2nd place again. We're so grateful for Coach Kevin and for Ryan and Derek's friendship. It was a great group of kids.

End of February

The third Saturday of February is always Vail Pride Day out at the fair grounds where the school district shows off all the great things the kids are doing. There are also lots of vendors and clubs that set up booths giving away stuff to advertise, and selling stuff to make money. Megan visited the Truly Nolan table and held a cockroach. 

Annie and Ryan both had band performances. Ryan's happened to be the same time that Megan had Academic Jeopardy.

Megan's team won first place! 

I also helped out at Cienega's CatFrat PTO table for part of the day. We took a picture with this year's board: Kiki Ngo, Maryanne Freddette, me, and Briana Cota.

Annie's band performance was with all the district middle schools combined. They were supposed to rehearse earlier in the week, but it was canceled because a semi carrying a load of nitric acid crashed on the freeway between Rita and Kolb and everyone within a mile and a half were under a shelter in place order, so school was canceled for everyone and we stayed inside with AC and heaters turned off for a little over 24 hours. It was a crazy. Turns out the semi driver had over 5 times the legal limit of alcohol in his blood. 

Anyway, back to Vail Pride Day. They didn't get to practice ahead of time, but did great. Mr. Constantine (who taught at Desert Sky last year, but not this year) led the combined bands in playing Danger Zone from Top Gun and wore a safety vest and used traffic wands to conduct. It was hilarious. Annie said she had a hard time playing because she was having a hard time not laughing.

Ryan participated in the Math Bowl and did a great job. Their team got 3rd place out of all the elementary schools in the district.

Ryan and his best friend Derek got to do math bowl together. Ryan went home with Derek to hang out together more that afternoon.

Megan showed us her art work.

While we were at Vail Pride Day, Rachel was at home with Lydia finishing their quarter project for physics: a marble run. 

They went a little over board and did a great job, getting the best (longest) time of the class. Rachel drew Harry Potter in each of the 5 sections of the marble run and made it look extra cool.

The following week, Megan's class got to go on a field trip to the Canoa Ranch. It was a slightly rainy day, and the activities were a little lame, but just going on a field trip was fun for her and her class. 

Annie had a good time playing basketball this year. 

She was on a team with her good friend, Courtney. At the awards banquet at the end of the season they both received awards. Annie got the coach's award for her great attitude and always being willing to go out and work hard, and encouraging others, too. That is very descriptive of Annie. She looks on the bright side, and helps others to do the same. 

The other highlight of February for Annie was getting a new teacher for language arts and social studies. Her teacher first quarter was great, but ended up moving, and the replacement was not a good teacher, but besides just not teaching well, she was rude and unkind and talked badly about her students and the administration and was very unprofessional. Thankfully, she moved on (with encouragement from admin) and they found Ms. Samuels who was a big blessing. Annie has often come home since Ms. Samuels took over and talked about how awesome school is now. She has great friends, good teachers, and life is just good all around. 
 

In other new teacher news, Mr. Knox was offered an opportunity for a doctorate that he couldn't pass up, so the school started hunting for a new band director. Rachel was invited to be on the hiring committee, so she got to sit in on all the interviews. They ended up being able to hire a band director and an assistant band director, so next time they need to replace a band director it'll be a little bit smoother transition, hopefully, since it would be unlikely that they would lose two in the same year. 

Rachel's band had a performance right after rodeo break, with an Americana theme. It was great. They've got a lot of talented musicians. 

Visiting the Knight's

We went to Seattle for Sammy's baptism in April. Megan wanted to blog about it: 

This parking lot we parked at next to the Airport. Rachel is showing the peace sign.

When we FINALLY got on the plane we took a family photo. (Rachel or Ryan doing the peace sign)(Probably Ryan).

Me and Ryan looked out the window to see how high we were getting. Ryan took photos on the little black camera he was using. (If you look closely you can see the camera).

                                                                  A wing on the plane

                                            Todd was pushing Ryan and B on the red swing.

After that he pushed me (Megan) on the red swing. I touched the tree. He also kept asking if I wanted to be spun at the same time. (My answer was no).

Ryan and some of the Knights went on a bike ride in the woods by their house. 

We all went on a nature walk to a park and a beach and here are the pictures.

Ryan and Sammy climbed a hill on our nature walk.

Rachel looking at the otter!!!!!! Jared found an otter in the lake by the brigde

Me and Rachel playing on the playground.

Rachel chilling.

                              Shadow went into the lake a few times to catch sticks. And then she played frisbee.

They had fun playing on the beach by Lake Washington.

Me taking a picture   

                                                            

 Sammy had his baptism.

After the baptism we went back to their house and ate lunch with everyone that had come. 

                                                             Ryan on the tramp.

                                                            Dinner with the Knight's.

After their other family and friends left we decorated eggs, since the next day was Easter. 

We had to get up early on Easter morning to catch our flight back. Dad wasn't feeling good, and when we got home we found out he had COVID. He went right to bed and stayed there for 5 days. (No one else caught it, thankfully!) 

We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Easter dinner that Grandpa had prepared for us. When we went home we found out that the Easter bunny had visited and we found so many eggs all over the house.