School for the 2021-2022 school year started this year on August 2nd. Our summer was very short. Our school district switched to an almost year-round school with a two week fall break and two week spring break, so that pushed the start of school to the beginning of August. I took pictures of the girls on their first day of school. I also took a picture of Taryn before church on a Sunday so I could have a good photo of her for her 10-year volume 2 picture book. Here’s the beautiful Taryn as she started her 4th grade year.
Here’s Aubrey and Abby on their first day of school. Aubrey is starting 7th grade and Abby is starting her junior year of high school.
This is Tessa’s picture of her first day of high school, her freshman year. She had to dress in her marching band shirt because the drumline had to meet early on the first day of school so that they could play through the hallways to pump up the students on their first day. I also got a picture of all four girls together. My beautiful girls. I love them so much!
During the first week of school, Tessa’s band rehearsal was open to families to come watch and see what they’ve been learning. Taryn and I were the only ones available to go, but we went and watched the kids play. The drumline played their cadences and then the band performed and then the colorguard showed us what they’ve been learning. They even had us go down on the field for the students to teach us what they’ve been learning about marching. We had to march too while holding their instrument. Taryn decided to take that job and wanted to try on Tessa’s bass drum. We had fun.
I got a picture of the entire percussion section from marching band - the drumline and frontline. Tessa loves it and she loves that she’s one of the few freshmen in the group and the only freshman in the drumline.
Aubrey tried out for the Hornedo volleyball team the first week of school and found out that she made the team after a couple days of cuts. She even got her favorite number for her jersey. Tessa is doing cross country and she got her uniform the first week of school. Abby made the JV team in volleyball, so once they all had their sport gear, I had to have pictures. I love these girls, and they were so excited to try on their stuff and show off their jerseys.
I posted on Facebook about the girls making their school teams and I included this picture of the girls using their “game faces.” On my post, this picture got the most likes and comments. Everyone loved it so much. They look so serious and like they are ready to compete and win. My strong, tough young ladies.
We thought it’d be fun to get some action shots too. Aubrey had a wardrobe change because she’s also on the school’s dance team. I love how fun they are and that they’re willing to be goofy so I can have some fun pictures. Aubrey was so excited for her new dance shoes, so they all did a sport-related pose in the first picture and then got even more creative for an action shot pose in the second picture.
On August 13th, Tessa had her first cross country meet that happened to be at 11:00 at night! It’s a race to midnight so they all start at different times assuming they’d finish the race right at midnight. The weather was really bad this weekend, so they actually moved the race up an hour in hopes of beating the rain, so Tessa’s group started their race at 10:35 since most of her people run the 5K in under 25 minutes. We were worried about rain, but it stayed dry until right at the very end, so it was good that they started earlier than normal. Tessa’s batch of runners is this second picture right before the starting gun went off. All of the fans were in the stadium and the kids ran down the track and then out the stadium, around the parking lot and then looped around twice, so we saw them at the very beginning of the race, in the middle, and then at the end as they crossed the finish line.
Here’s a picture of Tessa as she was coming in to cross the finish line. She ran the race in 24 minutes and was very happy with her result. She had a hard time at her time trial with her team the week before, so she was happy that she finished and that she ran the entire way. It was a good start of her cross country season. Her coach took a picture of the entire Franklin cross country team after everyone was done with the race.
Abby did some pre-season volleyball tournaments to prepare for their regular season. She was very excited to play on the JV team this year because she was a setter and right side hitter. She was so happy that she gets to hit this year. She loves setting, but she really loves hitting. She’s not super tall which is why she’s usually overlooked as a front row player, but her dedication, hard work, and power paid off and she beat out some of the other players to be able to play as a hitter in the front row.
The volleyball team traveled to Midland for a couple of games this year. I did not get to go, but they did take a picture of the entire volleyball program on their trip. Abby was so excited to be able to travel to play. They only travel to Midland every other year and since they missed it because of COVID last year, she was so excited that she got to travel this year. They played two games in Midland against two Midland teams. Abby’s JV team won one and lost one, but it was good practice for them in getting ready for their season here in town.
Aubrey’s volleyball games started right away and we were all there for her first game. She plays back row only, but she loves that she gets to serve. She’s a decent back row player and is good at digging the ball and passing it to the setter. I was so happy that she made the team and was playing a lot considering she hasn’t been on a city team for a couple of years. She was able to remember all the things she learned while playing on her younger teams and use it to secure her spot on the team. A lot of the girls were new to volleyball and then they were a lot more advanced players on her team, so Aubrey was right in the middle, ability-wise. She’s good at her overhand serves and she’s a good team player. She loved getting to know the girls on the team and they all became fast friends.
At that first game in the Hornedo gym, we noticed for the first time some of their new banners. We saw Tessa’s name on the cross country banner from her 8th grade year. I took a picture to show Tessa and she was the one who realized the banner had a mistake. It says 7th grade girls at the top, but it actually should say 8th grade girls. 2020 and this list of girls was her 8th grade year and team, but at least her name is there. We thought that was cool. The weekend of August 13th and 14th was our stake youth conference. I helped plan it with the stake YW and stake YM presidencies and a youth committee. Abby was on the committee and made a lot of the decisions, but unfortunately she wasn’t able to attend very much of the weekend because of volleyball games. It was still a great event even though the weather had us make some last minute changes. Our Friday night activity of swimming was cancelled, but we played our team yard games at the stake center pavilion instead. I was one of the leaders over the green team, so I did get a picture of them. We had a team tug-of-war tournament, so we cheered the kids on as they competed. It was a fun weekend.
After the activities and dinner Friday night, the kids went inside for a devotional with Hank Smith. Hank Smith is a motivational speaker and he was the main event for our youth conference. He was only going to give a brief, 10 minute spiritual thought that first night, but because of the weather, he ended up doing an hour long devotional and it was so good. On Saturday, our service project got rained out, but we still had rotating classes for all of the kids and then a fireside by Hank Smith and then a dance. The kids have not been able to be together for over a year and a half for a stake activity, so they were excited for it all; but they LOVED the dance. It was probably one of the best ones we’ve had. It was Tessa’s first stake dance and she loved it. We took a picture of her dancing with our friend Danen because Danen’s mom was so excited to see him at his first dance too. Tessa created a Thank You card that we had all of the youth sign for Hank Smith, so she was able to go up and talk to him after the fireside, tell him she had made the card, and get her picture with him. It was a great weekend and all of the youth just raved about how much fun they had. We loved it all!
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