October 2020, Part 1 - More Sports & Taryn’s 9th Birthday

Tessa finished her cross country season in October. She ran the final district meet at a park on the east side. She was a little nervous leading up to this meet because her friend, Ayla, was not able to run this meet; so Tessa was nervous about having to run by herself. A funny story: we had told Tessa if she finished in the top 5 of the race, we’d treat her to Bahama Bucks. She told us after the race that once she passed enough people to be in 5th place towards the end, she remembered telling herself “at least I’ll get Bahama Bucks.” Then she heard her coach cheering her on and she was able to pass another two girls to reach third place for the final stretch of the course. We were really cheering her on at this point and she raced up to catch the girl who was in 2nd place right in front of her. As she pulled up with that girl, another girl was catching up behind her. She said with all the yelling and cheering she knew someone was coming up behind her, so those three girls had a race to the finish for 2nd place. Luckily, Tessa pulled ahead easily and ended up crossing the line first of those three girls and so she ended up 2nd place in the entire district, not far behind the first place girl. We were so proud of her! Tyler walked down to the middle of the course and got this first picture of Tessa as she ran over the dirt hill that she remembered from the course last year. I stayed close to the start and finish line and was able to see Tessa as she rounded the last corner and crossed the finish line.

One of Tessa’s young women leaders, Sis. Kener, came to Tessa’s race to cheer her on. It was so nice of her to support Tessa and be there with us. The high school coaches ran this district race and the cross country coach from Franklin was very impressed with Tessa’s run. He had started talking to Tyler during the middle of the race and he also saw her come in 2nd place at the end, so he talked to us more after the race about cross country at Franklin and was really talking it up like he wanted Tessa to run on his team next year. The final event for cross country was the awards ceremony. With Covid, we weren’t sure if the kids were going to get any medals this year, but they got them all at the end, so the coaches called out those that got medals for each of the races. Tessa placed 2nd in every race this season so she received three silver medals.

 

The 8th grade girls from Hornedo placed 1st place in the district, so the school gets a trophy for that honor. We took a picture of Tessa with the trophy since she helped earn that award for her team. We also took a picture of Tessa with her closest friends from the team. From left to right it’s Elise, Isabel, Ayla, and Tessa. 

 

I got another picture with Tessa and some of her teammates and their coach, Coach Venegas. Tessa had an awesome cross country season and is excited to continue running and hopefully run with the cross country team in high school next year too.

Abby finished her volleyball season in October as well. Some parents were in charge of taking pictures during games, so I was able to save some pictures during the season. Here’s one with Abby next to her coach, Coach Sterling, during one of their time outs.

Here’s another picture that someone took of the team that included Abby on the side lines while they waited for their game to start. This second picture was taken by a yearbook staff member that’s friends with Abby so he sent the picture to her. Here she is serving during the game.

 

He also took some other shots of Abby during their game. I love these pictures because I had to work rotating the balls, so I couldn’t ever take any action shots while she was playing; but now I have these pictures of her actually setting during the game which I really appreciate.

 

This is another picture taken by a parent while Abby was on the court. I loved watching her play and being there in person for the few games we were able to see in person.

Before one of Abby’s final games, she and her friend Braelinn were getting ready together. Braelinn is on the drill team at Franklin and she had a football game the same night Abby had a game, and they thought it was funny to see the difference in how they each prepared for game day. The preparation difference between a drill team member and a volleyball player is pretty drastic, so they wanted a picture to remember the day. I also got this picture of Abby with two of her friends, Sabrina and Andrea on Andrea’s birthday. We drove to a park where they were having a birthday drive by, so Abby jumped out to wish her a happy birthday and get a picture with them.

 

Now on to Taryn’s birthday. Taryn turned 9 on October 14th. That was a Wednesday this year and it happened to be a week that they didn’t have any school for a fall intercession break. We thought it was great because it was like we had an entire week to celebrate Taryn’s birthday. The Monday before her birthday, we rented out an entire movie theater. We were able to take 20 people so we invited the Kasallis and Andersen families and Taryn’s friend Elsie. With them and our family, we had 20 people to take up the entire theater and we watched the movie, The War with Grandpa, which was pretty funny.

 

The Kasallis family gave Taryn some balloons, so after the movie we took some pictures of Taryn at the front of the theater holding her balloons. She wanted to wear a dress so she’d be dressed up for her birthday outing. With her all dressed up and going to a bought-out theater, I kept thinking of the original Annie movie where they do the same thing and sing, “Let’s go to the movies...” It just made me smile. I took pictures of the different groups once we got settled in the theater. Taryn and her friends, Elsie, Teagan, and Cort sat between Cort’s parents and me and Tyler.

 

The pre-teens sat behind us so that was Tessa, Sam, Aubrey, and Lexi. Meg, the youngest of our group kept rotating seats between parents and kids. The teenagers sat down a few rows in front of us and enjoyed the movie from there. It was Reve, Logan, AJ, and Abby.

 

I took one more picture before the movie started of our entire theater from the front. We really loved that we were the only ones there. It was funny because as people laughed or commented during the movie, which normally we don’t like, just made us laugh this time because we knew who was making each comment. We had to finish our movie with a dance party at the front of the theater during the credits. We really had a great time with our friends and kicking off Taryn’s birthday week.

 

On Taryn’s actual birthday, I had scheduled her well visit for that day since it was all they had available that week. I felt a little bad because even though a well visit isn’t a big deal, during Taryn’s well visit we always do flu shots because it’s the right time of year. So on Taryn’s actual 9th birthday she had to get a shot. The plus side was she wasn’t the only one getting her flu shot and I told them if they didn’t whine or complain we’d get Bahama Bucks afterwards. They did amazing (I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner because Aubrey’s always a bear during shot visits), so they enjoyed their Bahama Bucks smoothies and snow cones after getting their shots. I loved this second picture because Taryn was so happy and she came up with this pose of her avalanche sized snow cone with her sisters. Abby’s laughing because in these pictures she hadn’t actually gotten her flu shot yet. She and I went to a free drive up flu shot center after we had purchased our Bahama Bucks treats.

 

As you can see, Taryn chose to dress up and wear a dress and fancy shoes for her birthday as well. We had Taryn’s pick of Panda Express for dinner and we fed the missionaries too. One of the missionaries had his birthday the day after Taryn so she was nice enough to share her birthday cake and candles with him. They each took a turn blowing out candles. Abby and Braelinn made Taryn the three-tiered chocolate birthday cake that she requested. We took one final picture of Taryn with all her presents after she unwrapped them. She was very excited for everything she got - from the water bottle, to the hatchimals, to the games and candy. She also really loved the Rainbow High doll that was at the top of her birthday wish list this year.

 

I had to post a final picture of one of Taryn’s filtered pictures that she saved on my phone. We really love this girl and the joy and happiness she brings to our family. She is still our sensitive one who really feels the emotions of others. She’s quick to say sorry and quick to give a hug when someone else is sad. She loves to play with her friends and ride her bike. She likes to bake and eat treats and she loves watching tv shows and movies. She really loves to play games on her Nintendo switch, on the Wii, and on any phone she can get her hands on. Happy birthday Taryn!

September 2020, Part 2 - Cross Country and Volleyball

Even though the new school year started off very differently this year, we were happy to find out that they were going to give the fall sports a try. After running on the cross country team last year, Tessa knew she wanted to run again this year. With the new COVID restrictions, they had to have tryouts this year and only keep 10 students per group. Last year it was a non-cut sport, so Tessa was a little nervous for that first run. Abby, Tessa, and I spent a couple days running courses around the school to help Tessa feel prepared. On the day of the tryout, there were only ten 8th grade girls that tried out, but Tessa was the second fastest runner, so she was excited to be at the top of the team. I finally took a picture when I dropped her off for her first practice. It was cold and windy that day, but she was excited to get started even though they had to wear masks the majority of the time.

They had a short season with only four meets. The first meet was a fun run - only one mile. We were told that fans weren’t allowed (due to the virus), so we had to stay in our cars and hope for a view of the runners as they passed by. I took this first picture as the teams warmed up feeling like a stalker since we couldn’t leave our cars. They ran one lap around the high school which made up the one mile, so when it was the 8th grade girls turn to run, we stepped outside of our car to watch from the sidewalk. This is a picture of the girls as they passed by at the beginning of the race.

Tessa finished the race in 3rd place with a time of 7:21. It was a very fast one mile pace for her and she was the first Hornedo girl to cross the finish line. We were so proud of her. Her highest place last year was 6th, so she was very excited for the start of this season. I also had to take a picture of the cheerleaders who sat on top of the van to cheer on Tessa and her teammates (with their masks on of course).

The next week, they had their first full meet which is two miles long. They ran the same course around the high school but just running the lap twice to make it two miles. Our school was in charge of this meet, so I was able to be closer to the action since I was volunteering during the race. I took this first picture as the girls warmed up before the start of their race. My volunteer job was to hand out bottles of water to the runners as they crossed the finish line so I had a great spot for pictures. This second picture was of Tessa and some of her teammates as they started off. I did not get pictures as they finished since I was busy handing out water bottles, but Tessa ended up 2nd at this race right behind her teammate, Ayla, with a time of 16:31. They were less than a second apart crossing the finish line. Tessa had started to sprint at the end and was ahead for a bit, but Ayla came back and crossed first. They run the entire race together and Tessa has no problem keeping pace with her, but she didn’t quite have enough umph to pull ahead at the end. We were still very happy for her and her 2nd place time.

 

The following week, their meet was held at a city park. The girls had a map and the instructions given them by the coaches to know the route of the race. As the girls lined up to start the race, I got this picture as the girls discussed the turns of the path they were about to run.

I took this picture of the girls right before the starting shot went off. Tessa and Ayla ran together again. Tyler and I walked through the park to a middle spot of the race so we could cheer them on. The girls were behind three or four other runners, but by the first mile mark, they had pushed ahead and the race was between just the two of them by the end.

Again, Tessa tried to pull ahead by sprinting at the end, but Ayla caught up and passed her to cross the finish line first. I got these pictures of the girls as they finished up. One right before the finish line, and one as Tessa stepped across the finish line. Tessa finished this race with a time of 16:54. We love watching her run and being able to cheer her on. We’re so proud of her hard work and her accomplishments.

 

Abby spent a lot of time during quarantine doing her own workouts and runs to stay in shape for volleyball season. They did a lot of zoom workouts together and had about three weeks in the summer to work out in person before they went back to zoom workouts before school started. Once they were allowed to meet in person again, which was after the Labor Day break in September, they went right into tryouts. They did a full week of practices and tryouts and finally Abby found out that she made the JV team. We carpooled a lot with her friend Natalie so I took a picture the day they found out that they had made the team. So proud of these girls and their hard work and determination.

 

They had scrimmages and games the same week they found out they made the team. The girls all get workout clothes and warmups, so I took pictures the first day Abby had a game where she got to wear her uniform. They have to play wearing masks so we were able to find Cougar masks that the Football boosters were selling so the entire JV team had matching masks that looked really sharp. I wanted to have a picture with her in a mask, but I definitely had to have one with her beautiful smile as well.

 

They spent a day taking pictures instead of practice one day. I wasn’t there, but Abby took some pictures on her phone, so she sent her favorites to me. As the 2nd longest member of the team (there’s only one junior and after her, Abby was the next longest player from the JV team), she was able to have first pick on her number choice. She was very happy to be back to #6 - her favorite. Here she is with Natalie and with some of her teammates - Andrea, Lala, Miranda, and Idaly.

 

Here’s another picture of Abby with Natalie and Sabrina. These are probably her closest friends from the team, although she gets along with and loves everyone on the team.

Because of the COVID restrictions, fans are not allowed at the games. Any away game we had to watch on a streaming service online. Luckily they mostly worked and we were able to see those games, but it was hard watching the action on a tiny electronic device instead of in person. At home games, one parent was allowed to attend the game as an “essential worker.” So we were given jobs to do during the game like line judge, ball rotation, cleaning the floors, or taking pictures or videos. All the games that I worked, I did ball rotation which basically keeps balls rotating and cleaned to keep the game moving along. I liked it because it was close to the action and I could watch all the plays. The hard part was you’re busy the whole game with the balls so you can’t take pictures or videos during the game. One game I arrived early enough to at least take a few pictures during their warmup. Here’s Abby setting and serving during their warmup.

Here’s another picture of Abby setting. This year was a little better than last year in that Abby got to play during most games, but it was still a little frustrating because she was technically the third setter after two other girls, so she didn’t get to play as much as she would have liked. She worked out at practices and was told consistently by the coaches that she was working hard and giving her all, but unfortunately that didn’t always turn into court time during games. However, Abby kept up a good attitude and a dedicated work ethic and she got better as the season went on. Whenever she was on the court, she did her best and she dominated. She never missed a serve during the games and by the end of the season, she was producing amazing plays by assisting the hitters with awesome sets. We’re so proud of her and her hard work and determination.

One of the parents who helped keep the books for our team was able to travel with them to all the away games. She usually took a team picture and would send it to all of the parents, so I was happy to receive these team pictures during their season.

Here’s another team picture from another away game. They played two games a week and by the end of September, Abby’s team had won all of their games except for one. The game they lost Abby didn’t get to play at all, so I didn’t mind that they lost that one. She really loves playing with these girls and she was happy to have the chance to work out in person after being stuck at home the rest of the day for online school.