March 2022-More Dance and Track, Tessa Turns 15

The beginning of March included dress up days for school. Dr. Seuss's birthday is March 2nd, so that's always a dress up day at school. Taryn's friend, Malerie's mom, made shirts for the kids to dress up as Things. They looked so cute. She takes them to school every morning so she made sure to take a picture of  them together before heading to school. Malerie is Thing 2 and her little brother, Maverick, is Thing 1. Taryn got to be Thing 3 and Teagan is Thing 4.

Another dress up day we had at school was Wacky Wednesday and you were supposed to dress up with mixed-matched clothes. I thought it was the best day ever. I went all out. I threatened to walk my kids into school and they were scared. They did not want to be seen with me. Taryn did stop by the office with her friends to "show me off" and I made her take a picture with me. I always say this is why I love working at an elementary school because you get to do crazy things at work that just wouldn't ever happen at any other workplace. Taryn, Aubrey, and I had a play date with Leeno and some of his siblings. We went back to the house where he was born and let the puppies play together. They were very excited to play and loved running around the backyard. These were the two puppies that the Bowden's kept from the litter and their names are cinnamon and sugar. They ganged up on Leeno a little bit, but by the end of the playdate, Leeno was holding his own and they chased each other all around the yard.

Aubrey's dance team, Vortex, had their official dance competition in March. They were at the school all day. They performed two of their routines, ones they had been working on all year. There was also a portion for solos and a couple of the team's captains performed a solo too. I only took videos of their actual performances so I didn't have pictures, but it was kind of interesting because during their main lyrical dance routine, they started out by lining up incorrectly so half way through the number they were all backwards on their positions, so the announcer stopped the music, announced that they were having technical difficulties, and they let them start the song over. It was crazy, but it looked so much better when they got to perform it a second time. They also performed their hip hop routine and that one was a crowd pleaser like usual ,so they had a lot of cheering and audience participation during that one as they performed. After all of the younger groups were finished, they had the awards ceremony. The girls all lined up together and the captains took turns going up to receive their awards. They got trophies for their routines and even the soloists were in the top three of their categories. They got so many trophies! Here's Aubrey with one of the captains, Clare.

I was there for most of the morning. Abby and Taryn were with me at the beginning while Tessa was at a cross country practice. In between Aubrey's performances and the awards, we left to meet up with Tyler and Tessa for lunch at Jason's Deli. From there, Abby and Taryn left with Tyler to do what they needed to do and Tessa came back with me to wait for the awards and see more dancing. It was fun to watch all of the routines even though they got behind schedule and the performances seemed to be going on forever.

They finally did the awards and like I mentioned, our girls came out on top. They earned so many trophies for their performances. We were so proud of them. One of the moms got the girls together with their trophy collection so we could have a team picture. Aubrey has really loved dance and has picked it up so quickly. She looks beautiful out there and you can tell how much she loves it whenever you see her perform.

Tessa had a couple track meets in March. They were both held at Eastwood High School. She started placing first in front of her teammate, Isa, on the 400M and 800M. She always looks like she's in pain as she comes down the final stretch to the finish line, but she says she feels fine when she's running even though she's going all out and pushing herself to her limit. I'm so proud of her hard work and determination to do her best and to show her coach that she can excel even though she's doing track and band. I took some pictures as she waited to start the relay as well. She's the second leg and waits just after the starting line for Isa to get around first and bring her the baton.

I was waiting by the start/finish line while they raced the relay so I was able to take some pictures while they had their handoffs. Isa gives the baton to Tessa and then Tessa hands off to Izaiddi. And then she waits and cheers them on as the final two racers run their laps. There aren't a lot of schools that have freshmen relay runners in the 4x400, so they usually end up first easily. They are usually only competing against two or three other teams during that race.

The next week, they had another track meet. Tessa ran the 800M with the freshmen and JV girls combined. There were a lot more girls on the track, but Tessa still did great. She got first place in the freshmen girls and only one JV girl was ahead of her. She beat her PR by 5 seconds! I think it helped that she had a JV girl ahead of her, so she pushed herself to stay up with that girl as much as possible. I took a picture of the results board to see her time of 2:30. The top time was the JV girl whose name wasn't displayed, but I was so proud of how well she did. She ran the 400M next and did well there too. She came from behind to win that one too. She passed this Americas girl on the final stretch and Isa, her teammate, came from behind to pass the Americas girl too, but Tessa ended up first.

The girls ran their relay and also did well. They were even pictured and posted on the Instagram page of the company that sponsored the race. I thought it was a really cute post and picture. Here's Tessa with her relay teammates: Izaiddi, Tessa, Isa, and Elise.

Tessa got medals after each of her races so when she stopped by the stands where I was watching from, I took some pictures. Here she is with her two gold medals from her solo races. And then I took a picture of her with Isa too and their medals. They are good friend and running mates. They help each other push along and improve as they train and race together.

Tessa asked to host friends at our house for her birthday, so in preparation, we cleaned up our backyard. Tyler and I pulled all the weeds and dead branches and twigs from around the backyard and decided to burn it on our now dirt only backyard instead of bagging it all up. We worked on it through the day, but had more to burn that evening. The kids came out to check out the fire and they had fun manning the fire and trying to burn sticks so they could have torches. We cleared our entire backyard, so once we were able to burn everything that we wanted to get rid of, the backyard looked so good! Tyler set up some bricks for the firepit so it would be ready for Tessa's friends for her birthday party.

Aubrey cut her bangs in March. She's really into Kpop these days and she chose a hairstyle that one of the singers from a Kpop group has. Bangs with layered bangs on the sides. She let me cut her hair and it turned out really cute. She does her own hair and she loves spending time in the morning getting ready, so she was ready for the extra work that having bangs take. She got so many compliments on her new hairstyle and it looks really good on her. On Sunday, I took a picture of all of the girls before heading to church. I love my beauties.

During March, one of the youth activities was a talent show. Abby and Tessa had been working on a number for the weeks leading up to that night. Abby sang the Adele song, Someone Like You, and Tessa played the piano for her. Everyone said they did so well and that they loved it so much. I had rehearsal that night, so I didn't get to see them in person, but I saw videos and heard everyone's compliments. I was so proud of Tessa learning a song on the piano and for Abby getting up in front of everyone by herself. People were even talking about it the next day because they were so impressed. We even had an encore of their performance at one of our Kasibbons dinners because the families had heard about the talent show and wanted to hear them perform it themselves. Aubrey also participated in the talent show although I don't have any pictures. She played a duet with her friend Rianne. Aubrey played the flute and Rianne played the cello and they played a Pirates of the Caribbean song together. I heard them practice that one too and everyone said they did really well. I wanted Aubrey to dance, but she didn't want to perform by herself, so I was just happy that she participated by doing something in the talent show.

Tessa performed with the symphony orchestra at her school and they had a concert before they went to contest. The percussion played in three songs, although Tessa only played in two of them. Only four percussion players were needed so it was Tessa, Steven, Fred, and JD. Tessa played the base drum in one and the triangle in another one. It's always fun to go to those concerts because she barely plays at all, but when she does, she does her best and looks good doing it. I loved this picture of Tessa with Steven and Fred because they're both seniors, and Tessa's really sad about them leaving after this year. She's gotten really close with all of the percussionists in band, and she's made some great friends.

The percussion plays throughout the year, and I love seeing pictures pop up on our Band app when they do. They play at any function where they want to bring school spirit or help encourage the younger students to be in band or come to Franklin. Here's the percussion section when they played at a function at one of the middle schools. It's a great group of kids.

Tessa's birthday was on March 24th. She turned 15! She went straight to school from early morning seminary that day and she had her friends help her curl her hair before the school day started. I had her send me some pictures after they were done since I didn't see her until after school that day. They only took silly pictures with silly poses, but I still liked this one of her being cheeky. She's a gorgeous girl and I love her so much. She's really blossomed this year in high school and has come out of her shell even more. She's still a little shy when it comes to talking to people she doesn't know, but she's made so many friends and she really excels in the areas where she's comfortable. She has great groups of friends: ones from band, ones from track, and ones from church. Everyone calls Tessa a friend and she says she's a therapist to most of them because she's a good listener and they all know they can come to her if they need to talk. We just love her.

Tessa had her party at our house a couple days after her birthday. She invited all of her church friends. We did a Bunco party and then they hung out, ate dinner, and did the fire pit in the backyard. They even played hide and seek around the neighborhood. Her friends are from all the wards in the stake and they get together a lot. I'm so glad so many of her friends were able to attend. They had a fun time and Tessa got a lot of cute things from them for her birthday. Besides gift cards and money, she also got a hoodie sweatshirt, a t-shirt, a journal/planner, and lots of candy with thoughtful messages. She had a great birthday!

February, Part 2-Tessa Runs Track, Aubrey's Dance Competitions, Abby's Club Season Ends

Tessa track season started with a bang. They usually do a prelim round on Friday evening with the finals on Saturday. Tessa was able to run the 400M, the 800M, and the 4x400 relay. The 400M was the only one that had prelims, so she only had to run that race on Friday. I drove across town to see her hoping I'd make it in time, and luckily I did. She bought spike shoes the week of her first meet and she used the blocks to start, but she's not very comfortable using them. Here she is setting up. I like the 400 because the start and finish are at the same place, so I can see both without having to move.

Tessa was very nervous about her first race, but she did well coming in second after her teammate, Isa. This first race was a little weird because when their heat tried to start, the starting gun misfired, so they had to reset and try again. Well, we figured out later that the timer still started with the misfire and they didn't reset that, so their times showed up about 30 seconds longer than they should have been. Luckily, it was just the prelim so Tessa and Isa still qualified to run in the final the next day, but the times looked pretty bad because the 2nd heat ran so much slower, but had faster times recorded.

On Saturday, we spend the entire day at the meet. With the three races that Tessa runs, they're spread out through the entire day. The 800M is always the second race from the beginning. The 400 is right in the middle and the 4x400 relay is always the very last event. Tessa ran the 800 and had a good time, but as you can see from this first picture, she came in right behind Isa. Tessa placed 2nd in both the 800 and 400 during the finals. She was happy with her results and happy for her teammate Isa. They do all of their training together. Tessa is the second leg of the relay on the 4x400. Isa is the first leg. Here's Isa passing the baton to Tessa. Tessa likes being the second leg because that's the leg that starts in her lane but then gets to move to the first lane after the first 100 meters. They won the relay and got first place for freshmen girls.

Here's one final picture of Tessa at her first track meet during the relay. I liked it because you can barely see her in her lane as she rounds the corner, but she's also on the big screen because they keep the camera trained on whoever is in the lead, so I thought it was cool that I could get a picture of her on the track and the on the big screen at the same time. On Valentine's Day at the high school, you can buy Valentine grams for anyone. All day people were getting treats and cards and surprises. Tessa came home with this huge balloon and proceeded to tell us the whole story. One of her friends from cross country, Christian, got her a small balloon and treat for Valentine's. He caught her as she got to school in the morning; however, as Tessa was trying to gather all of her things for the day from the car, she accidentally lost the balloon. Christian said he'd buy her another one even though Tessa tried to tell him it was okay. So after lunch, Christian showed up with this huge balloon for Tessa which she then had to carry throughout the rest of the day taking it with her to classes and through the hallways. I was really laughing by this point as Tessa was telling me the story because Tessa really does not like being the center of attention. She'd much rather  blend in with the crowd, so I'm sure this was hard for her, but good for her too. Abby was sad that her younger, freshman sister got more attention than she did on Valentine's Day, but since all of the attention was coming from someone Tessa only likes as a friend, Tessa wasn't all that excited about it either. Just embarrassed and almost annoyed that she had to deal with the huge balloon and all of the attention all day. I loved hearing all about it.

Aubrey had her first dance competition while I was out of town with Abby for volleyball. Tyler went to the competition, so he got to watch her perform, but didn't get any pictures since he was far away in a gymnasium set up. I did ask Aubrey to take some pictures, so she sent me these first two that she had taken while they were getting ready. I loved this dance outfit. She even took one with one of her closer friends Claire, who's one of the 8th grade captains.

This routine was performed to "Gotta Be" and they had been working on the choreography since last summer. This was the routine that they knew they were going to take to competition when they first started learning dance and doing the summer camps. One of the moms of one of the dancers is a photographer and she was able to be down on the floor and take these amazing photos. I was so excited to see so many with Aubrey in the front.

I love all of the action shots and the movement you can see in her body. She really loves dancing and I love how quickly she has picked it up. She takes it so seriously and practices all of her dances a lot at home. They also performed one of their hip hop routines that they learned during the football season. This one was a crowd favorite. There were a lot of pictures of Aubrey during this dance too.

She was all over the court for this dance, sometimes on the far right, sometimes on the far left, and sometimes in the middle. They danced to "Hotel" and with some tumbling in the middle and a lot of attitude throughout, the audience always got into it and cheered really loudly throughout the dance.

 

Unlike Tessa, Aubrey has always been a great performer and she loves to be in the middle of the action. She struggled a little with anxiety at the beginning of the dance season as she got used to performing in front of so many people, but by this time she was ready and excited for the performances and she did great. I loved hearing all about it and watching the videos that everyone sent me of their performances.

The girls placed first in both of their categories. Here's the entire team with their coach, Ms. Crouse, as they awaited the results.

Abby's next out of town tournament was in Dallas. I had been looking forward to a volleyball tournament in Dallas for many years. It's close to John and McKaye and I have friends from high school who have daughters in volleyball and I thought it would be fun to see them at a tournament. We flew into Dallas and had an easy time traveling for this weekend. My parents drove up again and picked us up from the airport. We stayed with John and McKaye in their apartment since they live less than five minutes from the convention center where Abby played. We showed up Friday afternoon for the pool play and I took this picture of Abby and some of her teammates while they waited for the teams on their court to finish the morning pool play. Here she is again with Kyndall, Selma, and Nat. Nat and Selma are Abby's closest friends from the team since they're all the juniors from Franklin. They wanted this picture of their jerseys while they waited to start one of their games. The girls were in a tough pool again and they beat a team that was ranked higher than them, but lost to a team that was ranked lower than them. The game they lost was lost in three sets and it was sad because they barely lost the first set, but then killed them in the second set. However, in the 3rd set we got stuck in a bad rotation that we couldn't get out of, so they got way ahead and we couldn't come back, so we ended up losing. Besides the team that won all of the games, the other two teams along with us were 1 and 1, so we were in a three-way tie. However they decided to determine ranks, we ended up 3rd in the pool so we weren't going for gold anymore.

We spent our free time with John and McKaye and my parents. They took us to Torchy's Tacos which we had heard good things about. The tacos had silly names, but lots of flavors and it was fun to try different ones. Their queso was also very delicious. I wanted a picture so I could show my coworkers that we had made it to a Torchy's since it was recommended to us by them and by my brother.

On Saturday, we played another day of pool play. Abby did really well setting and leading her team to the win. Because we weren't going for the gold bracket anymore, the teams were not as difficult. We still had some challenging competitors, but our girls were really meshing and they fought hard to pull out the wins.

We did a team dinner at a restaurant called Dick's Last Resort. They are known for their good food and insulting service. The servers are basically rude on purpose and they always give you a huge hat with some kind of insult written on it. Most were too inappropriate to even take a picture of, but I did get a picture of Abby's and Nat's. The girls thought it was funny as did the parents, but it's someplace I probably wouldn't go back to. It was definitely a one time experience for me. Abby played some VR at John and McKaye's house and had fun trying the new games with McKaye. It was fun that we got to stay with them. They even came to some of Abby's games so they got to see her play and do her thing.

On Sunday, the girls played their last couple of games. If they had lost their first game they would have been out, but they won that first game and got to play a second game to basically decide their place in the bottom half of the tournament teams since they weren't going for gold. They won both of their games in three sets and ended up the top team of the 3rd and 4th place teams. It was a fun tournament with good competitive games even though we weren't going for the gold. Sydney, the other setter, ended up leaving early so Abby was the only setter for Sunday. She worked hard and was exhausted by the end of the day, but she never gave up or looked tired. She was a great strength for the team. We took this picture of the entire team before we went our separate ways to head back home. To remember the names from left to right, back to front we have: Eva, Kayla, Selma, Nat. Middle row: Angie, Kyndall, Dajah, Fern. And Front: Neah and Abby. 

This next picture is of Abby with Nat and Kyndall at a sushi restaurant in Midland. We were in Midland the weekend after Dallas for their final volleyball tournament - the regional qualifier. So much happened that weekend and I did not have very many pictures, so this is where we'll start. Some of the team met at the sushi restaurant after our first day of pool play. We had ended up second in our pool so still going for gold. However, Sydney had quit after the Dallas weekend and Kayla had a family emergency so she didn't make it out to Midland, so we were already short on players. Neah played all of the games on Saturday with sore abs. She had pulled something the week before while working out. during the first game, the coach kept telling Abby to set someone other than Neah so she wouldn't make it worse and so they could save her hits for when they really needed them during the harder games. Luckily it worked and the other hitters stepped up to help carry the team to the win. They were also really close against the team that beat them. They took them to three sets, but just didn't get the win on that one. However, during that game when we needed Neah and her hits, she ended up going up for a block and hurting her thumb. She played the rest of that game with what she thought was a dislocated thumb on her left hand. After the games, some of us met up at the sushi restaurant. We also waited to hear from Neah and her mom who had gone to the hospital to check on her thumb and stomach. They came to the restaurant afterwards, but they didn't have good news. Her thumb was actually broken and her abs were damaged enough that the doctor said she would need to see a surgeon once they got home because of some internal bleeding. She was not allowed to play any more volleyball. She was in a lot of pain, but also very distraught that her volleyball season was abruptly over.

So on Sunday, the girls played without another player. They were down to only 8 girls, but they played with all of their hearts. Angie, the other hitter and team captain, carried the team. We won our first game, but lost our second game to the team that was ranked first in the entire tournament. We did beat them in one of the sets, but lost the 3rd set. You can see in this second picture some of their players. Their middle hitter was probably 6'4" or taller. They also had some amazing hitters and setters, so I was so proud of our team for beating them in one of the sets. One of the other parents caught this picture of the score when we squeaked out the win. It was hard thinking that if only we had Neah, maybe the outcome would have been different, but what can you do? 

With that loss, we were on the loser's side of the bracket, but since it was double elimination we were not out yet. We won our next game and that put us in the top four teams, but that also had us up against the team that beat us the day before. We played hard against them, but it was our third game in a row and between that and our short roster, the girls were exhausted. They still played hard and did their best, but we couldn't pull out the win. That team ended up losing to the team we had just lost to as well, but the hard part was that we found out that the top three teams got a bid to go to the National tournament, but we were the 4th team. We were so close! It was so sad. The girls really worked hard and deserved to be with those top teams, so it was a sad, rough way to end their season with all of the things that could have gone differently, but we were so proud of them as well. We couldn't have asked for a more exciting end to their season and for such an awesome team that Abby had the privilege of playing with. It was the best team she had ever been on with all of those strong senior players. We'll miss them a lot!

This isn't club volleyball related, but it is Franklin volleyball. Abby's senior volleyball friends were having their signings whenever they decided on colleges and the whole team attends the signing. Here's the signing for Madison Blanco, one of Abby's teammates and friends. She was the setter on varsity since the end of her freshmen year and she's always been one of the best in the region. She signed to go play volleyball at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. She was a good mentor for Abby and someone she could look up to when it came to setting, and I liked that this picture had the entire Franklin volleyball team and coaches. We don't get many pictures with all of them together. And I love how Abby is front and center right behind Madison. Volleyball has been such a big part of Abby's high school experience and I hope she'll look back on it with fond memories.