Volleyball

Volleyball is over for the season, and what a season it was! We ended the season 10-15 and qualified for the NCS playoffs for the first time in at least 9 years!  Last year we only won one game, so it was a HUGE improvement!

 Our Volleyball coaches from last season backed out right before Christmas and we were wondering what we were going to do.  We asked Drew about possibly coaching and he finally decided that would do it.  He asked Conner to be his assistant coach and we are grateful that Conner had that opportunity!  They did a great job!

 We won our first four games and were excited to be playing and finally winning a little!

Here is Parker, Trever, Clayton, and Nick 

 We played in a couple of tournaments this season too and were able to compete and hold their own with most teams.  

 In between tournament games, the boys came over and hung out at our house for a while.  They played some ping pong,

 swings, 

 basketball,

 and played some Volleyball and Dodge Ball on the Wii!

 I was in charge of the snack bar again this year as well as getting rides together for the games (and watching Christopher and Lindsay the days Tina worked).  We had this little area behind the snack bar where the kids could play, eat, and watch movies!  It worked perfectly (most of the time)!

Calissa made this sign for Senior Night and enjoyed cheering for the boys during the season.  Conner sat on the bench and did stats during the games.

 Here is our Varsity Team! 

 Tyler, Parker and Clayton during a game.

Our Senior's:  Clayton, Coach Romer, Nick, and Julius

The Varsity Team, Minus Coach Romer who refused to get in the picture!

Conner, Nick, Jake, Hao, Tyler, Trever, Julius, Parker and Clayton

 They played their NCS Playoff game last night at Clayton Valley.  They announced each player individually and they came up and shook both coach's hands.

   Parker got to be first since he is #2!

They also announced the game (and got Parker and #2 on the other team mixed up several times), sang the national anthem, and had four refs.  It was a fun experience even if they lost in 3 sets.  (25-15, 25-21, 25-13).  Wish they had played their best, but now they have something more to shoot for next season.  I was proud of how Parker played and am sad the season is over!

Here are the boys right before the game started.

It was a fun season with a great group of boys!  Now, we just have to get ready for the team party and try and convince Andrew (and Tina) that he needs to coach again next year!

A Weekend Away

I had the opportunity to fly to Utah on Wednesday to attend Women's Conference at BYU with my college friends.  I escaped the 95 degree weather in California for a nice and cool 54 degrees the day I arrived.  Heather flew in an hour after me, and after she arrived Erika picked us up at the airport and we headed to Provo to check into Wyview.  After settling in we got to go to Los Hermanos, a favorite of ours from our college days!

We didn't get a whole lot of sleep the first night and had to be at the Marriott Center at 6:30 the next morning!  We had signed up to sing in the instant choir and had a practice from 6:30-8:30 before the conference began.  It was a neat experience to sing with 600 other ladies in a choir and a great way to start the conference!  The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed classes, eating, chatting and shopping for the several days that we were there.

 Me, Erika & Heather 

While we were at the conference Erika and Heather crocheted these scarves for a service project.  Since I don't know how to crochet, I supported them while they did!  They did a great job during the two day conference!

The first night they had a music concert in the Marriott Center.  We got to hear Mercy River, Hillary Weeks, Michael McLean, Justin Cash, Josh Wright, Sandra Turly, & Hudson Lights.  That was an amazing concert with great performers! During the two day conference I was able to go to classes about adversity, scripture reading, parenting teens, marriage, being good examples, & hope.  Our final session was President Eyring in the Marriot Center.  He talked about not being scared by things to come.  It was my first experience at Women's Conference and I had a great time being spiritually fed and reconnecting with old friends!

 I am grateful for these two amazing women and that even after almost 20 years, we are still friends! 

 Saturday morning my dad drove down to Provo to pick me up so I could attend my niece's baptism.  We stopped by my Grandpa's house before we went and I had to take a picture of his dog, Tipper.  Tipper used to have beautiful black, white, and brown fur. She looks so different now!  My grandpa took her in to be groomed and they couldn't get a knot out of her fur.  They asked my grandpa if they could cut it off and he said, "sure," thinking that they'd just cut that part off.  When he picked her up, he didn't even recognize her!  Hopefully her beautiful fur will grow back!

 Here is Abby and Kevin before her baptism.  She asked me to play for their special music number.  Her brothers and cousins sang, "When Jesus Christ Was Baptized."

When I got to the church for the baptism, I asked my nephew Sam for a hug.  He asked me where Parker, Conner and Calissa were.  I told him that they had to stay home.  He wasn't too thrilled with that and didn't give me my hug!

 After the baptism, people came back to Kevin and Kellie's for some yummy lunch.  They hired a taco cart to come and cater the food.  It was a beautiful day with yummy food, a great baptism and fun visiting with family and friends!

I flew back to California later that afternoon after a very busy few days!  I'm glad I had the opportunity to go and that my family survived without me!

Mormon Helping Hands

Conner, Calissa and I were able to participate in Mormon Helping Hands this year.  We went to Heather Farm in Walnut Creek and found huge mounds of bark with a bunch of shovels and wheelbarrows waiting for us.  We were one of the first ones there so we started the process of shoveling bark into wheelbarrows, then taking it down the path and dumping it on different parts of the ground.  After a while, we stopped to help do a little planting of small trees and plants but it was a TON of bark.  I'm not exaggerating when I say I personally dumped about 100 loads of it and there were quite a few of us helping out.

We only got one picture on our way out but you can see some of the fruit (er, bark) of our labors.  It was a beautiful day and it was nice to get out and do some service for the community.

Walk a thon

Calissa's school had their first walk-a-thon (which ended up being a run-a-thon) last Friday.  It was a fun day with music, running/walking, school spirit, and family and friends cheering them on.  Each grade level was supposed to wear a specific color and then walk for an hour to see how many laps they could do.  Calissa's grade level was supposed to wear purple, so she wore her purple pj shirt since it was the only purple that she had.

 She's to the right of the orange cone. Go Calissa! 

 Here she is on the left getting "high 5's" from the 3rd graders. (She's behind the kid in the hat).

 Stopping for a water break on the way.

Off for another lap!  Great job Calissa!

MOAD Museum in San Francisco

Parker has had a very hard AP World History class this year and even though he has an "A" at the moment, you never know what 1 test will do to your grade in that class.  His teacher offered 25 points extra credit for visiting a history museum.  So, on a beautiful (and sports free) Saturday, we headed into San Francisco to visit a museum.

It was a gorgeous day in the city!  We thought about taking BART, but it was going to cost us $50 so we decided to drive.  The traffic was horrendous!! It took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there and we still can't figure out why it was so bad!

We finally made it, found a place to park and walked over to the museum.

We visited the Museum of African Diaspora.

They had cultural displays,

 interactive music displays, 

 and food displays.

They also had a room where you sat in the dark and listened to stories from slaves.  The one that we listened to was from a 102 year old man who told about his life.  It was really sad to think that we treated other human beings that way! 

 There was also a wall that talked about things of importance and traditions to our family.  We drew a picture of the temple and put that up ...

 as well as one about milkshakes.

 Then, we went upstairs to an exhibit about slavery and black history.  There were slave manacles, slave owner books, Emancipation Proclamation, letters from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.  There were pictures and art.  It was a small museum, but one that gave us a glimpse into the history of the African people.  We're glad that we had the opportunity to expand our knowledge of history.

GATE Science Field Trip to Saint Mary's

Conner and I got to go on a GATE Science Field Trip to St. Mary's College on Wednesday.  I got to drive about 5 kids and after getting stuck in traffic and getting there late, it was a great field trip!

We started off talking to one of the college counselors about colleges and graduate school programs, jobs, grades, etc. It was interesting to think about, but most of these 7th graders hadn't really thought about those things yet.  It put it on their radar though!

Then, we went into a Chemistry class and the kids got to do a science experiment.

 My group worked hard, but some of them had a hard time following directions. 

 They were able to get most of the things to work.  It was fun to see them involved and working together!

 After that rotation we went on a campus tour with a Sophomore science student from the college.  He showed us around campus, answered questions and told us about the great things about St. Mary's.

 Our last rotations was a Microbiology lab.  The professor had 10 different stations set up around the room for the kids to look through the microscope and try to identify what family it came from and draw a picture.

 There were some interesting things!

 After that we went to lunch in the quad.  They had an all you can eat BBQ lunch for the College Kids that the Middle School kids got to join in. We had a yummy lunch then met back up with the other groups for a final picture and then we headed back to school.  

 It was a great field trip and I was glad that I could go with Conner!