Presley’s Gymnastics Performance
It’s been very cool to watch Presley this year thrive in gymnastics! She has, like so many, had a bit of a rough year. Being only 7 and trying to make sense of the world changing the way it did during COVID was no easy feat. Yet, as with the other kids, sports have been a savior. She always seems excited to go and motivated to learn. She likes her teammates and coaches and goes willingly to practice and comes home telling us of all her neck skills. Because of COVID, we could not watch her at practice so we were excited to see her show off all she had learned last night at her gymnastics performance
I suppose I may be biased, but her cartwheels were the best of anyone and she was most definitely the cutest one there…oh, I mean…the “coolest” one there…
Spring Soccer
It’s been a blast watching Skyler develop as a soccer player. This weekend was her last two games of the season - and the girls went undefeated!???? skyler scored an awesome goal too and got to play forward, which she was super psyched about. So fun to watch!
Baseball in paradise
Liam tried out for Legion baseball tonight. There were about 60 kids from age 13-19. He caught every outfield ball hit to him, threw the ball 65 miles an hour and battend close to 50. I hid up on the mountain side and spied on him. ????????
Skyler and the run of her life (so far)
What an exciting weekend!!! And SO MUCH FUN! It started on Friday morning at 9o’clock when we drove to Jackson hole. It was storming and we barely made it over the pass. The scariest driving I have ever done. We were the last car to get over the pass before they closed it. All of Skyler‘s teammates who had left more than an hour after us ended up having to go 11 hours around the past in order to reach the competition. Meanwhile, Skyler and I shared nachos at Hatch, got massages, shopped around town, had pizza takeout for dinner and went to bed early in anticipation of her big race. I think we both needed some girl time together - it was perfect. At one point, as Skyler was staring at her phone, she says...”mom...I love you.” I’m not even sure if she knew she said it as she didn’t look up and little did she know, my heart swelled. Over dinner, I asked her what made her happy? “Victory” she responded. Oh boy!
Up the next morning at 6:45 and to Snow King for her race. She was determined. She has been laser focused for the last few weeks of training and was feeling confident. We took some big breaths before she went up the loft. Inhale calm...exhale speed. I watched her come down her first run - the best I’ve ever seen her race. She came through the finish and she wanted to check her standing. I told her I didn’t care what place she was...that she skied her heart out and it showed. And then we did check her standing and she was first of the Sun Valley girls and just tenths of seconds from the podium. Her next race was solid and she ended up getting on the podium with a 5th place finish. She was (as were we) OVER THE MOON!
And then, unbelievably, The second race was even better. She landed top of the SVSEF girls, ahead of Ruby Hoelscher from Jackson who always medals and just .2 seconds from Taryn Moe (yes, her dad is Tommy Moe).
She was SO proud of herself and we ended up staying an extra night to celebrate! Congratulations SJ! You are a rock star!
Skiing with Presley
I got to take my little one out to ski after school today! She was so psyched that it was just the two of us and was ready to show her mom all she had learned. She was a chatter box the whole time and I loved every minute of it. Oh...and ps...she’s getting GOOD!! ????????
Liam’s first bump competition
I’m writing this in bed half asleep after three days of powder skiing with Liam in Montana. 14 inches, 7 inches and then 18 inches...Lost Trail, MT did not disappoint. But as awesome as the powder was, it was nothing compared to watching Liam weather the ups and downs of his first moguls competition. The highlights: throwing his backflip, numerous times, in training and in the competition; Stomping his second run with a HUgE backflip o to a mogul field with a crazy smooth transition; Getting through his nerves and competing like a rockstar! The lowlights: learning that 360’s got as much points as back flips; learning that mogul turns were 60% of the score; and...the worse fall of his life - what Liam is calling his scorpion iron cross. Honestly, it was not pretty and scared his mom half to death. Took everyone in me not to run out to the course, pick him up and carry him straight home. But he brushed it off, and put together a great comp run (no backflip included this time). He was an awesome sport, showed character and resilience and I was crazy impressed and proud of him.
And also...did I mention the Powder!!!???
Liam Freestyle Team
Liam seems so stoked lately on his new ski team. Tons of skiing on Baldy, his first back flip into the air bag on Rotarun and a 360 into a mogul field. His coaches are super supportive and stoked on him, he’s made some good friends and he is never bummed to have to go. Super proud of him lately. Growing up looks good on him!
This is the good ol days...
So I’ll let you in on a little secret. I get ideas. Sometimes they are grand ideas and sometimes they are small ideas. Usually these ideas push my husband out of his comfort zone. Walking into the wilderness with my family to cut down a Xmas tree is one of these ideas. Leif knows that when I get one of these ideas into my head, he stands little chance of talking me out of it. The funny part it, even if he fights me on it, 9 times out of 10 he is the one that has the best time. We just work that way.
And so, despite the fact that we needed to clean the garage and organize the Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff, catch up on work, etc etc, we packed the kids and the dog into the car instead and headed 40 minutes out east fork on an icy, narrow road to go find the perfect tree. Yes, we can be a little like the Griswolds at times.
But as we hiked up the mountain with everyone yelling “this one!” “No, this one!” Leif looked over at me with a huge grin on his face and said “you know these are our “good ol days”, right?” And I got it. It’s true. I know we will look back at this stuff and remember it with such fondness and love and awe at the life we created together and the experiences we were so blessed to have with our kids.
So with that all said, I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story...
The first (and hopefully last) COVID Halloween
Trick or treating was off this year so we had to get creative on Halloween this year. And by “we”, I mean “my mom.” Grandma planned an epic scavenger hunt for the kids - 15 hints with 15 stops for candy around our whole neighborhood. She got so many of the neighbors involved who looked through their windows as the kids raced around in search of their candy - hidden in discreet places like under the elephant statue, or in flower pots on top of tree stumps. We ended up having 11 kids so acing around from age 7-13.
After the scavenger hunt, we had an incredible meal prepared in Dutch ovens (thanks to Will and Kim) and the adults sat around the bonfire while the kids watched Charlie Brown’s Halloween and Nightmare Before Christmas on an outdoor “screen” (white sheet).
All in all, I think we will remember this Halloween more than any other. The kids all went to bed saying how much fun they had had!
Stanley
Skyler and I left on Friday to go to Stanley to have a girls night with our friends Rain and Savanna. Skyler met Savanna doing soccer and skiing and they have become good buddies. I met her mom Rain at a soccer meeting and we became quick friends as well. They have a beautiful cabin up in Stanley...beautiful is really an understatement. It is breathtaking. The view of the Sawtooth Mountains is right out the guest bedroom window and being there makes you forget about all the chaos and just sink in and relax. We did just that. Plus they have 5 puppies so we pretty much just snuggled with them all weekend.
It was nice to get some one on one with Skyler. She is definitely becoming a “tweenager” with her mood swings and her annoyance with her mom. Sometimes I feel like just my voice makes her skin crawl. But she is still my perfect girl and I know my role right now is to carry her frustrations while she works through this time in her life. I am not always graceful at it but I am trying. My guess is it will get worse before it gets better so these moments when I get her to myself and we can laugh at life are the best! I love you Skyler.
