Melissa Volleyball

The Club Canyon volleyball team that Melissa was on has come to another end. This year was a bit of a different experience than the previous year. The coach was new and some of the girls were pretty sassy and made the experience frustrating at times. (Melissa wasn't one of them - she just wanted to play ball!)
Melissa has really improved her play at the net this year. Her dad wants her to work on developing her upper body strength this summer and improve her vertical jump so she will even be a stronger contender this fall.
We enjoyed watching Melissa at her tournaments. She really is a good all-around player - she can play any position. Her favorite position is outside hitter. The verdict is out whether or not she plays for them next year. She also wants to run track and it is hard to do both. Here are a few pictures and a video. Enjoy.

Hannah Volleyball

(Rachel Cook was not a member of the team just visiting that day.)


Down and ready!


Hannah is the one hitting the ball.


Hannah's serve starts out good in the beginning just gets all weird in the end.

Hannah did volleyball this spring. She and 8 other 6th graders competed across the magic valley. She has some great skills that will only improve as she gets older. Her serve is wild and wacky and she looks like a worm when she does it. Her body moves in all sorts of directions when she try's to hit the ball. She is excited to try out for the 7th grade team this fall.

Easter

Easter this year was pretty relaxed. The Easter bunny usually comes on Saturday but were all going in different directions the day before so he came on Sunday and it was o.k. since our church was later. The kids have to go a treasure hunt every year to find their baskets and Alan came up with an awesome idea. He first started everyone out in the living room where he had asked each person to share something about Easter that had been assigned out earlier. It was very good. The girls then went all over the house and outside before finding their baskets in the van. Zach joined us a little later, he didn't care that he missed out on the treasure hunt. After church we met my family at a Twin Falls park and had an egg hunt and barbecue. It was fun. We were also celebrating my mom's 60th birthday.

Prom Night

Zach had a great time at his 1st prom in April. His date was Sydney Suitter. She is a good friend of Zach's and also a sister to one of his best friends. Zach did not like all the fuss of trying to get ready for the prom. He wouldn't even try on his tux when he picked it up the day before. He later found that it was pretty important to try things on before you take them from the store. A 1/2 hour before he was to pick up his date he was storming around the house because his vest and jacket were too big. Also his tie was very dorky and his shirt had ruffles! I knew that he would be completely miserable the whole night if things didn't feel good so at my encouragement he raced over to Twin to get the right sizes. I called the lady ahead of time so she would be ready for him and she told me that she begged him to try it on but he said that it was fine. He was a bit late picking up his date but he made it in time for the grand march. He looked so handsome and I was so glad the lady at the rental place helped dress him complete with cuff links and fancy buttons.
We had 10 kids over at our house for dinner. It was fun to decorate the table and cook a nice meal. It was also a little bit easier on the boy's pocket books! I made prime rib and twice baked potatoes. Noelle Suitter made a green salad and brought rolls and a very rich chocolate cake. She supplied the china and I did the tablecloth and napkins. It was great food and the kids were very relaxed and said that they would do it again. Alan had promised Zach to clear the house with the girls and after the kids had left for the prom Noelle and I sat a visited and ate leftovers all alone for about a 1/2 hour. It was really nice to have some quiet time for us moms!
Zach doesn't understand why he has to wear a tux to the prom and questions whether or not he will go next year because of it. It was just a little bit too much prep work for him. But, he looked stunning! I wish he would wear a suit to church. I told him he better get used to wearing them because he will more than likely wear a suit on his mission. He is hoping to go somewhere tropical where he won't be required to wear one.

The Boy's Birthdays

Since we were in California for Alan's 40th birthday. I decided to plan a surprise for him the next week. I secretly emailed people that know him and asked for them to type a short well wish or memory they have of Alan. The response was outstanding. Most everybody responded. It was fun to read about what people thought about Alan and memories that they had of him. A running thread through people that know him is that he is very easy going and rarely gets upset about things. His family remembers how much he teased them but ironically he was also the peacemaker of the family. (Except for the time he hit Glen with a bat.) I also put together a DVD of the last 40 years of Alan's life. I gathered a bunch of slides from the Leavitt's basement and transferred them to a CD. The kids commented about how different Grandma and Grandpa looked when Alan was a baby. It was very touching. I will try and get Bill to upload the DVD onto the FTP site for Jane and Leon to watch.







Zach's birthday was the next day on the 28th and was pretty low key this year. Hannah and I were at a volleyball tournament in Wendell for 1/2 the day and while we were gone Alan let Zach open all his presents and took no pictures, but he has it all on video! (Zach hates pictures anyway.) Zach later told me that he was disappointed that he didn't get breakfast in bed. I didn't think that he really cared about that tradition but apparently he does! Later that day Alan and I took Zach out to eat at Johnny Carino's. It is hard to believe that my first born will be a senior next year. He loves football and he runs his guts out on the track. He will be fun to watch in sports this next year. He is a great kid.

Melissa Takes 4th at State!

I am posting an email that Melissa wrote to Bryan. Melissa had several people ask her how old she was up at state and they couldn't believe that she made it into the finals as a freshman. One girl told her that she has been working hard on her speeches all of her high school years JUST to make it into the finals and here Melissa did it her first year - without taking any prior speech classes! She did great!

"Say hello to a survivor of State Speech Competition!! Two of the LONGEST, stressful, sleep-deprived, yet amazingly gratifying, days of my life.

Leaving school on Friday, at 9 in the morinin', a bus full of rowdy, over-exuberant teenagers embarked to Skyview High School in Nampa. I gave my speech twice that day, and I was unsure of how I stacked up against my competition, everybody seemed so dang GOOD from my point of view. We got back late that night around 9:30, and after eating dinner, got into bed around 11. Waking up at 5:15 in the morning, running on about 6 hours of sleep, went back to give the third preliminary round.

I broke in to semifinals, much to my surprise. After going to my assigned room to speak, I saw the competition, and honestly thought "Okay, this is it, give it everything that you've got, this might be the last time you give this speech". I was the last speaker after 5 other O.O.'s had gone, and the judges and competitors were tired of listening, so I thought I'd give them something entertaining to listen to.

I looked at the board, my hopes not high at all. But there is was 12ML, first speaker, room C112. Finals. Wow. Freshman vs. 5 seniors and 1 junior. I gave my speech, for sure knowing this would be the last time. And ended taking fourth at State.

Fourth. No medal, but I didn't need one.

Jerome Advanced Speech Team, State Champions over Hillcrest, by the small margin of 2 points. If ONE person didn't qualify for semis or finals, we might of not taken home the big blue trophy. Pressure much?

And to think, I get to do this for three more years.

Seeing my speech come alive was better than any award someone could've given me. Seeing that I actually wrote (and re-wrote, and re-wrote) something that people could relate to and take to heart, made all the effort worth it."

Melissa

Day 6 - Universal Studios, Day 7 - Home

Day 6 was at Universal Studios which was very interesting. For a family of 8 it cost us over $500 to get in for 7 hours. We were once again very grateful for the help of our friends getting us into Disneyland free! We could have spent more time at Universal Studios but it closed before we got to everything. Today was also Alan's 40th birthday. We didn't do much for him but that is the way that he wanted it. He said the vacation was his present.
On Day 7, Saturday we left the hotel at 11 a.m. and drove to Chino Hills, CA to visit Sal and his family. They live in a very pretty area and it seems to be a little bit calmer there. They feed us lunch and we were back on our way. We had originally intended to stop at Greg and Carolyn's on the way back but we were anxious to push through as far as we could Saturday to lessen our drive on Sunday. (Sorry to disappoint the kids!). We drove past Mark and Ann's about 2 a.m. and Alan our trusty driver felt great and so we decided to continued on. We got home about 5:30 a.m. I was amazed at how well the kids behaved on this trip. They were all so happy and easy to please. Riding in the car went amazingly smooth. We only watched one movie on the way down.
I enjoyed our visit to CA but would never want to live there. (Sorry Laura!) There is just way too many people in one spot and the traffic is awful! Alan drove as I navigated white-knuckled with the GPS. I really don't know how we would have made it without the GPS, it is a must have for every family.
There is certainly a lot more to do in CA than in Jerome but everything is so expensive to get into. I could get into hanging out at the beach more often. I definitely would like to go back when the little ones are older and can ride all the rides. I am grateful for the open spaces and the 2 lane freeway in good old Magic Valley. We had a wonderful vacation. Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible!