Winter Basketball

Savannah and Owen played winter basketball.  Savannah was on team Fever with 7th and 8th grade girls.  They only had one 8th grader though.  The team had a rough season, winning 2 of 10 games.  One of the losses was only by 1 point though.  For that game, Savannah's teammate got fouled on a 3-point shot with a few seconds left.  Instead of getting to shoot three free throws, they called the foul "on the floor" and only got possession of the ball.  They lost in the first game of the single elimination play-off game by one point as well. They were down 13-19 at half time and came back to be up by 1 point with 40 seconds left.  The other team was able to score another basket to win it in the last 20 seconds.  This was the same team they lost to by 1 point in the regular season (the second time they played each other).  The first time they played, they lost by 25 points, so they made a huge improvement throughout the season.  Savannah didn't shoot the ball that much but made a couple of baskets during the season.  Her main strengths were setting screens and rebounding.  It wasn't the season she hoped for, but she did have fun with her teammates and coaches.  Her coach said she showed the most growth, was coachable, determined, and showed grit and aggressiveness.    

Owen played on the JV team this year as a bench player. Before making the team, the coach personally called him. He said that Owen could be on the team but would get little to no playing time. They wanted him on the team to be a role model for his good attitude and work ethic. Owen was okay with that role and happy to be on the team.  He also took that chat as a challenge to earn playing time.  He did average about 4-5 minutes per game.  A couple of the games, he got 10-11 minutes.  He got to be a starter for one game with the other bench players.  His most memorable game, he played 11.5 minutes and scored a season high 11 points (three 3-pointers and another bucket).  In three other games he scored two 3-pointers in each game.  He scored a couple other buckets and a couple of free throws throughout the season.  He scored 37 total season points.  His team did pretty well.  Owen missed about 4 games, so I'm not sure on the record, but I think they had about 11 of 15 wins for league play.  For non-league games, they had about 6 of 11 wins, so the team had a total of about 16 wins for 26 games.  Owen's coach said he was a coach's favorite, always worked hard, never complained, knew his role and was going to go really hard.  

February

Alex got home from New Zealand just in time for dinner on Valentine's Day.  We had roast, potatoes, carrots, rolls, jello with strawberries and whipped cream, lemonade raspberry sherbet drinks, and chocolate pie.  I gave the kids some of their favorite candy.  Alex brought back a pearl necklace that he gave to me.  

I taught youth Sunday School on the 15th, which was on Noah's ark.  I thought it would be nice to take treats that also coordinated with the lesson theme.  I found some cool looking rainbow jello cookies online and thought they'd be fun.  However... they didn't turn out anything like the online photos!  We had a good laugh about it.  Nailed it... I made some other cookies but let them try the rainbow ones if they wanted to.  The jello gave them a tangy flavor, which reminded me of Nerds candy or those sugar straws.  

I went to an activity with the church ladies, a "Galentines" dinner, which was fun.

Owen, Weston, and Savannah went to a church dance on the 7th of February.  It was Savannah's first dance (since she needed to be turning 14 this year to go).  She had her brothers watching her closely.  They snapped a couple pictures of her.    

The random photos:  Savannah made pie and Weston had "a little bit" of ice cream with it.  He also was being silly with his glasses.  I made cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon for a birthday breakfast for one of our friends, Becca, who comes over on Tuesday and Thursday mornings after seminary.  Owen did "valograms" one day at school, singing in small groups with other members of the choir.  They sang to people who had been gifted a song and treat, paid for by family or friends.  In this photo, they sang to one of the teachers.

Alex and I got our monthly temple visit in.  I helped decorate and make a cake for an Institute night celebrating 100 years of the program.  We had pizza and salad, along with cake, and listened to a broadcast of Elder Kearon (Quorum of the 12) and his wife.

I've been enjoying my Saturday morning jogs along the coast. I've been jogging about 4-5 miles (walking a little bit).  I took a few pics one morning.

Nathan has been having fun, enjoying sports and a little more social this semester.  His roommate Devan posted an Instagram photo with them and a group of girls.  I don't know what a Roblox Meet up is... I think they were just going out for dinner / ice cream though. We spotted Nathan at a BYU volleyball game and a basketball game.  He had pretty good seats for a couple games, thanks to one of his friends inviting him to use one of their "VIP" seats.