Another Perk of Living in Utah!

One of the perks of living in Utah is being surrounded by amazing leaders & General Authorities. Last week, John went to watch his friends play in the Timpview JV region tennis tournament. We looked over and saw him talking to Elder Holland. John came back over to us and we asked him what he was saying to Elder Holland, and John said, "Jeffrey R.?!?!?!?"

We told him, yes, that was Jeffrey R. Holland he was just chatting with. He said that they had just told him congrats on winning state last week & asked him how he had managed to come back after being so far down in the match.

I made John go back and shake Elder Holland's hand and apologize for not recognizing him with his hat and sunglasses. (I also made a commitment to not let John sleep through conference anymore!) When John apologized for not recognizing him, Elder Holland responded by saying, "well, you're the famous one!" Elder Holland was really sweet and chatted with John some more.

I don't have pictures but Matthew went to a Jazz/Lakers play-off game (the one where we lost by 1 point) with his tennis friend Paul Monson. They left really early in case there was traffic and ended up in Salt Lake about 2 hours before the game. So they were trying to decide what to do, Paul's dad said, "let's go see grandpa." Well, Matthew has been to the games before with Paul and has gone to his Grandpa's house to pick up the tickets, but never to visit for a couple of hours. Anyway, they went and spent some time visiting President & Sister Monson.

After the visit Matthew, Paul, his dad and President Monson all went to the game together. Matthew had no idea that President Monson was going to go the game with them. I asked him when he got home what he said, and I got a typical Matthew response, "I tried really hard not to talk because I was worried about what might come out!" He said he was worried a "Laker's suck" or something might just slip out. But good news (and the news that made mom the happiest) was that President Monson told Matthew that he must have a good mom because he was so polite and well-mannered.

I am grateful to have leaders that even though it was a small thing, both took the time to give each of my boys a small compliment. Both of those compliments left strong impressions on John & Matthew & really meant a lot.

When we told Jordan these stories, she related a story of an investigator who referred to President Monson as "he" and was worried that wasn't respectful enough. I think sometimes we take it for granted that we are surrounded by apostles & a prophet here in Utah. So I am grateful to live here!!! And I am grateful to have leaders that would take the time to help build up my kids confidence and make them feel good about themselves.

State Tennis Champion!

Last weekend was the High School State Tennis Championship! John played #1 singles for Timpview. Here he is hitting a serve!

John is a sophomore, in the semi-finals he had to play against Devin Lane. Devin has never lost a match in High School tennis. Devin won state as a Freshman & Sophomore and then had a broken ankle and couldn't play in the tournament last year. Devin is signed to play with the University of Utah next fall.

Brad was able to coach John during the match. In normal tournaments, there is no coaching allowed, so this was a great perk.

Here is John shaking Devin's hand after John won the match 6-2, 6-3!

Next John had to play University of Utah's other top recruit, Matt Cowley, who won state last year. John had less than an hour break after playing Devin and came out on the court a little tired. He was down 0-6, 0-3. He knew if he could pull this off, his team would have a chance at winning the team championship, so he just kept fighting and came back and won the match, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4!!! So John beat 2 past state champions (both seniors) to win the State Championship! And of course, there is NOTHING better than beating Utah's 2 top recruits!

Here is John coming to get his trophy!

His team ended up coming in 2nd place. They lost by 1 point! This was an amazing feat considering the only player who was on the varsity team last year was John!

Here is John with the family after the match! Thanks so much to everyone who came and spent an entire Saturday watching. My ENTIRE family was there to watch. Ali, Lindsey, Brittney, Katie & Kirstin were all there and had to leave early before we got any pictures, but thanks everyone!

Life is Crazy!!!

This past month has been crazy. There are literally days where I think I might have a complete breakdown, but then I realize I don't have time! In the past month we have been to Vegas twice (5 days each time), Palm Springs, region high school tennis tournament, state high school tennis tournament, gymnastics meets, MWC championships, U of U match, & on top of all of that we are trying to keep everyone caught up in school and to all of their other practices and activities!

Here are Josh & Halle at the pool on one of our trips to Vegas (I can't remember which one, they all run together)!

Here is John with the Timpview Team after winning the divisional tennis tournament! This year instead of competing by regions, they divided the state in half (North & South) and only had 2 divisions. Timpview took 1st place as a team & John won the divisional at #1 singles. He only lost 1 game in the entire tournament!

Here is Halle & her teammates waiting for their turn on the floor at the last meet!

Here the girls are waiting for their ribbons. I somehow missed a picture of Halle with her ribbons, but she tied for 1st all-around with a score of 36.45! She earned a 9.15 (2nd place) on floor, a 9.05 (2nd place by .05) on bars, a 8.75 (4th place ) on vault, and a 9.5 (1st place) on beam!

Happy Easter!

Here are Josh, Halle & Halle's friend Maddie dying the Easter eggs to get ready for the Easter Bunny!

I wanted to take pictures of them searching for the eggs, but they were running way to fast!

Luckily Matthew stepped in and helped the little kids find the rest of the eggs.


Josh & Halle with their loot!

The best part about Easter was having Brad home for the day and being able to watch General Conference! You can see that Josh & Halle have both missed having their dad around!

Viva Las Vegas!

We are in the middle of tennis season, which means we occasionally see Brad pass through the house for a few hours. This time of year, there isn't much to blog other than tennis, tennis, and more tennis. This past week I took the kids to Vegas for John & Matthew to play in a sectional (6 states) tournament.

In our family we have an unwritten rule that everyone helps the person just younger than them in tennis. For example: Brad plays with John, John plays with Matthew, Matthew plays with Josh. So I thought it was so cute when Halle went out to hit, to see Josh jump out there and show her the right way to hit the ball!

Halle hitting!

Josh hitting!


The best part about tennis tournament is that the kids get to see their tennis friends. Here is John with Keaton Cullimore (from Salt Lake), Yannick Mahlangu (from Vegas) and Matt Oddonetto (from Boise).

John serving!

John's doubles partner, Keaton, told us that he had never been to the Bellagio to see the fountains. We were surprised because the boys play tournaments in Vegas 3-4 times a year. We decided he NEEDED to see the fountains!

Here the kids are in front of the Bellagio!

Legally Blond!

Two years ago while we were in New York, our niece, Kimber Crandall told us the musical Legally Blond was really cute. We had the kids there with us and ended up seeing Wicked instead. After the kids left, Brad & I went to see Legally Blond and LOVED it. We were so sad that Jordan & Tara didn't get to see it. So when we heard it was coming to Salt Lake we bought tickets immediately!

Here is Brad & Tara in front of the Capital Theater before the show!

Here we all are! Tara loved the play as much as we did.

K, It was TOTALLY Tara's idea (well maybe not totally, but she was more than just a willing participant)!

Jordan is leaving the MTC on Monday and Tara & I really wanted to see her one more time, but we knew that it would make Jordan cry. So we wanted to see her without her being able to see us. So we came up with this great idea. We would hide and spy on her when she was walking up to the temple.

So here is Tara in her camouflage hiding and looking through her binoculars!

Tara making sure Jordan couldn't see us!

I think Tara had forgotten that it had snowed, so I actually thought my camouflage worked much better than hers.



Mission Accomplished!
Here is Jordan with a group of people walking up to the temple.
Her hair made her easy to spot!



She never even glanced our direction!

I actually had my camera zoomed as far as it would go and then cropped the pictures even more on the computer at home!

It was so awesome to see her, even if only from a distance!