Thanksgiving Week!

I loved having both of my kids home for the Thanksgiving break this year! It's been two years since that has happened! We had a great time, and it has me counting down the days until Sawyer gets to come home for Christmas break!

We kicked off the break with Bailey learning how to make pie crust and rolls! My friend Misty is an awesome cook, so she had Bailey over for an afternoon, and she taught her how to make a few things for Thanksgiving. Bailey made a chocolate silk pie, a pumpkin pie, and rolls from scratch. Im glad Bailey wants to be domestic, and I'm glad I have friends that can teach her how. She' sure isn't going to learn it from me! :)

Pie crust!

Her first attempt at rolls turned out great!

 Sawyer brought one of his roommates home with him for the break. Myles is from Minnesota, so it was too far for him to drive home. We loved having him here! He fit right in with our crazy family. We thought Stop Light Pizza would be perfect for the boys to experience. They loved it! What's not to love about a 34" pizza!

I've missed this guy!

 Bailey woke up early on Thanksgiving morning to run the Race to Feed the Hungry. She won a pie for wearing an awesome hat. She was also the 3rd female to finish the race. It was cold and snowy, but she had a great time!

We all braved the cold to watch her run!

Lots of BHS/RMMS runners ran the race. We saw Hannah, Ezri, Lexi, Jonah, and Stetson.

Yay for pie!

 Sawyer got pretty into working out at the end of his mission. He got even more into it after he got home. He is so dedicated! He wakes up at 5:00 every morning and never misses a workout. He even went on Thanksgiving day. I knew he was getting big, but I had no idea how big until I had him flex for me. Holy crap! I'd say his hard work is paying off!

Welcome to the gun show!

 Jessica and her roommate, Morgan, came over for Thanksgiving. It was fun having college kids here. We ate lots of food, and played games. It's during games that I realize how much I miss Sawyer's hilarious (and usually inappropriate) humor. He had me laughing so hard my cheeks hurt.

Pre dinner snacks! This part is Bailey's favorite!

Thanksgiving dinner-Morgan, Myles, Sawyer, Jessica, Bailey, and Mark. 

She's 16 and still does this! I had to ban her from the olives. She had already eaten a whole can before our company even got to our house! 

Our Thanksgiving crew!

 We kept with tradition and set up a puzzle when we were done eating and playing games. We did Sawyer's Texas puzzle. It was a good one, but Sawyer didn't help. I think he put in like 5 pieces. Me, Bailey, Myles, and Mason did most of it. Right when this one was finished, Mason and Bailey started another one! We finished that one in one day! In between eating and doing puzzles, we had a Rocky marathon. Mason had never seen them, and Bailey and I just don't think life is complete without Rocky, so we watched them all in anticipation for the new Creed movie! 

My puzzle champs!

Puzzle number 2 of the weekend! I won't let Bailey start another one until Christmas break. We get addicted, and can't just walk away. That needs to wait until there is no school work.

We had so much to be thankful for this year, but mostly that I had both kiddos home!

The Dating Scene!

For the past year Bailey has been counting down the days until she turned 16, so she could finally go on dates! She has some really great friends that have asked her out, and she's had a blast. 

Andrew knew how excited she was, so he took her on her very first date. They went geocaching, and had lots of fun. 

First date picture!

They found one!

 Our Laurels and Priests had a waffle bar date night for mutual. Alex asked Bailey, and they had a great night. They ate waffles, and played Curses. It's times like these that I'm extra grateful for my calling. It was so fun to be there watching all the kids interact. The guys were all perfect gentlemen, and the girls were very gracious. A lot of times teenagers get a bad rap, but between the kids I work with at church, the ones I coach, and my kid's friends, I always see the best of the best. I love teenagers! Such a fun and exciting age!

Alex brought her flowers! Day made! 

Waffle bar!

Awesome night with awesome kids!

 Hunter Guthrie asked her out, and they went ice skating with Coen and Hannah! The boys fell down a lot, which meant Bailey laughed a lot! So fun!

Ice skating! 

Treats at Cocoa Bean!

 Drum roll please.........she FINALLY got to go on a date with Mason! She's been waiting for this one for over a year! They went bowling with Landen and Emily, then went and got ice cream. They ended up back at our house and we heard them say they wanted to go do something illegal. That might have most parents worried, but we thought it was pretty funny coming from Bailey. She is a rule follower through and through! Don't worry, they just went and shot off bottle rockets! That's about as rebellious as Bailey will get! She thought it was hilarious! These hoodlums had a great night!

Bowling!

I'm glad she's enjoying the full teenage experience. I'm also glad she has great friends that respect her, put up with her craziness, and let her know how girls should be treated! Thanks guys for being awesome!

Bailey & Mason-Dance Picture Advertisement

Jenni wants to advertise to take HS dance pictures for couples and groups. Bailey and Mason got dressed up to be her models, so she'd have some sample pictures to show. They looked so good! It was freezing, so the photo shoot had to be quick, but Jenni got some really good shots! 

Bailey borrowed a dress from Tangled in Tulle. It was crazy to see her all done up, and looking way too grown up and beautiful for her own good.  I'm not sure if Mark is ready for this yet!

 Despite it being FREEZING, Jenni got some really great pictures! Jenni was being funny, and between the two of us, I think we did a great job at embarrassing the kids! They were really good sports though! Here are a few of my favorites.

I love this picture! It's because I was there watching, and I know how hard it was for them to stare at each other without laughing.

Since they were such good sports, me and Mark took them to lunch when we were done with pictures. We went to Garcias, and Bailey told them it was Mason's birthday (it wasn't)! They put the sombrero on him and sang 'Happy Birthday.' When they did the big 'ole" at the end, Bailey was cracking up! She's a nut!

Festival of Trees

We love the Festival of Trees! It's one of Bailey and Mark's favorite holiday performances each year. We love the trees, the treats, the local entertainment, and of course Santa. They performed right before the TaVacci singers, so the place was packed. We thought that would be fun, but we decided that it was too crazy, and we like it when there isn't as many people. Mark and Bailey did a great job! They learned a lot of new Christmas songs for it this year. Their set list included:

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Mary Did You Know

Last Christmas

Rudolph

Just One Night

He Sent a Carpenter

Santa Baby

Sweet Mary Cried

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Christmas All Year Long

They always have so many awesome friends come and watch them. It makes it nice for them to be able to look out in the audience and see familiar faces. It's always more fun to play for people you know. 

It's so fun to see how comfortable both of them are on stage now. They used to get so nervous, but now it's just like second nature to them.

Miss Johnson came to watch her! She will always be one of Bailey's favorite people. It just goes to show the kind of influence a good teacher can have on a student's life. Bailey loved her in 4th grade, and she still loves her just as much 6 years later!

Sawyer got off work early and drove down from Rexburg to watch them perform. I wanted a picture of my kids together and this is the best they would give me. I think they thrive on pushing my buttons! Bailey broke into a huge grin during one of her songs, and I followed where her eyes were looking and saw Sawyer dancing in the back of the room. We've missed him at their performances over the past 2 years!

Some of the crew! 

Jeanne and Julie came to watch her. Two of the sweetest ladies we know! 

These two are pretty dang cute!

Bailey has the greatest friends! Emily, Mason, Bailey, Jakob, Hannah, and Gabby! 

Santa was a good sport! 

Sophomore Cross Country

Another awesome season of cross country has come and gone. Bailey loves everything about this sport. She loves hard practices, she loves the excitement of meets, she loves the physical and mental challenge, she loves competing against herself, and she especially loves her team. Running is in her blood, and it's something I think she'll do her whole life. We thought this might be a hard season for her, because she was coming into the season with her body worn down from training and running a marathon. She started training for her marathon durning the track season, trained all summer, ran it right before the cross country season started, and had no break to recover. She ran with a lot of aches and pains this year, and she felt burned out for a lot of the season, but she still loved every second of it, and did great!

Pocatello Challenge (3K):

12:34

8th overall/2nd sophomore

The girl's team meshed right from the start, and had so much fun together during the season.

Off to a great start! 

Bailey loves a challenging course, and although this was only a 3K, the hills made it tough! 

Finishing strong! 

They gave awards based on grades, and Bailey was the 2nd sophomore. She's competed in this race three times, and won three shirts.

 Cardinal Classic:

 22:47

51st out of 148 runners

I love these kids! They were all lined up cheering for the middle school runners.

Tiger/Grizz:

23:11

54th out of 153

Bailey was very disappointed in this race. She started out good, but was having trouble with her leg going numb. She had a really bad second half, and ended up with a disappointing place and time.  That happens sometimes, but we wish it wouldn't have been at one of the biggest races in the state.

 Century Challenge:

21:46

19th out of 68 runners

Bailey ran great at this meet! It was the first time Bonneville has run this course, and she really liked it. She ran gutsy and with determination, and had a great meet! It was a much needed boost coming off her disappointing race the week before.

She ran a fast first mile, and did great sticking with the pack after that.

She loves a tough hill in the middle of the course!

He's her biggest fan! :) He loves watching her run, and he's never missed a meet since she was in 6th grade!

Crazy kids getting ready to watch the varsity boys run!

 Bob Firman:

22:12

114 out of 283 runners

The Bonneville team wasn't running at Bob Firman this year. Some of the runners asked if they could skip the Blackfoot meet, and go to Boise on their own and run. A few of the parents took 6 boys and 4 girls to run at the Bob Firman Invitational. It's the largest meet in the state, with tons of teams from surrounding states. We had a great time!

Getting ready to leave the school and head to Boise! 

We had to make a quick stop to ride the gas station dinosaur! Actually we were buying razors and shaving cream for the boys, because they made some agreement about shaving their legs before the meet.

Bailey, Hannah, and Lexi were texting great pictures to the boys in the other car the whole drive over. 

What's a road trip without lots of treats! 

We went straight to the course on Friday afternoon, so the kids could run it for their pre meet workout. They stole a lot of meet flags in the process!

Friday night team dinner!

The girls stayed in a hotel, and the boys stayed with Coen's family. The boys were true to their word and shaved their legs the night before the race. They cut themselves up pretty good! So funny! 

JD, Mason, Landen, Alex, Jakob, Coen, Bailey, Lexi, Rachel, and Hannah 

Ready to start the girl's varsity race!

This is the course where she got her best time last year. She hadn't beat that time yet at this point in the season, so she was hoping too at this meet. It was super hot, so she fell a little short. She ran a great race though.

Bob Conley Invitational:

20:57 (Career PR)

5th out of 53 runners

Mark told Bailey that if she broke 21:00 this season, he'd give her a $100 bill. We knew in order to do that, everything would have to come together perfectly. She would need great weather, a great course, a smaller race (she runs better like that), and be in the right place mentally. She had all of those things at this meet, and ran the best race of her cross country career. She beat the time Mark set by 3 seconds, and PRd by 30 seconds. It was a great day for her! 

Team prayer

Hannah and Bailey-I love these two so much!

She went out hard and ran in second place for the fist half of the race.

5th place!

Liz, Bailey, and Coen 

A well earned hundred dollar bill for this girl!

 Madison Invitational:

22:09

33rd out of 79

Not her best race of the season. Her body was feeling run down and burned out by this point. She just had to hold on for two more weeks.

How many girls can you fit on one blanket?

They're awesome!

Right after the meet, most of the team went and watched the Civil War. 

After the Civil War, the girls went hot tubbing at Holly's house. The boys weren't invited, because the girls were making plans about asking the boy's team to Sweethearts.

The boys run on the roof of Bonneville all the time. They make fun of Bailey because she's such a rule follower, and is too scared to go up there. After a Saturday morning practice, Bailey and Hannah went on the roof, just to prove they could do it. They were pretty proud of themselves, so they took a roof selfie as proof.

 City/County:

21:18

10th out of 76

This was the last regular season meet, and Bailey ran a great race!

BHS has a great student council this year. They came to watch the runners at City/County. 

10th place!

This was her 3rd medal for the season!

Districts:

21:25

16th out of 117 runners

Bailey finished the season with one of her best races! She ran one of her best times on one of the hardest courses. She was 2 places away from making it to the state meet, but she wasn't even disappointed. She gave it her all, and left it all out there. She came across the mile at 6:17, which is the fastest she's ever come across. We were a little worried, but she held on and ran tough the whole time. She ended up running the second half totally by herself. She was just enough behind the lead girls, and far enough ahead of the next group, that she ended up in no man's land. That's not a good place to be in a cross country race, but she held on and finished strong! It's not uncommon for girl's to peak their freshman or sophomore years. We were grateful that she improved her best time by 30 seconds from last year. We're hoping for something similar next year. She's a hard worker and a great runner! We couldn't be more proud of her!

We love this team! Gabby, Liz, Ezri, Vanessa, Rachel, Bailey, Emma, Holly, Hannah, Elyse, Risa, and Lexi.

I love watching her start races! She loves to go for it at the start.  

Bailey loves these boys so much! Dallas, JD, James, Ethan, Matt, Kyle, Jakob, Dillon, Jonah, Coen, Mason, Alex, and Landen.

Bailey and Coach Johnson.

 Banquet:

The banquet was great! Bailey got lots of awards, and won lots of prizes. The best part was when the girl's team asked the boy's team to Sweethearts. So cute! This is the best group of kids, and they will have so much fun together! I'm not going to post the pictures or details on here until the actual dance. All I'll say is that she asked Mason, and she's super excited to go to her very first dance with him. She's excited that her first dance group will be with her team, because she loves them all so much!

Bailey and Hannah- two of my favorite girls in the whole world!