Pinnacles Peak Gymnastics Meet

 We woke up bright and early to make it to the Pinnacles Peak Gymnastics Meet in Draper.

Tessa has been sick with a cold the past couple days, and also pulled a hamstring Thursday night. We talked about how this may not be her best meet ever, but that's okay. She was just hoping to have enough energy to make it through everything and not fall off anything. :) Their first event was beam. She absolutely nailed it!! She scored a 9.55!!

Then they went to floor, and she killed it there too! Her form was beautiful!! She scored a 9.6 on that!

Next was vault and she did great on that too and scored a 9.4. :)

Last was bars, and she did so good! She didn't fall off, and her skills looked much tighter and controlled. She was so relieved!! She scored a 9.5 on bars!!

She took 5th place on Vault

3rd place on Bars

1st place on Beam

And 1st place on Floor

She placed 2nd in the All Around, with a total of 38.05!!!

Anytime you reach 38, you know you had a seriously solid meet! Tessa was so proud of herself, and I sure love to see that! You never would have guessed that she was sick and had a pulled muscle from the way she performed. It was that much more impressive to know how well she did with how she was feeling. Great job Tessa Girl!!

Everyday Adventures

 Josh and Rob Allphin took Paul and Theron to a Jazz game. Paul enjoyed that.

Tessa loves the teddy bear that Gavin gave her for Valentine's Day. When we went to Walmart for Tessa and Rockwell to buy gifts for their Valentines, we ran into Gavin while he was picking something out for Tessa. It was so funny. We also ran into Audrey's grandparents, but luckily Audrey wasn't there with them. That would have been really crazy if we had run into both of their Valentine's there. :) Audrey and Rockwell hung out at our house for a while on Valentine's Day, got some McDonald's for dinner, and then went to Provo Beach Resort for laser tag and the ropes course.

Damon finished up his basketball season. He improved so much this season! The first few games he passed the ball as soon as he got it. He gained the confidence to keep the ball and dribble it as the games went on. Then he tried taking some shots. And in his last game he played great defense, dribbled the ball, made great passes, and even made a basket. It was really fun to see him learn and gain confidence. He loved practicing the drills his coach taught him at home. It was a fun season!

Grandma and Gramps came to his last game, and then took Rockwell out for his birthday lunch and shopping. It was fun to have them here for the day!

Rockwell is really enjoying playing volleyball. 

Sadly we missed his game today since we were at Tessa's gymnastics meet. He called me as soon as he got home from the game and said he had so much fun and decided he wants to try out for the Freshman team at the high school. Aubrey texted Paul and me as well and told us about how well Rockwell had played and that she was strongly recruiting him to try out on the drive home. Haha. She's going to coach the Freshman team and has been encouraging him to do it, but we were concerned about it being too much since it's the same season as track. But he says he's all in now and wants to do both.

Grandma and Grandpa Ham were able to come watch one of his games.

Tessa's choir got to sing at the Capitol last week. She was so excited about this!

It's hard to see where she is, but she's at the top in the middle. :) They sounded great!

It was a fun experience for this Governerd mama to hear her daughter sing beautiful patriotic songs in our beautiful state capitol building. 

My friends and I made a girls day out of it. We went to the Church History Museum after the Capitol. There's an exhibit from Minerva Teichert there now. Most of us weren't familiar with her art, but Hillary really loves her work. It was fun to see her beautiful paintings and to spend the day with friends. 

We had to leave very early and so Damon went to the library with Paul before school. He loves when he gets to hang out at the library!

We went to McKay's farewell last Sunday. He gave such a great talk! He's very clearly prepared himself to serve this mission and is ready to go teach the people of Chile about Christ.

Grandma and Gramps had the family over Friday night for one last dinner before McKay leaves. They enjoyed the time together eating great food and playing games.

Tessa and I stayed home since Tessa had a super early gymnastics meet Saturday morning. We had a girls night. We went shopping, ate dinner at Cafe Rio, and both got to bed at 8:30. :)

Rockwell Turns 14!!!

 Rockwell is now 14 years old!!

He is very proud of his mustache and feels like he's basically a man now. :) He's sounded like a man for months now, and I think I'm just now getting used to that. I used to get startled every time I heard a man in our house when I knew that Paul wasn't home. Haha. 

Rockwell is a great brother to Tessa and Damon. I got home after the kids were already home from school one day and walked in to see Rockwell helping Damon with his homework. Earlier this week I was telling Paul that Damon needs to learn all the authors of the books he's read for Battle of the Books. Rockwell said, "I can make him a game to learn them all." He went to the computer and created a game to help Damon memorize the authors' names. Rockwell and Tessa have a great time hanging out together. They find each other hilarious and genuinely enjoy each other's company. Rock is definitely the cool older brother, and I love to see him so helpful and kind to his siblings.

Rockwell still eats a bag of popcorn every single day. He's doing great in school. His advanced math class is challenging him, and he's working hard to rise to the challenge. He loves his Spanish class and does really well learning that language. He often speaks in a mix of Spanglish sentences. :) And he still really enjoys playing the clarinet, and sounds great on it! Track has started this month and he's so excited to run with the team every day again. Rockwell still loves Young Mens and hanging out with friends in our ward. He is a balanced, wise, athletic, hard-working teenager. We're so proud of you Rockwell and love love love you!!

Rockwell requested crepes for his birthday breakfast, so Paul got up early to make him some.

And of course give him the birthday spray of whipped cream in his mouth. :)

He was happy that it was Pajama Day at school.

He was bugged that he had to go to school on his birthday, but when he got home he said it was an amazing day there, so I think he's glad we didn't let him stay home like he had asked. :) Vincent came over and spent the whole afternoon and night with us. We had steak tacos for dinner, which were so delicious!

Then he opened presents.

He couldn't think of anything he wanted this year, so he was happy to get cash. He likes to go out with his friends, so he's spending money more than he used to. He was excited to get some replenished. 

SweetTart Ropes are his favorite candy, so Tessa and Damon each got him some of those.

And he was really excited for the Hogwarts Legacy game for the Switch too.

I told Vincent to get in the picture with Rockwell and his cake and he said, "Yes, I'll stand here so I'm taller than you." Haha. Height and facial hair seems to be what teenage boys care about. :)

I loved seeing Rockwell have such a great day. We're sure glad he's in our family!!

He chose to spend the day with Wyatt for his party this year. He wanted to go to Lowe's for most the day and then play video games for a while too. Monday was President's Day, so they had the day off school. We picked Wyatt up at 10:00 and they jumped at Lowe's until about 3:30, with a break for some McDonald's when they got hungry. Then I dropped them off at Wyatt's house for a few hours so they could play one of the games that he has. When I picked him up that night, Al told him she hoped he had a great birthday. He said, "I think it was my best one yet." 

Twisters Gymnastics Meet

Tessa had her first gymnastics meet last weekend. It was sure easier to do her hair now that it's so much shorter. We're both happy about that. :)

This meet was different than any meet we went to last year. There were levels 4-8 competing, along with Gold and Platinum divisions. It was so so long! And so so squishy! It was at a rec center, and it really didn't have the room needed for all those levels and all those spectators!

Anyway, it was still so so fun to watch Tessa. :) Her first event was vault and she killed it! She scored a 9.6! It was a great way to start the meet!

Next up was bars and this was a frustrating one for Tess. She fell off the bar during her squat on - jump to high bar. I was so proud of her for getting right back up and trying again, especially when she told me later that she just wanted to cry when she fell. She completed it the second try, and finished off great. It was a major deduction though, and her score was an 8.2.

But then they went to beam, and Tessa nailed that one! Her form was excellent. She scored a 9.5, which is a really good beam score! I'm always so impressed when these girls can shake off a fall and not let it effect the rest of their events.

They finished on floor and Tessa did great on that too. I love her Juicy Wiggle routine, it's a fun one. She scored a 9.4 on that. 

Turns out Arete was the only gym with Level 4 girls. Like I said, it was kind of an unusual meet. :) She placed 2nd on Vault.

7th on Bars

1st on Beam

And 3rd on Floor

She was 4th All-Around

Great start to meet season Tessa Girl!!