Utah Valley Best Of Winner

 The Murphy Barth Team is a Utah Valley Best Of Winner again this year!! (Theron and Jody didn't make it last minute, so Paul represented the team.)

The awards banquet was held at Wadley Farms. It's beautiful there!

We had a good laugh when we saw our name tags at our table. The Blarths, haha!!

We're so proud of you Paul! You definitely deserve this award!!

It was fun to see Paul and Theron in the Utah Valley Magazine!

Regionals - Pleasanton, CA

 Tessa and I flew to Pleasanton, California for her Regionals meet.

She asked if we could go back to Pier 39 since we were so close again. We had a few hours to kill until we could check into our hotel, so it was perfect.

This staircase was so cool! It plays notes with each step. We made some beautiful music. :)

We were so excited to go back to the Candy Baron and stock up on taffy again. :)

After we checked into our hotel, we went across the street to the mall. Regionals was in Pleasanton last year too, so we stayed at the same hotel and were so excited to go back to the mall. We had a lot of success! Macy's had a ton of clearance racks and we dug through them and found some super cute stuff. After dinner, we did a little shopping with Morgan and Stacey and then we went to the pool. Tessa and Morgan were making funny hairstyles. :)

We went back to the mall with Morgan and Stacey the next day and dug through more clearance racks. The girls were posing like all the mannequins. Haha!

Then it was meet time!!

Naomi, Tessa, Morgan, Ellie, Lexi, and Nellie

Arete started on floor and Tessa did great!! Her back was still hurting quite a bit, so we weren't sure how floor would go, but she did awesome. She scored 9.575.

Vault was next and she did well on that too! She scored 9.375.

Next was bars. She had a stall before her squat-on, but besides that she looked pretty good. I was shocked when her score was 8.225. I've watched the video and I can see it wasn't her strongest routine ever, but I'm honestly confused by that low of a score. A couple girls from her team fell, or lost their momentum and swung and swung trying to get it back, and they both scored higher than Tess. Stacey expressed her confusion and frustration with Tessa's score too and I appreciated that. It was frustrating.

Beam was last and she did well. It wasn't her strongest routine of the season, and she scored 8.75.

Tessa tied for 4th on vault.

And she tied for 5th on floor.

She tied for 11th place All-Around with 35.925.

Tessa was pretty disappointed, but she didn't stay feeling down for long. We went to dinner with Morgan and Stacey, and then Lexi and Staci came to our hotel and the girls swam. She had a lot of fun with her friends that night.

Musical Fireside - Lindon Temple

Damon was invited to be in a Children's Choir for a musical fireside our stake put on. The purpose was to have a night of musical worship before the Lindon Temple dedication.

I helped get the Youth Choir checked in and organized before the fireside began. It was fun to get to hear them warm up. The Children's Choir, Youth Choir, and Adult Choir sounded amazing together! They each sounded awesome on their own too.

Damon was also asked to bear his testimony about his love for his family and the temple. He did such a great job singing and also sharing his testimony. It was a seriously cool experience and I love that he got to be involved!

The dedication was really neat the next week. President Eyring dedicated the temple and it was a really cool prayer with amazing blessings promised for us as we attend.

Around Our House

 Al and Hallee came over for dinner and games. Hallee and Paul were wearing matching sweatshirts. :)

I think this has been my prettiest loaf of sour dough!

Tessa hurt her back, so we've been back at the physical therapist again. Her S.I. joint came out of place, but luckily Karen knew just what to do about it. It's taken quite a few appointments, but she's improving.

Damon finished his season of volleyball. He loved this team! He said it was his favorite league he's done. He played so great in the playoff games. Their team came a long way this season. It was fun to watch!

We got some ice cream to celebrate a great season.

We went to Mel's to celebrate Amarie's graduation from SUU and Damon's birthday. It was so fun to hang out with the Ham Fam!

Matt was in town to see Cody's new apartment, so it was great to see him too.

Clara took a dollar over to give to Damon, but she did not want to let go of it. She had it wadded up in her hand and held on to it for so long. Damon was laughing so hard. It was adorable!