Hurricane JV Meet

JV meets are held on Tuesdays and Varsity meets are held on Friday-Saturdays.  The Monday after the Pineview meet, the girls spent track practice learning to do a relay.  They stayed an extra hour to make sure they knew what they were doing.  One of the moms had sweatshirts made for them to wear. No matter how they did in the relay, they were going to be happy doing it and look good.

Courtney rode with the team to Hurricane for the meet and I was going later (it didn't start until 3 pm and they left SCHS at 12:30, so they were there REALLY early).  I started getting texts from Courtney asking me to bring her another sweatshirt, then it was a jacket, then it was a long-sleeved shirt.  She said it was cold but I had no idea how cold until I got there!  It wouldn't have been bad with just the temperature but the wind was blowing so hard and it made it so cold!

I drove to Hurricane, parked, found the other moms, and sat down to watch.  Track meets are so long and we didn't know how much time it would take to get to the events.  They were doing the 100, 200, and 4x100 relay.  I bundled up in my jacket and little blanket that was in the van, and watched.

Courtney did well in the 100 meters.  Her quad was still hurting her but her shins weren't too bad.

Here is her running the 100:

The relay was next.  They were excited but nervous also.  Courtney ran to her place and waited for her turn.  Emma was starting, then Sammie, then Anna, then Courtney was the anchor.  The girls were nervous because they were afraid they would be disqualified.  If you step out of your lane, drop the baton, etc. you would be disqualified and they had only practiced the day before.  The gun went off and they were off.

This is Courtney going to her spot to start the relay:

There she is running to the finish with the baton!

Soccer girls can relay!

Here's the video, although you don't see too much until Courtney comes down the finish.

We cheered for them and they did great...they came in last but they finished!  The coach went over to them to deliver the news...they were disqualified.  One handoff had been outside the allowed area.  Oh well, it was their first time and they learned for the next time.

We stayed around for the 200 meters but Courtney's quad was hurting so much that she didn't run in it.  Hayley and Kooper (2 other friends of Courtney's) drove to Hurricane to bring her a Swig.  They were so sweet. They didn't stay long because it was too cold.  Courtney had a hard time drinking her drink because her hands were shaking so hard she couldn't get the straw to her mouth.  haha!

When the meet was over, we loaded up and went home.  That night, the girls decided since they had DQed at the meet, they should go get a treat from DQ (Dairy Queen).  So they drove to DQ and got a treat.  Again, they are hilarious!

Pineview Invitational

Courtney was asked to compete in the Varsity track meet at Pineview High School. We didn't anticipate her running in the varsity track meets but they need more people to compete so, here we are.

It's nice because she has friends who are running also so they support each other and have fun together.  They ran in the 100-meters and 200-meter sprints.  Courtney has been having shin splints and her quad has been hurting her so she didn't run as fast as the last meet, but she did well.  I taped her shins before the race and that seemed to help somewhat.  After the final race, she went and got ice from the trainer for her quad.  The bag had a slight hole so it leaked down her leg which caused the girls to giggle uncontrollably.  They have so much fun together and are such good friends.

Here they are warming up, Courtney is on the right:

They were in different heats so they waited and cheered each other on:

And they did that at every race:

The cute girls: Emma, Anna, Courtney, and Sammie.

Courtney running the 100 meters:

The four girls asked their coach if he would teach them to do the 4x100 relay so they can run in the JV track meet.  He is such a great coach and was very willing to teach them so they will be doing that in the next JV meet.  The four of them are pretty excited.  

The girls were on the same club soccer team and 3 of them played soccer together on the SCHS team when they were freshmen.  They were in the group Courtney convinced to play basketball their freshman year and now she convinced them to run track.  They are hilarious to be around too.  

Soccer Game

We are back to playing soccer.  These club games are league play.  The first league game the girls played since Florida was a blowout - for them!  They played so much better than they had before.  They seemed to have fun playing together and they weren't critical of each other and communicated better.  Maybe they just gained a lot of confidence when they played in Florida but you could tell something had changed.  They beat Cedar with the score of 4-0.

She won!

Courtney won our family Monopoly game on Sunday!  She was so excited.  She had a couple of Monopolies and I had no chance.  She was so happy! 

We played the Sunday before and she didn't do too well, but this time she kicked our cans.

Food Drive

Saturday was a busy day!  Bryan was volunteering at the track meet, Courtney was picking up food for the Utah Food Bank with the young women, and I was volunteering with the ward to help with yard work in our ward.  

The young women were busy getting food for the Utah Food Bank and they had a lot of fun.  Luckily, her young women leader posts everything online so I can screenshot pics from her Facebook so I have them.  Courtney is on the top right.

Beautiful Afternoon

Saturday was a beautiful day.  It rained a little bit and it was windy but it wasn't too bad.  Courtney took the pop-up beach tent and sat outside for a while to relax.  She had a great time sitting out there in the sun when the weather was just right.  What a fun Saturday.

Playing dress up

Courtney wanted to try on my old dresses from high school dances (well, not all are from dances).  I think she wanted to do it just to make fun of my fashion choices but I was in fashion in my day.

This was a church dress from the 80s.  Courtney didn't mind it but didn't like the shoulder pads.

This was a Christmas present dress for me when I was in 8th grade, I think.  So it would have been 1988.

This was my 9th grade graduation dress so it would have been Spring of 1990.  Courtney is laughing because she can't believe I ever thought this dress was cool. ;)  She looks like she has football pads on.  Shoulder pads and the tulle to get the skirt to puff up were strange for Courtney.

This was the dress I wore my sophomore year when I went to Junior Prom.  It was Spring 1991:

This was my dress for Junior Prom, Spring 1992.  I couldn't find a dress that I liked so a couple friends and I went to Provo to have them custom made.  I picked a picture I liked, was measured, told her what color I wanted, and she made it for me.  It actually has been modified a bit from what it looked like when I wore it in high school.  Originally, it had white ribbons around the waist and thigh which had bows on them.  I used this dress in college for some reason (I can't remember why now) so I unstitched the bows and ribbons so it would be just a black dress.  It doesn't have shoulder pads, which Courtney appreciated, but the sleeves were shaped weird from the hanger so they look pointed, but they really shouldn't be.

Courtney didn't think this dress was too bad.

I wore this dress for Leigh Ann's wedding.  I had already bought the dress on sale in Provo for $20 and it worked with her colors so I wore it.  It's velvet and I loved it.  I wore it after my mission too.  Courtney didn't like it at all, she thought it felt weird.

It was fun to see the dresses worn again and it was fun to laugh.

Snow Canyon Invitational

Courtney ran in the varsity track meet - the Snow Canyon Invitational. She ran the 100-meter sprint (I kept calling it a "dash" and she was not having any of that).  She did well in her first race of the season and the first race since last March before Covid shut down the 2020 track season.  She held her own and looked great running.  Courtney does have "soccer arms" when she runs, i.e. her elbows are out when she runs instead of having them next to her body because she is trying to push people around while playing soccer.  They have tried to help her get rid of them but since this is the first race, she didn't have enough time to really correct them.

Courtney is in lane 2 and practicing her start:

Courtney is in the green in the second lane (2nd from left):

These are pictures sent to Courtney from the track coach.  

Sammie ran in Heat 1 and Courtney was in Heat 3.  They are great to support each other and this picture is after Courtney finished racing.  You can see Sammie putting her hand up to give Courtney a high 5.

We have a picture like this for every soccer season and now we have one for track.  These girls are tight and support each other.  It's awesome!

Bryan volunteered to help with this track meet.  He says he was "this year's sucker" because he didn't know what he was getting into when he volunteered.  He ran the discus for the 2 days of the track meet.  It was a total of around 9 hours.  They told him when he volunteered that someone would relieve him so he could watch Courtney run but that didn't happen so he missed her race. He didn't have his expectations managed very well.  Oh well, he did his duty and now he doesn't have to help at any of the other races.  This was the only one that Snow Canyon hosts.

On a side note: Courtney has to be Covid tested every 2 weeks to stay on the track team.  If they get a positive test, they can't run or practice for 10 days until they finish their quarantine.  Luckily, all the track athletes tested negative for Covid so the track meet was able to go ahead.  And at the track meet, very few people were wearing masks.  It felt like it was before Covid hit.  Parents were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the stands to cheer on the athletes and kids were walking around with huge smiles on their faces.  It was nice to have a reprieve from the crazy world and let the kids compete.

Cheesecake

Courtney got an Oreo Cheesecake when we went to the Cheesecake Factory.  It was too big for her so she couldn't finish it.  She took it to the townhome with the idea that she would eat it really early on Thursday morning for breakfast before the flight.  However, she was so tired that she forgot to grab it and didn't remember until we were almost to Phoenix.  She was so sad that I had to make her one when we got home.  I have the receipt for the one from Cheesecake Factory and it worked out well.  She was happy!

It snowed!

We went from nice Florida weather to rain and then to snow!  It snowed on Friday and then we woke up to snow on Saturday.  I'm glad we didn't have to go anywhere because people cannot drive in the snow in St. George.  

It was melted by Saturday afternoon.

Flying Home

We had a really early flight home.  We woke up at 3:30 am to get to the airport in time to return the rental car and get through security.  We flew from Orlando to Phoenix and then from Phoenix to St. George.  We slept on the plane to Phoenix, which actually had a lot of legroom so it was nice.

Courtney got a stuffed T-Rex at Universal but he wouldn't fit in her bag so she put him in her backpack.  But he needed to have his head out.  It was hilarious!

By the time we landed in Phoenix we were super tired.  We got breakfast and waited for our flight to St. George to board.  It made for a long morning but we were home by around noon.

Bryan was able to go to work for half a day and not have to use a vacation day, so that was a plus.  It also helped get him back in the swing of things after a vacation, so that was another plus.

But flying into St. George has ruined us for other flights.  It was so nice and convenient.  It was a great trip and I am glad we were able to get away!

Universal Studios and Island of Adventure

Wednesday morning we woke up and went to Universal Studios.  Courtney had been there the week before so she was our guide.  It didn't feel too crowded to me but there were quite a few people.  We had to wear masks and socially distant, but they would squirt your hands with sanitizer before each ride instead of having to sanitize each ride after each rider.  I felt it was better than Fun Spot when they took the time to sanitize.

We had park hopper tickets but started in the Universal Studios part of the park.  There weren't as many people and there weren't as many rides, but we had a great time getting on rides easily.  We rode on a few rides and then went on the Simpson ride, which did Bryan in.  It was a rough virtual ride and I thought Bryan was going to lose it.  After that ride, he decided that he is going to retire from rollercoaster riding.  I don't blame him because it was a rough ride!

We went to Diagon Alley and got some frozen Butterbeer.  There was a huge long line to get the Butterbeer.  I had the Universal Studios app and had noticed that it had a payment button.  I checked it out and realized that we could order the Butterbeer (or any food for that matter), pay for it on the app, and then we could go and immediately pick it up.  So we tried it.  I placed the order and then waited for a little bit.  I decided to check to see if our order was ready and when I went to the front of the long line, the woman asked what I needed.  I told her that I had an online order and she said it was ready.  So we got to skip the line and drink our amazing frozen Butterbeer.

When we finished getting our frozen Butterbeer, we loaded on the Hogwarts Express to get to the Island of Adventure.  The line was super short and it was a cool train ride.


There were a lot of rides on the Island of Adventure. I loved the Harry Potter rides but we never got on the Hagrid ride.  You had to get a virtual ticket and we tried but couldn't ever get one.  It was so annoying.  We ate at Captain America's cafe, rode on the Hulk ride (that went upside down a ton of times, it was so fun), and rode a bunch of other rides.  We tried to go on the pterodactyl ride but it was for little kids and we were too tall.  It looked like a nice, calm ride though.

We went to Seuss land, although the rides were mostly for kids.  The pipes told you a story if you listened long enough.  We went on a ride through all the different stories and when we got over the water and looked down, there was a real turtle swimming in the water.  It was so cool!

My favorite Seuss book growing up was (and still is) "And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street" (which is now banned so I'm glad I have a copy already).  I was thrilled to find that I was on Mulberry Street!!

We went to Hogsmead and went to Diagon Alley.  They had Knockturn Alley and we went to Borgin & Burkes.  It was a creepy shop but fun to look at all the Slitherine-inspired stuff there.


When we were ready to go home we got back on the Hogwarts Express to get back to Universal where our car was.  It was a really long line but the video they show was fun to watch. I was impressed by how authentic everything was with regard to Hogwarts.  The castle was cool and the ride that took you through the castle was amazing.


By the time we finished on the second train ride, we were ready to go.  Our feet were tired and we were exhausted.  We met Mike and Lisa at Cheesecake Factory for a "date night" with Courtney tagging along.  It was fun and the food was good.

We went back to the townhome to get things packed up and ready to leave the next morning.  We had an early flight so we wanted to get some rest.