Maxwell House

 Legacy meet was a few weeks back . . . hopefully time has healed Emmy's wounds. Poor Emmy! She works hard and practices and goes to extra practices - only to kind of flub it at meets. Not always a big flub - but almost always not up to her hopes and expectations. Legacy, though, was a big flub dangit - and on the event she wants to shine on most: bars. (The event they started on.) Her warm-ups were amazing and about the best I've seen from her. Then there was this huge delay (bars judge had to go and judge on vault, yeah we'll blame it on that!) - which set back Alaina and Emmy and both girls had some big mess-ups. It was pretty devastating to and for Emmy. I just don't get why this girl can't get a break sometimes. Lots of tears were shed by Emmy . . . but she got up and kept on going. Even with her worst event up next: beam. She did well on the other events (placing 2nd on the vault), but the evening was a bit soured with her start and caused for a less-than-desired all-around position. But in the end she was okay and even smiling. Having Aidan there might have helped buffer some of the emotions, but Aidan has definitely seen those, too. :) I still thought she looked good out there and was proud of her for going big with difficult skills and not "dumbing down" her routines.

It wasn't Lucy's best meet either - yet she, too, looked good. She scored and placed pretty great actually. Bars started off pretty good. Beam she had a fall, but didn't get a bad score because she's pretty solid on the beam. Floor she did her amazing front tuck to front-full - it's a big skill and she rocked it. She ended with a second on that event. Vault was good, too - just not her best. She was in pretty good spirits - and it was nice, as always, to have Patton around as well. :)

Cuties! (I didn't get one of Aidan and Emmy . . . but maybe Ben did . . .)

The girls had a meet at DU (University of Denver) on February 14th. We had planned for a "fun" weekend - with the boyfriends joining us, going out to Benihana's, the meet, watching the DU collegiate meet, etc. We were ready for a good weekend, but, alas, the universe had a different plan . . . 

The girls got sick that week. Emmy got over the major illness rather quickly and early on the week. Lucy's illness lingered and then peaked on Thursday, where she came home early from school, felt awful, and puked several times that day. So . . . plans had to change. Patton already couldn't make it because his family was going skiing in Park City that weekend. Lucy wasn't going to compete because she was sick. Emmy would compete, but wasn't 100%. 

Long story, but Ben, Emmy, and Aidan headed out Friday afternoon. I didn't want to take Lucy up that day in fear she'd be barfing in the car . . . So we stayed back. Lucy did better that day - well, she didn't barf. She drank a little and maybe had a popsicle. She still wasn't feeling great, but no barfing. So Lucy and I headed out at 5:30 on Saturday and drove straight to DU to watch Emmy and teammates compete.

Emmy did well, but wasn't happy with her scores or placement. "Wasn't happy" is an understatement. She was mad and upset and all the other negative things. So that was not (and never is) fun. Lucy was on and off with feeling okay. After the meet we did make it to Benihana's. It was Aidan's first time. It was probably the best 2 hours of the weekend. Everything else just kind of sucked. . . 

We went back to DU to watch the collegiate meet. It was okay, but Emmy ended it on our sour note . . . Lucy felt miserable by the end and was in tears and screaming. Yes, screaming. Because that helps when your ear is already congested??? That night was miserable with a screaming Lucy throughout the night. And Emmy, who was at Joe and Britt's house, apparently coughed all night as well as the night before. Emmy felt awful and embarrassed . . . she wasn't doing that before we left, sigh.

Anyways, Sunday morning Lucy had some blood and oozy stuff on her pillow. Her illness - maybe the flu (she refused to get poked for the vaccine. . . ) had turned into a painful ear infection/ear ache. Her eardrum had perforated a little bit, but not enough to relieve the pressure and pain. 

Aidan and Emmy drove home together and Ben, Lucy, and I left a little later. We were texting Lucy's best friend's dad (and ENT!) and he graciously hooked us up with antibiotics for when we got home. That night, Sunday, Lucy was again awful. I mean, I have had earaches and they are horrible. I get it. But I don't get screaming out . . . it was hard on my nerves. . . Lucy ended up seeing the ENT on Monday and he got her on some steroids. That, with the other stuff, helped Lucy and she was much better by Tuesday.

Anyways, it was a really bad weekend. I didn't even touch on it all, but just believe me, it was sadly not fun. Life kind of sucks like that at times. I didn't even get a picture of the one good moment at Benihana's . . . 

Don't let Emmy's smile fool you (nor any of ours for that matter. Maybe Aidan's was genuine . . .) 

The girls had a Winter Formal dance in February. It's a girls-ask-boys dance and so of course Emmy asked Aidan (even though he's graduated) and Lucy asked Patton.

The girls had a great time. I went to Lucy's pictures and that was good. Emmy didn't really invite or ask us to come, so we didn't . . . Here are pre-dance pictures:

Emmy competed in the Denver area on Feburary 1st. Lucy chose not to and so just Ben and Emmy went up. This was Emmy's first time doing her difficult bar dismount - a toe-on front. She didn't stick it (she never sticks it in practice and so she wasn't really planning on a stick) but she did it and was happy. Overall, the meet was good. Emmy took 1st on vault, 5th on bars, 9th on floor, and 7th all-around. 

Check out her routines here.

That first week in January, the girls went with their coaches and teammates to Fort Pierce, Florida for their travel meet. It's their frist meet of the season, too - which is about a month earlier than usual! So skills are still being honed in on, but the travel isn't really about the meet as much as it is about the travel. :)

The girls flew out of Montrose on Thursday afternoon and had an entire day and night of flying, driving, etc. By the time they got to their lodgings, it was midnight (our time). Big day! Luckily Friday was beach day and the day was just spent lounging at the hotel and pool and beach - which was a walk out their hotel. The weather was perfect (80 and sunny) and the girls had a lot of fun.

Saturday was the meet day. When you weren't at the meet, you were getting ready or shopping at the mall. Team dinner that night. The meet went well, especially for the first (and early) one of the season. The girls didn't place particularly high, but overall did well and were fairly happy/content with their performances. Emmy had a good floor, but did fall out of her front tumbling pass. But she still pulled out an 8.775. Vault was good (well one of them ha) and she got an 8.75. Bar she is still working on her dismount and so had to do a drop off the bars basically and so her starting value was only a 9.4. But she was able to get an 8.3 which is really great actually. Beam she had one fall (the stupid full turn that gets her a lot!) and scored an 8.25. She ended up qualifying for state so at least that pressure is already off her!

Lucy did well, too. Her floor was an 8.85, which she was hoping for higher but still a good score. Vault she got a 9.0 and that was great. Bars she got a 7.25 and was, of course, super bummed about that. Bars is her weakest event, but she usually does a lot better than that. But this is her first meet as a diamond and the bar is higher (pun intended ha). So I think she loses more deductions on her elements than last year. Hopefully she can fine-tune it and score better. She has had a bit of a mental break on beam - unable to throw her back handspring . . . she's been working on getting over it for the past couple of months and is making headway, but not enough to compete it. So she didn't end up competing on the beam. 

All in all, a good meet for the girls. Here is Lucy's video of the meet. And here is Emmy's video.

Sunday they drove back closer to the hotel and then spent the afternoon at some lake place just playing on the toys in the water. A good trip for sure!

I got just a couple pictures from them:

The Seniors - Emmy, Rish (Marisha) and Liv (Olivia).

We sure love Gordon! He turns 6 months at the end of this month. He's still a lot of puppy, but he is also really great. His biggest negative behavior: jumping up on his anytime he comes inside, we come home, etc. Working on that one . . . He likes to chew up anything he finds in the backyard, but surprisingly doesn't do that inside. I think he has attachment disorder - he wants to be right next to either Ben or myself. He wants to come into the bathroom, sits at the tops of the stairs (there's a gate that doesn't let the dogs up) when we go up, and scratches insistently at times when he's outback and knows we're inside (oh, another negative). But all in all, he's so adorable and we all love him to pieces. He likes to sleep in odd positions:  

Gordon and Bella cuddling up on a cold morning.

3 dog house - but they do so well inside, usually pretty chill. With the occasional mouthing matches instigated by Gordon.

We tried to recreate the little Lucy and Brigham picture with Gordon. Haha.

 

So Christmas just felt a little different this year. I am not sure if it was all due to the 60-degree temperature, but that was for sure part of it. It's also just different with our kids now all being young-adults and teens. So, honestly, it wasn't that amazing this year. Emmy set a pretty sour tone early in the morning as she was sad/mad about not being able to see Aidan much that week and their weekend (myself going with the girls and their boyfriends) to Utah was canceled too. So it just wasn't a great day. Maybe the kids had a different/better perspective? They were all happy with their gifts - big Lego sets from Santa for the boys (Porsche for Jonas and Starry Night for Miles), clothes from Santa for Emmy, and "new" skis with ski passes for Lucy. The rest of the gifts from us were a variety items for the boys (nice slippers/outdoor shoes, gloves, art kit, hoodies, etc.) and mainly clothes for the girls. They did all seem to enjoy what they got.

But Ben and I tried to make the most of it and the weather and took the dogs out on a little adventure to Fat Man's Misery. It's a little hike near Delta where you drop down through this slot and then hike on a river bed. It was really cool and the dogs LOVED it. There was some water and so that was nice for the dogs as it was pretty warm!

Brigham heading up the slot on our way out. Brigham super-impressed us as he was not timid at all and just went for it! Which is not him at all! Our pup Gordon and surprisingly Bella were pretty scared and had to be greatly encouraged and even picked up for the slot part - especially going down . . .