Holly’s Girls Trip to Sunny San Diego {Oct 19-22}

Back in July Tracy started planning out our next Auburn ladies reunion trip.  We tossed around a few ideas of locations we wanted to visit. At one point we'd settled on New Orleans, which I was really excited about; however, once everyone started looking at the cost of airfare and travel time/distance it was quickly ruled out.

I felt bad for Tracy, coordinating a vacation with a bunch of women isn't easy to please everyone.  She ended up taking things into her own hands and booked a house on Mission Beach in San Diego and that was finally settled.

Unfortunately, Tara wasn't going to be able to make it.  It was great that Nannette was able to join us this time and to keep costs down Tracy reached out to Kristen Lind who moved to Utah shortly after we moved to Snoqualmie.

Tammy and I were the last to arrive in San Diego around noon on Thursday.  We shared an Uber to meet the ladies who were having lunch along the beach.

When the ladies finished eating we walked along beach to our rental house.  The house was great - in an ideal location, right along the beach.  We could hear the waves crashing.

We headed to Old Town for the evening.  We first popped into the Mormon Battalion where we listened to the whole historically presentation.  It was actually pretty neat the way they had it organized and it would be a fun family activity.

We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant – I tried a fried potato dish with a Mexican twist that was quite delicious.  Then after picking up some treats (and toilet paper) at the grocery store it was back to the house to hangout and visit.

This morning several of us headed to the San Diego temple for an endowment session.  Justin and I visited this temple when we were here on our honeymoon, but I hadn’t been since.  It is such a beautiful temple inside and out and it was so enjoyable to be there with some of the most amazing women of faith I know.

We picked up the other ladies in Old Town and then headed to Little Italy for a late lunch/early dinner at a delicious Italian Restaurant – Buon Appetito.  This was pretty much the scene each evening back at the house - a coffee table full of goodies and us in comfy clothes visiting for hours and hours.

This photo was taken while Kristen was showing us some new, bizarre product to us one evening.

Waking up to the sounds and smells of beach living was quite nice.  I enjoyed eating my yogurt out on the balcony watching the local volleyball scene.

We walked down to Belmont Park area where we rented beach cruisers for the day.  We biked north along Mission Beach to Kono’s Surf Club for lunch then continued on along Mission Bay.  I could have biked all day it was so beautiful and relaxing.

We were quite the crew biking along all together!

Our house (our condo was the second floor) and bikes    

Then it was time for the beach – however, it had cooled down quite a bit so nobody really tested out the water and many of us ended up bundling up in our towels to keep warm, but we were on the beach! And it was sunny!

The parking situation at our house was not ideal – teeny garage with a big SUV so we tried to drive as little as possible.  We decided to check out Belmont Park before dinner.  A few were up for riding the rickety old rollercoaster. 

Sunday came far too soon!  Those of us that didn’t have morning flights attended sacrament together.  We had a lot of bodies and luggage to fit in one car.

Jackie and were twins a couple times during the weekend.

Stephanie and I had the last flights out and since Tracy was driving back to Phoenix the three of us were able to spend the rest of the afternoon together at Seaport Village.

No time (or interest to tour the USS Midway), but we had to get a picture with the “Embracing Peace” Statue.

Such a fun weekend.  I really do feel so blessed that the friendships with these ladies have lasted so many years.  Who’d have thought 10-15 years ago that we’d dig our way out of diapers and young mom exhaustion and reunite for a few days beachside and kid-free.  Our conversations sure have changed over the years but my appreciation for these amazing ladies has only grown.

Homecoming 2017 {Oct 14}

Abigail hemmed and hawed over what group she should join for Homecoming this year.  Last year I took her and some friends into Bellevue where we had dinner at Cheesecake Factory and then came back to our house to hang out.  Completely unassociated with the actual Homecoming dance.

This year she thought she’d go to the dance, but needed to pick a group.  One group was all girls, a couple members of the church from the SnoFalls ward.  Another group with her close friend Megan and a few other school/volleyball friends – some having dates, so mixed gender.  Oh, how she went back and forth and back and forth during the weeks leading up to the evening.  She finally settled on the girls only, dateless group.

She found a really cute and modest dress online – ordered it herself and purchased a ticket to the dance.  A week before the big day we had her 6 week follow-up with the surgeon where she was counting on being told she could remove her brace; sadly, she needed to wear the brace another two weeks.  Abigail was dead set against going to the dance in a brace so she sold her dance ticket to a friend and decided she’d just go to dinner with her friends. 

And of course join them for pre-festivity photos (where you’ll notice she took off her brace and swore to me she’d be super careful and put the brace right back on after pictures).

Dinner was at Maggiano's in Bellevue.  Turns out her cousin Hallie was also there with her homecoming group.

After dinner Abigail was dropped off at home where she stayed for the rest of the evening.  A little disappointing I’m sure but Abigail has continued to have such a great attitude about the restrictions her knee has put on her this year.  So grateful for such a wonderful daughter!

Katie’s Soccer Season

We weren’t sure if Katie would be playing soccer again this year.  She enjoys playing and never complained about practices or games, but she doesn’t show much interest in the actual game of soccer.  In the end she decided she wanted to play again this year – it was her third season.

Katie’s age group starts with practices twice a week in August and then after Labor Day it switches to only games twice a week until the end of the season.  

Katie isn’t an aggressive player.  She sure runs after that ball, but she’s not one to get in there and fight hard for possession.  She managed to still score in several of her games and enjoyed playing.

apparently taking a brief moment during the game to flash me a smile 

   

We only had one really wet game this year and boy was it a doozy. 

Check out those gorgeous mountains!

Team Ladybugs!

Katie’s final game was on October 9 and it was her best game of the season.  She scored at least three times!  Who knows, perhaps we’ll see Miss Katie back on the field again next year.

 

 

After her last game we celebrated with her teammates at the local frozen yogurt place where each player was given a personalized dogtag-like soccer necklace and the coach praised each of the girls individually.   The girls also all signed an inflatable soccer ball for each other.

Carly – 8th Grade Varsity Volleyball

Volleyball tryouts started the second day of school and the season wrapped mid-October.  Carly made the varsity team and had a fantastic season.  She primarily played setter, which she wasn’t necessarily thrilled about, but it suited her well.

Her coach awarded her athlete of the week and on the postcard she mailed home she wrote, “Carly – you are a star on the volleyball court.  Your play at the net is stellar and your serving is very strong.  Keep up the good work.”

Carly had some pretty awesome tips at the net too!

She had a really great team – good girls, but also very talented on the court.  They didn’t lose a game all season.

Undefeated - #1

Carly enjoys when she and her friend Alyssa end up on the same team.  Cute girls!

Carly has a big decision next year as both soccer and volleyball fall in the same season in high school.  I’ll be really sad if this was the last time I’ll see her on the volleyball court.  But I’d also be sad to see soccer come to an end as well.  Tough decisions for a girl with so much athletic talent.

Drew Takes Swim Lessons

Drew had only one short week (4 – 30 minute classes) of swim lessons this past summer.  They were his first lessons ever and he wasn’t entirely cooperative (even though he loved it).  I decided to sign him up for the first fall session and he was thrilled – he had lessons twice a week for five weeks and improved so much.

He did so well that he actually passed the P1 level which I didn’t really expect.  We’ll definitely need to sign up for another session this spring.