St. Patrick's Day Party

Another family party :) Another great time had by all!

Blake and Kindra's cute little baby Elsa Louise.

Our 3 finger smile! :) tradition.



As always, THANK YOU Rosemary for having all of us over! Good memories for sure!

Justice

We had our end of the season banquet for the JV/Sophomore team last week! It was so fun to have one last get together with everyone! One of the girls made me a scrapbook and had everyone write me a letter to put in it! I love it! Best present ever.
This is one of the pages that's in the book:

Notice the caption on the right... in case you can't read it, it says: "Right before you got kicked out of the Spanish Fork game." Which brings me to the point of the post.

Before basketball season ended I was talking to a basketball referee who lives in Springville and works for the UHSAA with scheduling the refs and things like that. I told him about my lovely little story and what had happened earlier in the year. I basically just wanted to know his thoughts on what had happened. I saw him the other day and he informed me that he had called the referee that ejected me and in not so many words gave him a little talking to and explained that I should not have been ejected from the game. While it obviously didn't change anything that happened, it made me feel much better about everything that did happen! JUSTICE! It's a beautiful thing. Next time something CRAZY happens I know who to talk to in order to get things straightened out. :)

Sidenote: We had a softball game today, the sophomores won 5-2. Our game got done and we headed over to the varsity game (they play the same time we do). We were down by 2 going into the bottom of the 7th. We get bases loaded. One of our girls hits a WALK OFF GRAND SLAM to win the game. It was so great. :)

Sun + Softball + Phase 10 = a pretty good weekend! :)

We went down to St. George last weekend for the first softball tourney of the year. I thought the transition from sport to sport might be difficult. I didn't want basketball to end. But after a week or so, I was into the swing of things with softball and I love it. It's been so much fun so far! The trip was awesome! A much needed break that is for sure! Here's a run down of the weekend! Short and simple.

Drove to St. George Thursday, played phase 10 on the bus on the way down, checked into the hotel, practiced, went out to eat (Chili's), played more phase 10. Friday, two softball games. Two wins. Got lots of sun! That was a nice change. Went out to eat again (Brick Oven). More phase 10. Got one game in Saturday. Another win. Rained out the rest of the day. 3-0. Not a bad way to start the season. :) Started the trip home. Got 10 miles out of St. George and turned around because of a snow storm. Saw Alice and Wonderland. Was kinda out of it because I think I took drowsy pain medication. Don't remember much of the night. Made it home safely the next day. No snow. Thank goodness. Overall it was a fun trip! Despite being skipped ALL the time in Phase 10! :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

That's right... Its the MOST wonderful time of the year! Christmas in March? KIND OF! :) March Madness!!! The name says it all. There is the pure insanity, the Madness, that the tournament promises every year. There is the excitement and energy, the Madness, that the players, coaches, and fans exude during the tournament. It’s amazing how the meanings of one word can define something so perfectly.

8 reasons why I love March Madness... in no particular order!

1. Selection Sunday. Who’s in? Who’s out? Selection Sunday answers all the questions everyone's been asking for months and provides us with one other favorite thing about March Madness: brackets!

2. Brackets. Being a part of an NCAA pool gives people a reason to invest in each and every game of the NCAA tournament. Sure, they don’t really care about Oklahoma St. or St. Mary’s, but they for sure are going to root for them if they picked them in their bracket.

3. The Schedule. Basketball, basketball, basketball, and MORE basketball! :) Thirty-two games in two days! Enough said.

4. First Round Upsets. What other sporting event gives you the opportunity to root for a team you’d barely heard of before they appeared on your bracket? It doesn’t matter that you couldn’t find the school on a map. You’re going to root for them to topple one of the sport’s giants anyway.

5. Cinderella. There's something enchanting about the underdog. If the shoe fits, wear it.

6. Buzzer beaters/Game winners. In just a few ticks of the clock, players, coaches, and fans can go from jubilation to desolation. It’s a moment in sports that few others can match.

7. Intensity and Enthusiasm. The intensity and enthusiasm displayed by the players, coaches, and fans is candid and sincere. There is so much on the line during March Madness. It’s the culmination of all the hard work players and coaches have put in throughout the year. No annual sporting event, not the Super Bowl or the World Series, can match the passion of the NCAA Tournament. March Madness is quite simply the single greatest annual sporting event year in and year out.

8. One Shining Moment. If you haven't seen this, it's a must see. The One Shining Moment video is easily one of my favorite highlights of March Madness. It’s a bittersweet moment that allows fans to relive the amazing events of the previous weeks, while coming to the realization that there's an 11-month wait until March Madness strikes again.



In honor of years past... my "March Madness Wall(s)"!






Let the MADNESS begin! :) Love, love, love it!

As promised... Details of the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP week!

Well a week later... the excitement still has not worn off. Yes, life has continued on! But I often find myself reliving the last week! And it always brings a smile to my face! It's exciting to know those girls will have that feeling the rest of their lives. Hard to describe. More on that in a little bit. I haven't had time to post because... I'M COACHING SOFTBALL! I know, another sport. Call me crazy. But I love it. I'm excited for this season. And it gives me something else to do. We had tryouts this past week, and as painful as it always is, we survived and the upcoming season looks promising! I'm really excited. It should be way fun!

A recap of last week:

Tuesday was our first round playoff game at home vs. Orem. The first half was not pretty, definitely not how we had been playing during region, and after some half time adjustments, we started playing Springville basketball and went on to win 70-43. One step closer to the goal of a state championship. The following three games were not so easy.

Quarterfinal game vs. Mountain View High School. Yes, the same team that we LOST to last year in the championship game. Losing was out of the question. Two years in a row. I don't think so. The game went back and forth during the first half, we had a pretty good lead going in to halftime (23-16). Starting the 3rd quarter Mountain View went on a run. End of the 3rd quarter we were only up by 1 point! After a 4th quarter that went back and forth, we were down by 2, and one of our players, Lexi (the tournament MVP), scored with probably 9 seconds left. Tie ball game. Mountain View gets the ball, takes it down, gets a shot off, misses, and gets the offensive rebound and putback, MISSES. My goodness we got lucky. Everyone needs a little luck every now and again.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

These girls worked tremendously hard this season! Luck was on their side. Game goes into overtime and we dominated. Final score: 65-54. They didn't score in overtime. We were grateful to be playing the next day!

Semi-finals vs. Snow Canyon High School. They had upset Sky View the night before, and we watched that game, they didn't miss a shot! We knew it would not be easy! The game was close in the first half. We took a lead into halftime 22-19. 3rd quarter we pulled ahead and were up by 13 at one point. Going into the 4th quarter we were up by 11. Snow Canyon fought, tied the game up, and took the lead with 19 seconds left. They were up by one, we had the ball, drive to the basket, don't get the foul call, BUT the ball goes off of one of Snow Canyon's players and we have the ball underneath with 4.7 seconds, down by 1! I know, you can feel the suspense right. :) (Look at some of the fans faces in the pictures below! They are priceless! Too funny!) A play is drawn up during a timeout. On the ensuing inbound, 5 seconds is about to be called, the person taking it out of bounds tries to bounce it off of the other teams legs and it rolls onto the court. Somehow, Lexi gets the ball, shoots, and scores. WE WIN BY ONE POINT! 56-55!!! Lucky? Partly. I don't know how Lexi got the ball (that was the lucky part). But her shot was NOT lucky, because like that quote says, the harder you work the more luck you have, and these girls work HARD! That shot was a perfect example/reward of lots of hard work!

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME vs. Timpanogos High School! We felt confident going in, but knew we would have to play our game and if the girls would execute they would be state champs! The start was not good. We were down 6-15. Not the ideal situation. But I was pretty calm throughout. I knew we would come back. After a defensive switch, we went on a run and never looked back. We were up 22-20 going into halftime. We only got the lead up to as many as 5 starting the 4th quarter. But it would be enough. We worked the ball around, and made them foul us. We hit timely freethrows. And the rest is history. Final score: 42-36. Undefeated 4A State Champions!

The celebration was so much fun. It was so great to be a part of it with the team. It's hard to describe. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

They went crazy at half court. Dog piled on each other. The pictures truly show the excitement and emotion. Love it.

Presented the GOLD trophy. Celebrated with the fans.

Cut down the nets.

Sang Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror!

Celebrated on the bus. Paraded down main street, escorted by fire trucks and policeman!


We also ate dinner at Ruby River in Provo. (We didn't take any pictures!) What a week it was. Memories that I will never forget. It was such an honor to be a part of! I'm so proud of the girls and everything that they accomplished! Truly AMAZING!