I Love Summer! :)

I LOVE SUMMER! :) For more reasons than one. No school, sleeping in (although I haven't done much of that), sunburns, sunshine, the list could go on. The summer has been pretty jam packed so far. It seems like it's been non-stop! Here is the proof...

 I don't have too many pictures! But there's been some fun times! I'll give a brief recap (for remembering sake... although it'll be boring so you can just skip on down to the pictures if you'd like).

BYU Basketball Camp was fun as always! We played TONS of games between the three teams. We were able to eat Brick Oven as a team one day. It was a great weekend!

SLCC Volleyball Camp was a new experience! But we also got tons of games in! It was NOT fun commuting every day! SO MUCH TRAFFIC! There is no way I would be able to do that on a daily basis! The teams did well!

Brigham City Softball Tournament was a BLAST. I was the only coach there, so that was a little interesting. But the girls did so well and we had a great time. We won our pool. Then won our first tournament game, lost, won, and lost. So overall, we were 4-2 for the weekend! WAY more games than we won last year! Good memories!

Dixie Basketball Camp... pictures to come with this one! This was our 2nd year going to Dixie and it did not disappoint! A week full of fun! I'll let the pictures do most of the talking! :)

Monday we headed down to Dixie. The drive was uneventful which was nice. We checked into the hotel, coaches went to a meeting, and then we started games. The games were spread out, with only a few overlapping games, so we got to watch everyone's games and still had time for breaks in between.

Coaches at Pizza Factory

This is how the girls kept themselves occupied throughout the games. Cheerleading pyramids and the animal game! :)

One day we had like a 3 hour break, so we took naps, watched Tangled, and played some Phase 10.

 

 

 We also had nights off where we could watch the NBA Finals. Unfortunately... the Heat won... and this was the reception that I got. Such good winners... rubbing it in!

Other times were spent swimming in the pool...

The camp puts on a 2 minute tournament. We decided to do one of our own. We had each of the girls talk to each other for 2 minutes and learn everything they could about that person. Then at the end we played a little trivia game! It was a fun night! :)

We went to Sand Hollow before heading home!

It was such a fun week! So many great memories! The beginning of summer has treated me well so far! It is going by WAY too fast! We got back from Dixie and I headed home the next morning! Home for a couple weeks, then right back at it! It'll be nice to have a "break" so to speak! :) I LOVE SUMMER! :)

Memorial Day

I have fond memories of many Thackeray get-togethers and picnics on holidays. Rosemary described it perfectly as I remember here.

"Memorial Day conjures up memories of going up Crystal Creek to have a Thackeray family picnic. We had a long black grill with a honeycomb grate on top. You would crank the handle and it would lift up so you could fill it with briquettes. On it we would cook our hamburgers. We would eat them along with the other yummy food that the aunts would fix, including Aunt Barbara's taco salad [Grandma's Potato Salad, Uncle Charlie's Mississippi Mud Pie]. Afterwards we would play a game of softball in the clearing [and ride the "pully" (zip line) for hours] . The men would sit around talking 'ranch.'"

I have so many great memories! So, being away from home, it's great to be able to get together with the Thackeray crew and still have a good time! :)

We convened at Rosemary's for delicious food (as always).

 Naturally, the food put us all in a coma!

We played some Five Crowns. It wouldn't be a family party without some cards!

S'Mores were next on the agenda! :)

The evening commenced at the "Sing Off" concert at the SCERA. We went an hour before thinking that would be plenty of time to get tickets and get a seat. How popular could it be? Um... apparently we were wrong?

So.... we enjoyed the concert from the park!

 Played some more Five Crowns... my luck was not as good the second round. :)

 It was a fantastic day, spent with fantastic people! Love traditions and family! :)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Happy Anniversary to the BEST parents in the world! :)

EIGHT, count them, EIGHT new blog posts!

EIGHT, count them, EIGHT new blog posts!

1. State Tournament 2012
2. Mesquite
3. The Wall 2012
4. There's No Place Like Home- Spring Break 2012
5. Happy Birthday Tracy
6. E-T-N-A, Etna, Etna, All the Way! :) 
7. Family Parties
8. School's Out For Summer

Feels good to be caught up! Hello SUMMER! :)

School's Out For Summer!

I have about 5 "new posts" and none of them are finished! :) So... I figured I'd start with this one and we'll back track and play catch up as the summer starts! I seriously have NO idea where this school year went? It's cliche! But seriously! Time goes by way to fast! Don't get me wrong... I'm super excited for school to be out, and summer to be here! But, I also am sad to see the year end! So many great memories, teaching, coaching, etc.

I was watching Castle (TV show) the other day. One of the characters was graduating from high school. This was her valedictorian speech:

“There is a universal truth we all have to face whether we want to or not-- everything eventually ends. I’ve always disliked endings. The last day of summer, the final chapter of a great book, parting ways with a close friend; but endings are inevitable. Leaves fall, we close the book, you say goodbye. But just because things come to an end there are some people who are so much a part of us they’ll be with us no matter what. They are our solid ground, our north star, and the small clear voices in our hearts that will be with us... always.”

This quote stated everything I was feeling at that moment. I despise change. I hate when things end. However, there are people who are very much a part of us, that will always be with us! That's how I feel about this year! So... here's some happenings of the last little bit! While I am sad that they are over, everything does eventually have to end! I will take from the experiences some of my favorite memories with some of my favorite people!

This was probably one of my favorite years of coaching. The softball team was so much fun. I coached a majority of them since they were freshmen, and it was fun to be able to continue up the ranks with them! :) We had some great memories! (There is a copy of "The Book" for the year highlighting those hilarious memories... I'm still contemplating whether or not it will be posted...) 

Some picture highlights of the year...

First game of the year... the COLDEST game I have played in or coached to date! And there's been some cold ones... 

Pitching batting practice... took a line drive straight back at me in the stomach... left this dandy of a bruise! Yes there was a screen... yes I had a glove on... I don't know how it happened? Needless to say... it HURT!

In the MIDDLE of one of our games... we look over... and our starting pitcher is ASLEEP in the MIDDLE of the game! Come to find out she had MONO... and she napped every inning!

Senior Night was... LONG! :) One of my favorite groups of seniors. I said "one of" because there have been a lot! But what a fun group of girls to coach! They taught me SO much in the four years that I have known them!

 

Memories of "AWESOME" practice outfits... and FINALLY a Tangled party! I tried to convince Miranda to watch Tangled the entire year last year, to no avail. She said if we made it to state that she would watch it! We made it to state! :) We had a party! And it was AWESOME!

On the bus ride to our last state game... apparently everyone was tired? :)

We had our banquet a couple of nights ago! It was fun to get together with everyone and reminisce! In my classroom, I have a "wall" of pictures of all the teams that I've coached. Two of my students were our managers this year. They missed team pictures and really wanted to get on "the wall". So we took this picture for them!

Such a fun softball season! I am going to miss the seniors so much!

Other happenings as of late...

Graduation was this past week! Two graduations in one day... wow! I went to ours... and then to Maple Mountain's to watch Porter graduate. We went to dinner at Olive Garden after.

The reason of the title of this post... SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER! Last day of school was yesterday! I spent the past two days MOVING CLASSROOMS! I am upgrading that is for certain! My new room is awesome! However, I DESPISE moving! Thankfully, I had some students help me move everything over to my new room! The daunting part comes with organizing and getting everything put away. After being the ONLY one left at school yesterday, I finally just left and decided to worry about it next week! :) Bring on the summer!

Family Parties

I have a few family parties to blog about! First one goes back... all the way to March! We had a single sista's party and Michelle was here visiting! We had a great time and as always ate delicious food!

 

 

The next party I missed because I was home for spring break! I heard it was a success! After that came our "Pizza Night", which will become a monthly tradition!

And last but certainly not least! Another SOD laying party! :) We have a great time together! Love, love, love family!

Before and After

Laying the Sod

Kneaders for Lunch! YUM! 

E-T-N-A, Etna, Etna, All the Way! :)

It really is a special thing to be from Etna! So many great memories of growing up! The best part is that there is always a connection to home, no matter where you are at! Doesn't matter where you are, when you find Etna people you have a good time! This weekend we did just that! :)

Max Gordon, who used to live in Etna with his family, plays for the Oregon State Beavers. They were playing the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, so Tracy, Tilly and I headed up to watch the game. It just so happened that Ken and Theresa Harris were passing through Utah on their way to Montana and they were able to join us at the game with their relatives! We had a great time and Max played great. We were the Scott Valley Crazy Crew and definitely lived up to the name!

Pregame

 Jumbo Screen

 Go-ahead RBI in the top of the 11th!

 The Scott Valley Crazy Crew

 Post Game

 Afterwards we went to the City Creek Center and walked around and to Temple Square while we waited for Max to get ready. Then we picked him up and headed to Ken's sister's in Sandy and had a nice BBQ in their backyard! We had a great time reminiscing and catching up!

 The Whole Crew

It was such a fun weekend! I love Etna people! :)