Coach Manina and the Snipers

Manina volunteered to be Katelyn’s Jr. Jazz coach this year. Coaching 8th-grade girls recreation-league basketball takes a special kind of crazy, but Manina really worked hard at it and got the most out of her team.

Back row: Coach Manina, Emma, Eliza, Kaia, Kate, Whitney Front row: Mia, Sophia, Katelyn, Keira

Manina inherited a team that went completely defeated last year — no wins all season long. Manina set up extra practices early in the season, and the team noticeably improved from game to game. The Snipers (as in 3-point shooters) won most of their regular season games.

Unfortunately, just as the team was really playing together well, the star point guard and leading scorer Whitney Tullis broke a bone in her foot missing the final couple games and the post-season tournament.

The Snipers just completed a great season where they made it all the way to the semi-finals of the post-season tournament, losing by just one point.

In fact, the team lost only 4 games their entire season, by a grand total of 4 points. Each of their losses were by 1 point heartbreakers that easily could have gone the other way.

But the girls never gave up, and neither did their coach. Great season girls!

Pine Hollow 2018

The kids were out of school today, so we decided to head up into the mountains and do one of our favorite winter hikes – Pine Hollow.

This year we had everyone except Jacob (he was working) and we brought along cousin Kate Rowberry. We did Pine Hollow last year with the little kids, and I had attempted it a few years before with Megan, Katelyn, and Jacob.

It was a beautiful day and the trail wasn’t busy at all. But, we heard a lot of grumbling and complaining on the way up the trail. When we got to the meadow we enjoyed a quick lunch before sledding back down.

Pine Hollow is a popular trail for snowshoers, so the trail is pretty well packed down into a nice custom toboggan run for our sleds. There are some exposed ledges which require some care, but for the most part, the descent is fast and fun.

Unfortunately, we had a mishap with Kate at “Adam Jensen Ravine” (named during a similar experience on a scout trip several years ago). Drew and I had gone down first and had nearly went off the edge. Then Kate and Katelyn came flying down behind us. We warned them to slow down and to bail out, but they didn’t heed our warning until it was too late. Katelyn barely caught herself, but poor Kate tumbled about 20 feet head over heels down into the ravine. She was a bit shaken up, but not hurt. It took a while for her to get out, but we were soon back on our way.

There was a lot of smiles, squeals, screaming, and laughter all the way down back down to the parking lot. It was a great outing on a fantastic day.

Megan’s Lone Peak Sophomore Season

After much cajoling we managed to talk Megan into at least trying out for the Lone Peak sophomore basketball team. Megan is a gifted athlete and has always been quick and fast, but she wasn’t sure if that would be enough. I told her to win every race the coach threw at the team during tryouts and she would stand out because “you can’t coach speed”. She made the team.

In the first quarter of her very first game she got mugged on a layup (no foul called) and fell awkwardly on her right wrist. We could tell she was in pain. She got fouled again a few minutes later and had to shoot a free throw. She made it even with her injured wrist. We took her to the doctor for x-rays several days later which confirmed a small fracture in her right wrist.

So she spent the next several weeks in a cast. She still went to practice, ran, and worked on her left-hand skills and ball handling. But, she missed all of the pre-season games and almost half of the region contests. She healed, and eventually earned back her starting position.

We really enjoyed going to the games she did play in. It was fun to watch Megan compete. She had a really good season with great teammates and friends.

Our favorite game to watch was the last game of the season against rival Pleasant Grove. PG had won handily the last time they played. Pleasant Grove has a freshman guard named Eva Ongoongotau who an incredible player. She starts on their varsity team, but comes to play sophomore ball to get additional minutes and experience. Eva came into the game mid-way through the first quarter and the first time she touched the ball she buried a three-pointer. Megan’s coach called a time out and told Megan to guard her.

Megan played incredibly well, never coming out of the game and sticking with PG’s star player step-for-step. She played Eva super tight, basically shutting her down. Megan had tons of steals defensively and hit a couple big shots. It was a close game near the end and Megan hit a crucial jumper from the free-throw line to put her team up with 38-32 with about 2 minutes left. After a bunch of running the clock and some back and forth, Megan got fouled with 6 seconds left. Lone Peak was only up by 2 points, 38-36. Megan calmly knocked down the first free throw to go up by three. They ended up winning 39-36 after PG missed their desperation heave at the buzzer.

Great season Megan! We’re proud of you for working so hard!

Super Surprising Valentine

Valentine’s Day around our house isn’t a super-romantic holiday, but Manina usually does fun things for our kids to let them know we love them.

This year started with a yummy breakfast of homemade waffles, strawberries, and buttermilk syrup. And it wouldn’t only get better.

That evening we had the sister missionaries over for heart-shaped pizzas and salad. After they left, Manina handed out a little treat bag with a pretty big surprise inside. You see, we stumbled across a smoking deal on airline tickets to Maui (only $320 round trip!) and decided to take our entire family on a trip! We had been keeping it a secret for a few weeks and Manina could hardly wait to tell the kids. She couldn’t sleep the night before Valentine’s Day because she was so excited.

Here is what the gift looked like:

And here is the reaction from the kids:

We are so excited to go back to the Aloha state and bring our kids with us this time. Obviously, they’re pretty excited too. Maui, here we come!

 

Drew Turns Ten

Drew is a pretty easy-going kid. We had to celebrate his birthday a couple days early due to some big celebrations with his Grandpa Mike’s 70th birthday planned. But Drew didn’t mind at all. He’s all chill.

We lucked into some Jazz tickets, so Drew and I went up to downtown Salt Lake City to the game as a birthday activity. The Jazz didn’t play well and ended up losing but it was fun time together.

We took Drew out of school on Friday to take him to lunch wherever he wanted. He chose Chick-Fil-A, but he couldn’t stay long because he needed to get back to class to get his math homework — he’s a great student too!

While we were at lunch, I took the opportunity to interview Drew to find out what his life is like as a ten-year-old. Here is what I learned:

What are your favorite things?

  • Subject at school: Computers. Definitely.
  • Breakfast cereal: Cocoa Puffs
  • Musical artist: Maroon 5
  • Homemade meal: macaroni and cheese
  • Restaurant and meal: Chicken nuggets at Chick-Fil-A
  • Soda: Sprite
  • Candy bar: Twix
  • Game on iPod: Roblox

If I gave you $1000 to spend, and you can’t save it, what would you buy? A laptop.

What is something you want to accomplish at 10? Get my Faith in God award.

What book you most recently enjoyed? Diary of a Wimpy Kid:Getaway

Who are your close friends: Rigby, Mason, Micah, Smith, Miles, Andrew, Brandon, Sam.

What is your shoe size? 5.5

How tall are you? 4’5”

How much do you weigh? 65 lbs

Who is you favorite soccer player? Ronaldo

What is your dream car? Lamborghini

Do you have a crush? No! (Followed by blushes and denials.)

We stayed home that night and played games as a family, which was what Drew wanted to do in lieu of a friend party. We had some Dairy Queen ice cream cake and he opened a couple presents — a couple soccer posters, scout stuff, a soccer ball, and some wireless headphones. Happy birthday Drew!

Sharing Christmas 2017

The last few years my parents have gifted us cash and asked us to go do something good with it. They only ask that we write it up to share with them. Here is our report for 2017.

Like a lot of other families these days, most of our Christmas shopping is done online and the good people of UPS, USPS, FedEx, and other delivery companies bring the packages right to our doorstep. No matter the weather, these guys and gals are hustling and working hard.

This year we decided to buy a bunch of drinks, snacks, candy bars, and other treats and put it out on our porch for these good delivery folks.

We got lots of good feedback from neighbors, friends, and delivery guys too. One FedEx guy came by two days in a row, taking a bunch of goodies. The second day he made a point to ring the doorbell, thank Manina, and then chat for a few minutes about how to save money on expedited shipping during the holidays (spoiler: don’t pay for overnight, just do second day air, everything is processed like overnight service during the last week leading up to Christmas).

Word got out and we had some drivers make stops at our house even though they weren’t delivering packages.

We had a lot of fun seeing their reactions. We have a security camera and caught some of the best moments and compiled a quick video.

We hope the goodies gave them a little more energy to get through their routes and long days of work. A little Christmas boost.

Manina’s 41st Birthday

Manina had quite the jam-packed day for her 41st birthday. It started out with her girlfriends Hannah Stayner, Penny Bergeron, and Emily Hunter taking her out for breakfast.

When Manina came home, we had a quick birthday song and gave her a new bike: a 2016 Trek FX 7.2 WSD. I was pretty proud of this gift — she’s been wanting a bike like this for a while.

In keeping with tradition, Manina wanted to take the family on a little outing. We went ice skating at Seven Peaks ice arena. Unfortunately, that was pretty much a flop. Drew barely left the wall, Megan lasted for all of 10 minutes, before stating how stupid this all was, then Jake left to go stare at his phone along with her, but at least nobody was seriously injured.

We left after only an hour and pretty much swore never to do it again. Then we went out to dinner at El Gallo Giro in Provo and ordered one too many entrees.

It was a pretty darn good 41st birthday for Manina!

Katelyn’s 14th Birthday

Our Katelyn is fourteen years old!  Manina and I took Katelyn out for lunch at Chick-Fil-A and I took some time to interview her. Here is what I learned:

What is your favorite class at school? Foods right now. Usually student council but I have to do announcements this month which is difficult.

What is your favorite breakfast cereal? Captain Crunchberries.

Who is your favorite musical artist? Camilla Cabello.

What is your favorite homemade meal? Macaroni and cheese.

What is your favorite restaurant and meal at that restaurant? Cafe Rio, single pork enchilada.

What is your favorite soda? Sprite.

What is your favorite candy bar? KitKat.

What is your favorite game on iPod? Sims, liking HayDay

If I gave you $1000 to spend, and you can’t save it, what would you buy? Another dog

What is something you want to accomplish at 14? See the northern lights.

What book you most recently enjoyed? Divergent.

Who are your close friends? Kate Rowberry, Sophie Lee, Halle Garn, Brooklyn Lindman

What does a dream vacation look like? Tropical jungle-y place with monkeys and a zip line and beach

What is your shoe size? 8

What is your height? About 1cm taller than Mom

Katelyn got an escape room game as her gift this year, and she chose to have a fun friend party at our house where they made chocolate pretzels, bath salts, played Just Dance, and applied face masks and acted goofy. We sure love our Katelyn!

Fall Dodgers Trip

My brother Matt lives in sunny Long Beach. He managed to talk me and Dad into coming down to watch a Dodgers game. Dad and I found flights for about $160 and headed out on Sunday, Sep 24.

The flight was a piece of cake and Matt met us at the Long Beach airport and took us to his house.

We had considered going to see an LA Rams game that day, but Dad was opposed to supporting anything related to the NFL due to the recent trend of protesting by kneeling during the National Anthem. So we hung out at Matt’s that morning.

As we headed out to lunch, Dad took his pills and apparently mixed them up because when we got to Seal Beach he wasn’t doing so great. When he started eating the chips and salsa and then the paper from the basket that it came in, we knew we were in trouble. He’d taken an Ambien by mistake. So we headed back to Matt’s to sleep it off.

Later that evening after Dad had somewhat recovered, we went out to dinner at a cool place called Tantalum, right on the water in Long Beach.

Uncle Steve had booked us a hotel in downtown LA, just to be nice. Matt decided to stay behind at his home in Long Beach, so Dad and I set off to the hotel. That turned out to be a great misadventure for several reasons. First we went to the wrong hotel. Once we got to the right hotel our room keys didn’t unlock our door. Security couldn’t get in either. So they gave us another room. The problem with that room was that it wasn’t very accessible. But, we were too tired to fight it. So we crashed there for the night and decided to check out a day early and head back to Matt’s and crash there.

So Monday morning we got up, ate breakfast and then cruised around downtown LA for just a bit before heading back to Long Beach for the rest of the day.

Dad and Matt watched a movie and then Dad wanted to stay behind and take a little nap. Matt and I headed out to go fishing off the pier, but then decided to go kayaking around Naples Island instead. It was cool cruising around the canals and looking at all the beautiful homes and boats. I got a pretty good thumb blister from having to paddle into a headwind all the way back while Matt allegedly “took a customer call” but it was worth it.

We collected Dad and headed to grab some pizza at one of Matt’s favorite places. I couldn’t help but be reminded of my grandpa Elwyn Johnson who was also known as “Big E”.

Then it was time to finally get to the entire reason for the trip, going to watch a Dodgers game. The Dodgers had already clinched their division and this was one of their final games of a great regular season. It was also a great night for a ball game, so we were in good spirits.

We had good, wheelchair-accessible seats out in the right field bleachers.

The Dodgers played well, jumping out to an early lead over the San Diego Padres. We left the game early because neither Matt nor Dad could sit in the same place for very long. But we had a good time and the Dodgers ended up winning handily.

Before flying on on Tuesday morning, we decided to try a breakfast place that Matt had never been to, but was fairly close to his house. It was a great way to end the trip.

Family Uinta Hike

We’ve traditionally gone on a hike over Labor Day weekend. Last year we did the Lofty Lake loop and had a good time.

This time we’d be bringing along our new dog, Finley. So, we didn’t feel like we could make it a very long trek. We decided to hike to Watson lake, which is a short 3-mile (round trip) hike with little elevation gain that passes along several beautiful lakes.

We took our sweet time, watching for fish, taking lots of pictures, skipping rocks, and enjoying the beautiful day in the mountains. Even though the parking lot at the trailhead was full, we didn’t see too many people thanks to this lesser-known trail.

We did have one slight mishap. We stopped for a long lunch at the north side of Cliff lake. I was trying to teach the kids the finer points of skipping rocks into the lake and showing off my skills. Poor Claire decided she could get a better angle if she threw from the rock about a foot off shore. She made a good throw, but almost too good, because it unbalanced her enough to cause her to fall into the lake, soaking nearly every part of her. Thankfully, it was a warm day and she was able to change into a dry spare sweatshirt and hike the last mile back to the car.

It was a great day in the Uintas.