Missionary experiences

After 9 years of having sister missionaries in our ward we finally got some Elders and Carson immediately loved hanging out with them.

Elder Malay and Elder Mussleman were our first favourites.  They would always come over Sunday after church and we would have breakfast for lunch - homemade pancakes, orange juice, and sausages.

All the kids enjoyed having the missionaries over.  When Kailey's friends see these pictures on her phone they think she is so lucky to get to hang out with such cute, older guys.  She always tells her friends "whooaaa these guys are not for the taking, they are missionaries for our church and they will not be dating anybody while on their missions!"

It is always sad to say goodbye to a set of missionaries when they leave the ward but Carson keeps in contact with them after they leave.  The second set of Elders, Elder Mon and Elder Hill, were exceptional missionaries.  They found a family to teach and baptize in our ward.  

Carson had the amazing experience of baptizing the father of this family while the Elders baptized the kids.  It was pretty darn cool for him to get to enter the waters of baptism, having been commissioned by Jesus Christ, to baptize Richard before Carson is even a full time missionary.

Carson looks forward to the day he gets to be a full time missionary for the church and share the gospel with people in another piece of the world.  

Volleyball Season Come and Gone

Yep that's right!  We have another Griffin in the house!  Kailey made the decision NOT to go to Western High School with a bunch of her basketball friends and instead decided to school her brother, I mean go to school with her brother!  They have had a lot of fun going to school together as it has been 4 years since they were in the same school together.  Carson doesn't even mind the fact that all his grade 12 friends think Kailey is pretty darn cool and Kailey fits right in with all of them.  She does have her own group of friends in grade 10 as well.  Her grade 10 friends think that she is so lucky to have a brother in grade 12 because she gets to hang out with all those guys as well.

After 6 gruelling tryouts she managed to secure herself a starting power position on the Jr. Girls Ernest Manning High School volleyball team.  During tryouts her foot began to really bother her and the doctor was suspecting a stress fracture so Kailey was sent for a bone scan of her foot.

Last year Kailey played setter but this year they needed some good power hitters so that is where she ended up playing.

The day we found out her foot was not fractured, and that is was OK for her to play on it (even though she already played a couple of league games on it), Kailey dislocated her hitting shoulder and was out for the rest of the season.  Her volleyball season was cut short this year.

Good thing we still had the senior boys to watch.  Carson was the captain of the team this year.

This is them warming up with their special "stop bullying pink shirts"

Volleyball is a game of momentum and keeping the momentum on your side of the court.  Carson is really good at getting his team going and keeping them talking on the court.  He would always start off the match by saying "Let's have some fun!"

"Connor, are you ready to have some fun?"  Connor can't help but smile at Carson!

Big block by Liam and Carson.

Of course there is always time to pose of the camera.

 Coach Larsen always depends on Carson to keep the team excited and Carson is fun to watch as he celebrates all the good rallies they win.  I love catching him in the moment of pure excitement and love for the competition!  I don't know anybody who is more competitive than Carson.

This is one of my favourite pictures of the season.  It was our last home game and Carson had said to Mr. Larsen "I'm not leaving this gym tonight until I get a big kill!"  A setter playing a 5-1 system rarely gets to pound the ball because they are always the one setting the second ball to the hitters.  Last point of the game and Carson gets a party ball to finish the match with his "big kill!"  He turned to Mr. Larsen and this was his expression!  (notice the players in the back laughing!).  As he walked towards the bench he says to the coach, "You have coached me for three years straight and should know by now that when I put my mind to something and say I am going to do something . . . I WILL do it!"  The coach was smiling from ear to ear!

The boys had a really good team this year.  They lost in the semi finals to Scarlett who had a team full of club players and then they played Western for third place.  The top three teams got to Provincials and Provincials were in Lloyd Minister this year.  None of the boys wanted to go all the way up there and so they didn't play very hard to win third place.  Carson was just fine with that because we all know what happens after volleyball season is over . . . . . BASKETBALL SEASON!!!

July 4th in Utah!

We had decided to make a trip to Utah for July 4th to go the Stadium of Fire.  Carrie Underwood was performing and the girls love her music.  Just before it was time to leave Grandpa bought a 40 foot motorhome and so we travelled in style to Utah.  It was so fun to have the space in the motorhome to travel in with a bathroom on hand and a fridge stocked with food and pop.  The kids thought it was soooooo great!!

On the afternoon of July 4 we went for a picnic up the canyon with Sonya's family.  

It was a beautiful hot day and the river felt really good to cool us off.

We played all kinds of fun games and even Kailey was able to participate despite her broken wrist.  

It was horrible to be in the heat with a cast on her arm.

Of course little Lucy was everybody's favourite!

My boys!

It was so fun to watch them play football together.  

They would draw up plays and execute all kinds of running plays and complex handoffs.

 And then the celebration when they scored!  A little hip bumping in the air!

That evening we went to the BYU stadium to see the Stadium of Fire.  Carrie Underwood was amazing and it was the first concert the kids had been to.  The fireworks were amazing too!

Carson's Last Year of Club Basketball

 This was Carson's third year playing for the Genesis club team.  He has really enjoyed playing ball with them and has had some great experiences travelling with the team.  They have travelled to Spokane every year and this year they flew to Portland to play in a tournament there.  They have also played in Edmonton every year and always represent Calgary well.

 The 4 Ernest Manning boys play together all year at school and then play together all spring with Genesis.  They have played ball together for years and it shows when they are on the court together.

 They always love when I pull the camera out!  Coach Fabian just laughs at them!

These boys won the gold in their league play and finished of the season by winning the big tournament in Edmonton July long weekend in over time.  It was a very successful season!

Carson, Brody and Steph with yet another gold medal around their necks.

Fabian has been a mentor for Carson for 2 years now.  He has coached him in club for 2 years and was also Darcy's assistant coach at the High School this last year.  Carson has learned a lot from Fabian on and off the court!  It is so great to have fantastic people mentor these boys!

It is sad to think that Carson's club playing days are over and he only has one high school season left. These are the days that Carson will remember for the rest of his life!

My Pride and Joy

Spring 2014

I find myself looking at my kids and wishing I could just freeze time.  They are growing up so fast and as busy as I am with all of their activities, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I hate missing any games or events because I want to capture every minute of their activities.  I know that before long I will not have the busy schedule I do now and I will miss it.

Carson and Kailey in their club basketball uniforms. 

This is Carson's last year playing Genesis and Kailey plays for CBA.

And just in case you are wondering, Carson is taller than Kailey by about an inch.  Everybody always asks him if his sister is taller than him and his answer is always NO!

JJ loves soccer season!

And there is my ballerina.  Sadie is definitely the most graceful of them all!

4A Basketball Provincials

Carson and his friends had a goal going to Ernest Manning.  As much as they wanted to win a City Championship their goal was to put Ernest Manning on the Provincial rankings and that is what happened this year.  2 years ago Ernest Manning was playing Div 3 basketball and now they are ranked in the top 10 Provincially.  That is a big deal!  

Provincials were held in Southern Alberta this year.  We ended up only having 7 players going to Provincials.  One of our starters and the first two players off the bench had family holidays booked for spring break not realizing that Provincials were the first weekend of Spring Break for us.  We knew we didn't have the depth to go all the way, especially playing LCI first game.  

We lost the first game (which were were OK with given our player situation) and the goal became to win the Consolation Side.  

 In the semi final game to get the Consolation final we played the Okotoks team.  They had heard that we were missing players and they thought they were going to give us a good run and probably beat us.  The boys decided to prove themselves and beat the Okotoks team by more than 20.

Then we found out that we were going to be playing Father Lacombe (The team from Calgary we had beat once in the beginning of the season and then we lost by 22 points the last 3 times we played them.  Including our semi final game to go to the Cities).  We really didn't want to play them again.   Maybe the fifth time is a charm??

 Carson and Aidan tucking their shirts in for the last game of the season!  And what a game it was.  Our whole team played a great game.  Everybody did their part defensively, rebounding and passing well.  Of course Carson's job was to shut down their best point guard and he rattled Jonah's game quite well again. At half time I looked up at the score and we were winning by 15 points!!!  I could hardly believe it but at the same time they were playing so well and EVERYBODY executing what their coach had taught them to do all season!

I had my camera ready for a big win celebration but instead I got some of my favourite pictures of the season of Carson.  With a few seconds left on the clock and we are in control of the ball the shirt comes untucked knowing it is game over!

The mouth guard hanging out as he begins to humbly walk off the court.

There is no big cheering and throwing the loss in the other teams face even though it was a huge win.  As he looks up at the score board to see the final score (we beat them by 23 points!) and with a smile on his face . . . this is the look of PURE SATISFACTION!  A job well done!

It was such a great way to finish the season!  Even though we didn't win Provincials this  was almost a bigger win for us.  To be able to finish the season by beating a team who killed us so many times and not only winning the game but handily beating them was just pure satisfaction.

Carson and his two buddies (Aidan and Brody) had reached their goal of putting Ernest Manning on the Provincial map and they brought home some plaques for the school's showcase - Provincial Consolation Championships.  It was a great way to end the season!!