Retribution...

ret·ri·bu·tion  

/ˌretrəˈbyo͞oSHən/

Noun Punishment that is considered to be morally right and fully deserved.

Synonyms requital - retaliation - punishment - reward - penalty

We are more than halfway through the cheer competition season for 2012-2013 and after the competition this weekend I think it's high time I posted about the season thus far. At the beginning of the season i have to admit not only was I surprised at the precision of Bailey's team early into the season but I was impressed.  Not only was I impressed from what I saw from Bailey's team but more so I was impressed with Bailey.  I have watched her cheer for years and have loved every minute of it.  There have certainly been proud moments when I've watched her overcome obstacles in her path but I haven't felt anything comparable to what I felt the first time I watched her run through her routine this year.  My baby girl was certainly no longer a baby, nor was she even a little girl anymore.  What I saw was a confident, capable, and strong young woman.  It was something different from pride. I was surprised with how happy she looked doing what she loves.  I was surprised by the strength I saw in my oldest daughter. Indescribable. 

 The first competition that we attended was great.  Bailey looked amazing (including the rest of the team).  She brought tears to my eyes to see the confidence she clearly had in herself. I was blown away.  Her team took a well deserved first place.

 The next competition we attended was also fun and while they only had one other team they were competing against they were not only able to win their division but they were the grand champions of the competition beating out the other teams on their perfection score and also having the highest overall score there.

 Their third competition was a a little frustrating. Two of the girls on the team would be competing with broken bones and the day just felt off. Watching the team perform they did good. Not great but good.  They didn't drop a stunt and they didn't fall on tumbling. Unfortunately they were deducted for what the judges called a bauble on Bailey and another bauble from another girl. I'm not one to sugar coat things and I will admit that the incident concerning Bailey didn't look great but it certainly wasn't a bauble.  They ended up taking second place.

This past weekend there was time for redemption.  Okay I felt the need for a little bit of retribution because the team they lost to at the previous competition would be in Vegas for this past weekends.  I think the girls wanted to feel a little bit of vindication as well as the coaches.  Unfortunately

 the team struggled all week.  Bailey's backspot injured her wrist and would not be able to backspot Bailey for the competition which meant a lot of shuffling so there were be someone to catch Bailey on every stunt. When this happens I get very nervous.  When Bailey's bases get switched injuries have been known to happen. Also, the coaches added a few higher scoring elements (aka harder) to the routine which meant the girls would need to step up their game as well.  All week it seemed things just weren't going well and the coaches held a quick emergency practice Friday before we left town.  I caught the end of it and I admit I was worried the girls would even place knowing what teams they were up against.  Luckily the team I watched in practice the previous day (and apparently even in warmups before they performed) wasn't the same one that took the mat.  They completed their routine flawlessly and in that 2 minutes gained a huge amount of their confidence back! They got back to where they were and took another first place!  

Whether they took first or not that day I was thrilled. They performed like everyone knew they were capable of performing.  They've been together for so long and worked so hard to get to where they are it was such a pleasure to see the smiles after the routine was completed. 

Memorial Day 2012

 With lack of time and money for a big memorial day vacation we opted to load up the four wheeler and take the kids rappelling for their first time out to our favorite Gunlock spot.  Years ago when Gunlock was flooding our favorite spot was unaccessible and the swing we loved was no longer on the tree.  Luckily someone has replaced the swing with an even better tire swing and it just so happens to be a great learning spot to rapell.  We've never taken the kids before because we've been too cheap to buy youth harnesses and after we did the math of how old Mat's ropes were I realized youth harnesses were the least of our worries.  They say replace your ropes every five years...ours are seventeen years old...Well, they worked. Go figure.

 Honestly these are my favorite outings we take.  Spur of the moment and always a blast.  The kids get along great and seem to really like their red neck get aways.  

 Bonus, that they LOVED rappelling!

 Memorial Day was bittersweet as we read about a plane crash at the new airport. The news hadn't released names but said that a 172 had been found just off the runway early that morning and that the four passengers in the plane had not survived.  The fact that the plane was a 172 caught my eye as the plane Mat had logged a lot of his hours for his license on was a 172 but that plane belongs to Mat's uncle who had since sold it so I thought nothing more of it.  My dad came over and asked if we knew who was on the plane and I said no that I had no idea.  Then we got a very sad phone call.  The plane was in fact the same plane Mat logged many hours on and although it no longer belonged to Mat's uncle it was indeed piloted by one of Mat's dearest cousins.  His buddy (and Easton's namesake) Tanner and his friends were the four passengers.  One of the passengers was our sweet neighbor's only son and the other two were also Santa Clara boys. All very young with so much of life ahead of them.  We feel very fortunate to have known a kid like Tanner.  He was someone always surrounded by smiles and will be greatly missed.

The Dreaded Call

 On April 19, 2012 I was prepping dinner when I got the call.  I looked at my phone and knew I recognized the number but couldn't figure out who it was so I decided to answer it anyhow.  It was Bailey's coach on the other line saying that Bailey had fell at practice. The coach explained that she didn't see the fall but saw how Bailey had landed and it didn't look good.  She also said that Bailey was crying which surprised her coach knowing Bailey is tough and wouldn't cry unless something was seriously wrong.  I felt a tad relieved from my initial reaction to hear that she had hurt her arm and still wanted to stay at practice.  I was worried but figured it couldn't be too bad if she wanted to stay.  Ten minutes later I got a call saying she wanted to go home.  I told Mat that I would go pick her up and we could decide then if she would need to see a Dr. that evening.  I received another call from one of her teammates a few minutes later saying I needed to pick Bailey up.  She didn't know that I was already on my way but her teammate sounded very shaken up and had clearly been crying.  I didn't take it as a good sign.  When I arrived at the gym my heart broke to see my baby girl sitting outside the door waiting for me in tears holding her arm. I gave her a big hug and helped her in the car.  When I called Mat he said we could probably just wait until the next day and see if it was still hurting.  He hadn't seen her.  I told him that he should at least call our neighbor that is a sports Dr. and have her arm looked at.  Our neighbor was actually waiting curbside in from of his house for us and took a quick look and said it needed x-rays.  We headed to the instacare where luckily Dr. Dan was the Dr. on shift.  Bailey's arm was broken as well as her shoulder bone.  Both Dr.'s made sure to tell Bailey that cheerleading was the most dangerous sport for girls but Bailey was more frustrated that she'd not be able to participate until after summer. 

 Luckily her arm didn't need to be casted  based on where the breaks were and THANKFULLY she wouldn't need surgery (which was a big concern for us).  Bailey was worried that she caused us unexpected medical bills.  I told her thanks to Dr. Dan giving us a discount that having her break her arm was actually cheaper because we would miss a few months of cheer payments so we pretty much came out ahead. ;)  Of course we would have paid double for her to have kept her bones in tact and be pain free.  We allowed her to stay home from school the following day since she was still in quite a bit of pain.  She had many friends and her brothers spoiling her with treats and well wishes and felt rather special.  When she did return to school the next week she faced a lot of criticism from other girls who was sure that she was faking (even posted on Facebook about it) and thought she was just looking for attention.  Clearly none of those girls know Bailey. Three weeks after breaking her arm and shoulder blade she was hating missing cheer and decided that if she could do a backhandspring that we would allow her to go back so she went outside on the trampoline and practiced one handed backhandsprings!  Four weeks after she injured her arm and should she was showing us on her gym floor how she could do a backhandspring and was begging to go back to cheer.  Yes, it hurt her.  The pain clearly wasn't as bad as not being able to do her favorite thing ever.  We allowed her to go back to cheer after 5 weeks if she promised to take it easy.  Thankfully she has been back for months now and only faces mild tenderness from her injury now and then.  We always knew we would get a call like that and just hoped if we did that it wouldn't be devastating.  Honestly, as far as a cheer injury goes we were super grateful.  She was injured at the beginning of the year so she wouldn't be out of any competitions and would have plenty of time to heal before competitions, and her injury was really something that was able to heal on its own.  Other girls on her team have not been near as lucky.  

The first wee she was back she ended up falling while tumbling and her coaches actually dialed 911 and then realized it was a false alarm. She really makes it look so easy you forget how dangerous all of the things she does really are.  Bailey is back at cheer in full force and truly looks stronger and more capable than we've ever seen.  Truly grateful!

First Day of School 2012

 Bailey began her first year of middle school on August 15, 2012.  Officially an 8th grader! Wasn't it just yesterday that I was so anxious for her to begin kindergarten?  I'm trying not to recall life as a middle schooler as to avoid stressing about my baby girl surrounded by a bunch of boys...

 Easton and Caleb also started school.  Caleb in fifth grade (his last year of elementary) and Easton in fourth grade.  I can't believe my boys have grown so big.  Peyton began her second year of preschool at Ms. Debbie's a few days after the boys school began and was thrilled to be back.  Next year SHE'LL be the kindergartner!

Peyton's 4th Birthday

 Peyton began planning her birthday in her mind a good 6 months before her birthday arrived.  She bragged to her friends of the many princesses that would be in attendance and gave strict dress code instructions as to how her guests hair and makeup should look with their beautiful ball gowns. We many or may not have convinced her that a cupcake party would just be the funnest thing ever...

 When the time came all she really cared about was the magic of a party just for her.  With all of her friends in their matching chefs hats with their matching aprons they decorated cookies, played games, had cupcakes to eat and laughed and played like the silly little girls they are.

 All but one of the 10 girls on her invite list were able to attend the party and Peyton was on cloud nine. She was spoiled with many gifts and smiles from her friends. Lucky little one. 

Beginning of Summer

 On the last day of school (way back in May) our neighborhood moms had gotten together and had a first day of summer party waiting for the kids when school let out. With water weenies, train rides, a dunk tank, face painting, and treats these kids were very spoiled. We have wonderful neighbors that we are surrounded by and feel very privileged to have the influences of them on our children and for the friendships that we all share.  It was the perfect way to begin summer!

Family Vacation

 Between Facebook and Instagram I can get a bit of anxiety when I see everyone taking fun family vacations repeatedly throughout the year. I get extra jealous when I see the many Disneyland trips people take.  We used to go to Disneyland quite frequently but decided a few years ago that if we cut down on our smaller vacations and saved up for bigger ones that we could do some more extravagant vacations with the family. We have our vacation jar that we put money in all year to save up to take one big vacations and since we went on a Disney Cruise last year we were saving up to take the kids to the Disney resort in Hawaii this December. Then, Disney released a price on a Caribbean cruise that we really couldn't pass up.  The cruise sailed out of Galveston, Texas and we considered driving to save on airfare.  We put the trip in to the GPS and it said it would be 26 hours.  That didn't include potty stops, or eating, or rest for the weary drivers for that matter so we opted to fly. We had enough sky miles to send Bailey with the Edwards family who was flying on Delta so she took a separate flight than we did and go to fly directly out of St. George.  Mat and I drove the boys and Peyton to Las Vegas and met them in Galveston the morning of the cruise.  What we didn't tell the kids was that the transportation that we had waiting for them at the airport was a stretched SUV Limousine.  They've done their share of walking on vacation to avoid the cost of transportation and they've riden on their fair share of suspect buses when we've been out of the country so they easily believed us when we said we had an hour drive to the cruise port and they'd be sitting by chickens. They were certainly pumped for our trip when they saw the limo parked outside for us.  

 It was surprisingly chilly in Galveston and I was quite worried we'd be freezing the entire trip since I only brought shorts. It was the week of Halloween and it was still fairly warm In Santa Clara so I figured it would be HOT in Galveston.  What I didn't realize until a few days in to the cruise when I turned on the tv in our room and watched the news was that New York was hit by a hurricane and was flooding and a mess. Here we were just thinking...hmmmm...it's a little bit choppy water but not bad. 

 When we ported in Grand Cayman (our first stop) the weather was heavenly.  The water was choppy which made for a trickier time snorkeling but every other port was calm and WARM! 

 In Grand Cayman we rode out to swim with the stingrays. I realized my kids get their timidness from their momma.  I'm not a huge fan of fish to say the least and made it into the water but once the stingrays swam towards me I decided I just needed to cling to the ladder by the boat. Not the best example for timid children.  Bailey did swim quite a bit with them and kissed the stingrays for good luck. 

 We stopped in Costa Maya and Cozumel as well on the trip.  In Costa Maya we went to a private resort and the kids got their fill of swimming, kayaking, and finding conch shells.  I spent most of the time there getting a massage on the beach.  Not a bad day.

 In Cozumel we shopped for half of the day and spent the other half at another private resort.  THe resort had water trampolines and slides galore. As well as a large swimming pool that was perfect for the little girls. The kids said that was their favorite part of the trip. The boys were amazed at how clear the water was every where.  This was their first time to the Caribbean and they were loving it.

 Halloween fell midweek of our trip so the boys filled their sacks before breakfast trick or treating to the different shops on board and I don't think the girls even ventured out in their costumes other than to dinner. Still fun to get to spend another holiday on a cruise ship.

 Of course the staff of the cruise ship was AMAZING and my kids were overjoyed with all of the things the ship provides.  Peyton once again loved the kids club.  Bailey spent a little more time hanging around mom and dad which I have to admit was pretty nice.  We weren't nearly as crazy as we were on the last cruise. We had one other family with us and since we'd already experienced much of the Disney cruise magic we spent more time relaxing, playing shuffle board, and just enjoying our vacation for the year. 

I will admit, I'm ready to take my kids back to Disneyland and I really hope it will be soon. However, next trip will only include Mat and I.