Mock Trial State!

Bright and cold and snowy morning on March 12, when we sent Kayte off for the Mock Trial State Competition!

The rest of us spent the day cleaning and packing and getting ready for the next two trips, Boise and San Diego!

My original plan was to take the littles along to see their cousins and leave Will at home with his new drivers license, his basketball, and Round 1 of March Madness. Turns out, March Madness did not start till the following week, he didn't get his driving part done for his license, so all he had was his basketball and several feet of snow to keep him busy. He spent the first day shoveling our driveway, and the rest of the time hiking it to the HIRC on foot.

My car was in the shop with some faulty brakes, so we hit the road in Joe's truck. The roads were a bit slushy at times, be we still managed to speed right along and made it to Boise in record time.

Such a beautiful drive! Really I'm falling in love with it.

Kayte just slayed in the first round of competition and was recognized by the opposing team as an outstanding witness.

Sara and Ben came along for this first night and got to see their first mock trial ever.

Cousins to keep them company.

Quick dinner at Chic-fil-A.

I loved watching the two of these work together! So fun!!

We had the next day free. I got to see Georgia compete in a MT scrimmage at her school, where she killed it, and then we did some quick San Diego shopping before lunch at Red Robin.

Took the kids back to the pool for a bit, and then over to Stephen and Susan's to meet up with the rest of the cousins for some pizza and a movie night! Much more entertaining for them then more MT.

I was still having fun!

The competition seemed tougher this year, but maybe that was just the teams we met up with. One of the teams that we competed with did end up in the semi-finals, with us!! And Logos A and Ambrose A, of course.

We had to meet the A team at the Federal Courthouse for the semi-final round.

Managed to score a ballot off the judges! Woot!!

....ahh, end of season for us. A team advances to Championship Round.

The cousins and kids all came down for the championship round, and Logos won it!!

We packed up quickly, hit McDs, and back to the courthouse to pick up Ava.

It occurred to me that the kids had never actually been to the capitol building, we did a quick run-through!

Met the team on the steps, getting a rundown from the day's competitions.

Took Ava with us, cause she had a plane to catch in the middle of the night for Hawaii :)

Lots of memories of youth leg. in this building.

Such a beautiful day!

Quick trip home. Glad to have a day to clean up and do laundry before our trip to SAN DIEGO!!

Super-proud of my Kayte and all her friends for all the hard work they did on Mock Trial this year. It is such a difficult competition and they just manage to shine! So fun to watch!!

Driving test. Done.

Took the no-homework opportunity to have Will study for his written driving test. Passed with flying colors...now onto the actual driving test....someday!!

Brunette.

Trying out a new color...and working on perfecting my mirror selfie.

But I like the brown!

Sun.

Sat down at 4 yesterday to get my bible reading done, and wouldn't you know it, the sun was shining right on my chair. That particular chair from that particular window is directed straight southwest and I find it quite funny that the sun still likes to set towards the south.

Spring is coming, but it might be a ways off yet.

It was -4 when I woke up. March 4, 2019. No kidding.

The Man.

Joe spent much of Sunday shoveling our drive so we could get in and out. The next day, I had a ton of catch up work to do and was grateful that my car was in the garage, because obviously my washer would break, after several days out of town and I ended up having to haul all our dirty laundry to the laundry mat.

Joe managed to fix my demon washing machine with a screwdriver, which was a plain old miracle.

I woke up excited to do laundry again!

And when my head cold took a bad turn and I chose a nap over grocery shopping and dinner making, Joe did the grocery shopping, made me soup and then cooked dinner for the kids and cleaned up.

Guys. I got a good one. I don't know what I would do if I weren't spoiled rotten.

Probably die of a head cold.

Just walking to the car for church.

Gorgeous morning.

Headed to STATE!

What a day this turned out to be! 

Will all dressed up, ready to hit the road!

Joe took the kids to school, it was a crazy freezing rain kind of day and we were picking Kayte up from school anyway, so there was no point in her driving. I kept Sara with me so I'd have someone to help me get Piper to the kennel out in Palouse. We were headed out at 8 cause I had to babysit for a bible study at 9:30. Everything was planned down to the minute. The only thing I couldn't afford to do was get stuck in the driveway. So guess what I did.

Totally and completely stuck. It was a bit of a white out and difficult to even see the grooves in the road, so I just drove right off it. I couldn't believe it!!

We were going to be late getting Piper out to Palouse, so I ditched the truck and loaded everything into Kayte's car. I drove about 1/4 mile down Mix Rd. before I had to turn back. I couldn't see a thing and if the roads were bad, I definitely didn't want to try to maneuver the highway in Kayte's car blind.

I came back to the house and sent Sara in, and then did my best to dig the truck out. It seemed possible. But it totally wasn't. Ed came by to help out and there was just nothing for it. He drove Sara to school, and I called a tow truck. I had to cancel babysitting for the bible study and did my best to stay busy on my to-do list until the tow got there.

He finally arrived and pulled me right out. I loaded Piper up again, and we headed towards Palouse.

The road looked like this:

And the kennel driveway was straight up and I was terrified of having to get pulled out of a ditch twice in one day. But we made it there and back and I was so relieved to know that Piper was somewhere safe and warm and would have people checking on her, without worrying about getting people in and out of the driveway at home.

I loaded the kids suitcases into the car and took them to Kelly's and then hit Winco and back to pack. 

Joe had my car, but was going to be later than planned, and there was no way to get him in and out of the driveway, with all the drifting and freezing rain, so I packed up the sled and made several trips to load the truck with all the stuff we needed so we could transfer it to the car the minute Joe got home.

Lost some stuff on the way. haha.

I was dreading a long drive on white roads all the way to Boise, but by 2, the sun actually was coming out, and the road reports were looking a lot better.  We picked up the girls at school and hit the road! Very dry, very clean roads!! What a miracle!

Such a gorgeous drive!

Still, we were pretty excited to finally land in the hotel.

We had kind of a lazy first morning. We slept in, and Joe took the car in cause the brakes were kind of smelly....nothing! 

So excited to get to the first game. Everyone was excited!

 

Just like the guys had been doing all season, they pulled away early to get a large lead.

So the subs got to come in! Woot!

Will got fouled in double bonus, and without hesitation nailed both of his free throws. Nothing but net. 

 The other team was quite a bit down, with little time left, and was about to put in all their subs, but then a couple unanswered points closed the lead considerably. The game ended close, with a clutch free point from Cam Vis to give us a four point lead with less than two seconds on the clock.

It was a super-fun game, but a little too exciting at the end!! 

So proud of Will and his hard work. Nailing your free throws in a big game means a lot a lot a lot of hardwork on your own time, and he really puts that time in.

 Hanging with Kayte. It was so fun to get her away from all the busy-ness of life! Meanwhile, Ben and Sara were living it up at the Driskills and sledding until dark!

Headed to dinner at the Sawyers! So fun to relax after a crazy couple of days and see the whole family! 

Next morning was pretty lazy too. Joe headed to Caldwell to have bible study with the team and the girls and I slept in, Kayte went for a run, and we ate a huge hotel breakfast.

Then back to the gym: 

This game was much harder to watch. We didn't play as well and we lost. We were now lined up to play for third place on Saturday.

We watched the next team play. The loser would play us. See the big tall guy. He was on the losing team.

Headed to downtown Boise to find a good place for dinner. Tried out a brewery and got there in time for Happy Hour.  Good messy bar food! 

The girls and I dropped Joe off at the hotel and then headed to Meridian's Village for some very aesthetic shopping. Such a good time!

 

 

 

Next day, we got to eat with Joe at the hotel, and then back to the gym. Super excited for this game, but it went badly. We were up by a lot, then down by a lot, and then came back within 3 points, but managed to lose. It was such a bummer!!

Boys got an award for the highest cumulative GPA in the state at 3.91. Pretty exciting.

 

These guys are pretty pumped about next year. And so are their moms. We have a feeding plan, and the boys have a basketball plan, so we are planning on getting back here next year!!

 

The drive home was a little sketchy. The car was acting funny again, and the brakes smelled and made a funny noise, and then all of a sudden it all stopped and the car ran fine, all the way home! What a miracle!

McCall had an insane amount of snow. Their snow berms on the side of the road were taller than a truck! We saw these guys shoveling snow off a two story roof. You couldn't see the building over the berms!

So beautiful!

We stopped at Albertsons to grab some lunch/dinner and then didn't stop till we got home!

What a fun trip!!

Super happy to see my littles, and be home for a whole snowy evening together!