Celebrating Hal

Hal had his 80th birthday at The Elks, and the kids were there to help celebrate.

Jillian is 17!

Sweetie Pie turned 17 years old at 6:11 am this morning! Mom got the celebration going with a candle in her French toast breakfast.

After school, we went to Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant for a Jillian-Tor joint birthday dinner (and skipped the sombrero and singing since Jillian had to return a call from a college volleyball coach).

We finished Jillian's birth-day at Sweetspot for dessert.

Hoop Dreams II

Tor (and Dad) watched Uncle Kevin coach his Clark Penguins basketball team to a victory over Chemeketa and a share of the Region Championship. They celebrated at the end by cutting down the nets.

Academic Excellence

Bridget and Tor attended the Monticello Middle School Evening of Excellence, where they each received many awards, including Academic Excellence for 3's and 4's on their report card, Work Completion and Respect, and iReady Math Growth. Tor also received the iReady Reading Growth award.

Random Basketball Pic

A Monticello basketball teammate sent this to Bridget, showing her on the opening tip against former volleyball teammate Alex of Kalama.

Hoop Dreams

Tor and Dad went to the district title basketball game to watch RA Long beat Mark Morris. We stayed afterwards to watch the net cutting ceremony. Tor and his Ballers teammates are looking forward to doing this themselves:

The pic shows Ballers Coach Kyle on the ladder with the Ballers players watching.

Festival Fiesta Classic

Jillian (and Mom) traveled to Arizona over the Presidents Day weekend to participate in the Festival Fiesta Classic volleyball tournament. She and her Aspire teammates played on Saturday at the State Farm Stadium (where the Arizona Cardinals play football). Unfortunately, they struggled out of the gate and dropped 2 of 3 matches to start.

The evening was spent relaxing pool side at a very fancy hotel:

The next day was played at the Kroc Center, where the team played better and won 2 of 3 matches. Jillian had been setting a 5-1 offense for most of the tournament.

In the evening, the team went out to bowling:

On the final day at the Kroc Center, the team put together a string of 4 straight victories to win the division.

It was a late flight home, with Jillian and Mom arriving back at 2 am.

Posterized, Again

Bridget seems to be the favorite "poster child" for Monticello, again being featured on a sports calendar, this time for her Mustang girls basketball team:

Bob Keefer Sports Center

While Jillian and Mom were in Arizona, Bridget and Tor went with Dad to Springfield, Oregon for the Presidents Day volleyball tournament. Bridget's Cowlitz 14-1 Black team played in the 1st Division, placing 2nd in their pool on Saturday, 3rd on Sunday, then winning all of their matches on Monday to place 9th overall out of 39 teams.

Bridget had a solid tournament, doing a little bit of everything as a setter and middle blocker.

We stayed with relatives-in-law Alex and Rhonda in Harrisburg, which was fortunate since the Hyundai engine failed and had to be taken to an auto repair shop, and we were able to borrow their car to get around the last couple days.

On Saturday night, the team went to a teammate's AirBnB for dinner and pictures.

Early Release Snow Day

The kids had a short school day, being released early due to some snow in the late morning. Tor played some basketball, saying it was his only chance to do that in the snow:

It started warming up and melting the snow in the late afternoon, so Bridget got to work making a small snowman:

Monticello 8th Grade Bball

Bridget's first 8th grade basketball game was tonight against King's Way. She did very well on offense and defense. Here she is taking a shot:

Due to the low number of 8th graders trying out, the school combined the 8th and 7th grade teams for this season.

Winter Woolies

Bridget started out her 2024 horse riding season with Winter Woolies. She is now in the 14-18 (Senior) Division, which has more and stronger competition. It was a successful start, with blue ribbons in nearly every class, and earning the High Point Championship for her division (her reward was a folding chair.)

Clark Penguins

Tor and Mom went to Clark College to watch Uncle Kevin's Penguin Basketball team play against Lane. Tor was very impressed by how good they were (they won). He also got to see Brock and Kaleigh, who were in town for the baby shower.

Tor is wearing a Penguin jersey that Uncle Kevin gave him.

One More Tournament

The Clatskanie basketball tournament needed a team to substitute for a dropped team, and the Longview Ballers agreed, mixing their Pink and Blue teams. Tor played the point as an assist machine, and his team won all their games to claim the championship:

A parent captured this video of Tor bringing the ball up the court and pulling up 6 feet out from the 3-point line to drain it from deep: