December trip #2

On the 16th of December, after a long day of teaching and boys basketball games, I loaded a charter bus with my girls basketball team headed for sunny Phoenix, AZ. My team was playing in the Nike Tournament of Champions. They are currently ranked in the top 100 team in the country and the top 20 teams on the west coast, although I'm not sure what their ranking is exactly. They are ranked first in the state currently and are the team to beat in 5A. I'll be very surprised if they don't take state this year. Already, 2 of my players have signed with UVU and another is deciding where she will play. Very exciting!

When we left Utah is was cold and snowy. There was snow off and on all the way down to Phoenix. When we got to Flagstaff, AZ it was really snowing, although I think I was one of the only ones, besides the bus driver who saw it. Most people were dead asleep on the bus. I found out later that Flagstaff had closed all of it's schools, including NAU, because of the snow. Why is it Utah never gets snow days?

When we arrived in Phoenix it was raining but the sun was shining through. I was getting very antsy to get checked in because as soon as we did I had plans! I was going to go play with my sister Amy and nephew Andrew and it was my first chance to see my new niece Ella Jane Giauque!


The team had the day free until the tournament banquet that night and it turned out perfectly because they were one ticket short for the banquet. I told them that I'd just stay at Amy's and have dinner with them. I was able to spend the whole day with them! :) Andrew decided to be sheik Andrew. It's actually his long sleeved shirt that I started to take off so we could make cookies but he wanted to wear it as a hat. He has the cutest grin when he says "Cheese" for the camera!


After we had lunch we made chocolate chip cookies and I introduced Andrew to the joy of raw cookie dough. He loved it, but I think he loved just eating the chocolate chips even more and getting them all over his face.


Andrew was such a good helper in making the cookies. His love for dumping things carried over as he continually pleaded, "I dump" with Amy, to allow him to pour the ingredients into the mixer. She is such a good mom and not only allowed him to dump, but also helped him turn the mixer on. He was in 7th heaven, as you can see in the picture!



Amy made a wonderful dinner of pasta, yogurt-parmesan chicken, peas and peaches. Andrew devoured the peaches! I was sad to leave but it was about a half hour to my hotel. The next morning Amy picked me up again and I played with them until the afternoon when my team had their first game. We went to the park nearby and got to dig in the sand, go down the slides, play with the tick-tac-toe rollers and climb on the large rope octagon. Andrew enjoyed running home and the neighborhood Christmas lights that had come on.

I was very glad that I had been able to spend so much time with them. Even better, they came up here to Utah at the end of the week which meant I got to spend more time with them this past week for Ella's blessing and Christmas! More to be added later!