January 2026

In January we started out with a trip to Arizona for Elliott's ODP soccer tournament.  Jim stayed home with the dog and the rest of us flew down there.  My sister and her family had moved to AZ just over a month earlier and they let us stay with them.  Their location was absolutely perfect for what we needed and it was so much fun to spend time with them.  Elliott hurt his foot at home just before the trip and it was swollen and bruised, but he was able to play through and absolutely didn't want me to tell his coaches that it was hurt.  Elliott had a big cheering section because my parents also came up from Tucson and watched his games and hung out with us.  We enjoyed the sunny and warm weather.  We also visited Arizona State University and Grand Canyon University so Emmett could check out a couple colleges.  We even did a quick trip down to my parents house to see it and the boys swam and we played mini-golf.

Out to lunch between soccer games

Touring Grand Canyon University

Cousins

Charli taught her cousins how to pitch

Elliott's ODP team

Mini-Golf in my parent's neighborhood

Touring Arizona State University campus

Once we were back Ezra started doing the driving portion of his driver's ed.  He also stayed really busy with Speech and Debate.  He had tournaments every weekend and brought home some trophies.  Speech and Debate tournaments are often 2 day events (Friday and Saturday) and they tend to catch a bus to the tournament super early both mornings and arrive home super late both nights.  It is quite the commitment.   Ezra participated in Public Forum Debate, Original Oratory Speech and Impromptu Speaking.  Ezra is also on the school's JV Scholastic Team and they had a competition in January.  The school's Varsity team placed first and the JV team placed second when competing against different schools in the region.  That earned them a spot at the National History Bowl in Arlington VA.  Ezra also did a written science test that qualified him to do the Science Bee at nationals as well.  

Ezra with a speech trophy

Varsity and JV Scholastic teams

Emmett played some basketball both on a city league team and some church ball. He also played on a co-ed indoor soccer team.  He decided to go on a short-term missions trip with our church to Honduras in March and did some fundraising for that, including being a "waiter" at a fundraising dinner.  He took a trip with some friends to a yurt and enjoyed some night sledding and trying to sleep in the freezing cold.  

Emmett getting ready to be a waiter

Elliott had twice weekly indoor soccer practice with his club team.  He did an indoor 3v3 tournament and his team got 2nd place.  He got a pretty yucky cold and ended up with pain in his ear.  I ended up taking him to the doctor for his ear and he got antibiotics for an ear infection.  I mentioned his foot injury to the doctor as it was still hurting him and the doctor looked at it and recommended getting an X-ray.  We did that at my work and I went in to the radiologist to have him look at it and sure enough his little toe was broken.  Luckily it didn't need surgery, they just recommended buddy taping the toe. 

Elliott working his way through Harry Potter books

I helped cook the dinner for the Honduras fundraising dinner.  It was a really fun time and gave me a chance to get to know our youth pastor and his wife a little better and some of the other adult volunteers that will be going on the trip.  I volunteered to judge at a speech and debate tournament and learned a lot.  My first event was a 3-hour session of "Congress" where the students do a mock session of congress to "pass bills."  There are multiple 2-3 minute speeches and the judge gives feedback on each speech.  It was pretty intense.  

Jim, Elliott and I also went to a Spud Kings hockey game and Jim, Emmett, and Elliott skied at Pomerelle.

Spud Kings hockey game

Elliott and Emmett taking a break from skiing