February 2024

During February Annika traveled with her soccer team (and the 2009 team) to Phoenix for a tournament.

Pretty sure there's a special place in heaven for chaperones who travel with teenage sports teams.

Not a bad way to spend a February weekend coming from Colorado.

They had lots of fun -- won some and lost some.

The next weekend Clifton and I flew to VA to visit Shereen and two of her kids. This is one of those beautiful friendships that is a rock in my life, even though the craziness of our lives means we can go months without connecting. It was great to catch up and see a little piece of her life and hike to the top of  Flat Top Mountain. 

Reason two for the visit -- we bought their Pilot and drove it back to Colorado. I'm sure there are more efficient ways to buy a new vehicle, but we were so excited to see her and to have a kidless car trip across the country that we didn't even care.

Meanwhile Holly and the Parsons were on kid duty and took them to the NAACP Freedom Fund event where Anthony Ray Hinton was the guest speaker. I wish I could've been there for this.

Steve went skiing for an afternoon with Asher and Annika.

Stringathon is an annual concert where the middle school orchestra plays together. There are ten levels that students are encouraged to learn at home. Once you have mastered level one and auditioned for the teacher, you can move onto level two, etc. So the number of kids playing at each level gets smaller.

Annika worked really hard on her pieces -- here are the 15 or so kids still playing level 10. 

I'm so grateful for a school that prioritzes music. And this guy is something else. Mr. Vue takes a bunch middle school kids, most of whom have never touched their instrument before, and teaches with a balance of passion and humor that makes them love it too.

Suzi, Lindsay and I went on a girls' weekend with our high school daughters. 

We went to the IF Gathering in Fort Worth, a weekend conference about Jesus for women.

While we were in town we did college tour of TCU.

TCU probably isn't on Naomi's radar for schools, but being on a college campus definitely made her excited for college.

They may be looking at colleges, but not too big to play with the water features in the hotel pool.

We had dinner at this amazing Mexican restaurant

Back home Sarah played a little ditty on a ukulele at Arts Night. 

And Annika did whatever this is with her buddies.