STATE TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Utah Track and Field State Championships were held Friday and Saturday at BYU. McKayla turned in some great performances! Her highlight was taking 2nd in the 3200m with a time of 10:54 making her one of only about 15 females in the history of Utah to ever go under 11 minutes in the 3200m.

She also had good placing in the 1600m taking 3rd in that event. She ran strong and pushed the leaders.

She also ran the 800m leg of the medley relay on both days (once to qualify Riverton for the finals and once in the finals). She ran a good time and Riverton took 5th. They were in 7th place in the finals when she took over and she managed to pass 2 runners who had a pretty good lead on her. The rest were just too far ahead.

The big news for Riverton was that the boys are the State Champions! This was mostly due to our amazing 400m runners. They took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th! Yes, truly, RHS placed 5 runners in the finals and all of them medalled! Woohoo! Then 4 of those same boys teamed up to run the 4x400m relay and broke the 5A state record Woohoo! (Funny sidenote - McKayla has dated 2 of the 4 - Michael and Brandon who were 2nd and 3rd respectively.)

Shanley and McKayla share a sisterly-bonding moment amidst the state championship celebration.

McKayla and Taylor Cox from Davis High have been friends/rivals for a couple of years.

A picture of RHS athletes who qualified for state along with the coaches. Riverton had 25 athletes qualify (not all stayed for the pictures).

This is all the distance runners who are graduating this year. The three in the front and center are the three that qualified for state. As you can see, McKayla is not only the lone female that qualified for state, she is the lone female that is a senior. Coach Chase Englestead is on the far left. He is the cross-country coach, distance coach, and head track coach.

Most of the team came to BYU to support their teammates. Here is a photo of those who stayed to help accept the trophy!

Wicked Sense of Humor

First, some background information -  McKayla and Michael Bluth liked each other from the end of 9th grade to about halfway through 11th grade.  He wasn't old enough for them to actually date until the last 9 months of that time.  After 11th grade, Brandon and McKayla started dating.  They have been together for about 11 months.  Michael and Brandon are good friends.

Now, for the funny story.  Last week the senior class had their awards ceremony.  McKayla and Michael won the award for cutest couple.  Yep, you read that right - McKayla and MICHAEL!

Apparently, Michael thought it would be funny and he started lobbying.  I guess enough people agreed that it would be funny.  Michael really hammed it up at the awards assembly.  He just happened to be sitting right in front of Brandon and McKayla and when they said "Cutest couple goes to..."  Michael clasped his hands in the air in praying position and yelled "Please!"  When their names were announced, Michael jumped up and turned around and pulled McKayla out of her seat.  Brandon stood up like he was going to walk up to the stage with them but Michael pushed him back into his seat.  Michael escorted McKayla to the stage while he was fist-pumping in the air and she was burying her face in her free hand.  About halfway through shaking hands, Michael grabbed McKayla in a huge hug and walked off the stage that way while the student body chanted "KISS HER.  KISS HER" 

McKayla said some of their friends were laughing so hard that tears streamed down their cheeks.  Michael kept it up that day.  He kissed her hand.  While they were at the track team dinner, he said "Hi beautiful!" so Brandon said "Don't talk to my girl that way" and Michael said "She was mine first" and they pretend fighted.

It certainly makes me chuckle!

various pics

Here's the quilt I made Mason when he was born:

McKayla ran a leg of the 4x400 relay race at Simplot Games. Her team took 6th overall so they got medals. Top row is Kylee Tirrell and Bre Bate. Bottom row is Lexi Jackson and McKayla. They other three are regular members of the 4x400 team.

I snapped a quick photo of the boys' and girls' 4x400 teams before McKayla and I raced off trying to get back to Mason's baby shower. The boys (L-R) are Alec Abercrombie, McKay Christensen, Clay Lambourne, and Michael Bluth. Alec was filling in for Brandon Walker who had just had his tonsils removed.
When we went to California for the Arcadia Invitational, Kevin, McKayla and I took the time to go to the Los Angeles Temple.

McKayla and Brady Early were the Riverton High distance runners at Arcadia.

teacher appreciation

On top of everything else going on last week, it was also Teacher Appreciation Week. On Monday I helped fix "Cafe Rio" type food for all the faculty and staff at Riverton High. That was an all-day project.

Throughout the week, I put goodies in the boxes of all the faculty and staff (190 in all). I had attached notes to all these fruit snacks for one day (this is only about half of the snacks in the picture). Another day I had attached notes to bags of chips. One day they got coupons for free cookies from Great Harvest.

These were coupons for free Premium Salads from McDonald's.

My favorite was these darling (and very yummy) cupcakes decorated to look like apples with a gummy worm, pretzel stem, and fondant leaf. The cupcakes were apple spice. Luckily, I didn't have to make the cupcakes (just the tags). The restaurant class at the high school made them for me (just charging me for the ingredients). They even hand-delivered them!

All 2nd - all the time

It was the Region Track Meet last week.  McKayla ran the 1600m, 800m, and 3200m races.  She took 2nd in all 3 (losing each time to Lucy Biles (who holds the 5A state record in the 1600m and 3200m and was last year's state champ in both).  In addition, the Riverton girls' team took 2nd place at the meet and the combined scores for the Riverton boys' and girls' put them at 2nd place overall.

McKayla missed the school record in the 800m by 0.4 seconds which was a bummer especially since she won't run it again.

McKayla is qualified for the state competition in the 3200m, 1600m, 800m, the medley relay, and the 4x400m relay.  She will run the 3200m, 1600m, and the medley relay.  That will give her plenty of races!

baby blessing

This is how far behind I am on blogging - Mason was blessed on April 6th - 37 days ago! Even though it was General Conference, the family met at Brakston and Whitney's ward building that Sunday evening. Brakston gave Mason the blessing. My favorite thing was that Mason was wearing the outfit that Brakston was blessed in (my mom made it for him). I thought that was really cool!

Accident

I am so behind on blogging. Life has been so very crazy! Three days last week I left my home at 7 am and returned at either 9 or 10 pm. Even the days I got home earlier, I had so many things to get done that night that I couldn't do it all. So, blogging just has not happened.

Shanley was involved in an accident last Tuesday. This is the car that caused it all.

Shanley was coming home from track practice about 4:15 pm. The lady in the car in front of her stopped for 2 girls in a crosswalk. Shanley stopped well behind her. A guy in a Honda Pilot stopped behind Shanley. However, the lady in the Acura pictured above was turned around talking to her sons in the backseat and did not stop at all. She hit the Pilot hard enough the driver's headrest snapped clear off and the entire seat broke. The Pilot slammed into Shanley causing the damage pictured below. This all pushed Shanley into the car in front of her. That car did not look badly damaged and the front of our car was relatively unscathed. However, when the car in front of Shanley tried to open it's back doors, they were difficult to open meaning there was damage to the car's frame. In other words, most likely at least 3 of the cars if not all 4 are totalled. Here's the car Shanley was driving:

Luckily, no one was seriously hurt - nothing beyond soreness, seatbelt burns, airbag burns, that sort of thing. The accident really shook Shanley up. She is now afraid to drive. She hasn't had her license very long so she is relatively inexperienced. The officer gave us permission to drive our car home as long as I was following directly behind it but Shanley did NOT want to drive. Luckily, McKayla was still at the high school (not too far away) so she ran to the accident site and she drove the car home.

The back window of our car was completely shattered (glass even flew into the front seats) but we laughed because the vinyl R (for Riverton High) held a large piece of glass intact.