Snowed in!

Doug, Cooper and Kinley left on Friday right after school and headed for Utah for Thanksgiving and it's a good thing they did! It started snowing on Saturday and really hasn't quit yet. Parts of I-80 across Wyoming have been closed off and on and the biggest storm is on its way tonight!

Kaiya had her last meet before the big state meet on Saturday night and then flew to Utah early Sunday morning. I think we were both wondering, initially, if we should have just skipped the meet and headed to Utah with the rest of the family, but she quickly changed her mind after the very first event of the meet. This girl is like a new kid--no more nerves and just so much confidence! She started on beam and got her first 9.0 ever on that dumb piece of equipment! I've never seen her so happy. The rest of the meet followed suit and she had a season best of an 8.7 on floor, an 8.40 on vault and another 9.0 on bars. Her all-around score was a whopping 35.10--good enough for 7th place overall. So, now not only has she qualified for the state meet, but she has scored high enough to move up to Level 6!

Best meet ever--holding their team trophy!

We got to the airport by 6:30 on Sunday only to find out that our flight was delayed for an hour, so we both caught a quick cat nap on each other. Since being in Utah, it has been nonstop action of cousins, 4 wheeler rides, more cousins, sled rides behind the 4 wheeler and a trip up to Utah State's campus to check things out. I called the head gymnastics coach at Utah State (he was an assistant when I was there) and he was so excited to have us come up and watch practice. Kinley and Kaiya were both wide-eyed as I've ever seen them. The gymnasts were so nice and came up to introduce themselves. So fun! Then, we went down to the brand new athletic facilities and my best bud Lori gave them a full tour since she is the head physical therapist at this facility. Coop and Doug got to see the new football locker rooms and meeting facilities and Hall of Fame.

Checking out the USU gym practice

Because of the nasty weather, I am not going to try to fly home until Thursday (Lori and her family aren't even going to attempt the drive now) and will just work Thanksgiving night. Whew! Until then, we have lots more time to play with cousins and go hang out with Lori and her kids. Wohoo!!

Sled rides behind the 4-wheeler

Smoked 12 turkeys with dad, Grandpa and the uncles!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

A ginormous birthday weekend

I think Kaiya will remember her 10th birthday if for no other reason, it feels like it just keeps going! The weekend started with her birthday party at our house and ended tonight with getting to request what I made for dinner and getting presents from us.

I only let my kids have an actual birthday party every other year (I know, I'm mean) and this was Kaiya's year. We were going to have her party at Michael's (craft store), but they were busy with holiday crafts until late in the afternoon. So, we just took their list of party craft ideas and found one we wanted and got all the stuff to do at our house. It really turned out great and I was amazed at how into the craft these girls were. It was quite a mix of girls--her two besties from the gym, a handful of school friends and church friends and her buddy from Greeley that she's know since she was a baby. They each painted and decorated a wooden first letter of their name, played Just Dance on the Wii, ate pizza and a cookie pie and just giggled like girls. Kaiya hugged me after they all left and said it was her best birthday ever and almost had tears in her eyes. Made my day! After her friends left, we had a little spa night in which I helped her shave her legs for the first time and did a "green treatment" on her hair to remove the green stripes that continue to plague her blonde locks (from copper in our pipes).

Ready to party

Not a cake fan, so she requested a giant chocolate chip cookie

Hard at work on her craft

The whole gang

Fancy new leo from Sara

Thanks, Josi!

Have known each other since they were 5 months old!

A giant monkey for the Monkey girl

Showing off their finished products

She had a meet on Sunday (which is thankfully her only Sunday meet) and it was down to crunch time with only two meets left to qualify. I had my doubts as soon as we walked into the gym and I saw that the two most evil judges in the state were there. Both of them have been around forever (seriously . . . they both judged in my club and college meets 20 years ago!) and both have a reputation for being nasty. In fact, my college coach Ray once threw his shoe at the judge who was on floor! The other one is referred to as "Picky Vicky". So, I wasn't too optimistic.

The meet started kind of rough--the group before our girls were all tiny little robots and they were getting amazing scores. But, as soon as our group started, it was obvious that they preferred the tiny tikes. Kaiya did a good floor routine, but only got a 7.75. She needed a 33.0 in the all-around to qualify, which is an 8.25 average. Not a good start!

Then, she went to vault and completely screwed up her run into her first vault and barely made it over. Oops!! Luckily, they take the highest of the two vault scores and she nailed the second one for an 8.50--her highest of the year.

Off to bars, which is her best event by far, and she did a great routine and scored an 8.75. It all came down to beam and Picky Vicky. Ugh!!! She has worked so hard on beam during the last month because she has had such a rough time on beam in past meets. I think she probably did a hundred routines in the last two weeks.

My parents were both there and we all looked like we might throw up before her beam routine. I can't believe I'm putting them through this drama twice! I had to actually leave and go stand somewhere else to watch. As as added incentive to stay on the beam, they announced at the beginning that every girl who stuck beam got a cute pink and black bag that said "I stuck beam!"

And that she did--she stuck beam! We had all done the math and knew she needed an 7.95 to qualify. I later found out that Kaiya knew what she needed as well--she had done the math on a little notepad in her bag. Well, she did it! She got an 8.55 and we had some tears all around.

Gymnastics is a stupid, subjective sport sometimes, but she worked so hard toward this goal and it is neat to see her achieve it, especially since she was a Level 4 last year and was able to qualify in her first year as a Level 5.

After the meet, we went to Old Chicago to celebrate her birthday with family and she got spoiled again. What's so funny, though, is despite all these amazing gifts she got, she would tell you her favorite is probably the giant stuffed monkey she got from her gym buddy. Guess she's not totally grown up yet. :)

To round out her big weekend that just keeps going, she had a music concert at school on Monday night and tonight was just us. I took treats to her school class today and she got her presents from us and then we enjoyed a fairly low key night. Sure love this young lady--she is growing up so fast and I'm so proud of who she is becoming. She is going to give me a run for my money in the coming years, but she is a good kid and we love this blondie!!

New luggage from Papa

Guess we will all be listening to her iTunes now

The fan club

So spoiled

Key lime pie--her absolute fav!

iPods rule!

The pressure cooker, state qualifying beam routine!

Cute cat

Miss Kinley had another dance performance this weekend in Boulder. They did two dances--the Shining Star disco number that I've posted before and their new one from the musical CATS. They did a really good job and the girls loved dressing up as cats with makeup and all.

The stage where they performed was actually inside the Boulder Public Library and it was a great venue. They had dancers from all over the area performing all day.

Kinley is moving to a new dance studio starting today (and this should be the last move!). I have really loved her instructors at Mountain because they are so positive and she really had fun, which is the most important thing to me at this age. She also loved getting to do some gymnastics in her combo class like her big sis. One of the biggest problems was that the classes she should have been taking all started too early for us to get her there in time, which meant either being late or pulling her out of school early. It was nice having her at the same place as Kaiya, but the time frames didn't overlap as much as we had hoped, so it still meant multiple trips to Lafayette and back. That, coupled with the fact that Mountain was still trying to build their dance program made it tough. So, Kinley is moving to a closer studio in Longmont--the same one that she did the workshop a few weeks ago and loved. She is such an easy-going kid that as long as she gets to dance (and be with her buddy, Maddie), she is happy!

Two cute cats!

Here is her CATS performance and a fun one from her workshop a few weeks ago. I was having problems getting them to load--if they don't work now, I give up!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great night, but I think I'm a little sad that my kids are getting older. Coop didn't even want to dress up (although from the amount of teenagers I saw out there, maybe he's not too old . . sheez!), so he and I stayed home and handed out the loot. After a while, he got jealous of all the goodies and put on something and headed out for one street and then we went to visit friends.

The girls seriously LOVE Halloween and usually start planning their costumes in July. Kinley wanted to be a cowgirl and Kaiya decided on Judy Jetson, which is funny because no one even knows who she is anymore. I thought Kinley was going to bust and I had to restrain her from trick-or-treating at 4:30.

The toothless cowgirl

The other pics are from their parties at school (although my dear husband forgot the camera at the breakfast party in Kinley's class since I had to be at a work meeting that morning), a birthday party for Kinley's best buddy at school, and from our pumpkin carving night at home . We roasted the best pumpkin seeds this year . . brown sugar, cinnamon, coarse salt, and butter. Yum!! And, I'm pretty proud of our Rockies pumpkin. Kaiya did the logo completely by herself and Doug carved it.

So happy to finally ride a horse . . . OK, a pony

Kinley's best buds at school

Pretty proud of our Rockies pumpkin!

Until next year . . . . .

Struttin' their stuff

Once again, Kaiya and Kinley kept us super busy this weekend. Kaiya had a meet clear down in Castle Rock on Saturday night and Kinley had a 6-hr dance workshop in Longmont. When it was all over, Kaiya told me she wishes she would have just enrolled in the dance workshop instead. Yeah . . . it was that bad.

We were excited about this meet because it was small and looked to be a quick and easy meet. Her coaches picked it for that very reason. It turned out to be a JOKE. The gym backed up to some railroad tracks that had loud trains rolling through in the middle of the meet, there was NO seating for families, it started an hour late, and the judges would have been better suited to judging pies at a county fair. So frustrating! BUT, Miss Kaiya hit 4 for 4 routines and felt so good about her performance that we are going to take it and run! She started on bars and did the same great routine she has done all year and scored a 7.10 (that scored a 9.0 two weeks ago). I thought her coach was going to go postal! After the rotation was over, she walked over to the judge with Kaiya in tow (which is not like her coach at all) and demanded an explanation, showing her the code of points that showed she was wrong. Turns out the judge just finished her training and had all these laminated cheat sheets in front of her and had NO clue what she was doing. I really thought her coach was going to just take our girls and walk out.

I was so proud of Kaiya, though, because she shook it off (realizing there is nothing you can do about a bad judge) and nailed her beam routine. She finally stuck one and she was all grins. This girl has worked so dang hard on that stupid beam and she was so happy. She finished out with great floor routines and good vaults and ended up 5th in the all-around, but just shy of qualifying again. Ugh!! I was so proud of her for keeping her chin up and recognizing that the judges were nuts. Subjective judging in sports is NOT fun sometimes!!

Miss Kinley had the time of her life at her workshop. A professional traveling dance group called Fusion traveled to Longmont and put on a 6 hr workshop. She and her dance buddy did it together today and had a blast. I have never seen a couple of kids learn complicated dances so fast. They had 4 one hour classes and had to learn a new dance in each one. The one posted below is the hip-hop class to "Can't Touch This." So cute! Keep in mind she learned this dance in one hour and then performed it for us at the end of the day.

5th place!

"U Can't Touch This!"

Adolescence

I have decided that I might need to take up yoga or something to get me through the adolescent years that lie ahead in this household. Having a boy as my oldest was supposed to make this transition easier, but I think that is a myth.

I feel like I don't even remember when Cooper was little and it is all a big blur. He is such a great kid, but he has had to deal with some mild bullying at school and is just dealing with other aspects of growing up. He tried the 'girlfriend' thing for about a week, but when she started texting him all the time, he checked out and dumped her.

Then, on Friday he had his semi-annual pacemaker check-up and Dr. Schaffer decided to have him wear a 24 hr holter monitor to check the function of his SA node and to take a further look at his coronaries. Apparently, at his last check-up, Dr. Schaffer saw something that made him want to investigate further. His pacemaker is working great now after some issues with it over the last year and he was even able to turn down the amount of energy required to make it capture (meaning the battery still has 7 years left!), but Dr. Schaffer gave me the impression that there are just enough small anomalies that he needs to keep a close eye on him over the next few years.

I forget sometimes that the surgery Cooper had was only successfully done for the first time about 15 years before he was born. The coronary arteries that feed the heart itself were among those structures that were in the wrong place and had to be switched using stitches that are thinner than a human hair. It stands to reason that messing with them would cause some trauma and some issues later in life--I've just chosen to not think about it.

Anyway, the holter monitor is a very simple test--you wear a small box that you clip to your pants and you have 5 EKG leads on your chest. It gives excellent data not only about the electrical status of your heart, but can show things like ischemia in certain areas, hypertrophy, etc. I'm amazed what you can see from an EKG. Cooper was not pleased that he had to wear it (major understatement here). I think the culmination of what's been going on at school and then not wanting to feel different was the last straw. How easily I forget that middle school can just be ROUGH!!!

As we were leaving the hospital, we ran into one of Cooper's friends that just spent a month at Children's for necrotizing fascitis and nearly lost his arm. He, too, was there for an appt. God works in mysterious ways sometimes because there we were in the lobby at Children's and Cooper is not happy with his holter and his friend had just been poked and had some painful stitches removed and suddenly they didn't care anymore. They instantly forgot their own problems and we ended up having lunch with them. Of course, I had to get a picture of them without shirts on. :)

So, after a drama-filled week, I then got an e-mail from one of Cooper's teachers telling me he had been selected for a behavior award and his picture would be on the wall for the week (probably means more teasing, but oh well!). Here were her comments, "As teachers, we see many responsible students every day. They come to class prepared to learn. They have pencil and paper ready, and they come to class with a positive attitude and that's infectious. When they are missing something for class, they are the student who finds a solution, not an excuse. Although many of our students are responsible, we chose one student who best exemplified this train. It is with pleasure that the 7th grade team honors Cooper Lindhardt." Made my day and helped me remember that even though parenting can be so hard and such a roller coaster sometimes, it is worth every ounce of effort and the most important job I will ever have!

Photos, dances, meets and a new job! Whew!

I am way behind on current events, so this is a jumbled post!

We had family photos taken last weekend by my friend, Kris, and I couldn't be happier! I feel kind of responsible for pushing her into doing this as more than just a hobby because we were her first family photo shoot last June. :) We are truly not a photogenic group and struggle with natural smiles, etc., so these are even that much more amazing.

Last weekend before we had a photos taken, Kinley had her first performance with her new dance company. It was so dang cute! It was a disco number that was a full 3 minutes long and she really knew her stuff. They performed on a stage in old town Louisville (which reminds me of a mini Aspen or Vail) while a big farmer's market was going on. So fun! And, the best part was that their costumes were just bright shirts from home and black pants. They looked great! Kris took these awesome photos, too.

Boogie on down!

Here is a link to the video of the performance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQUNaGBPD9o

On Thursday, I found out that I got a new job!! It was something I had interviewed for in June and took this long to come to fruition. I will be transferring within Children's Hospital to the North Campus, which is 15 minutes from my house. No more one hour commute and nearly falling asleep at the wheel each morning on my drive home. I have some mixed emotions--I will really miss my cardiac kiddos, but I'm looking forward to learning so much more. The North Campus is an emergency room/urgent care facility as well as a short-stay inpatient unit. It's where I've taken my own kids for staples in Cooper's head, a baseball to the eye and when Kaiya had her asthma attack. So excited!!

Then, rounding out the week was Kaiya's 3rd gym meet of the season. She continues to improve and was one step closer to qualifying for state (missed it by only 0.5). She looked so confident, but still had her troubles on beam. She got her first 9.0 on any event last night (bars) and ended up winning the event plus her team also won and she still placed 5th in the all-around! We got to go out to dinner after the meet with her fans, Brandon and Erika, so that was a real bonus, too. Doug stayed home with the other two kids so that Cooper could be in the homecoming float as a 7th grade representative for his school. He had a blast. It's probably a good thing I wasn't at the homecoming game with them last night because sources tell me Cooper was walking around at the game with his friends, one of whom he claims is his girlfriend. Yikes!!

5th place All-Around!

1st place Level 5 team trophy!

When we are not running around doing activities, I feel like my other part-time job is that of a tutor! Kaiya and Kinley both got selected to be in a gifted and talented program at school, which just means more difficult homework. Between algebra, etc. for Cooper and the girls, I feel like we are stretched so thin, yet I couldn't be more proud of my kids.