End of School

Lucy got an award at the end of year assembly. She was one of the nominees for Grade 7 Student of the Year. Sam Hardy was the winner. 

Taylor Barfuss & Hanna at graduation - well, not their graduation but lots of their friends

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Lucy and her friends - future class of 2023

Austin walking into Cardston High School for his last official day as the Principal of Cardston High School

Randy Jensen, Austin and Ken McMurray - Austin's vice principals of CHS

School's Out!  Lunch celebration at Dave's Drive-In

Austin's New Job

Austin has been the principal at Cardston High School for 2 years. I'm not going to lie, it has been way harder than we thought it would be. In his first 6 weeks, he had to deal with a sexual assault, suicide attempts, pregnant students, students with babies, a lawsuit against the school, theft, drugs, etc. High school kids have adult problems. The staff at the high school is also amazing but tough. The majority of them grew up in Cardston, went to CHS, got their degrees in Lethbridge and have taught in Cardston for their whole career.

An opening for the deputy superintendent came open and Austin applied mostly to acknowledge that he was someday interested in a division position. He knew he didn't really want the job and at the end of his interview they asked if he would accept the job if they offered, and he got choked up and said he didn't think so and that he wasn't really ready to leave the school setting.

A couple weeks later an assistant superintendent over student services position came open. He wasn't going to apply. Then he woke up in the middle of the night with the thought that he was supposed to apply. He tried to push it away and didn't even tell me about it for almost a week. He decided that it might be a good fit because he could still be an advocate for students and that it might be better for our family since he spend millions of hours as the high school principal.

So he applied and got the job.

It is definitely with mixed feelings that he leaves his daily interaction with students.

College National Finals Rodeo

Jill had a successful first year of college rodeo and qualified to go to the College National Finals.
The Utah Valley University women's team had won their region, and Jill ended up 4th in the region in goat tying.

The finals were in Casper, Wyoming.  The best news was that Jill got to do all three of her runs on Monday and Tuesday. We left after Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and drove to Casper. We were really excited to see Jill because we hadn't seen her since Christmas.

All of the competitors go twice in the slack on Monday and Tuesday, and then they each get to go in one performance the rest of the week. Jill's draw was for Tuesday evening performance so it worked for us to be able to be there for two days and then drive back on Wednesday.

Jill's first goat run wasn't as smooth as she hoped. She was late getting off and was 10 seconds. Her second run was picture perfect, and she had a time of 6.5 which was a personal best for her. Her third run was 8 seconds.  

This is Jill's friend, Emmalee Dubois. They are both freshman on UVU's rodeo team. Emmalee was ranked #1 in the nation at one point in the season. She was hoping to win. She won the first round! Then her horse came up really sore, so her parents drove all night to meet Emmalee's boyfriend halfway who brought her another horse. She was a little slower in the next horse, but then the judge gave her a 10-second penalty because her horse crossed the rope. (Their coach, Shane Draper, said on the video it doesn't look like he actually crossed). It was heartbreaking for her. The penalty made it so she didn't even make it the short round.

We had a fun trip. We got to see Jill. We got to watch Jill's rodeo runs. We went out to eat one of the days with the Dubois family and one of the days with the Pitchford family. (Have we mentioned that we are still holding out for one of our daughters to marry Kade:)

We also squeezed in some quality USA shopping.  Within a mile of our hotel was Target, JCPenney, Ross, Murdocks, Sam's Club and Wal-Mart. What more could you ask for? We stocked up on clothes and cheese and powdered milk.

Lucy ~ Softball

Lucy's Team - Skylar Schaffer, Amber Virostek, Tori Bevans, Sasha Elliott, Lucy, Alyssa Bevans, Hallee Pilling, Coach Dave Pilling

Front: Cassia Bevans, Amy Bishop, Madison Rowe, Camryn Prete, Allyson Leishman

Lucy's team had a successful season and won all but two of their games. We experienced lots of weather conditions through the season and a few games cancelled because of rain. 

Carly ~ Softball

Carly's coach this year was Ty Schaffer, but since he is in high school and on two other baseball teams, he wasn't always there. Different parents took turns coaching (even I coached one of the games).  Hallee Schaffer coached the last few games of the season.

Coach Hallee Schaffer, Kara Low, Kate Low, Skye Schaffer, Presley Butler, Peyton Heggie, Peyton Schaffer, Noel Conrad, Peyton Pilling, Lainie Leavitt, Carly 

Front: Leah Bevans, Lindsey Blackmore

Track & Field

Lucy competed in triple jump, long jump, 800 and 1500 meters at the Cardston Junior High School track meet. She won first place in the triple jump. She placed in her other events, but only qualified for divisionals in triple jump.

 Carly thought it would be a good idea to miss school to come to Lucy's track meet. She was the self-designated sweeper.  Jill was also home that week so she got to cheer Lucy on in between chiropractor and massage appointments.

 Next was Carly's track meet with Cardston Elementary School. I didn't have Jill's good camera this time so we only have a few pictures from my phone camera.
Carly placed 1st in ball throw, 2nd in long jump, 3rd in triple jump and 4th in relay.

 This is Carly's relay team - Carly, Presley Butler, Marley Cottle, and Micah Card.  Marley has down syndrome and she is in the same class as these girls this year. They have been really good friends to Marley.  The relay team certainly didn't win the fastest time, but it was pretty cool to watch them include Marley in their relay team!

On to divisionals- Lucy placed 6th in triple jump!

Carly won the ball throw at divisionals and placed 4th in the triple jump.