Pierce College Graduation

Lyla had to stick it out for 3 more weeks after Lakes High School graduation to finish school at Pierce College. She did it and graduated on being on the Dean's List every semester at Pierce. She got her AA and will head to BYU-I will a lot of credits. It made it hard to find classes for Fall semester because she needs to take this class for intro to elementary education before she can take all the other classes and she doesn't need any other electives. She will be taking 2 religion classes, the intro class, a math class and then try to figure out something else. I'm so excited to see her experience BYU-I and enjoy her time there. Liam leaves next week to head off to school in Oregon. She will be sad to say good-bye and then be working here for another month before heading to Idaho. We will try to keep her entertained. 

 

Nona's Performance

Nona got to be part of a children's choir performing with the Ensign Symphony and Choir. It was called Broadway at Benaroya. Benaroya Hall is the best theater in Seattle where the Seattle Symphony perform. They did Circle of Life from the Lion King, My Shot from Hamilton, and Cease the Day from Newsies. Everyone did such an amazing job and it was exciting to be there. She did it with Ruth and Miriam Dahlke and we went and got dessert after at The Capital Grille. They gave us this fun private room and a special dessert that said Congratulations in chocolate. It was a fun night.

Thanks Becky Owen for inviting us to join the group and for carpools to the practices in Bellevue.

 

Senior Trip 2025

 Lyla picked a cruise to Mexico for her senior trip. It was just 3 night and we had to squeeze it in before tennis tournaments, but we had a great time. The weather the first day was amazing and we could do stuff outside. We enjoyed the waterslides, cornhole, water aerobics, ice cream cones, food, laying in the sun and anything else the boat had to offer. The second day was rainy and cold. We tried hard to be outside and spent some time in the hottub, but it was pretty cold. The day in Mexico was fun and we took a tour of a cheese cave/farm. They made ice cream that was delicious, basil lemon and then a ferrero rocher and it was amazing. Then we tried plates of cheese and this jam they make there. After all the tasting they made us lunch. Everything was so good we were super full. It is always fun to spend time with Lyla. I'm sure she was wishing she had a friend there to have a little break from her parents. 

Tennis Senior Year 2025

Lyla had an amazing senior year of tennis. She had a new coach and lots of changes, but right from the beginning of the season he saw he strengths and potential and partnered her with Ava at 1st doubles. She is a strong player at the net and has this deceptively hard serve to return. It just clears the net and doesn't have a lot of bounce after hitting the ground. She hardly ever double faulted and her and Ava learned to step up when the other partner was struggling during a match. They went into League play as 6th and then to District tournament in 7th place and stayed in 7th to make it to State. The State Tournament was so fun to go and watch. We played Mt. Spokane in a single elimination game and they beat us. They went on the get 6-0 by Bellarmine and 6-0 by Hermiston. All the teams at State looked amazing and then would get 6-0, 6-0 in the next round. I joked that we got the pity invite from the private schools. Also joke that Bellarmine is just Tacoma money because they got killed by the Seattle private schools. Mercer Island ended up winning in not a close match. The tournament was in Vancouver and Maggie and her boyfriend came to support Lyla. So nice of them to come and show some love. I am so proud of Lyla and all that she worked through this season and standing up for herself when Ava wanted to change partners at the end of the season. She spoke up and worked hard for her partner. Lyla got sick during their match against Kelso. She threw up after the 1st set they lost and then came back and won the next 2 sets. The Kelso girls kept asking "are you sure" after every out call. It got Ava super fired up and she took it to them. She really covered for Lyla while she was sick. I was a nervous wreck watching all the matches and we teased that I was the homeless lady wondering the building looking for peoples snack because I couldn't sit still. Was an amazing season and finish to her high school tennis journey.

District Tournament in Tukwilla/Kent

senior night w/ Hope and Coach from last year

Liam came to support for senior night then we went to his soccer senior night after.

Nona decorated a bench at the State Tournament

Maggie and her boyfriend

Coach trying to fire them up at State

Tennis Banquet

Varsity Players

 

Ammon Wrestling

Ammon made it to the State tournament for wrestling. We went and watched. He did so well the first day. It made us cry to watch people cheer their family members on. Love Ammon so much. He is such a great kid.

 

 

Senior Year Bowling 2024-2025

Lyla was bowler #4 and this was her 1st time getting over 200!!!

Everyone was so happy for her and celebrated her joining the 200s club.

wings to celebrate the day

What an amazing bowling career Lyla has had. Every year she did better than the year before. It all wrapped up with an amazing day at the State Tournament in Tukwilla at Bowlero. She was such a rockstar. She really brought all the girls she shared a lane with together and was such a team builder. She bowled with girls from Central Kitsap, 2 from Timberline and Lincoln High Schools. She started out with encouraging words as they gathered to walk in introductions and had them high fiving the first game, to cheering and laughing together at the end. The other coaches got picture of them together because they loved the little team that was built. All the girls were amazing and 2 got in the top 15. Lyla bowled her best game ever at 203 and finished 26th out of 79 girls for A3 girls in the State of Washington, plus 1 team from Oregon. I was six games, 3 in the morning (felt a little long getting started), lunch and then 3 afternoon games. I just seem to find myself sitting on the verge of crying this year as we do so many of the "lasts" with Lyla. She is such a fun and amazing person. I sure love hanging around her and watching her do her thing. I will miss her around next year. Nona was also a trooper hanging out all day. Luckily she makes friends easy and had a few little buddies to hang with at the arcade and some high schoolers gave them a card with a ton of points so they could get prizes.

 

Canada Food Tour 2024

 We went up to Canada for Thanksgiving this year. We had to be back for a Hockey game Saturday night so we couldn't do the whole thing with the Chan's so we went early. Thanksgiving day was sunny and beautiful so we rented bikes and rode around Vancouver. We had Indian, Chinese, Japanese and American food. It was so all so good and we ate a lot of it. Another successful trip.