Catch up on Tennis and Other Activities

Other goings-on...Sounders FC season started. We have 4 tickets although we struggle to have everyone available. OL Reign season also started and Julia and Mom were in attendance in the supporter section. It was a ton of fun and we'll definitely be back. We almost wish we had Reign season tickets vs. Sounders. 

Mom won the 35s singles at the CPTC tournament and lost in the finals in doubles with Susie against Andrea and Shelley (3 sets - not the greatest showing). Mom got 6th place in singles and lost in the doubles consolation final (with Kris) at the US Clay Court Championships at the Houston Racket Club. That included a couple of decent wins and a couple I'd like to redo. I won the Wilson World Tennis Tournament in Palm Desert (45 singles and doubles) and had a few nice wins. It was fun traveling with Kris and I'd love to get to know a few more people to travel with. Excited for USTA season starting in April. The Houston tournament was amazing with free breakfast, lunch, some dinner, awesome club, fun 80-90 year olds still playing. Awesome experience!

While at the Wilson, I visited with G&G Felton at Deep Canyon Tennis Club and watched them play with their Weed rackets. Grandma got hooked on wordle. We had some nice restaurant meals at Backstreet Bistro and Okura. 

John survived the Granfondo Ephrata.

Alex is starting to do more "high school stuff". He went out to hot pot with his debate friends and he went to the upper school skating social. I was hoping he'd sign up for soccer but no such luck. He's been riding his e-bike most days and often stops at Town and Country and uses his new debit card (Julia has one too). 

Julia is now doing school track and boxing in addition to soccer. She's closest friends with Mahika, Vika, Kayla, and Mo-Lin but is friendly with everyone. 

We also traveled to Whidbey for an afternoon to see Aaron and Marie. Maeby had fun chasing their puppy. It was great to see them for the first time in 18 months.

Julia's Winter Soccer

Julia's team finished 5-0-3 in her league (I think) and they were champions (via tie break). They also went 1-2-0 in the Las Vegas Mayor's cup tournament. Julia has bounced around between outside defense, center defense, outside mid, and even once in center mid. She's a very reliable and smart player who rarely makes mistakes. She's valuable as a corner kicker and an encouraging teammate. They still have the WA Cup coming in April and then summer practices start in June. They also had a big party for Leah's bat mitzvah and looked beautiful.

Grand Canyon and Las Vegas

For mid-winter break, we flew into Las Vegas and planned to drive to Flagstaff for the night before heading to the Grand Canyon. Easier said than done! We got stuck in a blizzard that closed the freeway before Flagstaff with no viable detours. After nearly 8 hours in the car, we made our way back to Kingman, AZ for the night. We debated heading back to LV in the morning vs. Grand Canyon and decided to risk the road again for Grand Canyon. It was dicey, but we made it and had some gorgeous views. We hiked along the rim trail and then drove back to Vegas. 

While in Vegas, we toured the strip, went to the Real Bodies exhibit, had some good meals (2 Thai dinners, 1 at True Kitchen). John went to the Metallica concert. We also hung out with Julia's soccer friends and watched them go 1-2 in the tournament. It wasn't there greatest showing but some good takeaways and beautiful weather. We also did some hiking at Valley of Fire State Park which was really beautiful.