The McDonnell Family. Travis, Susan, Shayly, Ross, Jodee, Gavin.
Life just keeps getting better!
So here it is the end of April. Wow time is moving right along.
So kids are still swimming for MAC, and Shayly and Ross just finished the Arizona High School Water Polo season. Shays team came in 2nd and Ross' team came in 3rd. They are both planning to go the the Jr. Olympics for Water Polo this summer. Ross' is the third week in July and Shay goes the last weekend of July first of August. We are so excited, what a fun experience that will be for all of us.
Trav is super busy at work. That is a good thing. We sure miss him though. He has been putting in about 112 hours a week. Yep, that is right, 112. It's crazy.
Everyone is growing like crazy. Gav may be the only 6 foot kid to start school. Just kidding. For a 3 year old he is really tall though. Shay is taller than me, and Ross is taller than us, about 5' 10" now. He is wearing a size 13 shoe now. Jodee is coming up quick behind us too. Not long before she is us there with the rest of them.
Everyone is doing great.
11-17-08
Ross and Shayly are swimming on the high school team for MAC and we really like coach Peterson. He is the Red Mt high school coach, which is where swims. He has already given the kids a lot of help in stork correction and we have only been there 3 days. It is Monday thru Thursday and Saturday mornings. We have not talked to Bill yet if this will work out for Shay with her water polo but tonight we will.
Jodee will swim with the age group kids at Sheppard because they all go to meets together and the times work better anyway.
Richard and Kristi Service and their family came over for diner and some Sing Star last night and we all had a great time. We plan to get together about once a month from now on.
Work is going great for Trav and he said it is going to get busier really soon.
11-12-08
Tonight Shayly varsity lettered for the second year in a row and also received many other awards, along with a state patch. Her awards were humorous and serious, they were:
Most Devoted Swimmer
Best Attitude
Biggest Splash
Nicest Legs
For busting some uber moves that made everyone jealous and mesmerized at the same timeJ
200 Freestyle school record
500 Freestyle school record
4 x 50 Freestyle Relay
Coach’s Choice Female Swimmer
Brandon Halstead set some school records too. After the banquet Ross told him to enjoy his 2 years of holding them because he was coming to shatter themJ
Tonight the kids started at MAC and said practice was hard and the coach was pointing out things wrong with their stroke. That is great because any tips to get faster is awesome.
Jodee is going to keep doing her after school reading tutoring and just swim Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
McDonnell update…
Shay did great at state. She finished 6th in her 200 yd medley relay, 5th in her 200 free, 13th in her 500 free, and 5th in her 200 free relay. Way to go get it Shay. This week she is going to swim with Mesa Aquatics while waiting for water polo to start next week.
Jodee and Ross had the 4 on 4 water polo tournament this weekend also. Jodee’s team came in second and Ross’ team took 4th. Fun. Trav and Gav went to their event and I went to the swim meet. Now their water polo is done for a while and they start swimming Mesa Aquatics Swim Club.
We went to coach Crysti’s for dinner after the meet last night which was really nice.
Tonight we went to visit Blake Heslop. His cancer seems to be going away with the treatment and we are so excited to hear the great news. He is having a lot of pain from all the meds and cemo. We continue to pray for him and his family to be comforted through this.
Work is still really busy, LOVE THAT!
Wow this Friday is going to be Halloween. No one has decided what they want to be yet except maybe Gavin who is leaning toward Superman. The problem is that Ross was Superman when he was 2 and I made him a fresh costume. To buy one in his size, they are really dorky. So do I get creative and make him one or sell out? Jodee wants to be something Star Wars. Ross is leaving it to the last minute because he says his costumes always turn out better that way. We are good under pressure that is for sure. We get that from Trav.
We did make surgar cookies and decorate them so now I offically feel like it is getting to be the holidays. I have done that every year since I was little. Probably when Wes was like 3 or so. I remember doing them with Sharon. Maybe it wasn't til they went to BYU. I always think of that with fond memories.
The Thanksgiving trip to Utah is off. Trav's mom is going to Hawaii instead. Yep you can tell where we fall in her priority list:) Ok, so we would all pick sand and surf probably.
Sam's baby is still on oxygen, hope he gets stronger and off everything soon.
Reginols and State are coming up this weekend and next. Go Shay, shatter some records.
Jodee and Ross will be playing in the 4 on 4 water polo tournament this weekend. Hope to get some great photos.
Ross' football tournament is coming up too.
Our Amazing Family Vacation
of 2008
My family is so amazing. I love them so much. Of course Trav is my very sexy best friend in the world and I love him more every single day of my life. I have always loved and enjoyed my kids, but each day that goes by they become more fun and amazing. We enjoy them as teenagers; they are smart, funny as hell and kind and considerate to each other and to us. I am the luckiest mom ever.
Thursday, October 16th we drove to LA. On the way we stopped at to see these dinosaurs, the ones in PeeWee’s Big Adventure. We saw a camel made out of wheels, and introduced the kids to the movie ’s World for the first time. Party on kids.
That night after checking into the hotel we drove around looking for somewhere new eat. Instead we just saw a ton of freaks and ate at Chili’s. Freak fest could actually be the theme of this trip. Man there are a lot of them.
Friday morning we drove to Universal Studio’s and had a fun day there. First thing we did was go to the lower lot and rode the Jurassic Ride. Well Trav, Shay, and Jodee did and Ross, Gav and I ate lunch. For those of you who don’t know, Ross and I HATE roller coaster type rides of any kind. So we choose to do other things while the other guys go on them. Well after they went on this ride they came back and said we really needed to go because it was no biggie, super mild. Ross and I decided we would go, we got totally fished in. It was not as mild as they claimed and Ross and I almost disowned our family for getting us to go on it.
After we recovered from that, we went to more attractions like, the studio tour, the backdraft show, special effects, The Water World show and stuff like that. When the park closed at 6pm we went to the pier and hung out for a while.
Saturday was the day we spent the whole day at the beach. On the way we got caught in a Mongols Biker funeral precession. Wow! That was so ominous. There had to be at least a thousand bikes, they had there skull face covers and jackets on. Something you don’t see every day.
So the beach was excellent. Ross and Jodee tried their hand at surfing for the first time and loved it. We love the beach so much and all had a great time relaxing.
That night by accident we ended up at which was another freak fest. It was just Ross, Shay and I walking around. Jodee and Gav were asleep in the car so Trav stayed with them.
That is where Ross got his cool new hat and we got a killer slice of pizza.
Sunday we got donuts at Randy’s, those donuts were soooo yummy. Then back to Universal. On the way there we got ran into a detour and ended up driving all over and on Sunset blvd, , and which we returned to later.
At Universal we finished up the attractions and saw more characters. We say The Blues Brothers, SpongeBob, Diego, Beattlejuice, and others.
After we left and went to the walk of fame, and this might have had the most freaks of all in one place. People dress up in random costumes and hang out down there letting you take your picture with them for tips. Interesting.
We finished our tour of LA by driving on . It was fun and the view was wonderful.
So in a nut shell, we had a blast. I am happy to be home and safe. LA is an interesting place to visit, but it is too much of everything. Total overload to every one of my senses.