Kayden participated in his first karate tournament. He was super nervous but did well!
Being judged on his form.
He also competed in weapons forms.
And he did some sparing. He looks pretty tough!
It was a good experience for him and he learned a lot. Next time he will know what to expect and won't be so nervous! It sure was fun watching him compete.
It has been a brutal winter. This day was particularly bad. School really should have been canceled or at least delayed in starting. When Jaxon made it school he found half the student body missing and a few teacher as well that were unable to make it to school. There wasn't much learning going on that day as you can see from the above video.
That's right. Jaxon jumped into a 6 foot snow drift that was outside his classroom window.
The boys' Jr. High celebrated turning 25 this year. As part of their celebration, they invited back some of the basketball players from the past 25 years. They tried to get at least one player from each team. They invited all the past players and coaches out onto the court during half time of a basketball game to snap a picture with the current team.
Jaxon is on the back row on the left. McKay would have loved to have been there too.
Jaxon was asked to Preference by a foreign exchange student from Italy that is in his Spanish class. I found the following on our front porch one afternoon:
The sign roughly translates to: "Having you as a date to Preference would be like having beer for Christmas." That was about the funniest thing I had ever seen, especially in Utah County!
Jaxon all dressed up and looking sharp for his Preference date.
Jaxon, his date Giorgia, Kennedy and her date.
Jaxon and Giorgia
Jaxon's face here is priceless. I don't think he knew what to think!
McKay and Jaxon had the most awesome Spanish teacher, Kathy Taylor. To them she was Señorita and she was much more than a teacher. She passed away suddenly after receiving surgery and it was quite a blow to the kids. It was quite the blow to me because I know how much my kids love her. The school put the following video together as a tribute to her:
One of Señorita's last requests was that her funeral be held on a school day so that the kids would get out of school early to be able to attend. That would be her last gift to her students. It was an amazing funeral. She wanted a speaker at her funeral that would just tell jokes. So her brother got up and told a bunch of jokes. They had two students get up and read just memories of her that the students all shared. Another passed student got up and shared what made her such a great teacher. The funeral was short per her wishes. After the funeral she wanted to have a party for all who attended. So they delayed taking her to the cemetery and invited everyone to stay for pizza and other treats and also to put together jigsaw puzzles which was a favorite thing of hers.
They brought out hundreds of puzzles and just about as many pizzas and
everyone stayed. There were a lot of students there that also stayed.
It was just what she would have wanted.
Mr. Smith is the Spanish teacher at the Jr. High and came to support Señorita and all her students. Our family loves Mr. Smith.
They displayed many of the items from Señorita's classroom. Many of these items have a lot of memories for McKay and Jaxon:
The trophy that McKay and Jaxon helped win last year at the language
fair. McKay was so honored to be able to deliver this trophy to
Señorita. It was definitely one of the highlights of his senor year.
