Burke Family: A LOOONG Look Back

Sometime in the middle of May, or whenever....(Ha, ha - that's what I get for being behind!) - we received an email that our school would be switching from the Track system and would be going back to the Traditional school schedule. Reading that email from the principal was like opening the first gift on Christmas Morning! We didn't totally hate the track schedule......having breaks every 9 weeks was somewhat nice, I've gotta admit. However, once Garrett was in Jr. High, I began to really loathe the Track system. With him being on traditional, and Julia and Ty on and off Track all the time, their holiday breaks never seemed to match up and I didn't love that at all. Garrett was home by himself for his Spring Break and he opted to head to St. George with a friend and their family. So.....our family didn't even have Spring Break together. So, when the news came we'd be switching to Traditional, we were super excited. Our kids have never experienced a full summer. Usually, they'd get out of school July 3rd and head back to school in their new grade on July 23rd or so. Two week summers packed with fireworks and Scout Camps are not really a summer!!! It was so much fun this summer, spending time together as a family, traveling for Basketball Tournaments, playing at Lagoon, and having late nights with friends!

Julia had her end of year Chinese program, in which our family had to participate. We had to sing a song in Chinese.....I was nervous. Then, the morning of, when I realized I couldn't pull Garrett out of school, Ty would be on a field trip and Trav had a work mtg....., I really felt sick. I knew at that point, it would be a "Sarah Solo!" I didn't love that idea.....but when it came down to it, Julia sang her heart out and Austy helped pull on the microphone. Gma Davies was there, but by that point, it was too late to teach her Chinese!!! It was over before we knew it, and Mrs. Chen gave us a little Chinese paper cutout, that was pretty neat.

Ty's class performed a Puppet Show about Colonial America with puppets each kid made themselves. I had to sew the puppet shirts for the class. When I volunteered I thought, "Sure! How hard can it be to make a puppet shirt?" And then, once I sat down at the sewing machine, I remembered I'm not a seamstress! Each puppet had a shirt attached to a puppet head at the puppet show, so all ended well!! I absolutely loved Ty's puppet!

Ty brought home a letter from the School P.E. teacher, Mrs. DeVries, stating he was one of 4 students from our school that qualified to compete at the District Decathalon. We were so excited for him. The morning of we were all nervous. Trav, Myself, Gpa Randle, and Gma Davies were all there to support Ty and cheer him on. From the second we walked in to the gym at North Ridge High School, Ty began strategizing how to win that thing! He did awesome! Ty won the 200 meter race and our school took 5th overall.

May 23, 2013 was Ty and Julia's last day of school. Julia had Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Larsen for Kindergarten. Ty's teacher was Mrs. Dandoy.

Both Mrs. Dandoy and Mrs. Chen cried when they hugged our kids good-bye. I loved seeing how much they enjoyed teaching Ty and Sis.....so what the heck! I cried too! I know teachers get paid for their job, but I also know there is so much they do above and beyond on their own time in my children's behalf and I am so grateful. That shows in awesome teachers!

The very next day, we left Julia and Austin home with some amazing babysitters, McCall Padelsky and Mercedes Allen - and we headed off with Ty and Garrett for a Memorial Day Tournament in Las Vegas with their Hard Knox Basketball teams. Such a fun trip and great time watching both teams not only hang with these kids from Vegas, Alaska and California, but blowing them out at times!

Ty's team won the entire tournament, while Garrett's team lost in the Semi-Final game to a team from Anchorage!

When we returned home, we found our garage decorated by our super supportive neighbors the Heap Family. They are always so good to help provide for our kids team and their tournaments and even come to watch them when they can! That was such a fun "Welcome Home!"

Because Ty's team took first in the Vegas Tournament, we were invited to play in the National Championships in Florida. After looking in to the costs, it was just too much for our teams families, especially with such short notice. But, then we were invited to play in the West Coast National Championships in Anaheim over the 4th of July. This one was hard for me. I love our family traditions, and one of my very favorites is the 4th of July. We hang out at a park somewhere in the afternoon, then head to the Davis High Fireworks with my family. To think of not being there for the 4th was hard, but this was an opportunity that may never come again for Ty. So, we loaded up the kids, and headed to California. Our first night there, we Pricelined and got a hotel right near the LAX airport. It wasn't the best place we've stayed, especially being a 5 star place!! But, at the price we got.....beggers can't be choosers! We went swimming that night, then woke up early and headed off to the Grove shopping center. What better way to celebrate the 4th of July than going to the American Girl Doll store. Sis had saved her money so she could go there and get Caroline's hair all done up nice again, and shop around to buy a little something. I'm not sure who loved it more, me or her! What a fun place to wander and dream. We walked all over, until it was time for Caroline's appointment - we stood and watched the whole thing at the salon. SO FUN!!! The boys in our family, however, were not quite as excited! After we had spent some time roaming around the Grove, we drove around Hollywood and Beverly Hills to see how the other half lives. We also stopped by the LA Temple, which we came upon by accident! We were the only ones on the entire grounds. We stayed and walked around for close to 45 mins, then headed to Santa Monica Pier to play in the sand and the ocean and watch the sun set, before heading back to our hotel.

Little did I know......the hotel we were staying at in Anaheim, was just down the street from Disneyland. Hardest thing ever, when we got stopped at the light RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE GATES!!!! Just as my heart was breaking being on the outside looking in, a little cry from the back seat came from Sis....."Can't we just go in, PLEASE?!!!!" There wasn't enough time, nor money during that trip to do so, as much as we all wanted to go, it just wasn't possible!

Our team played awesome, and killed the first 2 teams. The 3rd team we played was considered the #1 team - the team to beat. They came in with such great confidence, like they were just going to eat us alive. We hung with them the entire first half. At one point, we got ahead. Just before half time, Ty landed on his foot funny and came off the court yelling, "Mom, I think it's broken!" I took him over to the physical therapy table. The guy wrapped him up, and felt like he shouldn't play the rest of the game. We were told to watch it and maybe take him in for an xray. We ended up losing the game. Not by much, but we lost. I really believe that would have been a different game, if we could have had Ty. The dynamic of the team was off after that point, when you lose a player. So disappointing. We called around Anaheim that night. There wasn't anywhere to take Ty, other than the ER. With it being the ER and out of State insurance, we decided we wouldn't be able to afford that, and we'd just take him to the Dr. when we got back to Utah. Ty laced up his shoes, and tried to warm up for the next game that next morning, but just couldn't seem to put pressure on his foot. We ended up losing that next game - ending the tournament for us.

We drove home and took Ty to the Dr. the very next day. Sure enough.....there was a fracture in his foot. Dang. Ty was ok with it, as long as he'd be ready for football. The Dr. said he'd be in a boot 6 weeks minimum, which was exactly the amount of time until Ty's first football game! He was placed in a boot, which he could remove to wash his legs and to exercise his muscles a little, so that when the boot came off, he wouldn't be super behind strength wise. I was really proud of Ty....he wore that thing faithfully, so that he wouldn't miss out on Football. That part of it made it really hard, when we went in to the 6 week appointment, only to find out he had at least another 2 weeks to go.

He was pretty bummed. Ty had to sit on the sidelines the first 2 games of the season.