Sports Night(s), AKA The Triumph Of The Jazz And Then The Broncos

Hey! A blog post, after almost a month! Sorry, everyone, February has been a "lost month" for our family...we caught the flu bug this year and all of us were terribly sick at some point during the month. More on that later, perhaps...but I am really hoping I can get at least one more blog post done before the month ends. (Thank goodness it's a Leap Year; otherwise I'd be doomed! Hooray for calendar-required extra days of the year!).

Anyway, I've been looking for opportunities to go on "mother-daughter dates" with my girls lately. Nathan takes each girl out to dinner for their birthday, and they love that tradition, but it has made me wonder whether I shouldn't take similar opportunities when they pop up. Since her tastes run similar to mine, I've thought Lorelai would be the easiest kid to "plan a date" with. Sure enough, an opportunity on Groupon soon presented itself!

Lorelai has been very interested in basketball on and off throughout the year; after we attended a college basketball game last year, she talked about someday watching an actual NBA or WNBA game. I agreed that it would be a fun idea, and started investigating the possibility. To my pleased surprise, Groupon (the discount deals website) frequently has Phoenix Suns tickets for sale! The seats are in the nosebleed section of the arena, and usually you have to buy them for games that are just a week or two away, so there isn't a lot of preparation time. This was problematic when I first discovered the tickets for sale; it was early November, and we had our holiday strictly scheduled out already. But a friend of mine told me in January that the Groupon tickets were back...this time for a series of games in early February, a much less busy time for us. With Lorelai's approval, I bought two tickets, and our date was set!

Since the game wasn't until 7:00 at night, we decided it would be best to drive up there in time for dinner. We also decided to get up there just before dinner, so we could pick up the dinner for the next night before we had dinner that night.

Got all that? Long story short, Lorelai and I left home at about 2:30 pm. As soon as we arrived in the Phoenix area, we headed to our favorite restaurant, Rudy's BBQ, to pick up a bunch of goodies for dinner with Grandma Barrett the following night.

Mmm. What a delicious pile of meat we bought! It would stay wrapped up neatly in the trunk of our car until we brought it home late that evening.

Weird sculptures in downtown Phoenix...

...that of course Lorelai tried to climb on.

After that, Lorelai and I went and bought our pre-game dinner, at a nearby Five Guys Burgers and Fries. It was just a short walk away from the basketball arena.

The burgers at Five Guys are seriously delicious, as are their "Cajun-style" spicy fries. Our only problem? We ordered way too many fries. I got a "large" order, and that ended up filling a whole paper bag! We had to run back to our car and stick the greasy bag of fries in with the Rudy's food. At least we would have a lot of heavy, fatty, salty, delicious treats for the following evening. It was Super Bowl Sunday...and everyone knows there's no better time to each that type of food!

Finally, my first-born and I made it into Talking Stick Resort Arena, home of the Phoenix Suns. Lorelai was in awe of the swanky professional sports arena. I was feeling pretty excited myself; it had been a really long time since I'd attended an NBA game. I went to several Nuggets games in my youth and college years, and once right after Nathan and I were married. This was the first time I'd ever seen the Suns play live, and their opponent that night was the dreaded Utah Jazz!

The seats, as I'd suspected, were pretty darn high up. Lorelai was a little disappointed at first, but ended up enjoying herself anyway. We were still able to clearly see everything that went on. I told Lorelai that we should probably pick a team to root for, and then stick to rooting for that team throughout the game, no matter what. Apparently, my girls think it's okay to root for "whichever team is winning"... a breach of spectating etiquette, if you ask me! Since we are both Arizonans, we decided to cheer for the Suns...

...who then proceeded to lose the game! Sadly, it was never a very close contest. The Jazz were clearly the better team, and played like it all night. Lorelai got frustrated that "her" team was losing; I had to gently remind my competitive child that accepting losses is an important life skill. In spite of the Suns' losing effort, we still had a great time together. We got to talk a lot about sports, school, and life in general.

We also enjoyed all the special "in-between" events that happened between quarters and during time-outs. The dancers strutted their stuff; the mascot performed crazy stunts and wild antics on-court; regular folks from the audience entered free-throw challenges for huge piles of cash. And the T-shirt guns, too, of course...we musn't forget those!! Unfortunately, we were seated so high up, that no T-shirts made it to us. The funniest thing I saw was a Burger King-sponsored "sandwich drop"...a bunch of arena staff walked through the catwalks high above everyone's heads, and then sent dozens of boxed fast-food burgers "parachuting" downward, to be scooped up by a few lucky(?) fans (I have to wonder how fresh those sandwiches were, though!)

When the clock finally ran out, Lorelai wanted to take a little time to explore the arena. We moved lower, and got court-side, to get a good look at the actual basketball court:

We also walked around the lower levels, where Lorelai got "acquainted" with the Suns' mascot (who, for some unfathomable reason, is a gorilla):

After making the dark, chilly walk back to our car, Lorelai was completely pooped. By this time, it was almost 10:30 pm! I had her lay down in the backseat of the car and get some sleep while I drove us home. It was a long, tiring night, but a very fun date with my daughter. I look forward to doing other outings like this with my younger girls later on in the year!

from latimes.com

The next day was SUPER BOWL SUNDAY. Hooray; our beloved Denver Broncos were taking on the heavily favored (and overhyped, as it turned out) Carolina Panthers. As I've said before in this blog, Nathan and I are pretty big fans of the Broncos. And Nathan's mom (and our entire extended families) are big fans as well! Since Peyton Manning joined the team (a fact I appreciated, if never fully got used to), the Broncos had become an AFC powerhouse once more. They'd won several division titles, set offensive and defensive records, and taken yearly trips to the playoffs. They'd even made it to the Super Bowl in 2014...only to lose in horrible fashion to the Seattle Seahawks.

It was an ugly, ugly game, and it was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to watch. Normally, Nathan and I host (or attend) a Super Bowl party every year, and 2014 was no exception. But we became so upset and depressed that we proved to be terrible hosts. After that day, we vowed that if the Broncos ever made it to the Super Bowl again, we wouldn't have a party...we'd just travel to Sandy's house and watch the game with her. That way, we'd be among "true" Broncos fans, and if we needed shoulders to cry on afterwards, Grandma would be there to commiserate with us as only she could.

The 2015 season was a long, weird, tough year for the Broncos. Peyton Manning, after suffering multiple injuries, was a shell of his former self. In fact, Manning sat out several games in the middle of the season, and was spelled by his (thankfully competent) backup Brock Osweiler. They had a new head coach and defensive coordinator, both of whom had been fired by their previous teams. They had an absolutely brutal regular-season schedule, playing seven teams that would ultimately go to the playoffs.

And yet...they just kept winning (well, not all the time...their final regular-season record was 12-4). And they were close victories, too; eleven of those twelve wins were by seven points or fewer, an NFL record! Every game was a nail-biter; our hearts got quite a workout that year! But although the Broncos bent, they didn't break. Their new head coach was Gary Kubiak, a former Broncos quarterback, and his fierce devotion to the team gave the players a steely resolve that they'd lacked in previous seasons. Even more significantly, their new defensive coordinator, Wade Phillips (who'd also coached the Broncos previously...in fact, he was the head coach for a short while!) managed to shape the team's once-mediocre defense into a fast, furious, frightening unit that is possibly the best defense the Broncos have ever had. After their smothering efficiency all season, I'd propose that they are in the running for one of the best all-time defenses in the NFL.

So even though we liked what we'd seen throughout the season, our whole family was nervous going into Super Bowl Sunday. We all thought the game would be closer than the Broncos' last Super Bowl, but having them go in as underdogs against a high-powered, young, offensively tough team? We were scared. After all, this was to be the Broncos' eighth Super Bowl (that's tied with the Cowboys, Patriots, and Steelers for most Super Bowl appearances ever!). But five of those Super Bowls were huge losses. Losing badly in Super Bowls is kind of the Broncos' "thing." So can you blame us for being stressed?

During the game, there was a lot of pacing, a lot of shouting at the screen, a lot of fingers and feet drumming nervously against a variety of surfaces. And over the course of a few hours, interspersed with a bunch of lame commercials and a forgettable halftime show, something truly wonderful happened...

from vox.com

...my Broncos won the Super Bowl! They never trailed in the game; their defense was as aggressive and smothering as ever. The Panthers made a few valiant attempts to get their rhythm going, but nothing ever materialized. It was not a "pretty" game (the final score was 24-10, with only two offensive touchdowns total in the game); both quarterbacks played poorly, and both offenses were messy. But if you appreciate seeing a dominant defense in action, then it was a very impressive performance! As you can imagine, there was a lot of cheering, whooping, and hugging when all was said and done. It almost didn't feel real.

We drove home that night in a wave of euphoria that lasted for days afterwards. I proudly wore my old, battered Broncos T-shirt around for days afterwards. That shirt has been with me ever since the Broncos' first Super Bowl victory, back in 1998. At last a replacement would be forthcoming! My parents promised to get us the official NFL shirts should the Broncos pull out a victory. And they came through with that promise!

We were very happy to receive the shirts; Nathan and I both wear them with pride! It is so nice to have that victory to keep us happy throughout the spring and summer, and hopefully for a long time to come.

That about does it for our "sporty" weekend; it has been a while since I had a few days focused so intently on sports. On with the off-season!

Aurora's First Field Trip (In Which We Pet A Rhino)

I don't get to go on every field trip with my kids, but I'm glad for each opportunity I get. It's fun to see these destinations through their eyes; it's also illuminating for me to see how my children interact with their classmates and their teachers, even if it is in a slightly different setting than the classroom. This is especially true now that my girls are all in school and I don't see them as much any more. It's sometimes the only way I get a sense of the kind of people they are during the day, when they're away from me!

All aboard the GEA bus!!

Anyway, the kindergarteners' field trip to the Reid Park Zoo was Aurora's first-ever field trip as a student at Great Expectations Academy; she has been very excited about the opportunity all month. How could I pass up the chance to go along with her? True, the zoo is not really a new destination for anyone in our family; we were members of the zoo for nine years! In fact, we finally let our membership lapse last October; now that all the kids are in school, there just isn't as much opportunity to go any more.

However, this trip to the zoo wasn't just any trip; it was a "behind-the-scenes" look at the zoo, where we'd see additional animals and learn about some of the tools of the zookeepers' trade. These tours are available to the public, but sadly, we never took advantage of them while we were members. I was excited to get the opportunity now as an adult chaperone for the kindergartners.

We started out in the zoo's Conservation Learning Center, where one of the zookeepers began our visit with a small presentation about animal diet. She taught the students about the difference between carnivores, herbivores, insectivores, and omnivores. Then our guide proceeded to show off a parade of cute little animals for kids and parents to touch. She had a guinea pig, a python (which creeped me out but which I petted anyway), and a hedgehog. The hedgehog was still a young animal and got pretty nervous with all the crowds, so it started to get fidgety and most of the kids weren't able to pet it. Oh well, at least it was adorable to look at!

After our short lecture in the Learning Center, the zookeeper led our group through the "employees-only" security door. It was time for our group to see what goes on behind the scenes!

Our first stop was the zoo "kitchen," where all the animals' food was prepared. There is, of course, no oven or stove in the zoo's kitchen, since all the animals meals are served raw. It was fun to see the kitchen staff at work, and what interesting food combinations they were chopping up and throwing together.

We also took a look inside the food storage "warehouse" adjacent to the kitchen. There were dozens of large bins full of a variety of grains, seeds, and grasses. It was interesting to look at the piles of feed and wonder how fast the zoo would go through their current supply. Keeping large animals well fed is a difficult business!

The walk-in freezer took up one end of the warehouse, and from that freezer our guide brought forth the most interesting kitchen items; the animals' various "popsicles"! It makes sense the zoo would want to keep a bunch of food on ice for the animals; I imagine they'd taste particularly refreshing in the hot summer months. But the ingredients in these popsicles...well, let's just say they were never intended for human consumption.

The first "popsicle" was a blood popsicle, made entirely of blood runoff and frozen solid in a little steel bucket. This treat was for the zoo's big cats (specifically, their lions). Makes sense...what cat doesn't like a little blood in its food? The second popsicle was for the zoo's pair of grizzly bears. In true omnivore fashion, the icy bucket was filled with apple slices & other fruit fragments, but had a tasty treat of frozen fish down toward the very bottom of the popsicle. It didn't sound terribly tasty to me, but then again, I'm not a bear.

But then our tour guide unveiled the piece de resistance...

It took a minute or two to figure out what I was looking at. It was a frozen coconut, stuffed with dead rats! I couldn't hold in my giggles at the sight of the dead rats sticking out of a coconut every which way, their tiny paws folded in front of them as if praying for mercy, their eyes thankfully shut and oblivious to the humiliating position their corpses have been put into.

These "coconut-rat" popsicles are a special treat for the zoo's jaguars. In the wild, jaguars love to crush the skulls of their prey with their powerful jaws and teeth. Giving the jaguars a hard coconut will simulate that same feeling for them, with a little rat meat thrown in as a tasty bonus. All in all, it was one of the strangest food items I've ever seen in my life, no matter the intended recipient. It made me want to go into the freezer myself, and see what other kooky stuff the zoo staff keeps in there.

I was a little sad to leave the kitchen, but the best part of our tour was yet to come. Our host took us up to the back of the rhino enclosure, for an up close and personal encounter with "Yebonga," the zoo's elderly female white rhino.

Far from being skittish and shy, Yebonga sauntered over to our tour group as soon as she saw us, then casually turned her side to us. The zookeeper invited everyone to take turns petting this gentle rhino, and everyone was happy to do so!

 

Aurora (and all the other kids) were terribly excited...and so was I! I admit to being pretty scared of rhinos...they are such big, powerful animals, and I am afraid of being trampled and mauled by an angry one. But Yebonga was completely placid, calm, and peaceful (and, dare I say, very "tame" for a wild animal!).

It was so cool to feel a rhino's skin. According to the zookeeper, rhinoceros skin is very sensitive (part of the reason they love to wallow in mud is to keep away biting flies). However, you'd never know their skin was so sensitive just by touching it...it felt very rough, thick, and leathery. Almost reptilian! However, Yebonga definitely seemed pleased by all the little hands petting her, so I guess the zookeepers are on to something.

So, we all got to pet a rhinoceros...that is definitely an experience worth remembering! It gave us all a connection to the zoo animals that we hadn't experienced before.

Aurora also got to feed her friends, the giraffes. We have fed them before, but it is always fun to watch their long purple tongues snake out of their mouths and snatch those delicious carrots away from the kids.

And because Aurora is my baby and I am a sucker, I let her talk me into a ride on the zoo's new carousel...

 

Three dollars for a two-minute ride seems a bit excessive to me, but the look of transported joy on her face justified the expense!

With that, our adventure at the zoo came to an end. The kindergarten class traveled to nearby Reid Park to eat their lunch and play on the large playground.

This playground is walking distance from the apartment complex our family lived in many years ago, so returning here always brings me waves of nostalgia. I am glad all three of my girls have had the opportunity to run, climb, swing, and slide through this place.

I wasn't able to ride the bus with Aurora for this trip...I had piano students arriving early in the afternoon and I needed to be home on time. As I waved goodbye and drove off, I felt both happy and wistful...happy that I'd been able to spend a fun day with my sweet youngest girl, and wistful because these types of days are becoming fewer and far between.

Some Very Special Birthday Celebrations In January

January isn't just "the month where we recover from Christmas" in our house. Some of my best friends have had January birthdays, including my best friend from high school and two of my closest college friends.

And then, of course, my beautiful and talented third daughter Aurora was born on January 15th, 2010. Now every January is a special time in our family, because our "baby" gets to celebrate her birthday with us. And this year saw possibly her biggest birthday celebration yet.

But before I get to that, a quick word on one of my college buddies, whom I was lucky enough to visit a few weeks ago! Kristina Brinton (maiden name Rickertsen) lived on the same dorm-room floor as myself our freshman year at BYU. We became friends that year, and remained friends all through our college years. We later shared an apartment together and had lots of fun times. Kristina has a great sense of humor and a lot of pop culture tastes that mirror my own, so I have always loved our conversations. She was also one of the women that prompted me to think about serving an LDS mission, a decision that changed much of my life for the better!

 

Luckily, Kristina and I have managed to stay in touch over the last twenty years (ugh, has it really been that long now? We're gettin' old!). Kristina lived in the Las Vegas area for a short time, but after she married her husband Ralph, she moved back to the East Coast (this was a year or two after Nathan and I moved to Arizona). Now she has three beautiful children and a happy life in North Carolina...which is sadly far away from me! Although we talk back and forth somewhat on Facebook, we haven't seen each other in several years (the last time we were face to face, Lorelai was still a baby!). Fortunately for me, though, Kristina has a large extended family, several of which live in Arizona. This year, she decided to take her kids and go on a long Christmas vacation, and spend much of that time in southeast Tucson.

Our schedules were tight (my parents were in town the same week Kristina was, plus she'd broken her leg recently and her mobility was limited), but we managed to arrange a short meeting at her sister's home in Rita Ranch, just a half-hour drive away.

It was so wonderful to see Kristina and her beautiful, sweet, well-behaved kids, even if it was only for a couple of hours. It felt like so little time had passed, and we could still talk about anything! I am so grateful to have truly awesome friends, whose affection for each other is something that distance and time cannot dim. I wish we could see each other way more frequently, but I will take whatever I can get! It was a great end to our winter break to catch up with a long-time friend. Thanks, Kristina!

Right after getting back into our "regular" schedule (school re-starting, all the kids back in their activities), I got to work planning Aurora's birthday party. But this party was a little different than all her parties so far; this time, she'd be doing a joint birthday party with her best friend Shelby, whose birthday falls just six days after Aurora's!

Aurora and Shelby have been pretty much inseparable for several years now. In fact, they have sometimes been mistaken for twins, especially from the back (it must be all that pretty blond hair). They never seem to run out of things to talk about, or run out of love for one another. Both girls have pretty strong personalities, which I have always thought would lead to disagreements and conflict...yet the two of them have never had a fight of which I'm aware. It's just smooth sailing all the time. Aurora and Shelby were overcome with joy when they learned they would be in the same kindergarten class at school. I was a little worried about that at first; I thought they'd talk too much and get into trouble. But thankfully, they have managed to remain good buddies while still behaving themselves (and taking the time to make new friends in class, besides).

I'd always planned on throwing Aurora a birthday party when she turned six; after all, I'd done it for my other two girls. However, I worried a bit about her party conflicting with a party thrown by Shelby; what if they tried to have a party on the same weekend? I didn't want to force kids and parents to choose between them. Then I had the thought, What if the girls held their party together? Maybe I have a psychic connection with Keri (Shelby's mom), because when I broached the idea to her, she immediately responded that she'd had the same thought.

But, she warned, there were certain conditions we'd have to follow in order to throw a joint party. First, Shelby insisted on having the party at her house. This was an easy term to agree to; I loved the idea of having my house pristine and undisturbed after a huge party! In addition, Keri warned, Shelby had a very particular theme in mind for her party. She only wanted to do a "puppy and kitty" party. I almost laughed aloud when I heard this; Aurora had been saying the exact same thing to me for weeks now! All she wanted was a "dog and cat/kitten" party! I suspect the girls had been colluding together at school, and we adults were slow on the uptake. Either way, we happily agreed to those terms, divided up the planning responsibilities, and got to work.

At first, I was a little nervous at the size of the guest list; Shelby insisted on inviting close to forty kids! Normally, I tell my kids they can only invite up to a dozen kids or so to their parties. However, Shelby herself had missed out on a party invitation from a classmate recently, and she had felt overlooked and sad afterwards. She told her mother she didn't want anyone to feel left out, so they ended up inviting the whole kindergarten class, as well as her whole Sunday School age group. Even though there was a bit of overlap in those two guest lists, it still felt very overwhelming to me as I planned things.

Luckily, things ended up working out very well. Keri's house has a lot of large shared space, and she has a huge backyard, so we had more than enough room for all the attendees. Keri and I each planned one craft activity for the kids; I set up a station where everyone colored their own dog or cat mask, then assemble the mask to wear throughout the party. Keri went one step further; she manufactured more than thirty cardboard "pet houses," and had all the kids decorate the houses to their liking. Each child then received a small plush dog or cat toy, which was their pet that was to be "adopted" that day and live in the home that child had decorated. It was a terrific keepsake to send home!

One refreshing thing about having so many kids over is that you don't need to plan quite so many structured games or activities. Most of the day consisted of kids running from one friend to another, exploring in the large backyard, and jumping on the trampoline. I ended up making a bunch of simple party favors (featuring paw-print and bone motifs on stickers, erasers, pencils, stamps, etc.). There turned out to be just enough favors for all the visitors!

 

But at least we had plenty of food; there were far too many pizzas, and large heaping fruit and veggie trays. Many adults had stayed behind to help out, and as their reward they were able to eat pizza to their heart's content.

The most structured activity we attempted was breaking the pinatas. Shelby and Aurora had each been responsible for bringing one pinata with them to the party. We reasoned that it would take a really long time for everyone to break two pinatas.

Our optimism, though, was misplaced. Shelby's electric guitar didn't make it very far before being destroyed; a full third of the party-goers didn't get an opportunity to take so much as a swing. And then we pulled out Aurora's pinata...

...yes, I'm aware that by choosing a dog-shaped pinata, we are condoning the beating of animals. Oh dear, how awkward! And it was made even more awkward just moments later, when Aurora knocked the pinata to the ground with one mighty swing of her stick. Oddly enough, the pinata itself didn't break; it stubbornly refused to give up its candy! Rich, Shelby's father and the "pinata wrangler," managed to reassemble the pinata after it had been knocked silly, and then it was Shelby's turn.

With one more big whack, the pinata dog's body fell to the earth with a heavy crash...leaving its head floating by a string in midair. The kids were frantic for candy by now, so we hurried up and destroyed the rest of the pinata, so everyone could leap for the candy.

Some kids were frustrated that other kids picked up more candy than they did, but thankfully there were many kids who were willing to share. Overall, it was a disappointing experience with the pinatas; I sure hope we get a pinata that will hold together for longer than one or two whacks!

Shelby and Aurora also shared this big, delicious birthday cake from CostCo:

After dessert it was time to open presents...lots of presents. The girls took alternate turns of opening one at a time. The party-goers were constantly floating from one present pile to the other, watching one girl unwrap a gift, then "drift" over to the other girl's increasingly mountainous pile of birthday presents.

When all was said and done, both girls had a wonderful experience. They played very nicely with all their sweet guests. It was indeed a great party...plus we didn't have much else to do in the way of cleaning up; the tablecloths/silverware/decorations/etc. were almost all the cheap plastic kind that could be easily thrown out. Even so, after two straight hours of playing, I noticed that Aurora looked particularly glassy eyed. Fearing she was sad about something, I asked her if anything was wrong. She just answered, "I'm tired." That answer made sense; she'd never been to any birthday party this large, much less her own!

I am so lucky to have this beautiful girl in my life. Aurora oozes charm, both at home, at church, and in school. She is such an energetic kid, and loves to show off her prowess whenever possible. She is fiercely competitive, but she is also quick to reach out and comfort someone who is sad. Aurora has proven to be a wonderful student, racing far ahead of her class in reading comprehension and other subjects.

The birthday girl with Grandma

It seems that another day doesn't go by that I find myself surprised by Aurora and all her capabilities. I look forward to watching her closely over the next several years and seeing what other surprises she has in store for us! For now, though, I am glad she was able to have a big, fun birthday party, at the home of one of her dear friends.