Another Year Gone

How can this be?

Last day of Gracie's junior year and Owen's freshman year.

There seems to have been a lull, and not many events, but we have stayed busy during the month of May and it will only increase as we wrap up and move into June.  Since prom and state freestyle wrestling, three weeks ago, we have kept ourselves busy with more wrestling, graduation parties, and softball practices and youth bball camp.  Gracie has also been helping coach an optimist 5th grade softball team two nights/week this spring.

There are many of Gracie's former teammates and friends who are finishing high school right now and we tried to get to as many as we could.  The number of relationships built through all of our sports involvement will never cease to amaze me.  So many families that have become good friends through a shared love for their kids and their kids' loves and goals.

Let's start with Brynn...

These two have known each other since Gracie was 8 years old.  Dynamic pitcher/catcher duo through 12u.  They were so fun to watch and it's hard to believe that Brynn will be heading to Georgia State in August to play big girl ball in college.  Even when they separated to different teams, they never missed a chance to get together and catch up at tournaments.  They have played against each other several times, and I don't think that Gracie will ever look forward to hitting against Brynn.  I can almost guarantee our paths will cross this summer.

So excited for Brynn!

Last game they played together.

Almost 5 years ago.

Syd Turner

Gracie has played with Syd at Southern Boone since middle school.

They were both pitchers that year.  Ironic.

Syd is definitely a phenomenal outfielder, and the pitching did not last long for Gracie.

Another friend and teammate graduating.

Cami and Gracie had 3 basketball seasons together.

So much fun.

Ava is one of Cami's best friends and usually if Gracie was with Cami, so was Ava.

Lots of rides given by this girl.

I didn't get pictures, but we also went to Lillan Newham's grad party in Boonville, and the Ava Leininger.  Lillian's family has become very close to us and we love getting to spend time with Newhams, mostly for wrestling, but Lil and Gracie got to play softball together for a couple years, as well.  So excited for her!

Ava Leininger is a Southern Boone student/athlete.  She and Gracie did not play sports together, but have a pretty good relationship and are both incredible athletes in their respective sports.  Ava's brother, Grant, is actually Gracie's age and wrestles with Owen.

We will have more in the upcoming weeks, and there are some that we just can't get to.  Sadie Sexuaer is still coming up, as well as Adisen Wren. Gracie has played with both of them for a very long time.  Sadie is also one of Gracie's first teammates on a Galaxy team when she was 8 years old.  That relationship has not waivered even a little.

Last Freestyle Tournament - Northern Regionals.  In an effort to qualify for Fargo, Owen and Nick traveled up to Minnesota for two days of wrestling. They stopped in Swisher, IA, to stay with Hyneks for the night before continuing another 3 hours north to Rochester for weigh-ins on Saturday morning.  He had to make it down to 157 for one more time, which was a little more difficult than a few months ago for high school wrestling.  He has grown another inch and is constantly hungry.  I think summer is his growing season.  Anyhoo... I watched on flowrestling from home/KC while Gracie practiced with Aces.  He got a couple wins on Saturday and wrestled in semi-finals Sunday morning, losing and going to the backside.  He won the quarterfinal wrestleback, but fell after getting ahead in the consolation semi-final.  He finished in the top 8, but only top 6 place and qualify for Fargo.  So, good, bad, indifferent, Owen's freestyle season is over.  He has improved so much since last year.  He did much better at this regional than the Southern Plains in Kansas last year; 3-2 vs 1-2 last year.  

According to Nick, he could still have gone to Fargo in a wrestle off with Team Missouri, since he placed 2nd at state, but after some consideration, decided that staying at 157 lbs through July this summer is probably not in his best interest, which is what he would have had to do.  So, he'll keep working, get bigger, faster, stronger, and go to all of the Southern Boone wrestling/football opportunities through June and July.  He will eat and be happy.

Owen didn't waste any time replenishing after getting back down to 157 one more time.

I don't think he will ever be that light again.

Waiting his turn outside the wrestling meet.

It was a beautiful day everywhere in the midwest.

My view on the computer

It was disappointing, seeing him lose the last match, but everything works out the way it's supposed to.  He is going to keep getting better and I'm looking forward to a fun summer.

They will start doing summer workouts already next week for football.  6:30am Monday through Thursday during the summer.  New coach, as well, so we'll see how the summer progresses. Three weeks of that in June before going to Nebraska for team camp with SBC wrestling.  It will be great for them to see something different from Tiger Style, although I'm kind of bummed, as I do like the Tiger Style program.

Gracie had three exams on the very last day of school, and ended up doing well enough to maintain the grades that she had before the tests.  So, we'll call that a win.  This year has been challenging, taking two dual credit courses, and an anatomy course that she insists that she should not have taken.  We have made sure that next year she has all the classes she needs to get into Mizzou, plus a comp class that should count for 3 more college credits.  But now she has college algebra and American History out of the way for college!  And... I think she will maintain at lease a 3.9 CUM GPA through three years of high school.  Not bad at all.  We'll see how the final grades come out for her soon.

Owen had no final exams for the entire year and ended with a 4.0 his freshman year.  Basically, the past 2 weeks have been very uneventful for him at school.  He is doubling up on math next year, taking both geometry and algebra 2, since he was not given the opportunity to take algebra 1 in 8th grade like Gracie did.  This was completely his choice and he is aware that it will be a lot of math.  So far, he has been unphased by the "vigor" of high school.  I would guess that his biggest challenge this year was sitting out football with a broken ankle, then adjusting to high school wrestling.  

So we celebrate today as the last day of junior and freshman.  As of right now we have a senior and a whole summer of fun ahead of us.  We start the "lasts" and it doesn't seem quite real.  We travel again this weekend to see family in Iowa, have a week of respite, then June begins.  June is crazy as always, but I actually can't wait for all the craziness this year.  Last go for our senior girl.

Gracie's summer schedule

Plus SBC basketball and softball, in June.

No rest for the weary.