After Christmas we got out of town and went to Boise for a couple days.  Emily has switched to snowboarding this year, so we went to Bogus Basin and she had a couple private lessons.  By the second hour she was off on the lift.  She really liked snowboarding, her instructors, and a new mountain to try! 

Emily is pink pants behind the green coat instructor. 

 

Christmas morning was a little later than it has been in the past!  Although Santa did still deliver a pair of Uggs.  Her other gifts included a Nintendo Switch and game cartridges, a new suitcase, new card games and puzzles, a few books, a Snuggie, and money alongside a stocking filled with other smaller games.  

 

Christmas Traditions 2020

The angel quilled paper ornament was the new edition this year, and we added another handprint to the tree skirt.  

Elfie made an appearance, but the magic was different this year.  So Emily hand sewed a dog print dress for her out of fabric left over from crafts and textiles class.  The advent calendar replaced the gingerbread house.  

 

 Luckily all of her normal activities continue over Winter Break, so today was riding.  Emily chose to ride Eleanor today.  She was however disappointed to hear that the River Sage Stables isn't allowing jumping right now because the hospital is so full that they don't want to risk anyone needing the ER.  

 Emily and her friend Britta had a ski day to start off Winter Break!

Christmas in Color

 Christmas in Color is a drive thru light show that was at Expo Idaho in Boise.  We spent the night after the Teddy Bear Meet, so this was something fun and Christmas like to do!  We opened the sunroof so Emily could stand up and look out and all around.  

Teddy Bear Meet 2020 style

 On Saturday the 12th, Emily had her first gym meet of the season.  6 girls from her team participated, so the parents sent them off with signs, balloons, and a confetti canyon in the parking lot since we were not allowed in the event center. 

 

Emily and Emma are the two from Blaine County, you can tell because we were the only ones in masks in the parking lot!

The event coordinator used zoom so parents could watch.  Aaron and I spent time at a coffee shop and then the dog park while we used two phones and a computer to keep track of the break out rooms for the events and the scoreboard.  The video wasn't clear, so it really was a guessing game which girl from the team was going.  

warm ups

vault

bars

Vault was the only event she placed in with a 8.550 score.  She got third.  She had an 8.5 on floor, 8.325 on beam, and a 7.8 on bars.  Her overall was good enough that she qualified for state.  She was so happy that she placed in something!  The next meet isn't scheduled until the beginning of February, fingers crossed that it happens.  

 The good news for the week is the first gymnastics meet of the season, the Teddy Bear meet, was approved for the second week of December.  No spectators allowed, however.  

The entertainment for the week was picking up her snowboard lease and trying it out on the magic carpet at Baldy. It's a good year to switch from skiing to snowboarding!  It was easy to avoid the crowd on the learner hill. She spent an hour and a half and only had two tumbles.  If she gets to take lessons, it won't be until after the new year. 

 

2nd quarter started this week, so Emily is now taking math, English, and crafts and textiles.  A big chunk of her day is also spent in advisory.  Advisory was created this year to help the middle school students through the hybrid model, it's a mix of study hall and counseling from what I understand, and all the middle school students are required to take it.  

With the transition to different classes, there was little remote learning to be done this week.  One of the things that kept her busy was putting together this wooden automatron from a Tinker Crate that came in the mail.  

Happy Halloween 2020

 

Halloween Horse Show

 The morning of the Halloween horse show, we woke up to a dusting of snow on the mountains.  

It was chilly, so Emily skipped on wearing her costume!  Smokey was a little uneasy that day, we didn't realize how uneasy she was until Emily starting warm ups with her.  Something spooked Smokey and she took off.  Emily held on for quite awhile, even recovering a few times, before she finally fell off.  She hit the ground - hard.  After some tears, she managed to get back on and competed in the ground poles twice (she took it at a snail's pace), and managed to also do the cross rail course twice.  The second time through the course, she had her confidence back and was cantering through.  However, she decided to skip on the 2' pole course.  Her hip was sore for the next few days, but she's fine now.  

Tubbs Berry Farm

 On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch in Twin Falls.  Traveling to Twin right now is like going to another country... they are not a mask wearing, social distancing type community.  So you could tell who at the pumpkin patch was from Blaine County.  Yes, we wore masks even though it was outdoors and we worked hard to keep away from people (and, yes, I even carried around a bottle of sanitizer).  Easy to keep distance when looking for pumpkins, not quite as easy in the straw maze!  It was a cold, windy day, but we managed to have fun nonetheless.

Emily continues to be in school two days a week, and lucky enough to be able to go to gymnastics for three.  There is a tentative meet schedule, but the first one of the year has already been canceled.  Here she is conditioning, the coach's daughter is on the mat making Emily work just a little harder!

She also continues to participate in shooting matches with Dad, that gives her something to do on the weekends.  

She is also looking forward to her second horse show, a Halloween themed one, in a couple of weeks.  With a new normal that doesn't include a lot of fun, Emily is keeping busy and doing okay.   

First Horse Show

 Emily rode Smokey this morning in her first horse show.  It was a fun show, so no fancy attire required!  First up was dressage, where she memorized a pattern and then performed it in the ring.  Then she competed in the jumping portion twice.  The first run was ground poles, she did well, but forgot the 6th jump.  The second time through was cross rails, and Smokey cantered through that run.