Memorial Day

I love weekends that aren't full of things and we get to spend some good family time together. We played out back on Saturday morning and then went to the mall together, followed by the new Pirates movie. It was great! Sunday evening we played lots of games and had peanut butter popcorn. yum!

Monday we had Scott and Jenn and the kids over for a BBQ. Scotty came and Mitchell's friend Michelle came too. It was a beautiful day for a BBQ, not too hot. A little chilly for swimming, but we turned on the hot tub to help with the cold pool. We've had such a mild spring that the pool hasn't warmed up yet. I am sure it will in time...


I made some delicious ribs! They cooked all day in the crock pot and then we put them on the BBQ for a few minutes... yum! jack got a hold of a bone and chewed it for a long time. I twas so funny. Jenn absolutely hates pork, so she was totally disgusted. I was surprised she didn't take it away. She kept telling him it was a pig... haha. jack and Afton have been sick for a few weeks, so it was good to see them happy again! We wish we had more family nearby! We miss you all!

State Champs!

We won! We won! We won! I kept saying that last Wednesday after we won the state volleyball championship! The boys played great and pulled off a hard win. We played Coronado High School from Henderson. Everyone who stayed to watch Coronado play the night before said they didn't think we would win. They looked really good. I think it was good going in as the underdog. It made our boys work hard. We lost the first game by a few points. Then came back to win the next 2. Both were really close! In the 4th game it went back and forth and then we finally went up and it was 24 to 19. We realized we would win... then the unthinkable happened and we lost the next 4 points! It was 24 to 23 and we finally won! Here is a link to the newspaper article about the match.

Price getting our crowd fired up! We had the best fans! At Tuesday nights game Silverado had like 10 kids there. Our school rented a fan bus and we had about 60 kids there. I am sure that helped us win! (The Championships were way across town)

Our fans stormed the court after the win!

Final Score...

Churo, Brock, Kohl and Brandon came to almost every match all season in these silly Morf suits and the big BHS flag. It was great!

# 1 !!!!!!

Woot Woot!

Mitchell getting his medal...

They were awarded the state plaque. all the boys are taller than Coach Cap! He is an amazing coach and the boys really respect and love him.

I looked over as all the kids are on the floor and Churo was still waving the BHS banner! He has the best school spirit!

What a fun season! We ended the league season 23 - 0!



Here are a couple videos I took on my cell phone. One right after the kids stormed the floor and when they got their awards...

Volleyball update...

This is the last week of volleyball season. It's been a great year for the Bengals! I am so sad it's almost over.

Our JV team ended the season undefeated in league play. (14-0) We never lost a match or a game with in a match! The boys had a great season! The last match of the season Mitchell got to start varsity. We were pretty excited. It was a fun surprise. He played great. He and Ben (the other jv/varsity player) played the whole first game and half of the 3rd game. We won all 3 easy.

great set!

Check out how high Parker got on this hit!

This is our front row for next year... the juniors.

May 7th was the JV tournament at the end of the season. We played great on Friday night. Won all 3 matches, 2 of them were close! We made it to the gold bracket for Saturday.

Saturday didn't go as well. We lost the 1st match, it was close. Then we won the second and lost the 3rd to Centennial. It was so close! I think it was a disadvantage to our boys that our league was not very challenging this year. We had never lost a game or been behind by more than one or two points, so when we played the tough teams in the other leagues, we didn't know how to fight back. They boys got frustrated with each other and the coach when we got behind. It was a bummer. They had the talent, they just didn't know how to work together under pressure. The last ref was terrible and that made the loss even harder. It was sad. But they had a great season and should be very proud of themselves!

Varsity is in the state finals this week! We had some close matches last week! The match against Palo Verde to determine who would play in the regional championship match was way too close. We won the first game and then lost the next 2 and then came back to win the last 2. I think I almost had a heart attack. Then we played the regional championship game against Shadow Ridge on Friday night and we won the first 2, lost 2 and won the 5th. So, crazy! But we won and we are the Sunset Regional champs. The State semi final match is tomorrow night against Silverado. Wish us luck!

Deception Pass

I was able to spend Sunday (May 1st) with my sister Julie and my brother David. I grew up in a family that loves to spend a beautiful day, out in nature. And as you know, it rains a lot in Seattle, so when we happened to have a beautiful day, especially after a lot of rainy days, we would drop everything and head out to see the sun. That's how my parents raised us. I remember my dad coming in and waking us up early in the morning on a Saturday morning telling us that we were headed to the mountains or the beach because it was going to be a sunny day. I know this is hard for my Vegas friends to understand... but it is true. You take advantage of blue sky days in the Pacific Northwest. And if that sunny day happens to land on a Sunday, you just might have to spend the car ride listening to church history tapes and enjoy Gods creation in a reverent manner. That is what we did last week. I was in town, it was sunny and nature was calling us!

We went to one of our favorite places, Deception Pass. It's about 2 hours north of Seattle.

My sister Julie and hubby Gary and their 2 boys, Vincent and Andrew came and my brother Dave and Natalie came. (Rebecca and Tiffany were in Utah for the weekend, bummer) And then my cousin Craig decided to join us. He brought his 3 boys. It was great to see everyone!

Dave and Vincent hitting rocks into the water...

I think this stick is a little big Dave...

Vincent gathering more sticks... (the rocks would break them)

It's so pretty there!!!! This is our secret beach. The other parks around the bridge are really crowded.

Julie making lunch...

Yummy lunch!

Julie is the official photographer. Most of these pictures are hers.

We went on a little hike up to this beautiful view point...

Natalie taking it all in..

Craig and Dave catching up...

Relaxing and enjoying the view...

check out the moss growing on the tree!

Dave and Natalie watching the fisherman below...

We have a game where we sit on the beach and try to throw rocks into a bucket... the bucket kept getting closer and closer to the water and eventually rolled in... Julie went to get it and the boys kept tossing rocks at her... little buggers!

We drove over to the bridge and walked across it. It's so cool. The currents below are what they named the pass after. The currents go every direction and cause little whirlpools and it's almost impossible to swim across. Small boats have a hard time crossing because the currents are so strong and deceiving... hence the name "Deception Pass".

Julie's good looking family...

walking under the bridge...

The three middle Westra's. (I am the actual middle child of 9 kids, Julie is the one older than me and Dave is right below me.)

My cousin Craig and 3 of his 4 kids. Kyle, Christopher and Connor.

Dave, Andrew and Julie

See all the currents? You can see the cascade mountains in the background if you look close... to pretty!!!!! It's days like this that I wonder why I am living in the desert??? Actually, I'm not sure I could live there after living here this long. I have learned to love the sun and I think the clouds everyday would make me crazy. But, I do want to visit this beautiful place more often!

I can't wait to take my family back to Seattle. It's been a really long time since we have all been there.

I loved spending the day with family!