Colorado Crossroads

This volleyball season has brought a lot of exciting adventures such as COLORADO!! My friend, Audrey, her dad, my dad and I left on Friday morning for our Denver, Colorado tournament, the Colorado Crossroads.

At the beginning of break I had done nothing exciting because I was preparing for our first out of state tournament of the season. The team I'm on this year will go to two or three this year depending on how well we do. 
The drive down there was pretty boring and the best way to pass time is listening to music and count firework signs. If you've even driven to Denver you know how many firework signs you will pass. I only started counting after I had already seen a couple but I ended up with about nine signs. Nine. That's a lot.

SO CROWDED!

The first night I was there I felt really uncomfortable and I didn't really know why. It was really dark outside and I had never been to Denver before so I wasn't quite sure where I was. On our way to dinner we got lost and ended up driving for about an hour when the restaurant was only 20 minutes away. Once we got back to the hotel and went to sleep I felt much better! :) Our first game wasn't until about 3 on Saturday so my team and I ran around the hotel bothering our coach.

We just ate breakfast in the hotel but it was so gross. They only served omelets and muffins. Last year, at the Far Westerns Qualifier tournoment in Reno, I ate eggs and got food poisoning so I quickly opted out of the omelets. The muffins were not very appetizing either. I had to convince myself that there were nuts in the blubbery muffins because they tasted crunchy for some reason.
My team loves Chick-fil-A so we had lunch there, then went to the convention center in downtown Denver. After the second day, We went to Olive Garden and I can't stand Olive Garden. I've only been there twice and they were both at tournaments. I ordered the same thing as one of my teammates so I could make sure I wouldn't get sick but with just my luck I got food poisoning again. I was staying in the hotel throwing up for the rest of the night.


The actual tournament-
I had know idea what the convention center would look so you could say I was impressed. Most facilities we play in are usually just very big gyms with lost of courts and that's about it. Walking into this one was very different. First of all, it was HUGE. I'm surprised we actually found our court. Just imagine being surrounded by about 3,000 screaming girls and over 70 courts, and not to mention they're all tall. This isn't including all the girls tall parents either. I wasn't just surrounded by people though. Walking into the gym, Gatorade gave every player energy chews and leaving protein shakes. All around were vendors selling socks, t-shirts, sweatshirts, thousands of headbands, face wash, bathing suits, etc and even CARS! 

We ended up by doing very well the first day. My team broke pool (which just means we won all of our games during pool play). The second day of playing we won our first game then lost the last three. On the last day, We were put into an average pool. The first game in the set we lost, the second we won, then we lost the third. Since it was a single elimination day, we went home that morning. My team got 55th place which actually isn't too bad because it was a national tournament.
If you want to see what the other teams at the tournament places, look at the results.

The entrance to the convention center we played at.

We were in Colorado the week that the snow hit hard so we from a hot sweaty gym to a snow storm. At first it felt nice but then my toes were numb because I forgot my boots!

And to all a Good Night!

Check out my last post to be all caught up on this story- Merry Christmas to All!

It's Christmas!!!
I am really close to all my cousins and grandparents but not so much for the rest of my family. My mom's side is very confusing- I don't even understand but I'm going to attempt to explain. My great Grandpa has three daughters, Rae Deanne (my grandma), Kae and Trisha.  Rae Deanne is married to Skip and they have three kids. My family. Kae isn't married and has never been.  She has no kids and lives in San Diego. Trisha was married to a guy and the had a couple kids. One of her kids has about eight of her own and the others have 2.  Her son is married to a women with a boy about my age. My great aunt Trisha got divorced then remarried Ruthie who has no kids of her own. My grandpas side of the family is confusing as well but at least I know all their names. My grandpa and his family no longer talks to his brother but they do his ex-wife and their kids. My grandpa's other brother in about 10 years younger and his wife has a son that is my age. Together, they have four kids, two of them are identical twins who you can't tell apart. My grandpa is very close with someone whose almost like his sister- she's adopted but not... And not to mention but my great grandpa just got married. Did you get that?

Only a small part of the whole family. 

Christmas has always been my favorite holiday and having my confusing family there always makes it better! Usually we travel from house to house seeing our families and always end up with my Grammy and Gramps at dinner time. Christmas dinner is a big deal for us. The usual attendees are, my aunts, uncles, and cousins (and an occasional NFL football player). When it came time for dinner, the typical people were there along with Stephan Taylor, his friend, and all my cousins other grandparents and cousins, it was a full table.

My mom woke up on Christmas with a terrible pain in her stomach. She went to the emergency room to get it checked out. They had thought she had a kidney stone and the doctor there said she’d bet her whole paycheck that it was. They ran some test and received the new that she had a kidney stone, bad timing, don't you think?

It's never a family gathering without some weird tradition. While waiting for desert to be served, we always sing the 12 Days of Christmas song as a family. Every two people are given a paddle and expected to sing when it gets to the number on their card. Watch the video to see how we do it.

Keep in mind this is only the last part of the song.

Check out my last post to be all caught up on this story- Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas to All!

My family always spends Christmas at my grandparents but we're not the only ones. All of my other aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents join us as well.

Our Christmas Routine

The couple days leading up to Christmas are always the most eventful. We usually go to the Railroad Park with my cousins and grandparents to ride the trains around the park and see the lights. Another family tradition is seeing Snowballs house (what my sister has named it). Its a regular house in a regular neighborhood but around he holidays, it draws in quite the crowd. By the time were done with all these festivities, it's Christmas Eve.

A house very similar to Snowballs.
Photos Courtesy of: Sweet Fine Day

This year was kinda an odd one. We arrived to my grandparents a couple days later than usual and the next day was my Great Grandpa's marriage celebration. Yes, my Great Grandpa. My Great Grandma, Nana, died about ten years ago and my Great Grandpa, Bubba, recently started online dating. That's where he met Di and a couple of years later, they tied the knot. On the 23rd of December, we celebrated their marriage as a whole family. As my Bubba is a 95 year old man and he couldn't handle having two huge parties in the span of three days so he bumped his Christmas to the 23rd and combined it with the marriage. My great grandpa's wedding celebration, was pretty busy. Most of my family was there (meaning great aunts, second cousins, and people I didn't even know I'm related to). The morning of the 23rd, my immediate family came over to my grandparents house, where we stay and helped get ready for the party. Everyone else arrived a coupe hours later. It was catered by one of my favorite lunch places in Arizona.  We ate then went right to the marriage. The officiant started the wedding and it was over after about ten minutes. Later that afternoon, Bubba handed out his gifts and everyone else exchanged the presents. Most of the kids in my family are pretty young and they all got, bikes, barbie cars, scoots, etc. Meanwhile, the older kids didn't have nearly as much fun opening up money.


The 24th of December was an uneventful day in the lives of me and my family. We woke up, still not in the Christmas mood but ready to get there. The majority of Christmas Eve was preparing for the next day. My sister took my brother, Jack, Ben, and Cole (my cousins) to see Annie then directly from the movies, we went to church. My family usually opens all our presents on the 24th then the Santa gifts on Christmas but this year, we didn't open anything on Christmas Eve and waited until Christmas. Every Christmas Eve, me and my sister watch the 12 Days of Christmas on ABC family's 12 Dates of Christmas and sleep in the study. Goodnight....

Stay tuned for more about the Hancock Family Christmas!

Christmas Calories Don't Count!

Every year since I was one, my Grandma comes over to our house to make gingerbread houses with us. This is a tradition that started when my mom was very little and her mom would make homemade gingerbread to decorate. When we moved away from Arizona and came to Utah, my grandma flew out to keep up the tradition, until this year. My family chose to try Christmas cookies, which we usually make but on Christmas Eve. My Grammy has a special cookie and frosting recipe we use every year (twice a year now!).

My Grammy's Recipe

2 cups flour

Photo Courtesy of Northwest Church

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter (softened)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk

1. 
   
2. Sift together, flour, baking powder and salt, set aside. 
3. Cream butter and sugar together. 
4. Add in egg, vanilla and milk. 
5. Slowly add in flour mixture, make sure well combined. 
6. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. (can also be frozen) 
7. Roll dough out on floured surface to 1/8  or 1/4 inch thickness
8. Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes. 
9. Place on parchment lined baking sheet.
10.  Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 7-8 minutes, just until edges start to turn golden.
11.  Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.

Photo Courtesy of Wicked Good Kitchen

Because I didn't make gingerbread houses with my grandma this year, I thought it was only necessary that I did with someone else. My friend, Sophia, invited me to her house to make some with her and her sister. We stated out well but didn't let the icing dry before putting on the toppings and it collapsed in the making. Meanwhile, Natalie and her friend took their time and didn't add random gummies and gluten free pretzels.

Sophia, Morgan and my gingerbread house vs. Natalie and Carleigh's.

You can never have enough cookies during the holidays!

My friend Gabby and I at a holiday party.
Photo Credits: My mom

Blaire covered in cookie frosting and decorations!

Christmas parties is one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. Every year my mom and I throw a mother-daughter cookie exchange and this year it was the 4th annual party with almost all the same girls. Another holiday party I attended was a cupcake decorating party for one of the clubs I'm a part of.

Recipe courtesy of Chocolate Chocolate and More with a few moderations.

O Christmas Tree

When I moved to Utah in 4th grade we were only supposed to live here for a year as an "adventure". My parents came out to Park City for their friends 40th birthday party at Deer Valley and were sitting on Main Street, eating dinner and they decided to make the move. We lived in Phoenix, Arizona for practically my whole life at that point. When they came home and told us the news I was the only one up for it.

We sold our house in the matter of weeks and found a new house in Park City. Since we were only supposed to live here for a year, we did everything to make the most of the snow and the mountains. Our first Christmas we wanted to spend here, breaking the tradition of the holidays at my grandparents. To get our Christmas tree we drove into the Unitas to cut down a tree as FFF (forced family fun) as my mom likes to call it. A new tradition was born!

Driving home with a tired dog and a Christmas tree on the roof.
My photo.

We usually went Christmas tree shopping/chopping with out family friends, the Radovans but this year we went with my parents other friends. Since my sister left for college and wasn't with us to cut down our tree, I got to bring a friend. I like to cut a small tree to put in my room and decorate to set my room up in the holiday mood. It was my job to find my tree and my dad and brother set off to find the main tree while my mom brought out the hot chocolate and toppings.

When I got home, I went upstairs and set my tree up. It had lights and ornaments and was topped with an angel. I put my six foot tall tree in the corner of my room with some water and let its smell fill the room!

The tree at my Grandparents house in Arizona featuring my cousin, Cole.

Next year if you want to cut down a tree of your own, got to this site and look under permit information.

Sisters...

Family is weird. Sometimes you don't know just how special they are until they leave.  My sister, Hailey, and I never got along -EVER (other than when she was driving me somewhere and I had to be nice to her.)

Photo courtesy of my grandma.

This past summer my sister left for The University of Kansas. The last few weeks she was still at home, I wanted nothing more than for her to leave but then knowing that I wasn't going to see her until Thanksgiving made me miss her a little more and more each day. 

One go the amy American Girl Dolls
Photo courtesy of our mom.

5 great things about having an older sister-

1. She has to drive you anywhere you want.

2. She upgrades the family name.

3.  She doubles your stock.

        (My sister and I were big American Girl Doll collectors. Every

        Christmas I would get one and she would get one. Right now 

        we have a stash of 13 useless $100 dolls, desks, books, 

        scooters, and and an endless amount of clothes.)

4. On occasion we were allowed to do "sister bonding" activities.

5. She's your personal life guru.

The week leading up to Thanksgiving I was missing her more than I had ever missed anyone before. All I could think about was what I would do with her and how we would spend the week together. We had face-timed and texted but other than that I had not seen my sister in person for three months, one week, and two days. My sister walked into my grandparents house, in Newport Beach, about an hour after we did. My sister and I were SO excited to see each other but our excitement wore off by dinner time. As I said before, we NEVER got along and that streak continued. By the end of the break we were sick of each other.

Hailey and I last winter

Volleyball! Volleyball! Volleyball!

High school volleyball ended and that means tryouts for club!

On Wednesday, November, 12 at 10:37 pm the results for club tryouts were posted but the time leading up to it was super stressful!

On Monday and Tuesday I tried out for a 15s Select Team for Club V. (This year they changed the teams around and decided to add a new group. The order of the teams you could be on are Club, Comp, Elite, or Select.) I didn’t go into tryouts very confident in myself because the girls I was competing against for a spot on the select team were more athletic, taller, louder and had better skills than I did.

My elite team last year after winning the qualifying tournament in Reno, Nevada.  

On the first day of tryouts, 43 girls were pushing for a spot in the Select pool. They didn’t tell us how many girls were going to be on a team or how many teams they were going to make. I was expecting three teams because of the level of the girls and the amount so I was telling myself that I just had to be in the top 30. They slowly took girls away and told them to move down to the next court. At the end of the second day they ended with 26 girls and told us they were going to make two teams and they would be posted at 10:00 on Wednesday. At this point I couldn’t be more nervous for the outcome.

The whole next day I couldn't stop refreshing the Club V website. My friend and I, from Park City, were both trying out for the team. I was kinda doubting myself on making the top team because everyone at tryouts was SO good!

I wouldn't say it was worth the wait but I was on cloud nine knowing the results!  I made it!!

More of my team last year!