Lia's Final Drama Banquet

Lia attended her third and final high school drama banquet tonight.  This is an event that the theater director and drama board host every year before school gets out and all of the students who have been involved (both on and off stage) with any of the three productions put on that year are invited to attend.  Since Lia is the vice president of her drama board this year, she was able to be a part of the planning of the event and helping with the set up.  Since she didn't have time to come home after school to get ready, Lia got all dolled up in one of her pretty dresses in the theater green room and Emmett and I delivered our food for the potluck dinner to her before the evening began.  Lia had a fabulous evening eating dinner with her friends and then listening to the awards ceremony hosted by her theater director afterwards.  Lia received a certificate and a light green cord for lettering in Theater and also found out that she was chosen as the recipient of the Outstanding Actress award that is handed out each year to one senior girl.  Receiving this award is quite an honor as only four seniors are given awards at this banquet and their names go on one of four plaques that are on display in the glass case in the theater lobby.  I just love that Lia's name will forever be in the high school theater lobby as this part of her school has been such a huge part of her life these past three years.  Congratulations, Lia!  We are so proud of you and all that you have accomplished on the stage during your time at Rogers!

Lia and some of her theater friends.

From left to right:

Back row:  Eli, Manning, Lia, Sasha

Front row:  Jaida, Ange, Charlie

Lia holding up her Outstanding Actress trophy and Varsity Letter certificate.

The Rogers 2025-2026 Thespian Board:

From left to right:

Back row:  Abby, Isabelle, Lia, and Abby

Front Row:  Caden, Logan, Sergio

Lia posing with her theater teacher/director Ms. Stoker (left) and Ms. Keaton, the musical choreographer (right).

Logan's Last Kalles Track Meet

Logan has been running five days a week with his junior high track team ever since the season started the day after spring break on April 13th.  He has ran in a total of six track meets this season and Ron and I were able to be there for four of them.  Logan did an excellent job running the 1600 and the 800 meters at every meet.  He is in the top four long-distance runners on his team and PR'd at almost every meet this year.  I love watching how hard he works and pushes himself at every meet and we were all thrilled to learn that he PR'd in both of his events at his last meet yesterday at Kalles.  Logan ran the 1600 meters in 5:31 and the 800 meters in 2:32 which is just amazing to me.  Well done, Logan!  We are so proud of you!

Logan coming around the corner after finishing his first lap of the 1600 meters.

Logan running past me...

and around the bend on his second of four laps.

Logan pushing hard as he approaches the finish line of the mile.

Crossing over the finish line.

Logan trying to catch his breath on the field after finishing the mile.

Logan and his friend, Keegan, running by me during the second lap of the 800 meters race.

A Chapter Closes for Ella

For as long as Ella can remember, gymnastics has been part of her life.  She took rec lessons at the Y during both or her preschool years and moved to Ascend gymnastics her Kindergarten year to participate in a better rec program.  After the pandemic shut everything done, she returned back to rec classes at the beginning of 1st grade and never stopped.  For the past six years, it's been her #1 sport and focus.  She went from being in the advanced rec class in 1st grade to preteam in 2nd grade to competitive gymnastics from 3rd to 6th grade.  I loved watching her grow and develop over the years in her confidence, her skill level, and her work ethic.  Most especially, I loved the dear friendships that she has made during her years in the gym.  But, yesterday, this chapter closed for good as Ella has made the decision to make the transition to competitive cheerleading.  Since it has always been a dream of Ella's to be cheerleader in high school, we thought that it would be a good idea to have a year or two of competitive cheerleading experience before she tries out for her high school cheer team in the spring of 8th grade.  So after doing a bunch of research and checking out three cheer gyms in our area, Ella attended three nights of tryouts at one of these gyms last week.  With zero cheerleading experience, we found out last Saturday that Ella had been placed in their top level due to her tumbling skills, her athleticism, and her small build that will make her an excellent flyer.  This was super exciting news for Ella and me and confirmed that we had made the right decision to move to cheerleading at this time.  

So it was bitter sweet last night for Ella to attend her last gymnastics practice of her life and say goodbye to her beloved Xcel coach, Madison, and to all of the girls on her Xcel Platinum team.  Although she had only been with this new team for a year, she absolutely adored her new coach and all of the girls on her team.  The majority of this team consists of high school age girls, but they all treated Ella like a little sister.  And, luckily, Ella hit it off with the few girls that were close in age to her and had a great time spending hours with them practicing every week.  Overall, Xcel was a wonderful experience for her and I am so grateful that she was able to close her gymnastics chapter on such a positive note.

I was able to go watch 2.5 hours of Ella's final practice last night which is something I haven't done all year long due to how busy I have been.  Although I missed her practicing on the floor, I caught all three of the other events.  Here is Ella standing on the beam next to her coach on the right hand side while watching one of her teammates do her routine.

Ella waiting in line to do the vault.

Ella warming up on the bar.

Ella jumping to the top bar.

Ever since Ella moved to competitive gymnastics, her coaches have always finished practice by recognizing the gymnasts who have excelled the most in that practice by doing a "class clap."  They ask the girls who are being recognized to step forward from the line of gymnasts while the coaches talk about them.  When they are done, the girls jump/spin in a circle while the rest of the team clasps for them.  Last night, Ella's coach recognized the five girls leaving (Ella and the four seniors who are graduating) and had them do one last "class clap."  Here is Ella on the left side of the line listening to her coach say goodbye to these girls.  After practice, we gave Ella's coach a thank you gift and I made a batch of cupcakes (with gymnastics cupcake toppers) for Ella to share with with her teammates on their way out the door.

Ella posing with Coach Madison after her last practice was over.

Ella standing with Olivia who became one of Ella's closest gym friends this past year.

Ella posing for one last picture with two more of her closest gym friends, Savannah and Quinn.

Lia's Graduation Photos

Lia had the idea a few weeks ago to ask her good friend, Alyssa, to take graduation pictures with her close senior friends on Memorial Day at Chambers Bay golf course.  This golf course is famous in our area as it is the most picturesque golf course in Washington, located right on Puget Sound that hosted the US Open in 2015.  It also is meaningful to these four girls as they all ran in two XC meets every fall on this course--once for a large invitational and then again at the districts meet at the end of the season.  Although Lia hated this course due to the large hill they had to run up twice each time, it is a beautiful location for a photo shoot.  So the girls all got dolled up and headed out this morning with rain on the forecast.  Although it didn't rain in Puyallup until the afternoon, it sprinkled on the girls almost the entire time while they were in Tacoma.  Luckily, it didn't ruin their photo shoot and the rain didn't even show up in the pictures!  So the girls were able to spend a funfilled hour or two out on this beautiful course, taking some wonderful pictures of this important milestone in their lives.

All four girls lined up in their cap and gowns.

From left to right:

Lia, Erika, Ani, and Hope

The girls standing in front of one of the massive concrete structures that was left behind on this golf course after the 100-year old gravel quarry was closed down.

A solo shot of Lia showing her darling, Belle-themed graduation cap that we decorated together.  Since Belle is Lia's favorite Disney princess, it was very fitting that she chose a design paying homage to the movie, Beauty and the Beast.  Her cap is covered with roses, yellowed pages from an old book, and a quote from Belle that says, "I just finished the most wonderful story."

Lia and the Lupine flowers.

All four girls tossing their caps in the air.

A stunning shot of Lia and the concrete columns.

All four girls in their darling dresses.

The girls running through the field.  I call this the Jane Austin picture as it reminds me of something her main female characters would have done in one of her books.

After changing into jeans and their college shirts, the girls headed down to the water to walk out onto the pedestrian bridge that crosses over the train tracks to the beach.

The girls and the Puget Sound.

My Pacific Northwest girl heading off to Utah in the fall!

Lia's Directorial Debut at Dramafest

Every spring, Lia's high school theater program hosts Dramafest which consists of a few student-directed one-act plays.  Lia performed in a one-act play during both her 10th and 11th grade year.  After applying to be one of the directors this spring, she found out that she was chosen with two other seniors during the closing week of Freaky Friday in March.  After the musical ended, Lia and the two other senior directors hosted auditions the next week and rehearsals began the following week.  Lia chose to direct a more serious one-act play called Me, My Monsters, and I which is about a boy dealing with the grief from his sister's death in a car accident six months earlier.  Similar to the Pixar movie, Inside Out, all of the various emotions that he is feeling are played by the other actors in the play.  Lia did a great job directing this one-act play and the nine actors she casted to a great job acting.  It was a very touching and heartfelt play and I am so proud of Lia for taking on this new role at the conclusion of her high school theater experience.

Every Thursday, our district sends out a newsletter via email to all of the thousands of parents and employees of our district. A few weeks ago, this newsletter included all three spring plays that would be performing at the high schools.  Lia's name was actually included with the information being shared about Dramafest at her high school.  I thought that it was so cool to see her name in this newsletter that I screenshotted and included it above.

Lia's pictures with the other two student directors and her theater director on a wall in the lobby.

Lia's good friend, Isabelle, was one of the two other student directors.  Here are the two of them in the theater before the show began on opening night.

All of the directors got to come out on stage and introduce their one-act play before they performed.  Here is Lia introducing her play on opening night.

In addition to introducing her play, Lia was the only director who was asked to perform before each of the one-act plays.  She competed in the South Sound Thespian Competition last January and received a Superior score for both the monologue and the two-person scene (with her "Almost Maine" co-star) that she performed.  This score qualified her to compete at Nationals this summer in Indiana.  Although she is not flying out for this competition, Lia's theater director asked her to perform her monologue before all four of the Dramafest performances.  Her monologue was over 4 minutes long and she did such an amazing job!

All nine actors in Lia's play sitting on the edge of the stage during their performance.

The actors of Me, My Monsters, and I taking a bow at the end of their show.

The three student directors bowing at the end of the three shows.

On closing night, two sophomore students recognized all of the seniors involved in Dramafest--the directors, the actors, and the backstage crew members by giving each of them a rose.  Here is Lia holding her rose at the front of the stage.

Although I went alone on opening night on Thursday, all five of us went to watch the closing show on Saturday night.  Here is Lia with the five of us after her final show.

Although Lia didn't perform in a one-act this year, she had some friends come to support her to some of the shows.  Here she is with Spencer (who performed in another one-act play) with two of her NTWL friends, Max and AJ, and one of her running friends, Emma, after the closing show.

PSD Scholarship Awards Night

Last night, Ron and I attended the Puyallup School District's scholarship night for Lia's high school.  Our school district does an amazing job of providing hundreds of scholarships each year to graduating seniors from hundreds of donors and organizations.  The only catch is that students have to complete a huge online application with several, 500-word essays, depending on which scholarships one qualifies to apply for.  Lia had to write ten, 500-word essays which I helped her with.  Although it wasn't as time consuming as the BYU application, it was a massive undertaking.  So we were all thrilled last night to learn that Lia had won two scholarships--$1200 from the Tom Brown Memorial Scholarship and $500 from the Shaw Road Elementary School PTA Scholarship.  Although several students received the Tom Brown scholarship, only one student (who attended Lia's elementary school for a minimum of four years) earned the Shaw Road scholarship.  Since Lia was going up against many students to win this scholarship, it was super exciting news to find out that she had received it!  In addition, we found out last week that Lia also won a $2000 scholarship from my mom's high school's alumni association.  Receiving a total of $3700 in scholarship money to help her pay for tuition, books, and spending money for her freshman year of college is a massive blessing for Lia since she has been too busy with extra curricular activities to hold a part-time job during high school.

Lia walking up to the stage after her name was called.

Lia standing by the podium while one of her assistant principal's reads information about the Shaw Road PTA scholarship.

Lia smiling for me after receiving her scholarships.

Lia posing with her good friends, Hope and Erika, after the ceremony was over.  Both of her friends also received scholarships last night.

Proud parents standing with our soon-to-be graduate.

Rogers High School Decision Day 2026

Ron and I met at Lia's high school this morning to attend the Decision Day assembly which is a really cool tradition that has been going on for eleven years at Rogers High School.  Lia's school hosts an assembly where all of the seniors are recognized in groups, based off of their university, college, or trade or technical school that they will be attending or the military branch that they will be joining.  It is a super fun assembly filled with energy and excitement.  Lia was able to walk in with the two others students who will be attending BYU next fall and go around the gym holding up a sign with the name of their university on it.  After everyone was seated, the principal called up each group one at a time to walk back up to the front of the gym to get some free swag that their college had sent and to also take a group picture with the other students attending the other colleges in their region.  It was so fun to see Lia laughing and smiling as she walked around the gym wearing her BYU shirt.  She is truly soaking up all of these senior moments and it is so fun to watch her experience so many of them.

Lia walking in with her group of students.

Lia and the two other BYU students walking at the front of the gym.

Lia waving to Ron and me after sitting down and finding us in the crowd.

Lia and Hilary, her friend from the stake who is also going to BYU, waving to us.

Lia and Hilary posing for a picture with all of the other students in their group after getting their swag.

After the assembly was over, we were able to take a few pictures before the seniors went back to class (or skipped 3rd period and went tot Chick-fil-A for lunch like Lia did with a group of friends).  Here is Lia with her proud parents.

Lia posing with her four closest senior friends, Ani, Hope, and Erika.