Miami Open--Mama and Mark Time

Mark and I got super lucky this spring! I usually manage my mom's airlines miles accounts, and Emirates Airlines kept telling me that she has some miles that were expiring. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough for a flight, but she did have enough for two tickets to Miami Open tennis tournament since they sponsor the tournament! So she "decided" to give us the miles to purchase tickets. Mark was so excited!!! 

It got even more exciting when we were just a couple of days out before we had to fly to Miami and we still didn't have issued tickets. I was talking back and forth with the Emirates' customer service and finally somehow got through to an office in the US. They were so apologetic and personally took care of my case PLUS gave us tickets to one more session the day we were going! And so Mark and I flew out on a Tuesday afternoon, picked up our rental and found our hotel (I wanted to make sure it's in a safe area!). We went to a Cuban neighborhood restaurant for dinner and learned that Mark's eyes are way bigger than his stomach sometimes. He hardly ate any of his dinner that he was so excited about. 

For breakfast, we found a cute French bakery and had delicious but overpriced croissants:)

It was a very relaxing morning! Finally, we drove (15 min or so) to Hard Rock Stadium where Miami Open was in full force. This was the first year that Miami Open was hosted by this location--usually it's somewhere at Key Biscayne, FL. 

There was a lot to do and see on the grounds before any of the matches started. 

Mark and I walked through a bunch of tents with free stuff, got acquainted with the surrounding and then spent the remainder of the time, before the matches started, doing the kids' clinic by IMG, the famous tennis academy in FL.

Soon it was time to go over to the Center Court. We were extremely fortunate! The night before, we had learned that because of rain, Federer's match had been postponed to the following day--meaning the day that WE were visiting. So the first match we were going to watch was Federer vs Medvedev!

We got to our seats right when Federer arrived to practice before his match. It was surreal!! We just couldn't stop smiling! 

Our seats were very good! This is how well we could see the court!

Mark wore his funny Roger That t-shirt that most tennis fans would understand. We were so excited!!

Federer destroyed Medvedev. He was a pleasure to watch. 

We still couldn't believe we were seeing Federer this close!

We stayed for the women's quarterfinals match as well--with Halep and Wang. Halep did a fantastic job and won! As you can see, women's tennis, even at this level, doesn't attract the same crowds as men's. 

Here is a selfie of us, a record for our posterity. 

We took a quick break to grab a late lunch.  

And next up were John Isner (a native of nearby Greensboro, NC) vs. Roberto Bautista Agut. It was a fantastic match as well as Isner had to beat Bautista Agut in two sets that both went to a tiebreak. We had seen Bautista Agut play at the Winston Salem Open tournament and he won it last year!

For dinner we chose delicious crepes from one of the trucks. We ate while watching the second women's match on the big screen.

I had a savory mushroomy kind--and usually I don't take pictures--it was so good!

Then we headed over for a quick doubles match. It was Stefanos Tsitsipas and Koolhof playing against American John Isner and Sam Querrey. 

It was an intense match as they had to go to the third set. Doubles matches are always so fast paced and fun to watch!

We joke that Katya has a crush on Tsitsipas-haha. He is about 20 years old, native of Greece. We first noticed him when he beat Federer in Australia and we were watching that match. So we kept sending videos and pictures of him to Katya during this match:)

Wait, we need a better picture here, so we all know who we are talking about. 😂

Finally, it was time for the last men's quarterfinals match of the day--Auger-Alliassime (a teenager from Canada) vs. Coric. 

It was an exciting match as well and Auger-Alliassime won! 

We were exhausted but exhilarated at the same time as the match finished at almost 11 pm.

Mark thought we had an amazing day! And a great reason to be staying up late! I know he will remember this experience forever--he was very appreciative of what we did and expressed gratitude many times as this meant so much to him.

And here is our selfie on the way back! Mama and Mark time was coming to an end! (I probably should add filter to my selfies, but whatever)

I hope we get to see many more fancy matches like this together with Mark! He is so fun to be around!

Lyana. 

The Music Man

After long days of rehearsals and hours practicing her songs, Katya (and the rest of the musical cast) finally got to show us what they had been working on. This year, Katya auditioned for and got the part of Mrs. Paroo--the mother of the main character in the musical "The Music Man". She amazed everyone with her ability to recreate the Irish accent, especially when singing. 

Stage make up at its best:) 

And this is Katya's stage son, whom the high school borrowed for the musical. Our high school is becoming more and more well known in our (huge) county as THE musical theater high school. It's wonderful!

We made sure one of us attended each one of the three performances to support Katya. 

She performed her part flawlessly each time! 

We are so very proud of Katya and hope to see her many more times perform in musicals (her favorite kind of performing). 

Claire and Sophie came to support Katya as well. 

Katya and her best friend, Sophie. 

Katya and her vocal coach, Ms. Lauren.

Katya and her teacher of other basic life skills. 

We love you, beautiful Katya!

The Evening I Get To See Elton John!

Sometimes I surprise myself at how adventurous and spontaneous I CAN be. HAHAHA!

So, Elton John is traveling on his farewell tour...sadly...and I've known for awhile he was coming to town. But by the time I actually decided to look for tickets, the prices were through the rough. I tried for several weeks to look for some on craigslist, but three times I did start a conversation certain red flags would come up and I just knew inside something smelled fishy. I am a smart woman!:) Anyway...I wasn't willing to pay $300 a ticket for the worst seats either, but so wanted to go with Robert. 

Finally! On the day of the show, I still didn't get anywhere with my search. And then at 7 pm, after I cleaned up our kitchen and sent the kids and Robert to youth activities at the church, I got on craigslist and saw that a lady was selling great ticket (ONE) to the concert for $60. I quickly got in touch with her, as she had posted it 25 min earlier and she helped me find a place to meet near the PNC arena. I also called her on the phone to make sure she was real.  So I told her I woul dmeet her in 25 minutes...but still worried it is a fake ticket or maybe she was a decoy and had some other evil plans...Anyway, my imagination didn't run too wild because all I remember is that I grabbed my purse, ran to the van voice texting Robert that I was going to the concert and meeting a lady hoping she was not a crazy lady. I texted him the address where we were meeting, just in case.

I was at the meeting place in 20 minutes and pulling in saw a police car...so at least that was a little comforting. The lady turned out to be a nice lady who was just too tired to go to this big event after work last minute. Yay! And after spending 15 minutes in line to park (I met her only 5 minute drive from the arena) and paying $30 for parking, I was finally through the security and running to my seat. 

This ticket turned out to be real and I was sitting in my awesome seat at 8:15. The seat was awesome! It might not look like it's close, but it was perfect for me:) And I just relished the idea that I paid so little for it! 

Elton John had no opening act! And he sang for almost THREE HOURS STRAIGHT! He changed his outfit once, kept the glasses though. 

I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to choose what songs to perform. He did some of his most famous ones and some less famous ones as well as the ones that have amazing piano parts that I'd never heard before. His piano skills are incredible! Hard to believe he is so ...old...and that his fingers move so fast (as they are quite short:)). Once again, I had an epiphany about Alex and how we need to support him in his love for performing. 

He ended with our favorites--"Your Song" and "Good Bye Yellow Road". I grew up listening to all of his songs ever since I remember! I am so happy my kids know of him and appreciate his songs and talent.

Here is the best selfie I could get at 11 pm after the concert ended.

I ran like a bullet to my car and was home by 11:20, elated and buzzing with excitement to tell Robert all about the concert!

And now I have this souvenir hanging on my fridge. It does pay off to be spontaneous (sometimes-hahaha!).

Projects, Outings, and Celebrations

A few random things have been sitting on the back burner to write about. Life is happening so fast with kids already counting down to the end of another school year...which means the time is quickly approaching the day that Katya leaves for college---aaaah! I catch myself thinking about it quite often now...

Anyway! In no particular order... We celebrated New Year's Eve with a party at the Wests. We played a few games and had a music talent show for the kids who wanted to perform. It was a lot of fun!

This is our backyard. We have a slope that used to have wooden planks and rocks as steps when we moved in, but the wood rotted away in the last couple of years, so Robert took all of the wood out and was going to build the steps himself. After weeks going by of him researching, drawing plans, pricing everything and checking out Lowes, we decided that it was most time and even cost efficient to just hire someone to do this project. So we did.

And here is the final result. I love the English pavers (that's their name). Now we have to move on to the little fence-hahaha and another part of our big fence (we have a lot of fence to take care of...).

The other weekend, Robert and Alex found a Park Run to participate in. It's a 5K race like they had in Huntingdon, England and we'd done that one a number of times! It's a free race, so a lot of people from the rowing team participated as part of their winter training. The missing part--beautiful nature and footpaths...

Robert and I had a week of outings one week in February. On Tuesday night, we left the kids at home and went to the Hurricanes game at the PNC arena as part of the work get together. It was super fun! Free food and awesome club level seats:) And hockey. Brought me back to my volunteering in the Salt Lake Olympics days when I had to translate for the hockey teams at press conferences.

And on Thursday, we got to experience The Piano Guys live! What a show! So much talent and just good spirit about these "dads from Utah", as they call themselves. I was watching them play and thinking to myself how we need to keep encouraging Alex to continue to play, he definitely has something special in the way he can just sit down and arrange cords.

Oh, here is a random picture of Mark (trying to grow out his hair) and Robert. Still looking similar but not the same-hahaha.

Alex participated in the Geography Bee at his school. He was chosen to participate after answering 19 out of 20 questions right (the most of all 6-8 graders). Unfortunately, he got bumped out of the competition when there were three or four students remaining. Katya had a day off school so she was able to come watch, and Mark begged me to let him go to school late and go support Alex as well. 

We still do lots of tennis tournaments. I am the main tennis parent but we take turns with Robert who gets to watch him too. It's surprising how stressful it is to watch your own kid-haha. I never-ever felt like that with basketball or soccer, but tennis--man...it's a tough individual sport. And matches take a long time sometime....I think the longest so far was 2 hrs 15 minutes, but on average they are around 1 hour and 20 minutes. We have decided to time them now and tell Mark (he loves all things numbers still). And we try to record mini videos of us driving and talking about the tennis match, expectations or results. 

For Valentine's Day Robert made me this sweet salad and a bouquet of flowers:) They were meant to last a very long while. They didn't. A very sweet gesture indeed--but the one that totally sabotaged any efforts by me to not eat chocolate.

Of course, the night before Valentine's Day, Mark remembers he needs to make a box to collect his candy and cards. So he told us what he had imagined he wanted to make and we helped him find the materials. It was his idea to cover it with duct tape like this though and name it Peaceful Brexit. Seriously...

One day before church we tried to take a "tripod" family picture. You'd think with bigger kids it would be easier, but noooooo:) Sometimes Robert was the worst offender though:)

Back in December I got in touch with our Wake County Tennis Association to see if Mark's elementary school could receive FREE tennis equipment to include tennis in their PE instruction (because that's what they had advertised). That started the ball rolling and finally in January, our principal, PE teacher and the tennis lady met and decided that although at the moment PE unit in tennis was not going to fit into their schedule, a tennis club would be something that they could arrange--they just needed parent volunteers:). Then one of the other teachers mentioned she had a son who played high level tennis in high school and right now had free time, and he agreed to help with the club. Mark's teacher and her daughters also agreed. And then there was Mark and ME. And that's how we started a tennis club at Mark's school. We have 23 kids enrolled and meet on Mondays after school, right before Mark has to dash to his own tennis practice. Mark is one of the main instructors! 

I also wanted to share Mark's Christmas present to Robert. I found it the other day while cleaning out my dresser. I know I want to keep it because it's so funny! So far Robert has had one free lesson. 

The end!

Lyana.