Chasing BYU Tennis Team in Pennsylvania

If you were to ask me a few years ago if I ever would do what we did, I would say absolutely not-- it’s just crazy. 

But it doesn’t seem so crazy anymore-haha! 

Middle of February, we were waiting for find out if Mark was going to get into an L2 tournament. Only four L2s are happening in the country at the same time so the competition to get in is stiff. He was one of the top alternates for Arizona, so we were holding on to last piece of hope he would get in and I finally cancelled the ticket on Thursday evening. 

So instead, since we had a free Friday, we decided to fly to Philadelphia and drive to Lehigh University where BYU was playing against Vilanova on their “East Coast trip”.  It wasn’t a spur of the moment trip--I did book the tickets a few weeks earlier “just in case”.

We left early in the morning, got to Philly, got our rental car and made it to the site shortly after doubles was finished. We were the only BYU fans besides the parents of two of the Owen boys who are on the team. The reason we could just fly to Philly if we wanted to is MILES! It was a direct flight from Raleigh for only about 6K points per person and $6 for taxes each way. Great redemption, if you ask me! 

And what an experience! Mark couldn’t stop beaming just being there, next to all these amazing players! We got to talk to the parents of Redd and Hardy Owen who followed the team from UT. And chatted with all the players. They all couldn’t believe that Mark is just 16 and is so tall. 

After the matches, which BYU won 7:0 even without the number 1 and number 2 player playing, we all went to grab some lunch. 

We chatted with the coaches and just had a good time. I was still feeling pretty nervous, probably because they are college coaches. They weren’t obviously talking about recruiting in any shape or form yet because the date they are allowed to do that is Jun 15th before Mark’s junior year. How awesome it is to have this picture! 

And I love that they made the group to squish together and to get Mark in with everyone. 

So funny! 

A few of these guys are non-LDS and some are returned missionaries. It’s interesting because the ones that served in Brazil, Benin and Thailand couldn’t play tennis at all for two years. But Hardy was lucky and while serving in Slovenia was able to play tennis almost every day in the morning while being able to also teach and make connections with people. Now one tennis player Tennyson Whiting is serving in the same mission after a couple of years at BYU and then trying to make it on the pro tour. Amazing stuff! 

And after this fun lunch, we were back in the car, grabbing some treats for our drive back to the airport and catching our flight home. It was a crazy whirlwind trip, just a day trip, but such a memory for me and Mark!

Lyana. 

 

Utah-Colorado Summer Adventure 2024

This summer, between Mark's freshman and sophomore year, we have decided it would be a good time for Mark to make himself known to the BYU tennis coaches. So we planned six months in advance and registered Mark for a BYU Tennis camp for a one week after his FSY adventure in Wilmington.

Mark and I used Delta companion certificate and a regional upgrade to fly Business Class on the coveted direct flight RDU-SLC. 

Beautiful sunset over Salt Lake.

We arrived on Saturday night at SLC.

And we spent a night at the Farnsworths' home in Green River. Erin and Dave are our good friends from Misawa and we try to see them when we are in UT. We went to church with them on Sunday and then after lunch made our way to Orem/Provo area. 

We spent one night at Lisa's house who generously welcomed us. I stayed with her the five nights that Mark spent at the BYU dorms. 

On Monday morning, it was SO fun to check Mark in to the tennis camp and find his room to get him settled. 

I stayed a bit for the first half hour or so of the orientation to hear to what the coaches had to say. We were fortunate that the BYU Men's team's coach, Zach Warren, was running this week's camp. 

While Mark was at camp, I got to visit with friends! We went to dinner with us all girls of the Wilson family--and that was super fun! I was their foreign exchange student 26 years ago! 

I visited the Wests--the mission president and his wife whom I tutored in 2002 before they left on their mission to Ukraine. Robert and I even went and visited them in Kyiv that first time we went to Ukraine on a visit. I was happy to see them before they left on a second mission to CA this September.

I also got to see my friend Kylie who had moved to St. George, UT last year! It was so great to catch up! Kylie drove over 2 hours to see me, so I am super grateful! 

Here is a picture with Lisa in the same spot where we have taken so many different family and pre-dance/friends pictures. 

Finally, I got to see our friends, Kelley and Todd Dunn! We met the Dunns in the first year when we got married as we lived in the same apartment building. It was wonderful to see each other and talk about our kids and lives and how well things turned out! 

When I had some down time in the mornings, I tried to take walks in Lisa's neighborhood. It was difficult to find good paths actually as it seemed that side walks just ended in random places. So a couple of times I drove to BYU campus and walked on the trails in that area. 

Some days I went to watch Mark hit with other high performance UT players and also got to talk to one of the assistant coaches. 

Mark had a fun time at the camp. They did a lot of drills, played games and matches and got to know each other. And in the mornings, they had him train with the BYU Women's team which was awesome and challenging. 

In the evenings, the kids had a bunch of planned activities--ice cream, movies, water park, a dance. Mark met a lot of people but he still kind of likes to stick to himself to remain an enigma to many. And he is perfectly happy like that. 

 

On the last day of camp (Friday), I was able to come watch him play in the last rounds of their matches.

 At the end of it all, the coaches gave out awards to the winners of each group. They had over 25 "levels" of groups. Mark was in the best group and won the whole thing. 

Basically, the legend of Mark Watson lives on at this point... hahaha. Apparently, two girls were at the tennis camp the week after Mark and both of them mentioned North Carolina or Mark and were told that Mark was by far the best player they'd ever had at the BYU tennis camp. It was funny! 

Mark was well liked by the coaches and was able to have a good talk with both the head coach and the assistant coach. This is Jack, from Australia, the former BYU tennis player who is a volunteer coach right now after graduating from BYU. He and Mark got along great! 

Right when the BYU camp was finished, we rushed to the airport to catch our flight to Denver! 

Mark was playing an L4 tournament that weekend. 

We had a lot of fun again with the Alleys. Isaac and Emma came to watch Mark one day. 

Mark did pretty well and played a few great matches. 

In the meantime, Robert was having his own adventure as he sold his 2011 Ford Truck after 4 years. 

And he found a 2019 Toyota truck that is even taller. Midlife crisis, I guess.

On Monday afternoon, I met up with my friend Carrie Baldwin. We met each other in MN when we were in dental school. It'd been 15 years since we had seen each other! Social media helps to stay in touch. 

Right after our meeting, we were about to start our drive to the airport to take an evening flight to SLC so we could stay in the hotel and fly to RDU in the morning, as part of the roundtrip ticket with Delta. Well, I got a notice that our SLC-RDU flight was cancelled because of the CRAZY outage that happened with major airlines systems! So I tried and tried to get us on a different flight, but everything was gone. So finally, I told Delta to just refund me the money for our tickets. And then I booked us on a direct flight on Southwest Denver-Raleigh for the following day. It just meant I had an extra night in CO...so I called Janeen and asked her if we could stay at her house for the night and, of course, she generously let us do that. We had another chance to go hang out with the Alleys and talk and talk with Janeen (Mark was happy to hang out with Emma and Isaac). 

Side note: This is also the night that Katya called and told us that Sam broke up with her...which was quite a shocker for all of us, but all turned out to be for the best. 

The good news is that the following morning we had no problems and managed to get out of Denver and get home quickly. 

We had been gone for TEN days! That's a very long time...and poor Robert was on his own, all lonely, buying trucks. 

I don't think we'll ever do a BYU tennis camp again, but I am absolutely sure that it was the right move to go to BYU to meet the right tennis people. 

Alex’s Life at BYU

 This will be the most wordless post ever. Because truly I am just trying to capture pretty much all the pictures that Alex sent me while enjoying his Freshman year at BYU.

Alex made a TON of great friends. He especially enjoyed going to the BYU football games.

And yes, that is Alex and his roommate Chris (to the left).

Rand into James and Michelle one time. 

Alex and the former NC missionaries. 

Alex also got to go to the Conference in SLC.

I will be honest, I am not sure who these kids are. 

Double date.

Alex went on a few trips with his buddies. 

Another date, throwing pots.

Christopher Spiesman and Alex roomed together, who would have ever thought that these childhood friends would reunite for the most epic year ever! 

I am not sure if this is the whole group of friends, but here they are. Crazy kids doing crazy adventures.

Finally! Alex got invited by my friend, Katie Jeppsen, who used to be MY young women’s leader in Orem when I joined the church, for dinner! This is pretty funny and crazy! Alex’s friend is her nephew, somehow they connected the dots-hahaha. They are such an amazing (and tall:)) family! 

And that, my friends, is all the info I have about Alex’s first year-hahaha. 

Alex Preparing to Leave the Nest

This post is one of those memories I would just like to hold on to and keep coming back over and over again. These are the last few pictures we took with Alex before he left for BYU. 

I wanted to make sure we maximize our time together, hug, walk, talk, just sit with each other. 

Although it's hard to tell for sure, Mark will miss Alex very much. 

They don't have the same friends or interests but they have never really fought either. They get on each other's nerves, but they I have never witnessed like a crazy brawl or wrestling between these too. They are 3.5 years apart, and maybe that is the reason. 

***Side note from the future (two months after Alex left). The other day in online seminary, the teacher asked for examples when someone did something for them although it was hard or scary. Mark shared a story about how one time he convinced Alex to go together and get junk food, but they knew I would not approve. So when I asked whose idea it was, after the fact, apparently Alex came forward and said it was all his idea. I laughed out loud. Apparently, that made an impact on Mark-hahaha. Now I see...but I can't remember that instant at all. 

Of course, his mama is going to miss him. And he claims he will miss me too. Mostly my smoothies and salads, I am sure. 

Robert had the privilege of dropping off Alex at BYU this time, getting settled and buying all the stuff for him. They will miss each other a lot! 

Our three strong Watson men! Who is going to be the tallest? Alex is a little taller than 6' 2'', Mark is catching up to him. 

Family selfie...minus Katya. 

Right before Alex left, he joined me on my errands to go get Mark from tennis and then get smoothies from Tropical Smoothies Cafe. 

And then he and I went on a special outing to Chapel Hill to get Merritt's sandwiches for lunch, got some UNC merch at the Shrunken Head store on Franklin St. by UNC...

And even made our way to the outlets in Mebane to get some shoes! Alex actually went shopping with me and we had fun! 

We went on our last Sunday walk on the "boardwalk" and took a few more pictures. 

Mark and I were leaving on the 24th of August, Thursday, to go to Orlando for the National Doubles Championships. So we actually had to say goodbye to Alex the day before he and Robert were flying out to Utah. 

Our handsome boys! 

And a my heart is happy when these two are around (or when I know they are far away but doing their thing). 

And finally, Mark and I had to say goodbye to Alex as he and Robert dropped us off at the airport at 5 am. I know he will do great on his own! He is ready! We all will miss him! 

We love you, Alex!

Lyana.