It is finished

We had a big day today.

Around 11:30, I said to the boys, "Come on, we need to get ready.  We're going to a basketball game to watch Uncle Willie get an award."

"Where is the game at?" Elliott asked in a tone pretty close to exasperation.

"In Ogden, where we went to the game on Monday," I replied.

"You mean the Dee Events Center, Mom", Wyatt declared.

How that kid knew it was the Dee Event Center I have no idea but, as is often the case, he was right and that's where we were headed.

You see, on Monday, the Hunter High Wolverines played Syracuse high school in the first round of the 5A state championships.  They lost.  It was a rough game and I'd had a stomach ache all day long just waiting for it to happen and be over, one way or another.  It's so sad that no matter how the season turned out, how hard the boys worked, how hard they fought and wanted it, they were bound to end their season this year on a loss and it was a tough loss at that.  But, that loss was a little bit tougher for those of us in the stands, the three mom's of Willie Petersen because it meant for us, no more basketball.  The withdrawl symptoms have already started to set in.

This kid of ours is done.  We've been watching him play basketball for what seems like forever.  He has played and played and played and his "professional" career came to an end on Monday afternoon.  I'm not sure how that brother of mine felt about it.  I know that I was so happy for the end of my senior season that I could have shouted it from the rooftop the night we had our final loss so I'd imagine part of him felt the same way.  And I know that tennis practice started the next day with the shoveling of snow off the tennis courts.

But, I'm sure he was a little bit sad.  Just for a minute.  But, like his sisters before him, he's got so many bigger and better things in front of him that I can hardly wait to watch.

It was a big day for Willie though - orientation at the University of Utah in the morning, finding a major he might be interested in, Media Engineering, and then back up to Ogden in the afternoon with all of us to receive his award for Academic All-State.

I got to go down on the court with Willie to be the official photographer.  It was pretty cool to be down there with him.  I fit right in height wise and, most of those dumb moms probably figured I was Willie's dumb mom so I definitely won the award for youngest (and tallest) mom.

I was so proud of my brother.  He was one of 10 boys in the state to receive such an honor in the 5A grouping of schools.  And, like his goofy sisters before him, Willie is the third Petersen child to be Academic All-State in basketball, and in two sports.  Haley and I received the honor for volleyball and basketball and Willie for football, basketball, and most likely tennis this spring.

A pretty neat honor for a bunch of nerdy, opinionated, too big for their own britches kids.  I guess our parents really did a good job with the three of us.

Thanks mom and dad.

We stayed to watch the whole game and then left to do what we do best.....

Eat Pizza!

Thanks for a great day.  I'm real proud of my brother.