Hey, baby lets go to Vegas....again!

Hello Sister Nielsen,
 
There went another week.  When I look back on it, every thing appears to be a blur.  On Monday evening, I had to travel to Battle Mountain to do a financial aid night at the high school there.  I got home around 9:00 pm.  Then on Tuesday, Erin and Cody had their 1st rounds of the regional bball tourney here in Elko.  The boys played Spring Creek again and the Girls played Dayton.  They both won fairly easily.  I don't remember the scores.  They both did fine.   Then on Friday, we traveled to Reno for the games on Friday and Sat.  The boys  and girls beat South Tahoe teams.  They were both kind of ugly games.  I believe they both knew they were out matched by bball skills, so they tried to take them on physically.  There were alot of fouls but the refs did not call much.  We stayed over night in Reno and on Sat. the girls played Spring Creek for the Regional championship and the boys played Lowry high school.  Spring Creek girls barely got into the championship game.  They were behind to Fallon most of the 2nd half, and was down by 1 point with 10 seconds to go and Fallon was shooting a free throw.  The fallow girl missed it and SC got the rebound and made 2 quick passes up court for a lay up.  Fallon did not get back on defense.  I can't believe Fallon gave up that game.  SC should be out.  But they won and we played them on Sat. in the final.  SC won by 5 points.  They were up by 8 in the 1st qtr, we had a hard time getting going.  Elko's offense is horrible as it never gets them good uncontested shots, where as SC always have open shots.  SC were knocking down their outside jumpers and that was the difference.  Erin only had 3 points on Sat, 1 3-pointer and that was it.  On Friday, Erin could not hit any thing.  She shot probably 13 shots from the outside and could not make a thing.  I think her shoulder is hurting her and she is not getting her elbow perpendicular or lined up correctly.  Her elbow is out.
 
Cody played ok on defense, but did not do much on offense.  Friday he made 2 free throws is all.  But he never looks for his shot.  The boys beat Lowry by 4 or 5 points. We were up by 8 in the 1st half, but Lowry came back to within 1 the 2nd half and had a chance to tie it with less than a minute to go, but missed the shot and Elko made their free throws.  So the boys go to Las vegas this weekend and the number 1 team from the north and the girls go to vegas as the number 2 team from the north.  The 2 boy teams from the south are suppose to be really good.  So we will head to Las Vegas Friday and Sat and hopefully win on Friday and make it to the state championship game on Sat for both teams.  They are going to need both Erin and Cody to step up and play big for them this weekend. 
 
Sat. after the games, we drove over the Cal. to see Grandma and Grandpa Croft.  Erin had practice at 10 this morning so we had to hurry back and drove back on Sunday and got to elko about 9:45 pm.
 
Cal was beautiful, 73 degrees, it felt really good after being so cold for so long.  Other than that, every thing is going well. Not too much to add from our side.  Our lives revolve around the kids sports schedule.  Hopefully they both can win 2 more games this weekend and end a good year.
 
We look forward to hearing from you.  Today is a holiday so I assume the library is not open.  I hope you and your new comp. are doing great and having lots of success.  I hope that guy was able to be baptized last Valentines day.
 
Have a great week, keep on working and being obedient and the Lord will bless you in every thing.  In Granite Bay we talked to 2 missionaries there and asked them if they knew Eric Sandall, and they said yes, that he is an A.P. now and doing great.  He was always pretty solid and had a strong testimony.
 
Well, take care, we love you,
 
Dad

Aloha Sis. Nielsen,

     Yes, we are Vegas bound this weekend for state basketball playoffs.  We were in Reno last weekend and that went pretty well.  I know Dad gives you all this info too, but two versions of the same experience is OK isn't it?  Elko played So. Tahoe both boys and girls, and we won pretty easily.  The girls should have put them away sooner, they seemed to have a hard time blowing it open.  Then the next night  the girls played Spring Creek and the boys played Lowery.  It felt eerily similar to last year's final, when we LOST to both those teams!  The girls got behind by about 8pts the first quarter and we were playing catch up the rest of the game and could never quite overcome that.  Erin played OK- considering. She had one 3 pointer and that was it.  I told her she has to play to her potential if we are ever going to win against them.  She was averaging 8-9 pts per game before the shoulder thing, and we lost by 5pts. SC almost lost to Fallon in their fri. night game.  We were on our way to Reno and we picked up the game being broadcast to Fallon as we were driving past that part of the freeway before Fernley, and Fallon was ahead in the final minutes, but blew their lead and lost.  We may see SC again Vegas, this time it's our turn to win.

    The boys pulled out a win against Lowery, it was closer than it should have been, and I was starting to sense Deja vu all over again, but we WHEW! got the win.  Cody didn't score any points, he needs to step it up as well.  After Saturdays game we drove down the hill to Gram and Gramps and spent some time with them.  We went to church with them and then we came home sunday after dinner.  They are doing well, grandma thinks her tumor is getting a little smaller, so we hope that will continue.  They gave us the old Mac computer from grandpa's desk, along with boxes of grapefruit, oranges and mandarins, YUM.

     That's cool, that your companion is from Macau.  I've actually been on that island in Hong Kong.  I was there when I was on my folkdance tour.  I'm kind of glad that you are back in Hon. West.  You had some unfinished business there I guess.

Here's the latest from Addie-- this morning Dad went into our room and she was just waking up, and he said, Hi Adelaide are you going to get up? and she said, "mom said I could stay"  (meaning, she didn't have to get up and get in the car and go cross-guard with me, since Dad was still going to be home then) she then threw the covers up over her head.  Dad said, I want to give you a good morning kiss, and so she stuck out her hand from under the covers and said,"kiss my hand".  I told him, she could have told you to kiss something else.  She does something funny everyday.  We comment all the time how lucky (really extremely blessed) we are that she came to our family.  What a gift, you all are.

     Well, we love getting your letters, Erin said to tell you she changed her password on her e-mail and can't remember it exactly and that's why you haven't got any letters from her lately.  Hope you have a wonderful week.

Love,

mom