Katie's Senior Prom

Katie and her friend Mary Gubler went to senior prom together.  The dance was at Felts Field in one of the airplane hangers.  They had a catered dinner and then the dance.  They set at a table with a bunch of their girlfriends.  They got ready at our house, went and took pictures at a greenhouse because it was pooring rain outside, went to the dance, had dinner at the dance, visited with friends at the dance, and didn't really dance at the dance.  I guess kids don't really dance at dances anymore.  They left the dance and went to Froyo and then came here and sat in the hot tub.  

Emilie came to take pictures because she is much better at it than me. 

Abby Allen and Katie

Katie and Lilly Peterson

Katie was nominated to be on the prom court.  She didn't win prom queen, but it was cool to be nominated.  Mya Hauck was queen and Hyrum Osborn was king.

 

Tanner Signed with Dixie State

Tanner and Emilie went to St. George and did an official visit with Dixie State (which will soon be Utah Tech).  They really liked the school, the coaches, the team, and the location and the coaches really liked them.  They offered Tanner a scholarship to come and play basketball there, and Tanner verbally committed.  He signed an NIL a few days later.  We are so excited for them.  We wish it was closer, but otherwise think that it is totally awesome!  Go Trailblazers!  Looks like we are all going to need to get new swag!

From the Spectrum a local St. George Paper:

Dixie State recruiting tracker: Trailblazers add Idaho transfer Tanner Christensen

Dixie State University announced this week the signing of Idaho transfer Tanner Christensen.

Christensen adds to a recruiting class that features Snow College transfer and Payson native Hagen Wright.

The 6-foot-10 Christensen will help fill the void left by Hunter Schofield, who averaged 15 points per game 6.3 rebounds per game and was First Team All-WAC in ’21-’22.

“Tanner has played a lot of minutes at the Division-I level and we feel that will be a big advantage for him and us here at Dixie State,” Judkins noted. “Tanner plays with a high motor and rebounds very well at his position. Besides being a great player and excellent student, he is an even better person, and we are grateful to have Tanner and his wife Emilie join our program.”

A Spokane, Washington native, Christensen started 27 of 28 games for Idaho, averaging 8.5 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

“He is a tough and skilled competitor that fits our culture here,” Judkins said. “Tanner is a big that can run the floor and has great post moves. His ability to play in big games is a must for us.”

Christensen scored in double figures in 11 games, with a career-high 18 coming against Eastern Washington.

From Dixiestateathletics.com:

MBB - Trailblazers Add Idaho Transfer Tanner Christensen to 2022-23 Roster

Dixie State head men's basketball coach Jon Judkins announced on Wednesday the signing of Idaho transfer Tanner Christensen to a financial aid agreement ahead of the upcoming 2022-23 season. Christensen played two seasons with the Vandal program and has three years of eligibility remaining.  
 
"We are very excited to welcome Tanner to our Trailblazer family," Coach Judkins said. "He is a tough and skilled competitor that fits our culture here. Tanner is a big that can run the floor and has great post moves. His ability to play in big games is a must for us."
 
The 6-10 power forward started in 27 of 28 games played at Idaho this past season and averaged 8.5 points on 57.3 percent shooting, along with 6.4 rebounds per game. He scored in double figures in 11 of those outings, highlighted by a career-high 18 points in a home win over Eastern Washington (83-80; 2/19/22).
 
Christensen pulled down 10 or more rebounds five times last season, including a career-best 12 boards vs. Sacramento State (1/22/22), and he posted his first collegiate double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds vs. Northern Colorado (1/20/22). Christensen also played in 22 games with three starts as a true freshman in the 2020-21 campaign and averaged 4.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.

"Tanner has played a lot of minutes at the Division-I level and we feel that will be a big advantage for him and us here at Dixie State," Judkins noted. "Tanner plays with a high motor and rebounds very well at his position. Besides being a great player and excellent student, he is an even better person and we are grateful to have Tanner and his wife Emilie join our program."
 
Christensen prepped at University High School in Spokane Valley, Wash., where he earned first team all-Greater Spokane League honors after averaging 16.4 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks as a senior in 2017-18. He served as team captain during both his junior and senior seasons, and averaged nearly a double-double throughout his high school career.
 
Christensen joins Snow College transfer Hagen Wright as members of the Trailblazers' 2022 signing class.
 
Dixie State wrapped up its second season of NCAA Division I play with a 13-18 overall record, five wins more than the Blazers' posted in their D-I debut campaign last year. DSU finished with a 10-6 record inside the Burns Arena, and wound up 6-12 in WAC play, which was good for 10^th place in the conference standings.
 
Why Tanner Christensen chose Dixie State - "I chose Dixie State because I felt like I developed a great relationship with the coaching staff and they made me feel at home. I think it's a program trending in the right direction and that we can win a lot of games. Dixie State seems like a great place to go to school and play basketball."

Katie was the GSL Female Scholar Athlete for University High School

All the school in the GSL, the sports league, pick one girl and one boy from their school to be the scholar athlete for their school for the year.  Katie was chosen to be the female scholar athlete for her high school.  There are 15 schools in the GSL so there were 30 kids that were recognized. (Actually there were 31 because there were twin sisters recognized from Mead High School.) We got to attend a luncheon at Centerplace where they called each kid up and read a bio about them and recognized them for being the scholar athlete from their school.  It was pretty awesome!

 

Mr University

Mr University is a fun tradition at U-High.  Senior boys are nominated by their teachers to compete for the title of Mr University.  They have to do a 2 minute speech, answer and impromptu question, and do a talent.  Some of the talents are real and some of them are silly.  This event is typically sponsored by the cheer leaders, but the cheer leading coach just had a baby and so the cheer leaders were not able to sponsor it this year.  Katie and 3 off the cheerleaders, Shelby Zehm, Haylee Barlow, and Claire Deyarmin, decided that they wanted to organize it and put it on. They did an awesome job.  Katie was the MC for the evening.  The boys were hilarious.  It was a super fun evening.  

 

Easter 2022

Tanner came up and celebrated Easter with us this year.  I was lame and didn't get any Easter presents.  But I did make Easter breakfast and hid Easter eggs.  It was fun to have everyone together at church.  We had Easter dinner at our house and invited Jon and Michelle and their kids, Devony and Jett Damiono because their parents are out of town, and Don Thornton because he was home all alone.  

 

Mod Prom 2022

The Valley Stake hosted a Mod (Modest) Prom. Katie and her friends decided that they wanted to go. So they got all dressed up, took pictures at Emma Sautter's house, went to dinner at HuHot, and then went to the dance that was held at Centerplace.  They had lots of fun together and looked absolutely amazing.  

Emma Sautter, Devony Damiono, Katie, Kendyll Fry, Mary Gubler

 

Italy Trip Day 13

 Today we have to head home.  We have had a wonderful trip and are sad to see it end.  We took a taxi to the train station and took a train to the airport.  We went through security super fast and then had to sit in the airport for a while.  We got some food.  Then we had to say goodbye to Jessy and Grammy.  Grammy is flying home to NY with Jessy and staying to visit her for a few weeks.  Their plane left a little earlier than ours.  After we said goodbye, Katie and I got gelato one more time and then went and got on our plane.  We didn't get to have Delta comfort this time, but at least we had the side 2 seats again.  I watched 5 movies on our 10 hour flight to Atlanta.  We had to go through immigration and customs in Atlanta and recheck our bags and go through security again.  We had dinner at Chic-Fil-A.  We flew to Salt Lake and then to Spokane.  We got home about 1am.  At least we got to go to sleep when we got home.  It was an awesome trip that we will forever remember!