How can so much time go between posts so easily? I guess there is always something going on, right? Well, going back to where we finished last time, the Fall Sports Awards were coming up. Hard to believe that this is Delaney's Senior year. She's come a long way from her freshmen year, earning the Rookie of the Year:
We are so proud of Delaney’s accomplishments during her Senior Year! The best part was to see the team re-capture the DAC and win Sectionals; next year, they can “Defend the Crown!” Delaney was selected to the DAC All-Conference 1st Team and was named the MVP of the Conference! She was named to the All-District 1st Team and played in the Junior/Senior Showcase in Indy. She was also recognized by both newspapers as the Post-Tribune All-Area 1st Team and the NWI Times All-Area 2nd Team. She was named as an ISCA All-Academic player. Finally, she was selected as the Team MVP and received the Team Captain Award (along with Sam!).
The team, parents and coaches helped the Lady Bulldogs have a great four years. Delaney loved playing with her fellow seniors; it was an amazing experience and she is so happy to have shared it with them. They’ll forever be Lady Bulldogs!
Since Delaney was selected to the All-District Team, she was invited to participate in the Junior/Senior Showcase Showcase. And it was COLD!
The showcase included three games and Delaney had a couple goals and assists in them. The best part about the weekend was the warm banquet at the end! It was a wonderful celebration of soccer. Delaney had a great way to finish up her high school soccer career - she was selected as All-State, Honorable Mention!
We will be trading in our RED for GREEN next year as she will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha! We are looking forward to following the next chapter in her playing career!
Kenny had a holiday get-together with his buddies where they had to dress up as a character from a holiday movie. It took some convincing from us, but we finally persuaded him to go as Bad Santa. Since we hadn't seen the movie before, we had to do some research on his character so he could pull it off -- but it was a hit! He wore his dad's old Santa costume, and the wear and tear on it just helped pull the character together. Add in some alcohol, poor behavior and bad language... and he ended up winning the contest!!!
Unfortunately, everyone in the family got sick at one point or another. Kyle had a slight cold with a cough, but he didn't end up missing any school. He got it the easiest. I got what seemed like a never-ending cold that kept going away and coming back. After I got tired of the yo-yo'ing, I finally saw my doctor and he gave me some great meds. He thought I may have been starting to develop pneumonia, so probably a good thing that I finally went in. Kenny waited too long to get in to see a doctor, and he DID develop pneumonia. He got some great meds too, and he finally started feeling better. And saving the worst for last, Delaney got nailed. She had a horrible flu that just wouldn't stop. She had a fever, felt horrid, cough, sore throat... was just miserable. She ended up missing two weeks of school before break, and she was so behind in her schoolwork. It was definitely not a good time for her; she's NEVER missed that much school before (and doesn't want to ever again).
Then it was time for the holiday madness to begin. We decided to showcase our fur babies in our holiday card this year (Kenny had no say in the design process). The kitties were less than fond of their elf and Santa hats, complete with ties and bow-ties -- but it was all worth it.
Kenny was lucky enough to snag two premiere tickets to the new Star Wars Show, Rogue One at the IMax theater. So he and Kyle got to see the movie the night it came out, and they loved it! Delaney and Phoenix saw it shortly thereafter, and it took some time to figure out when I could finally see it. But we finally find a moment and ended up going to the IMax to see it with my dad and Delaney. It got rave reviews from everyone!!!
And since Delaney's 18th birthday was coming up, Sam took her to Chicago for the day to celebrate. They had a great time. They went sightseeing, had some yummy food, and even got to figure their way out from an escape room in The Great Escape Game. They escaped the Gold Rush room in time to win and achieved stickers; they want to go back and do another one (they highly recommend going there).
Then it was time for New Year's Eve! It always seems impossible for the year to be over. We had our traditional Benich Game Night. We play as many games as we can, as late (or early) as we can. The cats had fun hanging out with us too; we moved their kitty condo close to where we were playing. We ended up staying up until 5:15am in the morning. We played a total of 19 games, with the lead switching back and forth a few times. And drum roll... for the first time ever, Delaney pulled off the win!
It is hard to believe, but Delaney turned 18 this year!!! Aaaaaaah! We had fun looking through a bunch of old pictures from when she was little too:
For her actual birthday, we opened gifts up here at home. Kyle had fun giving her a bag of 18 gifts, all of which were individually wrapped. It took a while to get through all of those. Then we had a yummy meal at The Lighthouse with all the grandparents. Delaney later celebrated with Phoenix; he took her to Tequila Restaurante.
Turnabout was really early this year, so it seemed like things were just rushing into one another. Which meant we were scrambling to get her dress shortened and some straps added in time. But we finally finished everything, and they had a great evening together. (This was their 6th dance together!!!)
Delaney and her friends had an ice-skating outing planned to celebrate Sam's birthday. They went out to Valparaiso and had a great time. They also stopped at a cupcake place in Valpo nearby, and enjoyed huge and delicious cupcakes after their ice-skating.
Ironically, the day before on January 12th (a half day of school), an incident occurred. On that fateful day, Kyle was happily slipping around on the ice with his friends on the way home when he fell the wrong way. He really hurt himself, and a neighbor saw he was hurting and was kind enough to take him home. We were hoping that it would just be a small injury and resolve itself with some rest... but no luck. We took him to the pediatrician, who thought it was just a sprain and recommended crutches and rest. The crutches were problematic for Kyle, especially with school, and he probably didn't use them enough. His pain wasn't going away, so we finally went back to the doctor. She recommended we see an orthopedic doctor, where he received an x-ray and discovered he had a slight fracture, close to his growth plate. So... he now has a cast.
He'll need to wear it for a few weeks, then get x-ray'ed again. Hopefully it will be healed by then, and it can be removed. Until then, after a few more days at school with crutches... Kenny was able to find him a scooter. He loves it; he gets along so much better at school with it. With luck, it will make the remaining weeks go by a lot smoother for him.
Although things aren't as bad compared to Kyle's injury; we've had a tough couple months. We had to get a tree service to take down our dead tree in the backyard before it fell on the neighbor's pool, our TV receiver stopped working (it's hard to play Lego Dimensions with no sound!), the microwave bit the dust, the dryer stopped drying, and we signed the paperwork for Kyle to get braces. To add insult to injury, we found out that St. Joseph's College -- and the computer lab where we met, of course -- is closing down!
Let's hope the worst of the year is behind us and the rest of 2017 is awesome!
Love,
Ken, Danielle, Delaney & Kyle
