Justin's Road to Recovery

We enjoyed a visit from Steve's mom for Thanksgiving, and also kept our 4 favorite dogs, yes all at the same time. Our own version of G.O.A.T. (left to right Riggs Theo Ivy Koa) We had an early snow, and Justin boarded on Snowbird opening day, then hopped a plane to Orlando. Unfortunately no more snow to speak of. Christmas was low-key, but we have ALL enjoyed the week off of work and school.  Someone asked if I'd be happy the year was over, implying hardship, difficulty, etc. We said, "Justin is alive, what is there to move on from?" By the grace of God we are still Four Fabulous Fahrenkrogs. Wishing each of you a Happy New Year and welcome to 2024 tomorrow. 🎉😁💝 (Here are also a few more scenes from State Cup from a professional photographer.)

 I wanted to reach out to all of you again and make several posts to cover the rest of the year. This will be the soccer summary. In addition to the boys placing 2nd in State Cup (previous post), they won their P1 Comp (Premier Competitive) Division, last one of their careers. We had a fun celebration party at Calle (a teammate's parent's indoor soccer place in SLC). In November the boys also played in the first round of Desert League in Phoenix, currently ranking in 3rd place. Steve went with Justin and was able to connect with a friend of ours there also. After that was National League Playoffs in Orlando in December. I was able to travel with the team this time, ironically my first trip to a far far away game.   First off, we had SO MUCH FUN!!!  Second, the ESPN Wide World of Sports facility, run by Disney, is a SUPER nice facility, and we only had one game in full afternoon humidity. You do sign your life away as you have to have an ID card and a fingerprint scan...

As a Senior, a big thing that happened this fall was filling out applications to schools Justin is interested in. He applied to 4 universities and we have heard back that he's in 2 of the 4. Waiting on the others. We also chose to visit Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO in November, and toured the University of Utah this past Thursday (not as time consuming). We had a fun weekend driving out to CO and a good visit of the school in a very cool small town & campus. We received tickets to the football game which was fun, and Mines has won the National Championship in their Division multiple times, including this year.  We were also able to see both of my brothers and one sister in law. So good! It was good for Justin to be able to see and hear from both schools on reasons to attend.  It will make it easier to make his decision.  He is looking forward to actually taking classes this semester that he gets graded for. 😊👍