Then at the NM state fair, we found a sports organization that had a practice on saturday, then right away had a game and that was it. WHAT? so we signed up Logan and Jakob for flag football. Jeff coached and it worked perfectly. Slowly we added Lukas to flag football and Jeff coached his group as well.
of course Lukas' first team had three kids with ADHD and Jeff about lost his mind and his stress level hit the roof. But he made it through. He continued coaching all three boys. Its a really good program and I loved that the boys could play football and not get a concussion.
Logan and Jake traded off as QB. Logan is a natural. Knows where to throw, who is coming at him and its awesome to watch. Jakob has some major power behind his throws. My favorite plays where when the ball was hiked...Logan took off down the field and Jakob hurled it to the other side and Logan would catch it. Even people from the other teams would comment on his ability and ask how old he was. Surprised because he was two years younger than the level he played at, because the owner let us keep the boys on the same team.
I really love watching my boys play. and I loved even more watching my husband coach. He is good with the boys and a good coach. Makes it fun, but makes them work hard and has some good competition going. We were always in 1st or 2nd place.
Lukas was a blast to watch. The kid has some moves and loves to "break some ankels" And I think that was his mail goal each game lol. the longer he has played the more I see his attention able to stay until the play is over. My favorite play was when Jeff told Lukas that the ball was coming to him and that he expected a touch down. The ball was hiked and lukas could not be found. the ball was given to someone else and they made the play. Jeff was looking around for Lukas. turns out, he ran behind Jeff and was doing sit ups to get ready for his big play. of course that was season 1. He hasn't done that since. But that's my Lukas! That kid makes me laugh and smile all the time. I sure love him!
Anyways, thats i9 sports. And Jeff was asked for a year to be an employee of i9 and help with organization, coaching when people didn't show up and being a ref when they didn't show up. He loved it. Came natural and he really wanted to buy a franchise and moved to Utah.
So once we got home from our Utah trip Jeff and I started praying. We told the kids what we felt we needed to do and ask them that if General conference (a bi yearly meeting where our Prophet and Apostles talk to us) they would let us know if they got confirmation if we should move to Utah.
I got my revelation during the opening prayer. I do not remember what was said. The words were not my answer. But the Holy Ghost told me it was the right thing to do. And I'm telling you the answer was so strong that we should move and that we should Look into an i9 franchise and we needed to do this quickly.
That was the first week in April. Jeff got the same answer and each of the kids got the same answer that we needed to move to Utah.
Kellsie was the only one that was struggling with her answer. She had some amazing friends in ABQ. she went to a great school which she loved. she was ranked 1 in her class. She had some plans that were not in harmony with the answer she just got.
she told me of the process (and I saw it happen) where she had to choose between living with her best friend in ABQ and finishing her senior year, or leaving with us and going to a new state and new school and leaving all her friends. It was hard, but with a lot of prayer, she came with us to Utah and it was her choice.
Jeff started putting resumes out. we got all the franchise info and started the loan process. Most of the i9 process was hard. Nothing could be completed until we lived in the community that we would buy it in. So we had to move and buy a home and continue the process. Once we got up here another family had bought an i9 franchise a couple cities over. Jeff reached out and offered to help her run it and see first hand out it would work. We were not pleased. We didn't feel it was right to continue with the plans of buying the franchise, but we finished the season with Jeff helping, Logan reffing, and Jakob, Lukas and Zoe playing.
Jakob and Zoe played soccer. Neither had played before, but we found they were natural. Zoe is absolutely adorable and has really good ball control. She loved her pink shin guards and pink socks and show laces. And was the cutest dressed kid on the team. There were a couple kids who liked to push and throw elbows so at first zoe was upset about the mean things happening. But with a little training from her brothers, dad, kellsie and myself, we taught her to push back and she ended up being able to hold her own with the boys.
Jakob didn't have the desire to play soccer, but they didn't have a football team. The kid is good. Good instincts and great power in his kicks. Reminded me of watching my brother Robbie play. He said it was fun but he didn't like all the running lol. Logan and jeff both helped coach that team and Logan would play goalie when they didn't have enough kids. Love watching my boys play together.
