Circle City Classic
Rebecca joined her Fox Swim teammates at the 2016 Circle City Classic in Indianapolis, where Fox brought home the team championship over fellow Naperville club Maverick.
Ellis Island
Each year at Gregory, the school pretends to be Ellis Island and the students dress up as immigrants and are interviewed for admittance to the United States.
Band
Rebecca finished her band career at Gregory with the annual Spring concert and Fine Arts Festival
Birthday
Rebecca celebrated her birthday with a cookie cake and some friends.
Fall Out Boy
For Rebecca's birthday, we drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend a concert by one of her favorite bands, Fall Out Boy (along with PVRIS and AWOLNATION).
Baking
Becca made good use of the new apron her Grandmother made for her by baking some cookies.
Gregory MS Basketball
Rebecca was selected for her middle school A-level basketball teams again in 8th grade.
Soccer
For the second year, Rebecca played soccer for her middle school team.
Ashbury Water Polo
Rebecca's Ashbury Alligators Water Polo team had their best finish ever in the Naperville summer league, finishing second in the conference championship. Rebecca scored the winning goal in the final second to put the team into the finals.
Copa America Soccer
In 2016, the US hosted the Copa American soccer tournament. One of the games was played at Soldier Field in Chicago between Team USA and Costa Rica and J. R. got tickets for the three of us to go. This was our first-ever visit to Soldier Field and Janie was unprepared for all the stairs. We had seats in the far end zone and the U.S. romped over CR.
Gregory Promotion
Middle school had finally come to an end for Rebecca with the eighth grade promotion ceremony. She received a Presidential award for her academic achievements and then afterwards enjoyed a shake at Red Robin.
Fourth of July
Janie was in Europe with Alex over Independence Day, so J. R and Rebecca headed to the Bolingbrook Golf Club for the yearly fireworks display. We met up with the McRae's later in the day and sat and listened to music and ate and drank until the fireworks started.
West Suburban Water Polo
Throughout the year, Rebecca trains with the West Suburban Water Polo club in Naperville. Her team traveled to East Lansing, Michigan and the campus of Michigan State University for a tournament. The team won two out of four games for a third-place finish.
Chicago Cubs
Alex's friend Meg was visiting us from the UK and one of the things she wanted to do was see a Major League Baseball game. So we got tickets to a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates, J. R.'s hometown team and the Chicago Cubs. Janie is not a baseball fan so she stayed home. The game was back and forth and went into extra innings. Unfortunately, Rebecca had swim practice early the next morning, so we had to cut out after 11 innings and listen to the rest of the game (which the Cubs won) in the car on the way home.
Downtown Naperville
Each year in downtown Naperville, local vendors decorate some sort of object outside various stores. This year, it was sports equipment (like basketballs and soccer balls and golf balls. During one of our trips downtown, we spent some time looking at each of the decorated balls.
First Day at Neuqua
At Neuqua Valley, freshman attend a separate school known as the "Gold Campus" (technically called the Freshman Center). It is a converted middle school, so the transition for Rebecca would not be that dramatic.
Ajax Soccer
Rebecca had retired from travel soccer after her Bolingbrook coach left for another club and she didn't want to start over with a new team. But after playing for her middle school in the Spring, she decided to try out for a new club, Ajax FC. She made the U15 (2002) team but they club didn't have enough players so they moved her up to the U16 (2001) team, where she would play with several friends and teammates she had played with at Bolingbrook U8 and U9. Unfortunately, her and her coach did not click well and she only played in the fall and part of winter before hanging up her cleats again to focus on ODP water polo.
Corn Maze
Last year, we started going to a local corn maze to spend an Autumn afternoon and with both boys at home this year, we went as a family. Alex and J. R. spent a lot of time making corn-related puns, to Janie's chagrin. Rebecca meanwhile decided to keep track of her path through the maze by dropping corn kernels as a joke and then saying we had been there before because there was corn on the ground.
Downtown Chicago
With a warm day in October and Chicago winter on the way, Alex and Rebecca headed into downtown Chicago to spend a sibling day together before Alex headed off to Orlando for work. Janie and J. R. decided to go downtown as well that day. While the kids took the train into town, we drove into downtown and parked near Millenium Park. We walked to Navy Pier, where Janie decided to take a chance on the new Ferris Wheel. She usually hates Ferris wheels, but was okay with the enclosed cabins of the new Ferris Wheel.
After Navy Pier, we walked to Glazed and Infused to get some donuts and found a place to sit and eat them before going shopping on the Magnificent Mile. We ran into the kids in one of the malls (or rather, Rebecca ran into Janie and scared her). We went our separate ways as we drove home and the kids went on to shop and eat downtown.
Chorus
After a year off from singing, Rebecca decided to take chorus as a member of the "Cecillian Singers" at Neuqua. In October, they had their first concert of the year, donning their NV robes and singing a variety of songs ranging from world music to Billy Joel.
Neuqua Valley Swimming
Rebecca tried out for the Neuqua Valley girls swim team in the fall, and to her surprise, was selected to the highest of the two junior varsity teams as a freshman. She had been worried about even making the team because she had a poor club swim season the year before. She swam mostly long distance swims. The team won the Dupage Valley Conference (DVC) championship.
