Happy 11th Birthday Zoë Maxine!

Happy birthday sweet girl!  You have now run out of fingers to add to your age, though you proudly hold up both fingers as a solution when asked how old you are.

ELEVEN!  

This year you:

-won a tournament with your hockey team in Everett, a SUPER fun event where you got to play in the Angel of the Winds Arena (where the Silvertips play)

-tried out for your first competitive sports team and didn't make the cut...a lesson in disappointment but a good one, nonetheless 

-backpacked in the Tetons, a feat that is impressive for any adult, let alone a ten-year-old

-earned a spot on the ASB exec board as the secretary (your favorite role) again

-attended your first EPIC concert, coordinated by the one and only Teta (Taylor Swift, Eras Tour)

-got to travel to Alaska, a state you've been particularly excited to visit since you studied it in third grade AND got to do it on your first cruise

-crossed off the first trip out of the US (Vancouver on our cruise)

-started learning TWO instruments, Piano and Clarinet

-grew three inches in ONE YEAR

    Zoë, you are still a master of observation and the most measured speaker when it comes to others' feelings.  You can read a room better than most adults, also, and know how to be a gentle leader with the utmost humility.  You are smart (that reading sure helps), LOVE learning, love writing, take care of your chores and responsibilities (most of the time) and are happy to hang out with our family whether we are going out and adventuring or staying home and playing games or watching a show (this year we've tackled Ted Lasso, The Good Place, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Schmigadoon, Lego Masters, and more). We've read some incredible books as a family (finished the Series of Unfortunate Events series on our road trip, read Little Women, Zia, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Coraline, and many others I can't remember) and I hope that you want to read books with us for many years to come.

    Your brother continues to think you hung the moon and stars.  It makes me so proud to see the two of you playing together and loving time spent creating silly stories and secrets at bedtime.  You are still allowing him to sleep in your room, since we got the kittens, and I hear the two of you whispering to each other once the lights go out.  I hope the relationship you have with each other now will carry you all the way through your adulthood.  It really is very special.  That's not to say that he doesn't drive you crazy plenty.  I hear an exasperated "OliVER!" from the other room and sometimes you just want to go into your room and close your door to have some private time.  

    This year your activities have grown even MORE than they had in the past, which is hard to imagine considering how busy you were last year.  You added Girls on the Run after school in the spring, and learning TWO instruments this past fall (piano from your new teacher OJ and clarinet with 5th grade band at the middle school with your teacher Mr. Haven, whom you adore). Your first love is still hockey and while this year brought you the disappointment of not making the travel team, you've realized that your gifts are important for any team you're on and you've grown to LOVE your new coaches and teammates (and still have plenty of time with the teammates you love during Firestreaks practice and of course Coach Ryan). I asked if you were going to try out for travel again this year and you immediately said 'no'.  I then followed up with asking if it was because it was too much heartbreak over not making the team last year or because you like playing on the house team. You wisely and maturely took a moment to think and then said "It's a little of both.  I was very, very sad not to make the travel hockey team and play with the people I already knew and loved.  That was very hard.  But, I have plenty of hockey and like the amount I get to play and still get to do all of my other activities. I also LOVE my team."  What ten year old says that?! Zoë Maxine, that's who.

Taking advantage of your 4th grade America the Beautiful pass this summer we visited Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and saw so many beautiful things and crossed off so many amazing bucket-list travel items.  You river rafted on the Yellowstone River and camped river-side on an epic adventure.  You backpacked in the Tetons, and hiked so many lakes and mountains.  Saw a ton of wildlife, bugs, weather that drenched us and also heated us up quite well
.  Learned about the landscape and how the parks were geologically created thanks to our tour guide, Roy.   You are ALWAYS up for adventure, but always up for reading a good book in a lodge, lake-side, or in the hotel room.

I know that middle school is coming for you, and I am both SO happy and SO sad that this milestone is on the horizon.  I think I've come to terms with the fact that you are growing up and I can't do anything about it.  I am learning that, truly, every year you grow you accomplish so many amazing things and are such a wonderful human being and that the more you learn to fly and spread your wings the more you get to spread your beauty to other people.  And really, the world needs more of Zoë Maxine, so I can learn to share.

Your dad and I are so SO proud of you.  You have so many people who love and care about you and the influence you are having on this world around you is astronomical.  Happy birthday my sweet girl.  We love you!