Costume Crazy

The ward trunk or treat was a hit this year.  There were some epic costumes.  One of the young men dressed up as Bishop with a suit and a scooter.  Dad was a pirate.  Makenna and Emmitt threw together tourist costumes last minute.  Brielle and her friends were something like girls from the 70's?

And this was at some party after the trunk or treat- they are from Napoleon Dynamite, in case you couldn't tell.

 

Brielle's Birthday

 Brielle had a special birthday weekend because there was a BYU game in Waco we were planning on attending so I took her and three friends up the night before to spend the night and do some of the Waco sights.  They had a lot of fun giggling late into the night- all three of them crammed into one double bed in the hotel.  And then we went to breakfast at the Magnolia table restaurant and in the afternoon we went to the game and met up with the big crew.

And then back home we had more birthday festivities.  She had a friend party at Erwin park with a campfire and outdoor movie.

And of course presents and the traditional birthday "stuff"

Emmitt's first season of Tackle Football

 We really did not know what we were getting into when we signed Emmitt up for his first season of real tackle football.  It was pretty intense.  Practices were 2 to sometimes 4 times per week and were always two hours long- once it was 4 hours long cause we scrimmaged another team after.  And it was always hot hot hot- even when we were practicing at 7-9- it was still hot- much better than the 5-7 practices- those were brutal. Then every Saturday we had games and they were all about an hours drive away.  A lot of time Dads injury kept him home so Emmitt and I had great bonding time on our road trips- It was always a full day ordeal- prepping for the heat with water bottles and ice and cooling clothes, then driving an hour to be an hour early, to wait and wait in the intense heat and usually the game didnt start on time and on and on it went. But Emmitt loved it and the team really grew and Emmitt really connected with the boys and they just all had a great time- or actually when they lost which was more often than not they took it hard- so maybe they weren't always happy or having a great time but they always were passionate about the game and the team.  He had a good coaches (though his Dad disagreed with the head coach on just about everything he did hahaha) but they cared about the team and the boys and they put in a lot of time so it was good and we were grateful to them.  So after losing almost the whole season we started to win at the very end when it counted and ended up making it to the championship game.  We lost that but it is absolutely incredible that they were able to improve so much and make it so far.  Most of the boys were new to tackle football like Emmitt so there was a lot of learning and most of the teams you play against have been together doing this for years so it was tough competition.  But it ended up being a great season- a classic comeback story.  Very epic.

This was taken at the end of season party that took place right after the championship game.  The team mom had these cookies made for the boys and they were so cute!

And heres just a bunch of team pics from throughout the season:

This one was just after they lost the championship game.  They got rings though and even though they were sad they should be so proud.  They held their own for sure.

His coach was quite the talker.  He gave a great speech- before, and after the game - maybe sometime to excess, ;) but he was great.

I love love love how they pray before and after games and practices.  This is Texas!

Sometimes I just thought nights at the practice field were just so beautiful.

Cross Country

 This year Brielle decided to join the cross country team at school.  Its very impressive because here in Texas they run in excruciating heat.  She really found her groove and had a tremendous season- beating her time every meet and placing in the top 3 from her school most of the time.  She rocked it!

This was her at Districts

She ran with a smile.. probably because she was laughing at me cheering for her...

This is her at the end of a race and that's how you know she gave it her all!

Fun Fall Break in CalifornIA

We planned a super fun Fall break in California.  We went to our favorite spot- Newport Beach Villas, with some of our favorite people- the Scotts.  We ate yummy food, and hung at the pool and visited the beach, went to church, and saw the temple for just a couple days.  Then we went to another hotel near Disney and did a full day at the two Disney parks.  Kevin is still on a scooter so we were worried how he would handle Disney- but it turns out he was able to get a disability pass and we got to skip a lot of lines.  It was fabulous! The Fredericks (the family containing Scott, Makenna's boyfriend) were at Disney at the same time so we got to hangout with them there. We all had a blast!

Traveling with friends is so much fun! Even at the airport.

The Kennas at the resort while we were waiting to get checked in

Our Family (minus one) at that Newport Beach Temple

All the kids in front of the Newport Temple.

Beach pic

And then from beach time to Disney Time....

Let me tell you about our lucky little Disney miracle.  So because of covid you have to make park reservations ahead of time to go to Disney parks.  Since this trip was planned somewhat last minute by the time I was able to get tickets (free one day one park passes from Mark from Sunkist--thank you thank you) I logged on to get reservations and the only option available was to go to Magic Kingdom.  California adventure was completely full.  So we were kind of bummed but I called and they said once I get there I might be able to pay to add park hopper and then go to both parks.  My kids are really much bigger fans of California Adventure than Disneyland.  Im happy either way but mostly they love Guardians of the Galaxy so they were super bummed when we got there and went to the ticket counter the night before and were told there was no way we could upgrade to park hopper because the park is full and there is no way that will change.  So we were sad but hey we were at Disney so how sad could you be.  We hit up Disney Springs for dinner and met up with the Fredericks and had Black Tap shakes...so ya life was good.  So the next morning we wake up early and walk to the park.  This is our first time staying at a hotel walkable to the park and I got to say it is the best thing ever- probably the thing that may convince me to chose Disneyland over DisneyWorld in the future...maybe.  Dad separated from us to rent his scooter and we went to get to the front of rope drop- cause you know, we know how to do Disney right.  Well after dad got his scooter he went to guest services to inquire about a disability pass and while he was doing that he thought he might as well ask about adding park hopper.  The lady initially said it was full but then she said "let me check something"  She went to the back and came back and said yes she could give us park hopper.  So yay- Kevin called us to tell us and we were jumping up and down with joy and surprise.  Both parks were in our future!  So yay we got to do it all- Guardians (which was done specially up for Halloween- which actually the kids would have preferred the normal way but...), Cars, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain (before it gets redone) and Star Wars- Rise and Millennium Falcon and all the other stuff too.  We only missed out on a new spiderman "Web Slingers" ride that you had to have a virtual queue for and it just didn't work out but we heard it was kind of lame so that's okay- something to look forward to next time!

Disney is our Happy Place!

The scooter came in handy while waiting in lines.

Splash Mountain

Are we the cutest Disney family or what!

Snacking and waiting for the Fireworks (which never came) with friends at the Jolly Holiday- a newly discovered eatery and now one of my favorite spots for eating and park watching.  Such fun memories were made.

Photo Shoot

 This year instead of family photos, we did senior pics photo shoot for Makenna and took a few shots of the other kids too.  Without Brayden I didn't want to do any family pics but I still wanted some annuals of the kids.  I think they all turned out pretty great and will work beautifully for Makenna's senior announcements.