Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Congrats Kenz!

Our pretend first child graduated from high school!
We used to steal her for weekends when we lived in Topeka.
 Im sad for us and happy for her to head to KU. So appropriate that she is planning elementary ed all the hours and hours of "pretend school" with my kids should pay off, she is definitely her mother's child.
 Grampy and Jude partying it up
Oldest girl and youngest boy cousin. We figured out that Kingston will be the class of 2029!





We are so proud of you Kenzie, maybe you can come back and teach Kingston when you are finished with school!

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Abilene Tourney

We spent Saturday at Jude's first baseball tournament in Abilene, they had a triple header and I think they are making progress! I think we are going to go through lots of seeds this summer.
We loved that Grandpa & Grandma Say came to watch, they probably are judging who their son has married because I am way too loud I admit, they are 8!
They won their first game, lost to Abilene but played well, and won their last game.

They ended up 3rd of 6th place, it could have been worse for sure.
We are going to like hanging out with these Nutter siblings this summer, these kiddos enjoyed taking on the scoreboard duty.

We got a date night Friday night thanks to our 13 yr old babysitter.
With dad's coach/work schedule, Kingston is having some withdrawl time.
We managed to get 3 games in with no rain delays, we got home just in time for the kids to play in it.


I don't know what my life would look like without this crazy clan of mine, but they make me smile a lot and have taught me a lot about enjoying the small stuff for sure.

Monday, May 11, 2015

The Bestest in Estes

This is Roe's first season competing optionals at level 7 so in years past there has never been a Regionals meet.  We were a titch excited that we discovered the Regionals meet this year would be in Estes Park, Colorado this year a halfway point between us and the Pond clan. Yes please… Dance Friday night, compete Saturday afternoon, why not?
(States in our region are New Mexico, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Texas and Oklahoma. Considering these options, the  Colorado location was great timing for her to qualify this year)
 We had quite the crew in our VRBO condo, walking distance to town and 5 minutes from the meet site.
 Before meet dinner, how many kids menus?
 kissing cousins for the almost graduate:(
 It is so hard to travel to a new place missing Jerkya, but we are so thankful Nicole can join to coach and continue to be a college student. Monroe started on floor and got her best score of the season 9.5, earning 6th place. We liked the purple Regionals leos.


 $10 a person to get in and no seating, crazy, we snuggled.
 girl power
 The kids find/make friends instead of watching the competition, worth the entry fee I suppose.
 Not sure what kind of game Xander is leading or maybe it was breakdancing?
 Kids cousin cabin
 We have never been to Estes except in the summer, the Elk are crazy right now!!
We decided to turn around on our running path because there were 2 elk staring at us on our path
 
elk dude in background hard to see with the sun
 We decided Alberta Falls would be a nice easy family hike that we had done in the summer, the Park Ranger asked us if we brought snow shoes? Nope, do Keen sandals count? We met Olivia from Diamond on our path, she was on the National Judges Cup team with Roe in Alabama, small world.
 Are we really doing this? Yep we are doing this, the stares we got…

We thought the way up was hard...

 Not without lots of slides and falls, we made it to the top!

 Sisters pic, minus Tia who was soccer bound with the b-day boy Cole in Kc.

 safest way down the hike was to slide
 After falling while I was holding him, Kingston decided it was safer to walk.
these 2 watching all of the elk
 

cute cousins pic

I would recommend Ed's Cantina, good mexican! Oh and drinks;)

 our "snow" shoes
 my favorite girl pic
 We went to the Alluvial Fan before we left town, gorgeous here.

 pic from Jess

 Preston said this was the perfect place to twist an ankle

 saying goodbye to the Pond crew:(

 I need more of Miss Stella in my life, love this girl.





more pics of our cute VRBO






 There were 8 mule deer that hung out by our cabin, they would let the kids get so close to them.
some down time


 Keeping it real, stopping in Goodland at the DQ for a healthy dinner and breathing treatment.