Our stake asked each of us to visit the temple before the end of the year, including adults, youth, and children. I decided to take the kids one day during Thanksgiving break. The kids had a good time. We did a little scavenger hunt and walked around the temple and the grounds. Afterwards, we visited a huge park nearby and had a picnic lunch.
Some old friends that used to live in our ward visited Texas the weekend before Thanksgiving. The Torres family. Ashton and their oldest were besties when they lived here. Then, they have a kid that lines up within months of one of our kids so it is a perfect group of kids to get together.
They were coming down to College Station to visit family for a quick weekend so we found a way to meet them at the Renaissance Festival. That is as far south as they were going. It was about 2 hours away for us. I took the three oldest and made a long day trip out of it. It was our first time going to the renaissance festival. I'll admit; it wasn't a favorite and I doubt we'll go back. It was crazy expensive! We paid entrance fees/tickets. But then everything else cost money. EVERYTHING! It drove me nuts. Plus, when you go with another family, I felt like I had to pay for whatever the other family was doing. It was fun to see the Torres family though. I would have rather just met at a park and had a fun day outside. Oh well. We learned that we are not missing much by skipping the renaissance festival.
The kids had a good time trick or treating. They made it to the furthest distance from the house before deciding they were all done trick or treating. Of course.
Tanner's costume was the easiest: a soccer player. He just wore his soccer jersey from the season.
Ashton was a witch. Gemma was the cutest squirrel ever. And Lydia wore some fairy wings intermittently.
The day before Halloween was our ward's trunk or treat. My sister joined us as she was in town for Ashton's baptism. Gemma loved the bounce house.
Joseph took Ashton and Tanner to the Baylor vs. BYU game. They drove up Friday afternoon and came back late Saturday. Aside from a BYU loss, they had a great weekend cheering for the Cougars. They went to all the game day festivities and a Mammoth Museum place in Waco. Tanner cheered hard and made lots of Baylor fans around him chuckle with his passionate cheering. Joseph had several people tell him that they wished their own kids cheered for Baylor as loud and proud as Tanner does.
I knew Tanner would love soccer but I didn't think he would love it this much. That kid is something else on the field. He thrived in soccer. We were told from multiple coaches that he should be on the competitive team in Houston. Maybe... one day. Tanner is fast and makes lots of fast breaks towards the goal. He scored a ton for each game and loved passing it to his teammates when the coach made the rule that he couldn't score anymore. Tanner doesn't like the crowd of kids who huddle around the ball so he stays on the outside and waits for someone to kick it out. It was a joy to watch him learn new skills this season.
We went into the season thinking we'd just do fall soccer and skip spring. But that is definitely not the plan anymore. Tanner just loves it out there and has truly found his passion. He thrives in the team environment, which is so different for me. I despised working on group projects and left team sports pretty early on. Tanner has this innate sense of where his team is and what the possible options are for plays. It blows my mind how he can handle and balance it all.
Ashton was baptized on Saturday, October 30th. We waited until Joseph's parents could be in town for the baptism. My sister surprised me by deciding to come as well! We had a great (and busy) weekend with family visiting and Halloween.
Ashton sang a sweet solo at her baptism and did great as always. I didn't take a single picture that day! Thankfully, Joseph's mom took a couple and then someone else took some screenshots of the Zoom video.
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| Tanner said the closing prayer and it became a whole family production apparently. |
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| I made this quilt for Ashton. I should start Tanner's now if I have any hope of it being done in two years. |
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| Joseph's mom made the dress for her actual baptism and then she wore a pretty pink dress afterwards. |
Since Ashton ran and joined student council, she gets to participate in more activities. One was the high school's homecoming parade. Joseph worked late that day so it ended up being me, the 3 kids catching candy, and Ashton sitting on the float throwing candy. We walked away from the parade with 13 pounds of candy! It was an intense amount of candy and a great parade for the kids. I call it a win since none of the kids got hit by a car or truck or float as they ran around collecting candy. And now I don't have to buy any for Halloween to pass out.
Because of when we had to drop Ashton off for the preparation part and when the parade started, it didn't make sense to go back home. So we packed a picnic dinner and hung out in the grass.
