October Ends

Eliza had a "twin" day at school for a spirit day and she twinned with her friend Lizzie who is in our ward. They wore shirts that they made at girls' camp. 

Nathan dressed as a book character for Halloween.  He dressed as Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes and brought his stuffed tiger with him to school.

Westley has been dating a girl named Ruthie Wood up at Snow College in Utah.  I was able to pull a few pictures of them off of social media.  She seems like a really great person and I'm glad he met someone like this.

 

Trunk or Treat

For Halloween, our wards attending our building have a combined Trunk or Treat. We went to that. Eliza was allowed to dress up for school. She dressed as Cher from the movie "Clueless". Annmarie and Nathan were cowboys, Caleb was a cosplayer, and Jonah a jedi. Travis probably had a football game and wasn't there. Since Halloween was on a Sunday, the kids did not do traditional trick-or-treating. The trunk-or-treat was pretty fun and a lot of people were there.

 

Freshman Football

Travis had a busy October with more football. He enjoyed playing. He plays outside linebacker on the defense. Now that football season is basically over, he'll start with wrestling season.  Overall I think he had a pretty good season with playing time.

 

Cheerleading Days

Eliza finished football season as an eighth grade cheerleader. There was rain and bad weather in the forecast for the last game, so they didn't have the cheerleaders go to it. It was unfortunate, because, true to Texas fashion, things get canceled and then nothing happens but light rain. She seemed to have fun cheering at games. She made a couple new friends with the girls. But there isn't much that the junior high cheerleaders do after this. They cheer at a few basketball games, but not every game like football.

 

October Excitement First Half of the Month

Aside from the excitement of trips, Corey had a sabbatical in the month of October since he reached 10 years as a store manager.  He got to take four weeks off, which was why I was able to go on the Route 66 drive with Grandpa and how we were able to go to Nauvoo  because he also earned a stipend of money to spend during that time.  My friend Elena went to the school and had lunch with her daughter Taylor.  Students can invite one friend to sit with them at lunch with a parent and she invited Annmarie so Elena sent me the picture.  Eliza had her fall choir concert at Cooper Junior High.  Annmarie earned an award for excellence in PE.  And Caleb turned 17.

 

While We Were Gone

Travis had a football game while we were in Nauvoo so Kaori took her kids and watched him play. And when I went on Route 66, Corey was able to get Travis in for a haircut as well as attend the Homecoming festivities that Wylie High School had instead of a parade due to COVID (not sure how doing this instead of a parade made anyone "safer" but that's what they did. Travis did a performance with his non-varsity show choir, Swashbucklers and Eliza participated as a junior high cheerleader. 

 

Route 66 Mom and Grandpa

Following our Nauvoo trip, Grandpa drove up to Illinois and picked me up on our last night there. Corey drove the rest of the family home and I drove with Grandpa to Chicago to start our drive on Route 66. he drove up in Uncle Aaron's truck and we drove from Chicago all the way to Los Angeles on Route 66. We decided to do this trip after reading the Broken Road series by Richard Paul Evans. We actually followed the route, but drove on the freeway wherever we could. A lot of the road was pretty bad and the freeway was smoother and faster. Once we got to Los Angeles, we turned and drove to Mesa AZ where we stayed the night before driving back to Wylie. It took us a week do the whole thing, including driving from Nauvoo to Chicago and then from LA to Mesa to home. It was definitely a memorable trip. We talked a lot and saw a lot. I'm really glad I was able to do it!

 

Family Trip to Nauvoo

We got a fall break this year for the first time ever in Wylie ISD!So we decided to take advantage of it.  We took a family trip to Nauvoo.  We wanted to go while Jon and Patty Macfarlane were serving a mission there.  He was the bishop of our singles ward from when we met and the Institute Director.  It was fun to have them meet some of our kids. Westley is up at Snow College and Travis stayed behind for a football game.  

We were able to eat dinner with them while we were there, which was nice.  We packed in a lot.  Brother Macfarlane is a horse man so he was there working with the horses and other large animals.  We got to go on an oxen wagon ride that he was in charge of while we were there.  

We also toured much of the city.  It rained on and off while we were there.  The Joseph and Emma Smith sites that are not owned by our church were closed due to COVID, but we were able to drive by and see them without going in.  We went to Carthage Jail also and saw where Joseph Smith was martyred.  We were staying in a VRBO near the temple and walked around the grounds.  We went to a couple of the shows and Annmarie even got to be part of one of the shows.  It was a really great trip.  Too bad Travis didn't come.  We really should have had him come.