Another Night at the Opry

The Opry let Annmarie and Eliza sing on the same night, which was really convenient for us.  They sang a duet "Crying Game" together also.  They also coordinate their outfits and looked really cute.  As always, they did a great job!

Halloween Ward Trunk-or-Treat

Our ward had its annual Halloween activity. This was on a Friday night and it was combined with other wards.  We were all able to go this year.  Travis helped hand out candy and had fun playing with the little kids.  In the picture, he's having a light saber fight with Star Wars obsessed Matthew Felix.

Jonah, Annmarie and Nathan dressed up as BYU football: a coach, a player, and a cheerleader.  I used one of my old Bingham Uniforms to make the BYU uniform for Annmarie.  We made Nathan's jersey be Jake Retzlaff's jersey, who is the starting quarterback for BYU this season.  

Eliza and her boyfriend Thorne dressed as a NY tourist and the Statue of Liberty and they looked pretty cute.  

Miscellaneous October

We have been loving football season with Travis on varsity. It makes the varsity games so much more fun when you are invested because you have a player on the team.  I snapped some pictures of him on the sidelines with his coach and other defensive players. 

We had Tithing Settlement and I snapped a picture of Nathan because I thought it was funny how he was behaving--so teenage boy like and he's only 8!

Wylie High School orchestra had their concert and the choir had their dinner show toward the end of October.  She sang a solo in the dinner show but I did not get a picture of that, only a video.

Travis got to vote for the first time.  He came with me to do early voting near the end of the month. It's a presidential election this year, so a good year for him to get to vote.

 

Deer Lakes Cabin

I found this great place in East Texas called Deer Lakes Cabin Resort, only a couple hours from where we live.  They have all these cabins of varying sizes and a whole range of activities to do.  We decided to book a couple days over fall break after Travis' fall break football game.  We stayed in the Sawmill House Cabin, which was perfect for us.

We kayaked on the small lake there.  We went horseback riding.  We went ATV-ing.  We played games and watched movies.  It was a great break from life and the weather was really nice.  I hope we can do it again.

Happy 20th Birthday Caleb!

I sent Caleb some Domino's Pizza and some cupcakes for his birthday.  He did not get pictures of the cupcakes, but obligingly sent me the picture of him and his companion eating the pizza for dinner.  It's nice having missionaries serve in the states so I can do things like this.

State Fair of Texas

We decided to use the free student state fair tickets and hit up the state fair over Fall Break. Grandma came with us.  We rode the train down and walked around the fair.  We checked out free events and ate a little fair food.  We went on one ride, the sky ride over the fair.  It was a fun time.

 

Big Boy 4014

When I found out that the Union Pacific Big Boy 4014, the world's largest operating steam locomotive, was touring America and would be in East and North Texas in September/October, I made an effort to go see it.  I first tried with my parents in September when it was supposed to be in a small town in East Texas.  It was a few hours driving there and when we got there, we learned that the train was delayed by several hours, so we couldn't stay and wait and had to go home.  I don't know if my parents ever did end up seeing it.  About a week later, it was coming back up from Houston and I got Paige to go with me to see it as it came through from Big Sandy on its way to Houston, and we met it alongside the road as it made it's way to Corsicana, right around a town called Rice.  

About a week later, I took the kids to see it stopped over in Fort Worth, where people could go up to it and see it up close while it was on display.  Two days later, it left Forth Worth on it's way to Oklahoma, so we caught it alongside the tracks as it made it's way there.  It was sure a sight to see--so big, powerful, and loud.  Definitely worth it to see this train in action!

 

*this picture is one I snagged from social media just to get a better view of it.