Vikings

Our Fall sports are coming to an end.

We are so proud of Dylan and Cassidy.
They have each improved their own game tremendously.

Dylan had his last home game on Friday.

Cassidy's volleyball season came to an end a couple weekends ago.

They finished 5th in the tournament.

Michael "Mad Dog" Mayo

This ones for you Mickey!

Cassidy's 14th Birthday!

Our big 8th grader is almost in high school.
She picked out a pair of cowgirl boots when we were on vacation in
Branson and has been very excited to finally get to open and wear them.

Since she already knew what she was getting, we told her that she had to
at least act surprised when she opened the present for pictures sake.

How'd she do?

Her band of misfits.
This was her "street gang" that terrorized the town with toilet paper.
First stop, cops house.

As much as she loved and anticipated the boots,
her ever-so-loving brother stole the show by one upping us.

He bought her that stinkin iPOD Touch that she begged her parents for.

Pure gratitude in its most sincere form.
(Out of the way Brooke.)

The Boys (and Girls) of Fall

GO VIKINGS!

We are learning more about cheer than we ever thought we would.
The effort it takes to learn these cheers and perform them correctly is surprising immense.

Showing their stuff at the Harveyville Fair.

Cassidy's aggression is really showing on the volleyball court.
She is not afraid to exert the extra effort to continue the volley.
Just like Momma use to do.

"Ace... Ace... in your face!"

When her serves are on, they can be
quite troublesome for the opponent.

That's right QB, 75 is ALL over you,
despite the obvious block in the back from 50.

Dylan has known this quarterback since 2nd grade.
Tackling him was quite the pleasure.

Dylan's football skill level and knowledge has increased so much over the past year.
He is three times the player that he was last year.
It doesn't hurt that he is one of the biggest kids on the field
and it takes quite an effort to make him move backwards.
Even the upperclassmen are finding this out.

This one is going to be quite a story all on her own.
Not sure that we are anxious for that.
Whew!

Annual Labor Day Camping

The kids look so forward to this camping trip every year.

Tim and I do until it's time to start packing and then we start to second think it.

After making it through all the grumbling of packing we made it to Melvern Lake and settle down and enjoyed camping.

If Kansas wasn't so damn hot, we could camp more often.

Until we decide we have had enough of this Kansas weather, I guess one camping trip a year will have to do.

Believe it or not, we all have our own tents.

Brooke even had a tent on her Christmas list last year.

Santa came through, the little red one on the left side of the big tent is hers. I think it was just for show, when it came time for bed she was always sleeping with someone else. That poor little tent was lonely.

Tim preparing food for one of the meals.

Come and get it!

We were blessed with a beautiful sunset one of the evenings.

Not only does this lake have a sand beach, but our camping site had a sand volleyball pit as well as a playground with swings and a slide. Cassidy still communicating with her friends back at home.
This is going to be one funny looking tan.

We had beautiful weather this year, upper 80's, lower 90's. Evenings cooled down enough we needed several blankets to sleep. In fact the first night Cassidy said she froze so she had someone sleep with her the second night.

We have camped in temperatures from 100 to 105, and not cooling down at bed time. I remember it being so hot we pulled our bedding out of the tents and slept on them on the ground. Even then we really never slept.

I also remember it raining so hard we have to move into the vehicle because the rain runoff was flowing through our tent. Oh, the memories.

Yearly ritual, S'mores! At least this year it was cool enough that the bonfire was more than just for S'mores, we needed warmth.
Even Heidi got to go on her first camping trip. She did wonderful.

Dylan, poor Dylan was feeling a bit under the weather, except for the last day, but I did manage to get a smile out of him. This is pretty much where he roosted the whole time.

Until next year.

Loving sisters

I decided to upload the pictures from my camera the other night and asked
Cassidy if I could do the same with her camera.

It was amazing what I found.
Some of the pictures I had already seen but others were a surprise.

Check the fingers out above Cassidy's head.
Brooke can be so full of it at times.

The more that I uploaded, the more I laughed.

These will be treasured for a long time.
Just hoping I don't get in trouble.

Peppers-O-Plenty

Not bad for a single days picking.
The tomato plants are still progressing slowly but as you can see
my six jalapeno plants are quit prolific.
These are only the large ones I have picked
there are this many and more yet to come, not counting the blooms.

Cassidy started some cantaloupe from seed and transplanted them to the garden.
There are having a very rough go at it, but we are doing our best.