fall birthdays!

Busy time of year for birthdays in our family! Half our kids have birthdays clumped together at the end of september/beginning of October. It's a lot of work to celebrate three birthdays in three weeks, but so much fun! We kept it really simple this year with small family parties and Kyla went to the beach with some friends.

Benny is now seven!

Lorelei turned nine! Next year she will be double digits!

Kyla turned seventeen! She finally got her license and was given Uncle Carl's old chevy truck. She loves driving it to school and cross country practice!

Back to School

The first week of school was very different from previous years, because of the pandemic. Monday was online. Tuesday and Wednesday were divided alphabetically and Thursday was the first day everyone met in person together. All students are required to wear masks. I thought wearing a mask would be difficult for Benny, but he adjusted very easily. All my kids are so happy to be back at school, and I'm enjoying some peace and quiet during the day! Praying for a good year!

One last beach trip!

It was so nice to have our oldest home for a month long visit before heading back to BYU to start her junior year. We all miss her when she's gone at college! The week before she left, we took one last trip to the beach. It was a beautiful, relaxing afternoon. Kyla had to work, so she missed out on this trip.

Frio River trip!

So grateful we were able to gather as a family this summer on the Frio River! We rented a large cabin at Neal's Lodges and had the best week ever! The cabin had a pool, large fire pit, and basketball court. We spent our days floating the Frio and our evenings in the pool. At night we built fires in the fire pit for smores and fireside chats. The cabin is on a large piece of property that backs up to a field with all kinds of different animals. The kids loved seeing zebras, horses, longhorn cattle, and buffalo. They would walk up to the fence every evening. Each family took a night cooking and we enjoyed some really delicious meals! The week went by way too fast and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone!

*Most of these photos are from my cell phone. So much easier than hauling my big camera around!

Baseball!

Evan was so excited for baseball this year! Opening day was supposed to be in March, but got postponed to June because of the pandemic. It lasted for about three weeks and then was cancelled after a coach tested positive for COVID. Evan only had three games, but we sure enjoyed watching him play while it lasted!