A thankful weekend

This year we had a very unconventional Thanksgiving.  We have been working our butts off on remodeling our house, and it's just not there yet.  So we decided to take a break from home and enjoy a relaxing weekend away.  We booked a hotel in Reno that has an indoor pool for a few nights to spend with the kids.  First stop was to pick up Kelsey at her dorm and got ready for the big day by eating at the buffet on campus.  Not sure anyone ate anything healthy, but we all left with full bellies.

After checking into the hotel we spent a few hours swimming and soaking in the hot tub, then went back to our room and watched Disney movies while the girls did each others hair.

Thanksgiving day we spent some time in the arcade playing. 

We all enjoyed playing air hockey, and ski ball which I love and now so does Sadi.

After playing we took all our winning tickets to buy our prize.  Kelsey and I combined our tickets and came up with this big haul...ha! 

Then we took the kids to see Moana, such a cute movie.  Love those reclining seats!

We had originally planned to go to the buffet at the hotel for Thanksgiving dinner, but after seeing the holiday prices we decided to just go to the restaurant and let the kids order whatever they wanted.  Chase ordered this Aces burger that was 3 patties high...with cheese and onion rings on it.  Thankfully he couldn't even eat half of it.

It wasn't the best meal, but no one had to cook or clean up which I was thankful for.  We spent the rest of the night at the pool again and playing games together.  Maybe unconventional, but it was a thankful weekend for so many reasons, family being together at the top of the list.

End of Season....or not.

A few weeks ago was our season end Football/Cheer party.  We were so lucky to get such a fun coach who made this season so much fun for all the girls.  We gave her a little treat with a gift certificate to enjoy a night out. 

They gave out some awards and special announcements were made including the announcement of who made the all star team.  Guess who made the team?  This girl....

Along with a few of the other girls from her team.  What does this mean?  Well.....while you are all enjoying your Thanksgiving day leftovers we will be outside in the cold for cheer practice.  I know, I know, try to contain your jealousy :/ 

River Wranglers

Sadi's 4th grade class went on a field trip to the Carson River that was put on by the high school student River Wranglers.  Kelsey participated in this in high school so I was pretty familiar with it.  Sadi's teacher asked me to go along as a parent chaperone.

Once we arrived they split us up into smaller groups while we waited for another school to join us.  Sadi was so excited when the other school arrived because it was Virginia City's 4th grade class and her friend Charli was there.  Although she was in a different group we did get to eat lunch with her later in the day.

They got down and dirty right away learning about erosion and planting some willows by the water.

Our group was really small with just 3 girls.  Our high school student teacher was pretty quiet, but did a good job teaching his classes.

They learned about the water cycle and played a game where they became raindrops and collected beads as they traveled from river, to clouds, to lake, etc.

They also learned about invertebrates.  Sadi was our groups "invertebrate" dressing up with all the things that invertebrates have.

They got to feel some animal pelts from animals who use the river.

The last thing we did before we left was take a short walk to the river.  Such a beautiful fall day with my favorite 4th grader!

Letters to Heaven

Today for Veteran's Day I took the kids out to Fernley to the Veteran's cemetery where their Great Grandpa was just buried this past spring.  We have been out once since his passing on Memorial day weekend and it was flooded with flags, today....not a single flag on the graves.  I could not believe it.

Although my kids have only been there twice, they knew exactly where to find Grandpa.

Before we left home I had the kids write a letter to Grandpa and we tied them up with balloons and sent them to him in heaven.

The kids both had me read their letters before we left, and it made me cry.  Sadi made sure those balloons had a good send off of love.

They watched and watched until they could no longer see their balloons in the sky.

Sadi had also brought along some candy she had been saving that she said was just like the ones Grandpa used to give her from Woodettes diner where we used to eat breakfast with Grandpa all the time.  She made sure they were placed just right for him.

We enjoyed the peacefulness of the cemetery before some annoying mosquitoes scared us off.

I hope my kids grow up with an appreciation of the freedom they have and don't see Veteran's day as just a "day off" of school. 

Competition Weekend

This weekend was Sadi's big cheer competition.  Her team has been working their butts off for months in preparation for this one day.  We had one final practice the day before in Reno.  After practice we joined some of the team for dinner at Pizza Hut.

I made a little treat for all the girls to remind them to just do their best.

This year we got a hotel room in Reno along with many of our teammates.  We had a few glitches checking in, but when we finally got into a room, we found they had upgraded us to an executive suite...not too shabby with plush robes, and t.v. in the bathroom.

The kids got to spend some time at the pool swimming before we headed to bed.  We all enjoyed that extra hour of sleep because of daylight savings.  The view from our room was also not one to complain about. 

We met the team outside the event center at U.N.R. the next morning where they did final hair inspections...sounds silly but they are very serious about it.

Sadi loved that it was once again at Kelsey's school and so happy that her big sis was able to be there.

While we waited in the stands, the girls had to wait back stage until their turn.  Luckily this year they were the second team to compete.  Getting ready to take the stage....

One final group cheer before they laid it all out.

Unfortunately we were unable to film and I didn't get too many pictures (so far away to really get a great shot anyway).  But our fearless little flyer was the top of the pyramid!

We had a loud and proud cheering section.  Once the scores were tallied they announced the winners.  Proud to say our Dust Devils took 2nd place!

This was one happy team exiting the building. 

I Loved seeing all those happy faces!

19 girls+ 3 coach's+ countless hours of practice= a team of winners!

Sadi has really excelled this year at cheer and to see her perform made me a bit teary eyed. 

We are so proud of her and how hard she has worked, but most of all to see how much fun she had this season.

After the big day we had to celebrate.  We let Sadi decide what she wanted, she chose pizza...again.  We went to J.J's Pie Co. by the college.  The food was delicious, and we devoured every slice.  A great ending to an amazing season!

Yee Haw...Hand over the candy!

This year for Halloween Sadi chose to be a cowgirl.

Chase was a guy from Halo (Reach Kat I think).  I'm not really sure who he is, but I was assured it was very cool. 

Sadly Halloween fell on a Monday this year...boo!  That meant we had to holster our weapons, and saddle our horses for school.

I went to the kids Halloween parade at school, although Sadi was easy to pick out in the crowd, Chase with was harder to spot and so I missed getting any pictures of him :/

They were both having class parties and so we whipped up a very simple treat to share.  It was a pretty big hit with everyone.

After they had both eaten way too many goodies at school it was back home to try to get them to eat a healthy dinner.  Then we had to wait it out until the sun went down before we could hit the streets to trick-or-treat! I felt a bit of redemption about not knowing who Chase's character was when he was called everything from G.I. Joe to a turtle.  Poor kid couldn't find anyone who new who he was.

It was a bit chilly this year walking around.  We did just a small loop in our neighborhood and the kids brought back a HUGE haul of sweets.

My all time favorite moment this year (well minus the mistake I made of sending them to the same house twice...oops) was the little man at the end of the street who gave them each a dime and a butterscotch.  I don't know why I thought it was so funny, but I could not stop laughing.  I think it reminded me of those pennies we used to get as kids. 

It was a sweet night filled with sorting and very serious trade negotiations.