Happy Halloween!

On Sunday we enjoyed the nice weather and the rare afternoon without a practice or somewhere to go and carved pumpkins!  

This is Olivier's.  

This is Anna's.

And this is Mason's.

They all look very cool at night with the color changing lights we have for them.  

And for Halloween, Olivier was Spider Man.  

I was Marty McFly and Matt was Doc (from Back to the Future).

And Anna was Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz.  

Olivier went trick or treating with friends and Mason (who didn't dress up) and Anna handed out candy.  It was less crazy as past years but it is hard to know how much of that is due to it being a Tuesday.  
 

Fire!

Well, today had a huge unexpected turn.  A few minutes before 3 p.m. a fire was report on the hill that is right next to the school.  Anna took this video at 2:56 p.m. and decided not to continue her way up the hill for her next class but went away from the fire, and along the way they were told to evacuate to the football field.  At about 3:15 p.m. the kids were getting dismissed and we coordinated a location for Anna to walk to and we went to pick her up.  It was a bit of a mess and not much information but it was nice to have her and be heading home.   

Needless to say the band practice that was scheduled for that evening was cancelled as they were concerned about smoke and the safety of students.  Additionally they were using the school grounds for some staging.  

Edit:  Well, in an interesting twist, on Tuesday night we found out that a 15 year old high school student is being charged with arson!

Edit:  As of Wednesday night the fire is fully contained and burned 124 acres in total.  

Parade Champion!

First we will start with a photo from last Saturday.  This is a photo from some of the band before the field show competition.  Love seeing Anna having fun!  

And related to Anna and band, she worked really hard during the audition process for the parade block (the group of band members who competes during the parade competition events) and she was selected!  Yesterday, after getting up around 4 a.m., getting on a bus, traveling for about three hours, they competed in a parade and ...  they won!  Anna says you can now call her a parade champion!  They then had a long break, and competed in a field show competition.  They got fourth and had a lot of fun (including getting a few other awards for other portions of the band such as drum line).  And we were able to get a video from someone who was there!  

And while Anna was competing, Mason was at his third volleyball tournament.  This one was tough...no wins but it pushed them as a team on things they should work on.  I love this photo of Mason at the net!  

Mason played really well had had some great blocks!  And great serves!  

Olivier had a great time hanging out with Matt.  And today we are enjoying a lazy Sunday as we get ready for Halloween!
 

Luna wants to hide!

Yesterday Luna and Star needed to go to the vet for their annual checkup and Luna was not happy.  She didn't want to get out of the carrier so we took it apart.  After getting weighted and checked she explored the room for a moment (and tried to hide under the empty carrier Star had been in) but when she started trying to claw to get under I picked her up and put her here.  She happily stayed in the corner of the carrier even though it was open and she wasn't really hidden. 

This morning I went on a short hike with a dear friend and although you can't really tell in this photo, there was a faint rainbow in the clouds.  Very cool to see!  

And just as we got toward the bottom we spotted the cows.  They were just out for a morning stroll, nothing to see here, just keep strolling along!  

Yesterday the high school band competed as part of a field show competition.  It was a long day for Anna but the hard work is showing, and they got second place!  Next weekend is an even longer day because they will have a parade competition and a field show competition!  Sleep while you can!  

Whew! What a week!

This week has us all worn out, in good ways but we are now looking forward to a more "normal" week!  It started with volleyball practice Monday night for Mason.  On Tuesday night all three of the kids were busy with the normal Tuesday night rehearsal to get ready for the football game on Friday.  This was the first time the boys were playing with the high school and it was great to see them enjoy an activity together!  Wednesday there were no kid activities so that meant a little breathing room.  Thursday afternoon Anna had her sectional practice, and her first behind the wheel driving lesson!  Very exciting and we have already had her do more driving!  Thursday night Mason had another volleyball practice.  So by the time we rolled into Friday Mason was already tired and it was a super full weekend for him.  

Friday night the high school was hosting their last game of the season.  It was great to see them welcome the 8th graders onto the field with them to play Eye of the Tiger and the National Anthem before the game.  

The then made their way to the stands but the space was rather small for all of them to squeeze into.  The middle school has 70 band students and the high school has about 120.  Eventually they got there!  

We are thinking Anna's head shrunk!  Her hat is the same size as last year but we sure don't remember it fitting this low last year!  

The high school went down at half time to play the first three movements of their field show.  Next weekend they go to their first competition!  

And after that, Mason and Matt headed to Fresno because Mason had a volleyball tournament that started at 8 a.m. (which means getting there at 7 a.m. to warm up).  It was a late and long drive but Mason was happy to be there and not stressing on Saturday morning.  

They played three games.  The first game they won the sets 25-19 and 25-21!  The second game they dropped the first set 20-25, but won the next 25-10 and won the tie breaker 15-9!  The third game was a tough one and they lost the first set 19-25 and they lost the second set 21-25.  As Matt put it:  "dang they played hard through!"  Way to go!  

At home Anna and I were off to the barn early in the morning.  It was a foggy morning which made the barn seem rather magical!  And there was a solar eclipse so part way through her lesson we paused to look through the special glasses we have.  It was cool to see but we got a better look after we got back home where the fog had cleared.  

Then Olivier got picked up for a special treat!  Off to the airshow with Grandpa!  

And Anna and I went to see the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie with Grandma!  She had been asking a lot of questions about the concert, especially since all three of her granddaughters had gone to the concert so we went to the movie together!  It was fun to relive the concert and we noticed things we had missed during the original concert too!  

We made it home and after about 24 hours apart, we were all back together and home.  And the busy weekend wasn't done!  And today my work hosted our annual bus roadeo!  Olivier who got the most sleep Saturday morning went in with me to help support the startup.  He was there for the full event and got to judge when Matt came with Anna later in the morning.  Poor Mason was so tired that he slept for more than 13 hours and we gave him a pass this year on coming to the roadeo, especially because he still had volleyball practice this afternoon!  One of my co-workers got this photo of us as the event was kicking off.  

Thankful for all the fun times but looking forward to a little less going on this week.  And next weekend Anna starts the busy band weekends with field show competitions!  
 

Heat wave!

This week we were hit with a heat wave.  Wednesday it was 94 degrees, Thursday was 105, Friday was 108 and Saturday was 100.  It was homecoming week at the high school and the band was asked to play pep tunes during the last class on Friday in their marching uniforms.  Needless to say Anna melted during that 45 minutes.  And then they played during the football game.  And yesterday she went for a horse ride.  Today she is thankful for some rest!  

We have a busy week ahead but for now we are enjoying a quieter day.  And on that note, enjoy this photo of the sunset from last night.

 

Busy sewer and warm hearts!

When the kids turned two, they each received a beautiful quilt made by my mom.  They have used them basically since that point in time, with the exception of Anna who transitioned to the quilt I made with my mom back when I was a senior in high school.  They all love the quilts but as they have gotten older, and have grown (quite literally!), my mom realized the time had come to make a quilt that fit each of the kids as they were now becoming young adults.  She started first on the boys quilts based on their favorite colors.  Then she reached out to Anna this summer and they went fabric shopping together and she got to see the process of how the quilts are assembled, and made some memories with her grandma, much like the memories I have from making our first quilt back when I was very similar in age to Anna's current age.  Needless to say the moment needed to be captured with some photos!  

Thank you for these quilts.  The time and love you put into them will always be with them!