Back to School and October

The kids went back to school on August 18th. It's hard to believe they have already started their second nine weeks. Ainsley started 8th grade, Kaylee started 5th, and Landon started 2nd grade but is actually in 3rd grade now. After several weeks of 2nd grade his teacher and principal recommended testing him to see if he was ready for 3rd. He was ready, so he started 3rd grade this past Monday. He was a little nervous but seems to be adjusting well.

At the beginning of October Kaylee went to her first Judo tournament. It was an all girls tournament called "Judo Diva". She and I woke up super early the morning of and drove to Dallas. There were only three girls in her age/weight bracket, so she was guaranteed at least third place. The two girls she went up against were both national champions. It was quite an experience. I was freaking out a little. It's hard for me to watch her being thrown around, but she did well and finished with a smile on her face. 

This past weekend was the Texas Book Festival. One of Ainsley's many favorite authors (Shannon Hale) was there reading from her new children's book (The Princess in Black) and doing a book signing. Her husband was with her. They write books together. Fun! My cousin Amy was also in town this past weekend with her husband and daughter. We had a great time hanging out with them. My kids loved playing with Nora. 

Welp, those are the highlights from the last few months. The kids are excited for Halloween. They're all dressing up as Dr. Who characters. I just finished their costumes last night. Phew!

Wrapping It Up

I have a few final things to write about our trip to CA this summer, so here we go . . . 

The boys went to an A's game one night. Landon really got into baseball while we were visiting. My dad would be watching a baseball game and Landon would start asking all kinds of questions about what was happening, so it was determined that he needed to be taken to a game. He had a great time!

Ainsley read the Hunger Games series a while back and hadn't seen the second movie yet, so we invited our good friends "Ben and Jerry" over one evening and had a movie night. We also  kept the tradition going of dollar nights at the Boardwalk and enjoyed dollar rides, hot dogs, drinks and cotton candy. 

One afternoon my dad and I took the kids to watch my brother play in a soccer tournament. This series of pictures describes Landon's and Kaylee's relationship perfectly. They are constantly rolling around on the ground together like a pair of puppies!

And last but not least, a picture with Grandma and Grandpa Yarbrough. On an afternoon that Grandpa Y. wasn't feeling too bad we met them for lunch and ice cream. Yum!

Landon's Baptism

Landon was baptized on August 3rd, 2014. He decided to have his baptism in California so that more of our family could attend. Some of our friends from way back were able to come too! We were especially grateful that Chris' parents were there. We didn't see a lot of them this trip because his dad hadn't been feeling well and ended up needing surgery for a heart condition. 

Kaylee gave a talk on baptism and likened Landon to once being a puppy who didn't know anything. Now he's like an adult dog who knows right from wrong. It was cute. My dad gave a touching talk about the Holy Ghost which included a story about our hike up Mission Peak. My dad has been having some pretty severe problems with painful blisters on his feet, and on our hike back he was in a lot of pain. We got to a point where we could leave him and pick him up in the car. Once I got to the bottom I was going to drive up and get him. We were making plans to leave him behind when Landon started insisting my dad hike back with us. At first we disregarded his insistence, but then he started saying, "Grandpa, you can do this, I have faith in you". He also kept saying that he had a feeling my dad really needed to hike back with us. Finally we listened to Landon's feeling, and we all continued the hike down. Along the way my dad prevented Landon from falling a couple of times. Landon felt that this was the reason his grandpa had needed to hike down with us. There ended up being several reasons why having my dad hike down with us was the better option, but most importantly, I think it was an experience that a soon to be baptized 8 year old boy needed to build his testimony. We later talked about how he had felt the Spirit that day.

After the baptism we had a barbecue at my parent's house. It was a special day.