Skeleton Crew

On Halloween, my office hosts a parade for the kids and grandkids of emplyees. At the end of the day, the kids march up and down the cubicle aisles "trick-or-treating".

 



 

After work, we had a quick dinner and readied ourselves to head out to trick-or-treat. In years passed, I almost always had Lisa, Theo's mom, accompany me as we went house to house. The kids were little, Theo was unavailable due to coaching duties, and I needed help managing everyone and keeping track of things. Even as the kids got bigger, Lisa still came with us to maintain the tradition. We were quite a crowd cruising the streets of Page.

 

Here in Amarillo, things have changed for many reasons. The obvious distance has kept grandma Martin from joining us. Theo, no longer a coach, is finally able to be home during the candy gathering hours. But most changed are the boys themselves. Drake stopped trick-or-treating a couple of years ago, and Corbin last year stayed home as well. This year Bowen and Rex were planning to go out together, but a lingering stomach bug kept Bowen home from school all week. It was going to be just Rex and Theo and I. Weird.

 

We strolled the streets of our neighborhood together at a relatively lesuirley pace. The weather was unseasonably warm, and the winds were unusually calm. It was a lovely night. Rex got a great haul, and even set aside candy for Bowen. Our crew is growing up.

 

 

Criss-Cross the Country

This cross-country season has been another good one for Corbin. We traversed many a mile across the Texas panhandle watching our son pound out the miles. He broke twelve minutes for the two mile, and he placed higher than the last time in each meet. His team won every single meet they competed in this year!

Bowen also started out the season running with Westover even though he still goes to the intermediate school. They don't have a cross-country team at Greenways, so Bo ran in the first meet unattached. He did great running with the big kids. Unfortunately, he developed a stress fracture in his foot and his season came to an abrupt end. He is better now, and working on doing well with a local running club, the Super Star Sports team. They will be doing the Junior Olympic series starting in November.

All that said, the best part of all has been watching Corbin with his friends. He had the hardest time coming to terms with our move from Arizona. Now, he is the one who worries most about what will come when Theo finishes school. I am so glad that he has found a great group of boys that share his interests and more than that, his values. They are a great group of kids. Way to go Westover Warriors!

Rocky Mountain High



With the first week of school under our belts, we were already slated for a three day weekend, Labor Day. Much to our delight, a few weeks earlier, Theo's older brother, Donavan, had moved his little family from Sierra Vista in southern Arizona to Colorado Springs, just a six hour hop skip and a jump away from us! It was a no brainer to make the trip for this extended weekend.

 

We had a great time going to see the new house that they are in the process of buying, having the boys run around with their cousin, Josh, eating delicious BBQ, and best of all, going to Garden of the Gods. Here are some snaps from the gorgeous park!

 

 

On Sunday, we had a bonus. We arranged to attend church with some of our very good friends from Page that had moved to the Springs a year ago, the Hughes. I can't believe I didn't get some pictures! Arrgghhh!

 

We had a great time attending their ward and then eating a yummy meal and catching up. They are an awesome family and the kids enjoyed seeing some old Page buddies. We can't wait to head up to beautiful Colorado Springs again!

First Day of School

The night before the first day of school, I asked the boys to lay out the clothes that they were planning to wear the next day in an effort to avoid some of the morning chaos. When I went into Bowen and Rex's room a little while later to check on them, this is what I found...

 

Silly boys! Here they are actually wearing the clothes, ready to start a brand new year!

 

Down Under

One of the things Theo had to do this summer was complete his first four week rotation in a clinical setting. Originally, he had been assigned a facility here in Amarillo and was slated to begin in mid-July. As the weeks went by, he didn't hear from the facility as he expected. Just a few weeks before he was supposed to begin, he found out that the doctor he was going to shadow was no longer working for the clinic, and that he would have to be re-assigned. This late in the game, all of the choices in Amarillo were long gone. And so, Theo ended up in the little town of Big Spring, Texas about three hours south of where we live.

Needless to say, this shook up some of the plans we had made, but all-in-all turned out to be OK. Theo was able to live in a dorm room for free, and he really enjoyed the doctor that he worked with over the course of the month he was down there. Most weekends he was able to drive up to visit us, and we all just made it work.

As his rotation was nearing the end, Theo thought it would be fun for us to come down there to see where he had been. We decided to make a whole little mini- family vacation weekend out of it. On Friday, we met up in between Amarillo and Big Spring and headed west to see Carlsbad Caverns. We arrived in town later in the evening and bedded down in a hotel for the night.

The next day we explored the natural wonder of the caves. I must say, I was amazed! I have heard that these caves are big, but holy cow! I was blown away. We trekked down, and down, and down into the earth. It was crazy! Leaving the hot dry surface far above, descending into the dark damp hole was a little surreal. It looked like something you would see on a movie set for another planet. It was much cooler than I expected.

I am so glad that we went out of our way to see this natural wonder.

Later in the day we went out to the Pecos River and frolicked on the beach. Again, it was much nicer than I expected. There was a nice sandy beach and a big dock you could swim out to. There was also a nice shaded eating area with popsicles and snow cones, perfect for a hot summer day.

That evening we drove back to Big Spring and spent the night with Theo in his dorm room. The kids were a little chagrined to see the humble accommodations, but also thrilled to have their own room which adjoined to the one Theo was staying in. Saying goodbye the next day was not as bad as the previous weeks as we knew it was Theo's last week away from home.

One rotation down....

Summer Vacay- Leg 3

On Saturday morning, we headed out for the final leg of our journey, our trip home. This was mercifully the shortest drive of our whole grand tour, just three hours. I think the boys might have died of excitement if it had taken much longer. We rolled into town just before lunchtime and went to our very dear friends' home where we would be staying, the Larsons.

Tim and Anne had driven all the way from Indiana to Page, and Shaun and Melissa were in town to see everyone as well. This gave us the perfect excuse to stay in town where we had more room and the where the kids could be with their friends. Lunch at RDs was our very first order of business. Once we were filled with burgers, fries, and Oreo shakes, it was off to the lake without further adieu. The Larsons joined us along with the Martins that were in town. I don't know if the water ever felt that good!

One of my favorite parts of our visit to Page was one that I don't have any photos of, attending our ward. I was so glad that we were able to be there over a Sunday when we could see all of the people that we love. Many of those people we would not have seen otherwise. For so many years they were our friends, our support, our family. It felt so good to be able to greet them and tell them how much we had missed them.

The rest of the days we were in Page were spent playing at the lake and enjoying the company of our friends and family. John and Michelle even came over for a couple of days to enjoy some lake time. I even got to go and get my hair done while I was in town by my friend and very favorite hairdresser, Melissa.

The Larsons were the best hosts ever! Just like the way I felt when we got together with our cousins in Durango, it was picking up with our family right where we left off. Our kids had the best time and wore each other out.

No matter what they say, you can go home again! Love to all of our Page family!