School Activities

Spring is always filled with lots of fun things. Ella and Cavin have been doing a lot of UIL orchestra performances and I love watching them perform. 

Ella's Lyrica group got all 1's in the competition which is the highest. 

I liked her songs that were chosen a lot more than her past concert. 

Cavin also had his performance and his group also got 1's.

I am glad Ella and Cavin have their love of cello. I enjoy listening to them play. 

Channing had her 5th grade Manner's banquet. She was so excited to dress up and have a fun, special day. 

These are her close friends Maely and Meg.

This is her "partner" for the day, Keaton.

They got to eat fancy food and had a cute slideshow to finish off their years in Elementary School.

I got to set up and be a waitress for the event. It was fun to be with her. 

Finally, Cavin began Track season. He wasn't planning on doing Track, but his coach convinced him to do it as cross training for Soccer season and I am so glad. He is running the 2400m and has improved each meet. It is a race no one likes to do, cause it's a lot of laps and kinda boring, but it was always been my favorite. 

My budding runner and me! I just love Track meets and proud of him for trying new things and doing his best. 

I am glad my kids are involved in many things and are working hard and thriving. 

Spring Soccer Season 2022

Wahoo!! Spring Soccer has begun! Bring on the sunburns and Saturdays at the fields! We love soccer and I love watching my kids play! Cavin and Ragnar are reffing again which is great for Cavin to earn money. He is doing track season right now and then will start soccer in a month for the school. Ragnar is coaching Channing's U12-14 girls team again and 16 of the 18 players returned so that is fun. Deacon is also returning to his team where 10 of the 12 are returning. They have loved their teams. Deacon is the black bombs and Channing team is still undecided :) We are looking forward to a great season and personal progression!

" A Mid Summer Night's Dream" Performance

On February 18th &19th Ella and Cavin participated in a performance of Shakespeares "A Mid Summer Nights Dream." Ella had done a mini Shakespeare camp over the summer and they did a few mini plays, but this one was the full length play. They changed it to be set in the 1940's during the First World War. Ella was cast as Petra Quince the nurse and very bad director. Cavin was asked to be part of the stage crew behind the scenes and he enjoyed being a part of it all and was their best cheerleader and supporter. 

Three amazing women from our ward, Jeri Wyn Mumford, Sharlene Hatch, and Eva Armendariz put together the whole performance and the set and costumes were awesome! They did flyers and shirts and made it a real production. Both nights had a great showing and the second night was packed. 

Ella really has enjoyed having this outlet to do some acting as she doesn't have it in her schedule to do at school and here this is a safe, clean environment for them to do it in whereas the plays at school have gotten pretty racy with a lot of inappropriate dialogue and material.

Ella and Cavin ready for the second performance. 

Ella's part had a lot of death stares and eye roll, which she has down pat! :)

The big cast and crew!

Cavin's orchestra teacher from school came to support them!

The after performance hot tub pool party :) Such great kids! They did an awesome job! I am amazed by all their talent!

Curling Fun!

For my dad's birthday, each year I try and find an activity we can do together. I got him a "learn to curl" class in July and it took months for us to find one that worked for his temple schedule and was on a Saturday! We finally found one!

With the Olympics on there are more classes and it was fun to see how they do curling. It definitely takes more skill than it looks like. 

It was a little sketchy standing on the ice at first but then your feet got used to it. 

We had to first learn how to slide on the ice and the how to release the rock and then how hard to push it and finally how to sweep it!

I made the game shot to win for our team, right near the center... now only if it was on purpose ;)

I'm glad I got to spend the time with my dad. It was a nice outing and I wish it happened more often!

February Break to Great Wolf Lodge!

For Christmas we gave the kids a trip to Great Wolf Lodge near Dallas, Texas for a present. We booked a hotel for 3 days and two nights and went to see what all the hype was about. It wasn't too busy because our school district has so many random breaks, so it was nice to not have to deal with too many crowds! We drove up Monday and went shopping for a bit and then spent the next two days trying out all the slides at the indoor water park!

The kids are at great ages where they could do everything and stay in pairs and were off having fun. 

The hurricane was the scariest ride, but also the most fun. 

The boys enjoyed the basketball hoops. 

We watched the Olympics and a movie.

We played Bingo and most of us won. Ragnar got the very first two bingos!

They met Willey the wolf. 

We got ice cream and ate yummy food. 

Channing had on her wolf ears almost the whole time :)

We finished off the trip at Red Robin where we got together with Ragnar's cousin Stephanie Yost and Aunt Brigette and Uncle Kent. It was a nice, short getaway and I enjoy all the time we get to spend with our family!

A Visit from Belana and Manu

Our niece Belana Fingerle came to visit us in Texas with her boyfriend Manu. We did our best to host and show them around the place that we love. 

We showed them the famous Buc-ee's gas stations in Texas. 

Then we took them to the Toyota Center on New Years eve to see the Rockets play. It was their first professional basketball game. We had to sit across the arena since we didn't have seats together, but both sets of seats were great and it was fun to be back cheering on the Rockets. Unfortunately they lost!

First NBA game!

After the game we went and did fireworks at our friends the Cottens house. There was a lot of fireworks and luckily no one was set on fire ;)

The next day Cavin, Ragnar, Belana, and Manu went to our friends property and went shooting. They seemed to enjoy themselves and luckily they all came back in one piece!

Monday Ragnar took Belana and Manu to NASA which is always a tourist thing to do in Houston. 

Then they headed to Galveston to see the "beach" even though it was chilly. 

Cute Uncle and Niece! 

When they got back we went bowling together before the kids had to go back to school the next day. 

We played a lot of games together which was nice. I am glad most of Ragnar's family loves games as much as we do!

The last day ended up a little disastrous. We went to get a Covid test so they could fly back the next day. Well... Covid is out of control right now in Texas, so every place is too full to take people and this place is supposed to have results within 10 hours. Well we waited 3.5 hours to find out they wouldn't have the results til they were already supposed to have flown out. Ragnar decided to take them to the airport to check on the actual requirements while I continued to wait and while there, they found out their flight had been canceled! So, it ended up being a blessing that they went because they were able to get them on a flight leaving a few hours later to ensure that they would get back to Germany. Many flights were being cancelled, so it was the safest option even though it cut out a day of their visit. 

They hurried back to the house, packed, and we headed back to the airport. Thankfully they arrived home safely and all was well without the Covid test. It was nice of them to come visit us. We haven't spent very much time with Belana since we have always lived in different countries, but it was nice to get to know her and her boyfriend better and show them Texas! Hopefully they had fun!