Katie's last football game

 

So our junior high adventure with Katie is slowly coming to an end this year in 8th grade.  Tuesday night was her last football game to dance with the Jacket Jazz.  They actually didn't "dance" at halftime b/c it was homecoming and they just kind of accented the band while the court was presented.  I did get some good pictures, though.

 

Mark and his girls:

This is more of a realistic picture of our family:

Yup.. I am that short.  In fact Katie has started almost cuddling over me like a parent:

Katie and Jessie:

Katie and some of her teammates:

Katie is he tallest one next to the band:

Like I said, not much dancing going on this night, but now we can move onto basketball season, and I should be able to get some cute pics soon. Geaux Jackets!

Camp Marydale Fall campout

This Saturday, Emma and her Girl Scout troop had a great day at Camp Marydale in St. Francisville.  The weather was amazing and we had one of the best days ever.  Emma has several new girls in her troop this year, including her best friend, Addie.  We all enjoyed the festivities:

 

 

Emma and Addie when we arrived - it was a chilly morning!

 

Erin, Emma, Addie and Mia:

Alena, Addie Emma and Erin:

The whole troop waiting for the flag raising ceremony:

Action shot:

Emma and Addie say the Girl Scout promise after the Pledge of Allegiance:

Our first activity of the day was archery.  They were so excited, and it ended up being a great learning experience.  Almost everybody ended up hitting the target, even the tiny ones!  Emma and Addie both hit their pumpkin targets several times.  Watch out Katniss.

After our archery class, we took a small break before heading on our haunted hike.  This was tons of fun b/c the trail was decorated with "scary" props and it was great exercise for all of us, including me!

After our hike and lunch, the last activity of the day was riding horses.  Because we didn't receive the message that jeans were required, we ended up having to ride in shifts b/c we shared jeans and leggings.  It was a little dramatic at first, but everybody ended up being able to ride.  Emma and Erin were in the 2nd shift. 

The last event of the day was the Bridging ceremony where girls transitioning from Daisies to Brownies or Brownies to Juniors (as we were) or Juniors to Cadets make the "bridge" to the next level.  It was very sweet.  The actually gave the girls junior mint candies after they crossed the bridge.  Super cute.



Orange Beach 2014

Our vacation this year was to Orange Beach in Alabama, and after the summer Mark had with summer ball and tournament ball, he really deserved some down time with the family.  I took a lot of pictures, so I'm not going to caption every one.  We stayed at Phoenix VII, which was a new Phoenix for us, but we loved our condo and the weather was great.  We had little to no rain, and the water was clear with no seaweed or jelly fish.  It was  a little rough, but nothing you couldn't swim in.

 

 

Beginning of the trip selfie:

 

Emma's new found skill of sticking grapes in her nose - and I won't tell you how she eats it when she's done (so proud)!



Love this picture of the girls:

 

Emma and Mark hanging out in the water one morning - Emma could stay in there all day:



...and this is what Katie did most of the trip!

If we get to the beach for a whole week, like we did this summer, we try and get some Adventure Island Golf in:

Lunch at the Hangout after golf:

 

Burying Katie in the sand for her picture with Dr. Carlton's summer contest:

Aunt Denise decided to come with us this trip, and we had a great time with her.  I think she had a great time too.



Our new adventure this trip was searching for sand crabs at night.  Emma absolutely loved it.  She was verging on the point of obsession on finding them.  Its hard to get good pics at night, but here are a few:

Emma also liked looking at the little shells (bivalves) that bury in the sand as they come in with the surf.  We had a good time one afternoon playing with them in the water:

Mark took this picture of Emma and I - I love it:

The last two "soldiers" (as Mark calls them) of the trip.  We thoroughly enjoyed them!

Before we headed to eat out, Mark also got this cute pic of me and Katie Bug:

This picture also came out cute - Emma was a little sunburned and tired at this point (poor baby):

Bye-bye beach... until next year