fall fun

we are currently in alabama and a future post will come from this weekend. first, i wanted to cover the past two weekends.

two weekends ago, we spent the weekend in college station. much to my surprise, it was also the weekend for the recruiting tailgate for pine cove, a camp i worked at in college. it was a great chance for me to see old friends including my friend pair who was also in our wedding!following the game, we went to the garretts' house to enjoy the birthday festivities for their youngest two kiddos, abby and jennings. they ripped through their presents faster than any kids i have ever seen!sunday brought a surprise trip to the pumpkin patch. katy knew my desire to visit one this year and we made an unexpected stop after breakfast by the one in college station. this very farmer's market/pumpkin patch is also home to the largest pumpkin in texas weighing in at a hefty 1198 lb. we rounded off the visit with choosing a couple of pumpkins to carve, racing through the hay maze, and gazing in awe at the array of fresh fruit & vegetables.last weekend we traveled to louisiana for the first time in three months to visit with mr joe, the allens, and the morrows. we love visiting family and are amazed each time at how much the kids have grown between each time we see them. i forgot my memory card for my camera so the only picture i have from the weekend is jonah proudly displaying his bird house project from the weekend.speaking of jonah, we are so proud of his new cross-country efforts. he's making better and better times with each run. we are so proud of each of our nieces and nephews, including the ones in san francisco. we can't wait for everyone to be together at christmas!

p.s. - sorry that all of these pictures are fairly poor quality. i did not have my memory card in my camera for two weeks so they all came from my phone or lee's.

a quarter

i just recently celebrated my 25th birthday. for whatever reason(s) why, i was looking forward to this milestone. some would say 25 is not much a milestone but for me, it seems to be a marker for a significant amount of life lived...although i hope there is so much more left to enjoy! it also makes me a little bit older than the students i teach and somehow (magically) makes me look significantly older than them so the times i am confused with students are less and less...maybe?

i am very grateful for the twenty-five years thus far: an amazing family, fun childhood memories, an awesome college time, a wonderful husband, and many fabulous friends from different times in life.

this year's birthday weekend began with my school's homecoming game...my awesome freshmen cheerleaders got to cheer during the first half of the varsity game. they even had their picture taken with one of the taco bell hot sauce packs that races at the astros games! (houston people know what i'm talking about) they did a great job, and the game led right into the beginning of the three-day weekend (sadly, not for both of us). katy kicked off right with a yummy homemade birthday cake.saturday, we enjoyed lee's fabulous blueberry pancakes for breakfast and later watched some football...one game in particular that i will not discuss. sunday might have been the best combination of someone's favorite things...i got to watch the extra scene from the LOST series finale via my new bluray player, we had le peep for breakfast, made an IKEA shopping trip, picked up some delicious cupcakes, went to see a chick flick, and enjoyed dinner at pappacito's.
katy and i rounded out the weekend with a trip to the outlet malls and a new set of tires on the jeep!