Santa

A trip to downtown Louisville on a gorgeous Saturday. Pictures with Santa, tattooes, checking out the ice rink, and of course, getting cry cream!  

So fun to show off our town to the rest of the family. 

So sunny 

Myth Busters!

A fun trip to the museum on Thanksgiving Day. No crowds for the interactive Myth Busters exhibit. 

Marshall as part of the show 

Turkey Trot

A gorgeous day for a trot/run/walk through Louisville on Thanksgiving Day for 1000+ people. A free race with a donation to flood victims. D-man and Marshall ran a 25:23 and Claudia and I walked it in 50 minutes - 10 minutes below our goal! A great way to start the day! 

Before the race 

Running down Main St. 

Gorgeous view 

We made it and celebrates with free coffee and beer! 

A Trip to Siam

Sometimes a little get-a-way is all you need. After basketball games on Saturday, the boys and I headed down to Monument to watch the boys' 2nd cousin in the "King and I" which is set in "Siam" (modern day Thailand - kind of ironic since Marshall is really in Thailand). 

We were able to watch the 2nd half of the Husker victory and catch up with family. Spencer did an amazing job as "The King" - T-man asked if he "really talked like that."  It was great watching them admire the star after the show. 

The boys enjoyed our stay at Embassy Suites which just really makes it feel like a vacation. 

Spencer signing T-man's program

The boys with "the King" 

Vacation! 

Cousins

The amazing football day in Lincoln was the highlight of the weekend, but the boys had a great time playing with their 1st and 2nd cousins. Having beautiful weather didn't hurt either. And it was also great to be able to spend time with our cousin as well. 

Flag football game with Pop's hankies 

Rainbow loom 

Go big red! 

Playing in the virtual world together 

Indoctrination

It's hard not to get into the Husker spirit after being to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. For T-man who never cared about football, this was especially true. 

He hung the Nebraska flag above his bed on Saturday night and did a routine with his cousins on Sunday. Go. Big. Red. Smile. 

During the national anthem before the "game" 

The (almost) Perfect Day

No fighting. No whining. No drama. No rain. No Husker victory. But it just didn't matter. Just an amazing day with family and gorgeous weather for the boys' and their cousins' first Husker game. A road trip in the motor home with tailgating before hand and the ability to take in the entire experience. And we wrapped up the (almost) perfect day taking the motor home through the drive through at Runza. What a great, great day. 

Beautiful day 

Watching the game with my partner who "was scared we were going to lose" and yelled "I can feel it" when the music came on and asked "can you feel it?" 

D-man enjoyed watching the game with Pop and it warmed my heart he referred to Nebraska as "us" and "we"  

Football Finality

I've had more than enough posts on football this fall, but we have one last post. This week, the Louisville Pirates had their end-of-the-year banquet. It was a celebration of all the team's hard work. A coach talked about each player (D-man's coach said some very nice things about him) and they had a highlight video for each player as well. It was nice seeing D-man enjoy himself and being cheered on by the other boys. 

Coach Rob's speech about D-man (love that he is wearing his rally towel). He wanted a suit coat because "that is what football players wear."

And yes, he wore his new jersey to school the next day. And while much of this entire experience has been overwhelming for all of us, we have met families throughout Louisville and hopefully, D-man had at least a bit of fun this season. 

Birthday Celebration

With a busy week, we celebrated Marshall's birthday on the 12th in downtown Louisville. We FINALLY tried Lucky Pie, the pizza place next to Sweet Cow. We all got "special drinks," enjoyed some good pizza, and topped it off by celebrating with ice cream at Sweet Cow.  

It was a special night celebrating a special man. T-man really had wanted to stay home, but when I tucked him in to say thank you for going out for Dad's birthday he said, "mom and dad are always right." Guess he had a pretty good time too. 

Happy birthday! 

D-man is in the Paper!

I get the Pender Times Weekly. Whenever family members make the paper, I show the boys. D-man, in particular, thinks it is pretty cool. 

So this morning when we found out his football team was in the paper - he was pretty excited (and it was the first thing he told his brother when he woke up). 

Just more validation that this was a good move for us. 

Book of Mormon

In June, we booked tickets to see Book of Mormon with our good friends, the Smileys. It was a busy weekend with basketball on Saturday morning, lunch in downtown Louisville on the rooftop deck at the Rex, and watching the Husker game before we headed to downtown Denver. 

Marshall did some amazing planning and we had some fun drinks and a great meal before the show at a French Bistro about a block from the theatre. We enjoyed a show that was completely offensive and extremely creative at the same time. 

After the show, we headed for a drink at a champagne bar in Larimer Square. It was such a beautiful night so It was reall nice walking around downtown and being out with Marshall and the Smileys. Downtown has changed so much in the last 5 years - so many places we need to try! 

Out in Larimer Square 

Enjoying the champagne bar 

Good friends on a great night! 

Pirate Nation Wins!

Football season for the Louisville Pirates 9-year-old team has come to an end with a victory in the championship game over the Windsor Wizards and an undefeated season. 

This was a huge commitment for D-man and we are proud of his hard work, sticking with it, and becoming a pretty darn good football player in the process. 

It was a busy day with breakfast at 7:30, decorating cars, caravaning to the game and then an exciting game we were able to enjoy with friends. 

It's been a season full of ups and downs and unfortunately more downs than ups today - not what you hope for after so much work, sweat, and tears. I hope he can eventually look back and enjoy the moment - because it truly was moment (and just a bit stressful). 

The car 

The Peavy fan club 

Getting the next play from coach Rob 

The Champions! 

Proud parents and the victorious Pirate 

Checking out the trophy at the after party 

Super T

T-man had a big week last week. He wrapped up his 3rd session of Reading Buddies with his same buddy. Really good to see him excited about reading.

On Wednesday, he had the first grade music program. I love that he willingly gets dressed up and is very proud. And we are proud of him.