ISU/West Virginia

The tail end of our visit was the Iowa State/West Virginia football game.

The score was a little different than the Texas Tech game. But anytime you get to hang out with good friends, who cares what the score is. 

Go Cyclones!!

Thanksgiving Week

We spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa Strutt's. 

Who doesn't love "swimming" in Iowa in November. 

We also took the kids to the Botanical Center. They had only been for Aunt Jeni's wedding so it was fun for them to walk around. 

They had a train exhibit that the kids really enjoyed. 

We even made it out to see the new Marvel movie, Dr Strange. 

But nothing beats a story by Grandpa. 

Then we all headed up to McGregor for some more family time. 

A group of us woke up early enough to make it to the Prairie Turkey Trot. 

Some of us enjoyed it more than others. 

After the run, we headed back to Grandma- and Grandpa-Great's house for dinner. 

They had activities for the kids...

....and the adults.

That's a lot of name tags.

As always, it was great hanging out with family. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bennett's 2nd Birthday

We were also in town to attend our nephew's 2nd birthday party. It was a construction theme, so there were cones a plenty.

Happy 2nd Birthday Bennett!

We also got to meet our newest nephew, Nathan. Cutie!

And Daniel got a present from Uncle Jon and Aunt Jaclyn. 

Side note:don't let your 8 year old eat an entire pack of Starbursts in the car. It doesn't make the car smell nice when they come back out. Ewwww!

ISU/Texas Tech Football

We decided to take the kids out of school for the week of Thanksgiving and headed out to Iowa. Our first stop was the Iowa State/Texas Tech football game. Josh even got to attend the game. He was pretty excited. 

Victory donuts.

The great food provided by the Kibbes. 

It ended up being a great game with Iowa State winning 66-10. Now that's a score!

Daniel's 8th Birthday

For the boys' birthdays, we let them pick an activity and invite a friend. This year, Daniel invited his friend, Wyatt, to play Laser Tag. We got the place to ourselves so the whole family got to shoot at each other. I think they all had a blast. 

Then we had dinner and McDonalds...

...and home for a cake. I think he was pretty excited about the night.

For his birthday breakfast, it was pancakes and grapes in bed. He even let Patrick in on the fun.

For dinner, he chose HuHot with the Weldons. Then we came home to open gifts. I think his favorite were the roller blades. 

Last year there was a snow day on his birthday. This year, no snow day, but it did snow so he made a birthday snowman.

Happy 8th Birthday Daniel!

Halloween

The Halloween festivities continued with the Trick or Treat Street at the local high school. Patrick wanted to dress up as Kylo Ren this time. 

The high school puts on a fun time and the kids always end up getting a ton of candy.

Then, on Halloween day, the kids had parties at school. 

They did some fun crafts.

And played some games. Then had a parade outside for the parents. 

Then the boys got to go trick or treating with Dad. 

They had a scary good time.

Fall Baseball

Josh's baseball team decided to play in the fall league again this season. They use this season to play up to the age they will play in spring to get used to the new rules and field sizes. It helps them for the spring but also means they are playing against kids two years older than most of the team. It makes for an interesting season. 

They also got new uniforms and changed their name to the Warriors Barnstormers. 

Look at the size of the other team compared to our kids. Yikes!

Great fall season Barnstormers. We can't wait to see what happens next spring!