Happy Thanksgiving!

We were set to board a plane on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and spend the holiday in Charleston, SC.  
Our plans changed when Molly ended up tearing her ACL in her back leg.  (She just had the other back leg replaced a little over a year ago.). She was taken into surgery the Friday before and so we spent the holiday nursing her.  
We still had a wonderful holiday.  We quickly canceled all our reservations, made a couple of trips to the grocery and had a wonderful holiday.  
Matt has been obsessed with The Big Green Egg for years.  Well, he finally got one a couple of days before Thanksgiving and has declared himself "pit master."  Let me just say if trying to smoke and grill everything in sight makes you a pit master then he is indeed master.  Have mercy!  I will say, he made an amazing turkey on Thanksgiving on his first attempt.  
We also spent the holiday watching movies and decorating for Christmas.  We installed a driving range in our basement and have been swinging away.  Here's a tip: Until the side nets are in place, don't hit any golf balls, no matter if your husband pushes you to do it.  I should know.  I happen to be good at using spackle and repairing a hole in the wall.  ha! ha!  Yep, you could say, I sliced the ball.  
We are blessed! We took care of Molly, changed plans and still made memories together.  Thanks be to God!

We gave Molly some turkey on Thanksgiving.  Poor thing, instead of pinky up if was leg up as she ate.  Another leg, another 20 staples.

Pit Master getting the turkey started on The Big Green Egg.  

It was very cold out and Matt was coming in out from grilling the turkey the turkey to get warm and he smelled like a smoke stack.  We made him bring in a folding chair from the garage to sit in by the fire on his trips in to warm up.  Molly on the other hand......

We decorated for Christmas and Gracie and I finally got this garland decorated and hung like we like it.  This after years of wrestling with it. 

Getting in some golf practice.  Notice, the sides are up.

So very proud...

Gracie and I are so proud of Matt.  He works very hard. He is blessed with a job at a company he has grown with (literally, 22 years) and loves.  This past week, Matt was promoted and named Vice President of Technology.  

Thank you for working so hard for our family Matt.  With all the travel, long hours and missed moments, you are still the absolute best at the job titles that matter most, husband, father and man of God. We love you!

Keeping Busy

Matt and Gracie had their monthly "date night" and this month they enjoyed eating Mexican food and roller skating.  

Our church is very blessed to have a Fidelis Chapter.  Fidelis is a group of girls, 6-12th grade, who work to lift each other up and lead lives that reflect Christ.  They meet each week, enjoy a potluck dinner together at the church, participate in activities/games, discussion and prayer.  Lily Grace pledged a couple of weeks ago. 

The girls enjoyed an overnight retreat to celebrate. 

Each year, Matt's company does a day of service at a local shelter for homeless families.  Lily Grace joined Matt during her fall break from school to help out.  Matt said she did a great job! She washed walls, did caulking and various other jobs to help out. 

Lily Grace gave up trick or treating a couple of years ago.  She found that it's a lot more fun giving out the candy and getting to meet all the cute faces that ring our doorbell.  She dresses up to give out candy and the kids always seem to appreciate it when she opens the door.  This year, she dressed as Rey from Star Wars.  She even brought out her BB8 and made a Darth Vader pumpkin to add to the theme.

Lily Grace is thinking about entering the work force.  She'd like to start babysitting to earn a little money.  She has the best time volunteering at the church and working with the little ones on Sunday mornings, but before we let her take full responsibility, we wanted her to get some training.  She spent and entire Saturday in a Safe Sitter class learning how to care for children, basic CPR for choking, the business of babysitting, behavior management etc...


🎉🎉🎉🎉
This past week I celebrated my 47th birthday!  I had a wonderful day.  Matt took off work and we spent the day together and Gracie shared this beautiful poem she had written with me.  She is quite the writer.  Melt my heart! I love you both!

I’m from art, music, and books

From awesome Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter

From a happy family

From disorganized and organized

From hot dogs and freezing ice cream

From the land of pink and gold, shiny and sparkly

On Mondays—tiring

Do I have to go to school?

On Fridays—exciting

It’s the weekend!

Saturdays—sleeping in

Recharging from the week

From big books on rainy days

Reading fantasy and mystery

All silent and still

My dog sleeping at the foot of my bed

Being sucked into the story

Time passing away, unnoticed

From drawing at the table

My hand smudged with graphite

From shading and smudging

Taking ideas from the internet

My bare feet dangling below

And my mom cooking up a storm

 

First Middle School Dance

Gracie along with her friend Pearl, enjoyed her first middle school dance this past Friday night.  The dance was a beach theme and the girls had a great time.  According to Gracie it was more like a big laid back party. They danced, played games, ate and wore themselves out.  Can't beat that for a first dance.  Gracie text Matt and I few selfies from the photo booth.  

First Day of 7th Grade

Hot Weekend in the City

We spent this past weekend in Chicago.  It was packed with so many concerts in town as well as the Cubs playing over the weekend. 

Someone got surprised and became a new iPhone/data owner- oh the excitement despite the checklist of rules that came with that new phone.

93 degrees with 40,855 fans- it was one HOT game! Funny enough, according to local forecasters it was the hottest day they've had in Chicago in five weeks.  (great timing) Thankfully we had shaded seats behind home plate.  Of course we had to get there early so LG could get her ballgame hot dog and fries.  The  Cubs won against the Padres 11-5 and Gracie finally got to join all the other fans in singing, "Go Cubs Go."   

All cleaned up after the game and ready for a good meal.

According to Gracie, this Creme Brûlée at Ruth's Chris is her new best friend. ha!

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow, Aug.7, Matt and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.  What a blessing!

Teeing off Together

When I met Matt 27 years ago, he was big into golf.  His mom was the bookkeeper at the Ozark Country club so he got the privilege of playing the course out there often.  
Life kicked in once we got married and brought Gracie home and he hasn't played much.
I took lessons about 20 years ago with some girlfriends for fun and that's pretty much where it ended. 
Last summer, Matt started slowly getting back in and Gracie hit golf camp and fell in love with the game.  I decided to give it another chance and found that I really enjoyed it myself and we have a lot of fun playing as a family.  
This past Spring, Matt graduated Purdue, treated himself to some new clubs and our family joined a local club.  
Lily Grace and I were treated to private lessons for much of this spring and early summer.  We have had the best time doing this together.  Our coach, Suzanne is wonderful.  She is a very decorated LPGA player but more than that, she is genuinely nice, patient and wants more than anything for you to have fun with the game of golf.  Our last lesson with the three of us took place this past Sunday evening where we played the course with Suzanne.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  
Gracie and I have really enjoyed doing this together over the past 6 weeks.  We've learned a lot, helped each other and had a few laughs along the way.  
Gracie is going to keep taking private lessons from Suzanne and I'm going to put into practice all that I have learned.  
Matt, thank you so much for treating Gracie and I to that time together.  Thank you for working so hard for our family.  Thanks also for surprising me with a new set of TaylorMade Kalea's.  I still can't believe you got those for me and I am loving them.  They definitely beat my starter set.  
Gracie thanks for suggesting that we do this together.  I enjoyed every minute of it with you!!! 

From the West to the Midwest- Back Home we go

After two weeks, it was time to return home.  We made memories, shared laughs, got on each others nerves and wouldn't trade a second of it.  Life is good!

Even though it was raining, Matt and Gracie got up early for one last cast on the Madison before heading to the airport.

On our way to the airport

The sheep were crossing as we were leaving.  Guess they wanted to say goodbye.

Of course being gone so long, we missed Molly.  Lily Grace brought her back a bear toy and she has had the best time with it.

Yellowstone

Regardless how many times you go, you have to visit the park for a little sight seeing.  And this year, we got a big surprise.

This year we got to see our first grizzly

From as far up as I was willing to hike Mt. Washburn.  The drive up is much better anyway- and sooo much easier.

Taking a snow selfie and Mt. Washburn

Gracie made a friend

Wouldn't be a trip to the park without seeing Old Faithful erupt with ice cream in hand.

Our very first year to come to the park and see the eruption I made the mistake of telling these two how patriotic it made me feel to witness that with so many people from all walks of life.  Well let me just say that sharing is not caring, it's overrated.  These two endlessly tease me about that.  This year the actually made a video of the eruption and sang the Star Spangled Banner in the background.  Yep, in front of everyone just to get at me.  No shame I tell you.

As were driving down Mt. Washburn with has a very high elevation and no guard rails, we notice traffic slow.  This large fellow is the cause.  Matt was so nervous as he got closer to us.  Something about being on the side of a cliff with his family in the car and all the onlookers and the fact that the bison will ram the car.....  Gracie and I got a good laugh out of how antsie it made him.  Oh! And not wanting to pay for a rental car slammed by a bison.  hilarious!  And right after this, an antelope ran in front of our car and Matt stopped just in the nick of time. 

Now this is the real kicker.  Three years we've been to Yellowstone and no moose.  This year, we decided to drive to the northeast entrance.  As we were driving back, guess what we saw? A Bull Moose!!!!

Wetting a line

This year we mainly did dry fly fishing.  It's very different in that it take a lot of patients, coordination and you have to keep your eye on the fly.  
Matt was the big winner this year as he caught the first, the biggest and the most.
Gracie caught the first on a dry fly and I caught the biggest brown.  
This year, we did two guided wade trips in Yellowstone.  We fished the Madison, Firehole and Gibbon rivers in the park.
I will say, the snakes got more in the game (and in the water this year) and I wasn't a fan.
Nonetheless, we had fun trying, catching, getting wet and being together. 

First chance to wet a line

While fishing the Firehole, I waded out to a rock.  I hooked a trout and sadly didn't get him landed but found out that there was a drop off from the rock and nearly topped my waders.  I did get a little wet.  

Matt then comes along and gives me a hard time about not landing the fish.  I tell him that with the water deep and moving I couldn't get him.  Matt proceeds to go out and find my rock.  He gets up on it and tells me that there is a rock there so why didn't I stand on it and get the fish.  Are you kidding?  I told him I was on the rock.  Well I lean over and tell Gracie and our guide Nichole to watch.  I had already told them that there was a drop off.   I tell Matt once he's on the rock that he can wade out a bit faster for better reach. Needless to say, he steps and finds out for himself about the drop off and why I didn't land the fish.  He completely tops is waders and even has to strip them off and dump the water once back on shore.  It was hilarious.  The picture are blurry because Gracie was laughing so hard while trying to take them.

Soaked and dumping water from his waders.

After his waders filled up and he had to strip them off, he had to put on a pair of Lily Grace's pink wool socks because that's all he had other than cold wet feet.  

Her casting is beautiful.  People actually stopped to watch her .  She can put out a good amount of line and make it look so graceful.

Landing her first on a dry fly

This trumpeter swan on the Firehole in Yellowstone was relentless.  He followed me and I finally had to reel in and move.

We also had a coyote join us on the banks this year while fishing the Madison in the park.

And when you are tired of fishing, nothing beats reading by the water.

Back on the ranch, Matt caught this large and beautiful rainbow on the Madison.

On our last day on the water, I finally caught and landed this brown trout on a dry fly.