Football Weekend

We have certainly enjoyed lots of football this weekend. Mike is teaching a new class for UVA in Roanoke at the Higher Ed Center, so I took all three of my babes home to Radford for the night. Chad and I took our boys to watch Radford play George Wythe.

I have to admit that it was super surreal to be at my high school alma mater with my boys in tow. It was fun to see some of our extended family and the boys had fun. Here is my Kyle sporting the black and gold.

My Dad has kept the clock for the high school varsity and JV games for the last 42 years. It blows me away that he has volunteered for that job for all these years. As a child, it was such a treat to hide in the toasty press box with my Dad on those cold Friday nights in Radford. The boys had to visit Pops in the press box before the game.

You have to be almost silent up there because Pops has to pay attention to the field referees and there are two different announcers going on during the game. Kyle and Clayton snuck up there during the fourth quarter to watch Pops in action.

David is sitting on my cousin, Abram's shoulders. Abram plays baseball for Radford University and David wore him out at the game! His brother, Harrison, plays for RAdford so we cheered for him all night. David cheered his guts out for him until he passed out in the arms of my mom's friend Shirley during the fourth quarter. Carrying that 50 pound child out of that game in sandals was certainly a challenge:)

The next morning it was time for Hokie football!!

Here are my boys with their cousin, Brandon. Brandon and Matt came up from Knoxville to use Pawpaw's tickets. Pawpaw had already bought the tickets for this year and I am sure it would have thrilled him for his grandson and great-grandson to use those tickets. This was Brandon's first ever VT game, so we made it special by tailgating. Unfortunately the weather and the Hokie players did not cooperate to make it a perfect day.

Playing a little football in their "white out" shirts that GG bought them. I am thinking of possibly burning those suckers-who needs a constant reminder of one of the worst loses in VT history? Uggh.

Every tailgate needs a few chicken tenders and a few cute boys:)

Pops and Kyle

Matt and Chad during our tailgate before the rain started. I think the boys had a blast tailgating-they played a little corn hole and of course we took a few trips to the port-a-potties. :)

Unfortunately all the fun we had did not make those Hokies play any better and we lost to JMU. Unbelieveable for the whole Hokie nation, but it is a good lesson to teach our kiddos that to be a fan you must be a loyal fan-through the good days at Lane Stadium and like today, the ones you want to forget. Next up next weekend is East Carolina and I just hope and pray those hokie boys practice really hard this week:)

Labor Day Weekend

What a weekend. This labor day weekend we were divided as a family-Mike and Kyle went to Louisiana to check on his family and I took my parents and grandmother to Pigeon Forge. I know my big boys had fun in LA, and I had fun in Pigeon Forge with four generations of "Beamer women!" My poor Dad and Davey were out numbered!

Despite the fun and silliness that occurred, it was still hard on my grandmother to go to Dollywood for the first time without her sweetie. Mimi and Pawpaw usually took several treks to Dollywood during the year and I know it hurt her heart to be there without him. The "firsts" without a loved one is so hard on the heart, but I think she still had fun:)


The hotel we stayed in had a great pool and here are Davey and Mom on the lazy river. Poor David got super sick with croup on Friday night/Saturday morning which necessitated a trip to the ER for him. Bless his heart-he still had fun, but he did not feel the best.
My cousin, Matt and his family live in Knoxville so they came to have lunch with us one day and they came back to the hotel and swam. He and his wife Sarah run a dog kennel in Knoxville and they are super busy with doggies. They have two kiddos-Brandon and Emily. Here is Emily on Mimi's lap by the pool.

Lazy river:)

Mimi, Mom, and Hope on the carousel. My grandmother is in great health, but she has problems with her knees and she is unsteady on her feet. She was DETERMINED to ride the horses, so we picked her a real low horse to climb on and Hope rode beside her. The problem was that the horse ended the ride WAY up in the air and it took Mom and I both to gracefully help her off of that horse!

Mimi is a lot of fun and despite her sad heart she really did have fun with us:)

I love that sweet face! She rode and rode and rode some more. My girl may just be a thrill rider like her Daddy because she was not the least bit scared on any of the baby rides.

David was checking on his little sister to make sure she was not scared on the piggies!:) David enjoyed riding these little rides with Hope:)

My aunt Debbie's huband Mike works at Dollywood with the eagles and does a wonderful Birds of Prey show. Since we were visiting we got to sit up front and he called David up to be on stage with him to be his helper!!

David modeling how big our eyes would be if we were eagles!

The highlight of the trip for sweet Dave-the train. We rode it twice and he would get so excited when that loud whistle blew!

Me and Dave on the cars. All my kiddos have loved those cars. David was too busy honking, waving, and singing to do that great of a job driving us, but we certainly had fun!

Poor Dave did not feel 100% after his night in the ER, so he and Hope shared her stroller through the park!

My Mike loves his little girl, and he bought her a Louisiana Tech cheerleader outfit from the bookstore:) I love it and it looks so cute on her!! Mike and Kyle had a great time down south with the family. So tomorrow we are back to reality after our fun trips with family:)

Really?

Has it really been four whole days since I last blogged? For me that is truly unbelieveable:) This week has been somewhat of a blur as the kids have been on a two hour early dismissal everyday due to the high temperatures around here. Sweet Hope has not felt all that great this week, so my long "to do" list does not have too many things crossed off of it. Oh well:)

Here are just some quick updates from the week:)

Mike and Kyle left on their down south boys road trip. They both LOVE going to Shreveport to see Mike's brother Daniel and their family. They have three boys and Kyle LOVES cousin time:) I am so thrilled that they get this precious guy bonding time every year.

So, that leaves me with David and Hope for this holiday weekend. We are also heading out in just a little bit for our own adventures in Pigeon Forge. We are going with my parents and we are taking my grandmother. (pray for us-ha!!) My grandmother has been pretty tied down with my grandfather's ailing health over the last few months so we hope the change of scenery and a little Smoky Mountain fun will be good for her soul:)

I took sweet girl for her first hair cut this morning, but the beautician really did not recommend that I trim anything now. Her hair on top is getting really long, but since we want it to grow long then she just recommended a hairbow to hold that long piece back until it all evens out.

We got to go out on a fun playdate after school this week with some friends to Hungry Mother to swim and it was heavenly. Not crowded but still super hot and we just sucked the life right out of that place! I am not quite ready to say goodbye to summer yet.

I better go finish packing our bags for the trip. It should be interesting sharing a hotel room with my 81 year old grandmother! I will post tons of pictures and I am SURE that there will be lots of funny stories to report:)