December 18, 2021

BYU played in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA so we drove over to watch the Cougar Football team end their season. It was cold and rainy most of the game, and BYU lost terribly, but we survived.

November 17, 2021 Southlake, 2-mile 15:12.0; 31st

11/18/21

November 30, 2021 Bedford, 2-mile 15:58.3 17th

December 8, 2021 Southlake, 2-mile 14:15.2; 37th out of 90.

December 14, 2021 Southlake, 2-mile 14.39.4; 46th out of 144.

*** UPDATED ***

January 12, 2022 GCISD District Championship, Cross Timbers MS, 2-mile 15:51.6; 22nd out of 64

* Note: the Southlake course was short, everyone’s times were a lot faster in Southlake than at the other courses.

December 2, 2021

Raine competed in the school spelling bee again this year (it was back in-person after being just a computerized test last year).

Raine finished in the top 10, but she wasn’t happy at all. She got out on Korea because she literally didn’t know what the pronouncer was talking about. Raine is TERRIBLE at geography, so when the pronouncer automatically gave the definition because it is a homonym, it completely confused poor Raine. I could see the confusion on her face and knew she was done for. Sure enough, she spelled it with a C because she thought it was in the Caribbean.

She was so mad afterwards that I had to pull her out of school and take her out for brunch before she could go back to class!

Interesting side-not: Raine wore the same shirt that she wore 2 years earlier when she won the school bee in 6th grade. Apparently it wasn’t a lucky shirt after-all!

Carter’s first day of middle school — 6th grade.

Raine’s last year of middle school — 8th grade.

August 9 – Show Low Lake

August 10 – Grandpa put up his much-anticipated zip line

August 11 – the Petrified Forest

We started our drive home from the north end of the Petrified Forest and Daddy had to wakeup on his 44th birthday in a cheap motel along Historic Route 66!

August 5 we headed out on a long drive toward Arizona to meet Sara and her family.

On the 6th we took an excursion up to Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam.

Then we boarded our open-air truck for the ride to Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon is a sandstone slot canyon within the Navajo Nation. The entrance doesn’t look like much…

…but as soon as you enter, it is unbelievable. Between the four of us, we took hundreds of photos; it was incredible.

Carter with his angel wings

Raine with her angel wings

After we exited the other side, we hiked back up over the top. That’s the canyon right there; you literally cannot even tell it is there.

After the tour, we headed over to the Grand Canyon to meet Grandma and Grandpa Anderson at the Yavapai Lodge, where we were staying that night. After dinner, we hiked over to the canyon to watch the sunset while we waited for Aunt Sara and her family.

Early on the 7th, Sara and Daryn joined Daddy and I on a hike to the rim to watch the sun rise.

Once everyone was awake and packed, we hiked along the rim to the Ooh Aah Point trailhead.

The switchbacks to get down the steepest part of the rim were pretty tight!

The view from Ooh Aah Point

Addy, Raine, and Millie

Somehow Carter managed to escape our notice when took the group photo.

Once we made it back up to the top, we drove to Mather Point to look out from the observation platform.

We had a great view of the trail that we just hiked out to Ooh Aah Point.

This was the only place that we could catch a glimpse of the Colorado River down in the bottom of the canyon.

We loaded up the cars and drove to Flagstaff where we all met up for lunch before driving the rest of the way to Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

July 18-22 we drove down to Padre Island. We did a lot of boogie boarding, seashell hunting, and wave jumping but we also visited the USS Lexington and did an escape room onboard. We drove through Mustang Island to Port Aransas and rode the ferry back to the mainland on our way home.

Today the kids had their annual physicals and here are their stats:

Raine
Height: 5’8″ = 99th percentile
Weight: 123 lbs = 84th percentile
That 3 inches she grew this year added to the 4 inches from the year before means she has grown 7 inches in two years— no wonder all her shorts show her butt cheeks!!!

Carter
Height: 4’11.5″ = 86th percentile
Weight 70 lbs = 24th percentile
He only added 1.5 inches from last year– he just can’t seem to break 5 foot– but he gained a whopping 8 pounds!!! Yet his BMI still places him in the 1st percentile.

July 2-5 we rented a lake house on Eagle Mountain Lake for a little staycation. Saturday we rented a boat to tube around the lake. It was stormy the first hour on the boat and was so “cold” that Carter put on a wetsuit to stay warm… in Texas, in July!!! That kid needs some body fat.

(Who put Daddy in charge of the go-pro?)

The military fly overs were really cool, but didn’t photograph well with a cellphone.