Well, that went quickly. I can't believe October is done and it's even more baffling that I saw Christmas candy at HyVee this morning. Can we just slow down a little?
School softball ended and basketball began; Gracie is over two weeks into her practices and has their first game on Monday. However, travel ball picked up again and we have already made it to one tournament in St. Louis. This weekend will be Oklahoma and then we'll finish the fall softball season in Arkansas. I'm really looking forward to her basketball season. It will be a lot of games in a short amount of time.
Owen starts wrestling in less than two weeks and he has been getting some running in, preparing for the Turkey Trax 5k on Thanksgiving. We ran this a couple years ago and he wants to do it again!
The past few weeks have been pretty busy and we have not been home on the weekends at all. After school ball ended, we had one weekend at home and were able to go to a Mizzou football game. Gracie also played in one more baseketball tournament/scrimmage with her competitive team in Columbia. They did alright and finished 2-1 on the day. The following weekend we went to Iowa to celebrate my sister's 40th and get some family photos done. Then the next weekend we headed to St. Louis for more softball. Then Nick and I visited Nashville. Sandwiched in between all of our traveling weekends is the "normal" stuff; work, school practices, conferences and watching other sporting events. We will not have another weekend home until November 20.
Fearfest 2021
Gracie and Hayden went together again this year. She said it wasn't as scary this year because she kind of knew what to expect. I'm pretty sure they had a lot of fun though.
While she was doing that, Nick and I were doing this...
We got to go to Chris Stapleton again! It was a pretty fun night with a lot of our friends that we don't usually get to see. Somehow we ended up in a suite...Nick knows people.
What a great thing to see and listen to live music again. It had been a pretty long time since we attended a concert. I love it!
The ironic part of the night was that Gracie returned home from fearfest only about 20 minutes before we got home from the concert. She was texting updates about what they were doing and what time she would be home; also asking what time we would be home. So strange to have a child that we can do that with.
Owen, on the other hand was invited to stay at our neighbor's for the night, and I believe that he also had very little sleep. It was a fun night all around.
We did have to get up early the next day to head north to Iowa, so everyone was lacking sleep. We always try to get a lot of activities accomplished while we're in Iowa and this weekend was no different. Our first stop was shopping in Des Moines. This is always fun for me because there are actually stores open in the mall. We spent a couple hours shopping for coordinating outfits for family pictures and then moved on to Annie's house.
Owen's lack of sleep led to this while shopping in Des Moines the next day.
Yes, he is sitting in the storefront window of the Buckle, asleep. I noticed it and then turned back around to help Gracie with finding clothes for Nick. A few minutes later, Owen was actually curled up, laying down there.
Friday was pretty low key and I got up Saturday morning to run with Traci. We went about 6 miles and it was a little chilly, but great to run with her again! Then we spent awhile at Annie's in the afternoon. Saturday evening we met up with Missy Miller for her to get some photos of our family. Here are are a few that I took on our outing to Jester Park.
I got one Missy taking a couple of the kids.
Here are the Brittons with Missy.
Both of Missy's boys wrestled at Ballard when Nick was coaching. She used to take all of the action shots for the wrestling team and now she does a lot more.
Annie and Gracie.
Love this pic of them.
I took a couple just for fun.
Gracie and Owen
This will do if Missy's don't turn out.
Gracie - better than her school pic in my opinion.
Here's Owen. He actually hasn't had his school pics due to his quarantine, so I suppose if those don't turn out, this will do.
Gracie took one of us, too.
I got one of Nick and Owen. I love the hand position around Nick's neck...wrestlers.
Missy sent me a teaser from her photos. We still don't have the rest of them, but hopefully soon.
Another weekend of softball.
Nick had to pick up Gracie early from school on Friday to make it to their 4:30pm game in St. Louis. Owen and I opted to stay home because I needed to work and he should probably stay in school. We were able to watch that game because the other team streamed the game through their gamechanger app, so that was awesome! Gracie and Nick drove home that night and we all headed back the next day for evening games. It was so cold the next day, but then Sunday it was 75 degrees prior to some pretty intense storms that blew through. They ended up doing ok and finished 1-2-1 over the weekend.
Gracie has switched to the Aces and is playing 16u. I'm still learning who all the girls are, but they have quite a few players who are really good. We'll see how they do in Oklahoma this weekend.
Nashville!!!
We had an adult weekend and it was so fun! We got to tour the athletic offices at Vanderbilt and I met my counterpart there who oversees the tutoring program for their academic department. We got to see a lot more live music and eat a lot of good food! We watched Mizzou win on Saturday and Nick's boss play in a band with his daughter at "The Local." So fun! The only downer for the weekend was that it rained almost the entire time. We were right across from a huge park where the Parthenon is, and it was too gross out to go running there. We also watched the football game in the rain.
Our room had a small balcony.
Watching some live music after the football game.
The sun finally came out on Sunday when we made our way home to Missouri. When we returned, Owen decided that he did, actually want to go trick-or-treating. So, he was responsible for coming up with a costume and this is what we got. Gracie opted to remain on the couch and sleep after spending the night with her friends the day before.
Cowboy Owen. Not bad
Owen with Knox getting some candy.
Still running...
I realized at the end of September how close I was to 100 miles of running, so I made it a goal to get there in October. I looked back and figured out that I have not run 100 miles in one month since March 2020. The start of our pandemic and right before I started having problems with my lower back. I'm also excited that my average pace is below 8:30 minute miles. Some days are really good, others are a struggle. Just gotta keep moving forward.
I'm not sure yet what Owen's wrestling season will look like. I do know that they have put out the state series already for March. Looks like the goal is to get to Cape Girardeau this year.
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