Homecoming 2010

Our Eagles are undefeated this year so there has been a lot of hype going on around town! After the red ribbon rally yesterday afternoon I went to the pep rally in the high school gym with the kids. It was Sheldon's first time to go so he wanted me to sit with his class. It was L-O-U-D in that gym, but it brought back so many fun memories from my high school days. Watching the cheerleaders, football players and the student body come together was so much fun. Two boys from our church are on Varsity so it was neat to see them on the court as they were introduced. One thing I love about living in a small town is the way everyone is brought together...all the schools!

Later in the evening after Ricky got off work we went to the football game. It was packed with lots of fans. Everyone wanted to be part of it all! It was the perfect football weather as it was pretty cold even for Ricky! Sheldon was more interested in playing with his friend, Jacob, than watching the actual game. Kalyn enjoyed watching our friends, Brandon #3 and Tyler #55, play...they did a great job. Halftime was really what Kalyn was looking forward to which was the crowning of the Homecoming queen! :o) We all had a great time together and to top it off we won the game...still undefeated!!

Kalyn's class at the pep rally

Sheldon with his class

Here come the football players

Doing cheers

Competition (Brandon goes to our church)

school song

Sheldon and Jacob

Lets go Eagles!!!

Red Ribbon Week

The theme at school for this week was "Eagles Have Better Things To Do Than Drugs." Kalyn and Sheldon look forward to this week every year because the school has a bunch of fun activities throughout the week which teach and encourage kids to not use drugs. Each day was a dress up day which was extra fun for the kids and perfect with Halloween coming up. The week was concluded with a red ribbon rally at the football field. I hope the kids will always remember the meaning for this week as well as others they have in the past and to come. Just Say NO!!

Monday~"Let your true color shine day"-wear RED

Tuesday~"Be all you can be-join the fight against drugs day"-wear camouflage clothing

Wednesday~"Say peace out to drugs day"-wear psychedelic clothing

Thursday~"Be a jean-ius...give drugs the boot day"-wear jeans and boots

Friday~"Eagles team up against drugs day"-wear your green and gold

Red ribbon rally...Sheldon is close to front

Kalyn is right in the middle

Spook Trail

On Saturday night after the Butler reunion we headed to Rockdale for our first Spook Trail. It is an annual event with our church at a ranch. We haven't been able to go in the past due to schedule conflicts with the kids not being home with us, but this year we finally got to experience it and we all LOVED it! What fun!! Since Ricky was helping with Spook Trail we arrived before dark so the kids just played while we set everything up. Right at dusk we had a short devotional before going on a hayride. It was funny because the owner of the ranch, who is an elder at our church, told us a ghost story about a headless horseman riding around the place...sure enough while we were on the hayride there was someone on a horse riding around!! The kids loved it! When we arrived back to the site where the Spook Trail was set up, each kid got to choose the color for their glow band to indicate the level of "scary" they wanted to experience. Red/pink was for those who didn't want to be scared too much, blue was a little more, and green was "go ahead and scare me out of my pants!" Kalyn and Sheldon were quick to pick red/pink bands...HA! We were one of the first ones to go through the trail and it was so funny because I think I got spooked more than the kids did because I couldn't hear anything to prepare myself for what might happen! I didn't know when someone would grab my leg or when something would fly through the air. Sheldon was scared, but he did ALOT better than I epected he would and at the end he said he enjoyed it. The end of the trail led to an opening where there was a big fire going for us to roast hotdogs and eat supper. We all had a GREAT evening of fun and fellowship! We hope we can go again next year!!

Entrance to Spook Trail

Kalyn and her "boyfriend" Seth

Chatting with the girls

Playing with Sheldon's football

Dawson, Jaydon, Seth, and Mason

Kalyn and her friends ready for the hayride

Katy and sweet Cohen

And here we go with Mr. Jenkins on the tractor

A pose with my sweet kiddos!

Here we go....

Finally made it out of the trail...now let's eat! (Kay helping Kenna while Kevin roasts more hotdogs for the rest of us)

Hungry boy

Mmmm!

Best buds...Sheldon and Mason

Look who decided to join us!

Butler Reunion

Ricky's mom's family got together the following day after we camped out for their reunion. We all met at a pavilion in the same park at Granger Lake and it was the perfect place despite the WINDY weather. There was lots of space for the kids to run around, ride bikes, etc. They all had fun playing with their cousins while the adults enjoyed visiting and catching up. Papa Butler was really happy to have almost everyone in his family there with him...it was great!!

Another Campout!!

Since Kalyn and Sheldon were not able to go with us to Junction with us last weekend, we promised them that we would take them camping at Granger Lake the following Friday night. Ricky's mom's side of the family was supposed to have their annual reunion there the following day anyway so it worked out perfectly. As soon as Kalyn and Sheldon got home from school on Friday, we loaded up the "hillbilly hotel" and headed out to the lake. We met up with Ricky's cousin, Dale, and his wife, Erin along with their two boys, Andrew and Joseph. The kids immediately hit it off and had a blast riding bikes together . The adults got everything set up at our separate campsites then Ricky cooked hamburgers for us. It was quite a challenge trying to eat our food because it was w-i-n-d-y!!! Not too long after we ate it started to get dark so we invited Dale and Erin to come over with their boys to carve pumpkins. Both Kalyn and Sheldon got into it more this year and needed just a little help from us. They were so proud! Erin and I brought stuff for the kids to make smores so as soon as Ricky was able to get a fire going the kids were able to roast their marshmallows. The kids wanted to play a little longer before bed so the adults visited for awhile which was really nice. We all went to bed and before long it was morning. The kids were back on their bikes while Ricky and I cooked breakfast and packed up everything before heading out to meet the family for lunch. Even though this trip was a short one, it was a lot of fun and will be one to remember. Lets do it again soon, Dale, Erin, Andrew and Joseph!!

Sheldon, Kalyn, Andrew and Joseph-ready to carve pumpkins

Erin and Chera cutting the top off

Sheldon and Kalyn getting all the seeds and guts out

1st cousins, Ricky and Dale, catching up

The gang

Trying to decide what face to do this year...

Here we go...

The finished jack-o-latern

Silly faces

in the dark...

roasting marshmallows

I think Sheldon likes smores!

So does Joseph...sweet boy!

TTFHA Fall Rendezvous

Ricky and I hooked the "hillybilly hotel" to the truck and headed to Junction last Thursday morning for the trapping convention over the weekend. We made several stops along the way taking our time since we didn't need to be there until later in the evening.

I had a few errands to run while in Georgetown then we stopped in Bertram to see Uncle David's new store. He has some amazing woodcraft items that he carved by hand. My parents met us at the Burger Bar for lunch when we got into Llano. It was so good to see them as it had been awhile...thanks for the nice visit! Ricky and I finally got to Junction late afternoon and before long we found the state park a few miles out of town where we would be camping on the South Llano River. We loved this place! It was very nice and well kept. Turkey and deer were roaming all through the park which was a welcome sight for us. We felt right at home.

The "hillybilly hotel"

Once we finished getting the "hotel" set up and the bed made, we took a short walk hoping to see the river, but found that the area had been closed for turkey roosting season. WHAT?! A large part of the park was closed just for this...interesting. So we decided to just head back into town to get a few necessities, rent a couple movies to watch, and eat some supper before we headed to the convention center to help set things up for the weekend. Where to eat for supper was a no brainer with Cooper's BBQ being one of our choices. Ricky and I shared a huge pork chop with all the sides to go with it...YUMMY!! Well worth every penny. We still think the Cooper's in Llano is the best, hands down. Afterwards we met up with our friend and fellow trapper Dan at the convention center and helped unload the trailer with furs and stuff for the convention. After we got everything sorted and set up in different booths, Ricky and I set up our table with his woodcraft items to try to sell over the weekend. It was getting pretty late and we wanted to watch one movie before bed so we headed back to our "hotel" for the night. Avatar was the entertainment for the night and we are still not sure if we liked it or not. Ricky slept through most of it so I guess it's really me who's not sure if it was a good movie or not! Just different.

Friday morning came quickly and we were up and ready to get to the cafe for a good breakfast before a long day. Most of the morning was spent visting with friends who we hadn't seen since last year and helping them set up their tables. My cousin from Llano was there which was a nice surprise! We really enjoyed visiting with Tom over the weekend. People started to come in after lunch and the rendezvous was well under way. Ricky got a famous trapper, Mark June, to come all the way from Nebraska to do a couple demos and he was awesome! His demos had so much personality and he was very entertaining to watch. I loved how he would get the little boys involved in his demos by acting like coyotes. It was funny! Later in the afternoon we ventured out to a ranch close to town to watch on-line trapping with three other well known trappers. It is always interesting to see how different their techniques are and see what is actually in their traps the next morning. By the time we got back to the convention center it was time for supper then back to the "hotel" Ricky and I went. We were exhausted and ready to call it a night.

Cousin Tom and Ricky trading trapping stories I bet

The hubby and me

Mark June's booth...he said he sold ALOT more in Texas than anywhere else!!

Mark's first demo

Setting a trap for coyotes

Saturday morning we missed the alarm so we weren't able to go with the trappers to see what got into their traps during the night. We did find out that there were two foxes, a nutria, a few coons, and a possum. Nothing I haven't seen before. I always enjoy seeing bobcats so I was glad I didn't miss out on anything! Soon after we arrived to the convention center Ricky and a couple other guys did their own demos. Ricky talked about trapping coyotes and he did a great job. I enjoy seeing him in the teaching role especially with young boys because he can relate with them so well. Mark June did another demo soon after Ricky was done and was even funnier than yesterday. That guy is a GREAT presenter! You can really see how much he enjoys his job. The ladies did some crafting then there was the annual skillet toss (I got 1st place) which is always fun. Speed trap setting was next then soon it was time for lunch which was FISH!!! We were all hungry and ready to relax a little bit. The auction was right after lunch and it was fun to see how high some items went. My sweet husband has such a soft spot for kids and there were two teenage boys who came with my cousin, Tom. They really wanted a set of traps but obviously couldn't afford to keep bidding in order to win them so Ricky got the highest bid and gave them the traps. I wish I took a picture of their reaction...priceless! I was reminded again why I love that man! After the auction it was time to clean up and the rendezvous soon came to a close. We said our goodbyes and headed to eat somewhere on the way back to our "hotel." Knowing how much I love Mexican food we decided to try a restaurant called La Familia which was recommended by a lady in the cafe the other day. I have only one word for that place...YUK! It was not good at all and we were actually worried we would be sick that night, but thank goodness we weren't. Never going back there again. We rented one more movie since one of the other movies we rented the other night didn't have closed captioning on it. We got the 8th movie in the "Love Comes Softly" series and absolutely loved it! It was the perfect way to end our night.

Ricky's demo

Mark June's 2nd demo

Skillet Toss

Speed set trapping

Knowing we wanted to be home fairly early on Sunday we hooked up the "hotel" to the truck and headed out of the park around 8am. We really enjoyed our weekend away from home just being with friends and having some alone time together. The Spring convention will be in Ft. Stockton in April and we are already looking forward to it. Doubt we will be hooking up the "hillybilly hotel" for that trip though as it will be a much longer drive!! Thank you God for blessing me with such a wonderful husband who I still enjoy spending time with doing something he loves.