A music-filled Weekend

Friday night Justin and I went out to eat at a nice Italian restaurant then heading into the big city to the Uptown Theater to see Jewel.  She is touring with her dad and brothers.  They opened for her and also joined her later for a song.  She sang some holiday songs, played with her band, then did some acoustic stuff from my high school days.

If you've seen the movie Sing, the theater looked a lot like that one.  Very pretty with lots of details.

 Waiting for the show to start!  I enjoyed watching people take selfies, as it always makes me chuckle!

 Then Saturday night we picked up Papa Murphy's pizza and went over to the Cotovsky's for pizza night.  Then we all headed to the Lewis and Clark Center on post to listen to the 312th Army band's Christmas concert.  The music was good (not professionals for sure) but since the admission was free it was all good!!  We sit really close, because why not, and enjoyed ourselves.

They played several selections of Christmas/Holiday music.  And also played Fanfare for the Common Man, Star Wars, You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch, and the requisite Armed Forces on Parade.

A tree lighting and bike throwing

The first Friday in December we went to the tree lighting on post.  This year we stood in line for the horse drawn carriage ride.  Everyone sees many people they know, so we chat and catch up while the kids run and play.   All the trees in the park light up so it's really pretty.  We we leaving so turned around and saw it light up as we were leaving.

 We then ate a quick dinner at Subway before heading to the local bike shop.  Their annual Christmas party/chili cook off was the same night as the tree lighting festivities.  The highlights of the bike shop party was the flaming car jump (pictured below) and the Huffy toss.
What you can't see in the picture below is the toy dump truck that's on fire!

 Then it was time to toss an old Huffy bike.  There was an adult size bike and then a kid-size, barbie huffy for the 13 and unders to throw.  Anyone that wanted a chance to throw the bike could.  The winners got a prize (bike socks!!).  Below is the measurement taking of Will's throw.  It was an age group winning toss of 14'10"!!  (see Justin and Eric standing in the background?)

 And next was Caroline's turn to, "TOSS THAT HUFFY!"

 She also had an excellent toss, coming up one inch short of Will's throw!

I didn't get a picture of Eric or Justin taking their turn, but Eric also won his age group!!  It was fun to watch the parts come flying off the tossed bikes, handle bars get broken, and the crazy bounces it would take.
It was a fun evening and definitely got us in the Christmas spirit!

Pieces and Parts

So Lili has really enjoyed having the Christmas tree up.  Caroline was super excited to get the decorations out the day after Thanksgiving.  But the tree sat without ornaments for over a week!  The cat enjoyed it.  More than once we caught her climbing in the tree.  The kids thought (and still think) it was hilarious.

Do you see the orange blob in the middle?

 A few sprays with the water bottle and she now mostly stays out of it and just sleeps under it.

 So when this kid looks up at me and says, "take my picture and send it to Grandaddy!"  You do it!!

 Sometimes at the end of the day a snuggle under the tree with a fuzzy cat is all you need!

 The sunrises have been spectacular lately.

Thanksgiving

We got up relatively early on Thanksgiving morning to drive into downtown KC so the boys could run a 5k turkey trot.  We took Miles with us as he really enjoys a race area.  There are always many that want to pet him and he never gets enough attention so it's a win win!  

Eric requested to run a 5k again for Thanksgiving so Justin gladly signed the boys up!  It was a beautiful morning, a little chilly, but was perfect.  It was a much bigger crowd than I anticipated and there were lots of kids running.  

There were so many people that we missed them come by at the start!

 Caroline and I decided to walk around the block while they were out running so we could look at the pretty houses.  I loved the details of the house below!

 The race was called the Pilgrim run and the start was right near this old chapel.  Caroline and I also walked in there to check it out.  Very pretty with lots of wood work.

 Then we went back close tot the finish line to wait for the boys.  Miles sat down right beside her without being prompted.

 And there comes Eric!!

 See him up on his toes?  He apparently decided that he could run faster like that but paid a price the next couple of days with super sore calfs!

 And then came Justin and Will.

 The football conditioning really helped Will be able to run almost the entire 5k for the first time!!  So proud of that kid!

 Then it was home for the boys to shower and change so we could go down the street to the Cotovsky's house.  We spent the rest of the day there,eating, talking, eating, playing, eating, watching football, and even more eating, then had a movie night and watched Inside Out. It was a fantastic day with fantastic friends!!

Eric was a little disappointed that he didn't place in the 5k.  He actually was in 23rd place if you can believe it.  There were LOTS of kids running, and maybe next year he will train for it.