Cross Country Season

Caitie ran cross country this year and she did so great! She didn't attend any practices since they were during her gymnastics practices. However, she placed in the top 10 for every meet. There were over 150 girls participating in her age group, so it was really an accomplishment! 

4th place after the first meet

10th place for the last meet!

Way to go Caitie! I am so proud of you!

Nashville Catholic Football

Peyton worked so hard in football this year. He was voted team Captain by both his teammates and his coaches! Way to go Peyton. I am so proud of you!

Peyton out on the field as one of the captains.

Triple overtime win with a gorgeous sunset in the background. Such an exciting game!

We had a gorgeous night for the last game. The boys beat BGA 6-0. 

Peyton has spent every single weeknight on the field since early July in the brutal heat! He said on the way home that he was so upset that football was ending. I was surprised, but so excited for him that he has found something he loves so much! 

2024 School Pictures

These sweet children took their school pictures. I can't believe how much they have changed in a year! And how in the world do I have an 8th grader? Time is flying by!

Patrick- 8th Grade

Peyton- 6th Grade

Conor- 3rd Grade

Caitie- 1st Grade

Disneyland- Fall Partner Experience (Part 2)

After sleeping in a little bit, we headed to Disneyland on Saturday. We met up with friends and rode Matterhorn, Buzz Lightyear, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Rise of the Resistance and Millenium Falcon. 

We stopped for a mid-day break at Oga's Cantina. The kids had fun trying the crazy mocktails. 

These two took a bunch of photos on my phone while hanging out.

It got very crowded mid-day so we left to eat lunch in Downtown Disney at Ballast Point Brewing Company. Then we headed back to Disneyland hotel for the boys to watch the UT game and the girls to take a nap and swim. That night we had a PWC event at California Adventure. They rented out a section of the park and they had characters and live performances. We also had exclusive access to the Monster's Inc ride. I think Caitie rode the ride 20 times! 

The girls also had fun meeting all of the characters at the event. 

The party ended at 10pm, which is when the park closed. However, PWC arranged for the whole group to ride Spiderman Webslingers and Radiator Springs Racers as a group after the park closed. It was pretty cool walking through the park without any other visitors. The theming at California Advneture is so fun! The park is light up in Halloween colors and spooky music is playing.

Disneyland park was open until midnight, so we hopped over there to take a picture in front of the castle at night. 

The next day we slept in and had breakfast with the PWC group. Then we headed to Disneyland to ride a few more rides before departing.

We rode a few rides and then had lunch at the resort at the Tangaroe Terrace. It was delicious! We then departed on the bus back to LAX. There was a lot of traffic so it took us a full hour to get from Disneyland to LAX. We arrived at the airport around 4pm and found out that our 6pm flight was delayed until 9:45pm. We had a very long time in the airport. We landed at BNA around 3:30am and made it home around 4:30am. It was a very long night! I let the kids sleep in the next morning and took them to school around 11am. It was a fun weekend, but we were all tired! 

PWC did a really great job hosting this event. There were a lot of people and everything really ran seamlessly. It was really great to have all of our meals included and fun events at night!

Disneyland- Fall Partner Experience (Part 1)

We decided to do the family Fall Partner Experience this year instead of the couples experience. We thought this might be our last chance with Patrick since it is too hard to pull out of high school. We selected our four choices and ended up with our fourth choice. We had specifically selected the weekend after September 15th for Michael's work schedule and the kids had a day off of school. However, we were given the weekend before September 15th. It made it a little more hectic but we made it work. 

We jumped on a plane early Thursday morning and made it to Disneyland around lunch time. We headed straight for the PWC lunch in the ballroom. Conor was very excited that it was a mexican themed lunch. Michael headed to meetings in the afternoon while the kids and I spent time at the pool. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for swimming!

We stopped by the PWC hospitality room before checking into our room. It is the kids very favorite since it is stocked with all kinds of delicious snacks and games. They always think it is very exciting that everything is free and they can select anything they want. 

We checked into the Disneyland hotel. The kids loved that the backboard lit up and played music. 

We didn't have the best view this time, but the kids still liked peeking around the corner at the parks. 

Then it was time for the PWC garden party. The kids were so excited. They remembered the party a couple of years ago that PWC hosted and knew it would be a lot of fun. It was a backyard theme with hamburgers, hot dogs, steak and some other fun treats. They had a live performance, corn hole, a gaming area and a silent headphone area. We spent a long time in the silent headphone area. When we asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was, both Caitie and Conor named the silent headphones. We all had a blast. 

Caitie was so excited to meet a bunch of characters. 

We closed down the garden party after a fun night and headed to bed!

The next morning, the kids and I headed to California Adventure. Michael had work meetings all day so he was not able to join us. It was fun to see all of the Halloween theming and hear all the spooky music. Disney always does so well with the theming. 

By the time we arrived at California Adventure, Radiator Springs Racers was already a really long wait.  We decided to save the ride for night time and we rode Mater's Graveyard Jamboree and walked around Carsland for a little while. 

The boys weren't thrilled that we jumped in line to take photos with the cars sign, but we had photos at the exact same spot from the last two visits and I couldn't resist. 

Christmas visit 2019

Christmas visit 2021

Halloween 2024

Look how much they have grown!

Next we headed to Pixar Place. We rode Toy Story Midway Mania and the boys rode the Incredicoaster while Caitie and I did Jessie's Carousel. We also rode the Inside Out Emotion Whirlwind. We had just watched Inside Out 2, so Caitie was excited to ride it. 

We were really excited to meet Anger this year! I think this photo of the kids is so funny!

We met up with friends and rode Monster's Inc., Soarin' and then played in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail for a long time. The kids really loved playing hide and go seek and swinging on the tire zip line. 

We went to Luigi's Roadsters, ate at Flo's V8 for lunch and then had some treats in the afternoon. Patrick chose the speciality mint chocolate chip ice cream dessert from Clarabelle's Hand Scooped Ice Cream. 

It was getting really busy in the park, so we jumped over to Disneyland and rode Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railway. Michael was able to meet us mid-afternoon for the two rides at Disneyland. It was really hot and crowded mid-day, so we headed back to the hotel to have a rest and a swim for the afternoon. Then headed back to California adventure for our dinner reservations and to ride a few more rides at night. 

Michael and the two big boys rode the spooky themed Guardians of the Galaxy ride. We also rode Radiator Springs Racers and its always one of my favorites!

It was a really fun night! 

We walked over 10 miles and had an absolute blast!