Time to get muddy!

Well, I have a new toy...a big kid's toy! I think it is the biggest purchase I have ever made apart from my house and car! Since a house and car are a must this day in age, this is the first TOY I have ever spent a lot on! It is a White, Honda Foretrax 4-Wheeler with powersteering! The powersteering part is very important...that means I can turn quickly enough that I don't run into trees....this has come close to happening before on other non-powersteering 4-wheelers that I have driven!!! Now that I have it, I have the itch to go riding. Hopefully within the next couple of weekends I will convince my friends and we will go!!

Are You Ready For Some Football?!!

Jeremy took me to my first ever Dallas Cowboys game this weekend. This is the last year they will be playing at Texas Stadium, so we wanted to be sure to see a game while they were there. We got to the stadium and parked in timbucktu for $30! We had fun tailgaiting with all of the other crazy Cowboys fans. We then walked up to the stadium about 1 mile away and saw the rest of the crazy fans! Our seats were row 11, but when we got to them there were only 4 rows in front of us, so we were really only 5 rows from the endzone! They were great seats. We had a great time watching the game and saw lots of great plays. It was pretty cool to see the touchdowns and only be a few yards away! The players look so much bigger in person than they do on TV! The stadium was packed! It holds around 80,000, and I think that there were 80,000 there! It is so loud and was a very fun place to watch a game. The Cowboys beat the Bengals 39-22!

Batter Up

Hayllee is playing softball again this fall and the team is doing much better. They are hitting and fielding good and wining games! Hayllee has played several positions and has helped make several outs in each game. I have taken the duty of book/stat keeper and Jeremy is coach and runs the pitching mashine when Pink Crush is up to bat

The City of Roses

It had been 3 years, but I finally made it to Portland and Jeremy was able to go with. While we were there, Portland decided to put her best foot forward and roll out the red carpet for Jeremy. The weather was absolutley beautiful with clear blue skies and 90 degrees! We couldn't have asked for a better weekend.
We arrived to Portland at 1130 AM. Dad, Grandma, and Joy picked us up from the airport and we went to The Original Taco House to eat some lunch. It's funny how that seemed like the best Mexican food ever to me at one time. After living in Texas I realized we definatley spice up our Mexican food here! After lunch we went through the Oregon Gorge to Multnomah Falls. Dad and Joy rolled Grandma up to the view point and Jeremy and I hiked to the bridge of the falls. After a quick stop at the falls, we began our drive to Dad's house. We made a quick stop on the way to stop and say hi to mom. I'm not quite sure what Jeremy thought of going to the cemetary and taking pictures at mom's grave site, but he was a good sport since he knew it was important to me. Next, we made it to Dad's house and I showed him around where I used to live!
Jeremy and I then left to go to the Benson Hotel for Nicole McCord's wedding in which I was a reader. The wedding was a lot of fun and it was great to see Nicole and her Maid of Honor, Kelly Shunk; both of whom I grew up playing tennis with. Jeremy and I had a wonderful time at the wedding as well as the reception.

Sunday morning we got up and since we were already downtown, I figured it would be a perfect time to give him a tour of the city. We drove all through Portland and Jeremy even got to see Rose Garden Arena where the Portland Trail Blazers play. I then continued my job as city guide and we drove up to the Rose Gardens and to the Pittock Mansion for Jeremy to see more pretty views of the city. From there, it was on to visit with Sandy, Will, Kaitlyn (my God daugthter), and Emily. It was so nice to have Jeremy finally meet them. Although Sandy and I talk almost every week, it was nice to be able to talk and have her right there next to me!

You would think after all of that, our day would be over, but we still had more to do and see. Jeremy got more of a tour of the houses/schools I lived, attended, and worked. Then we decided to see if we could see Roloff Farms where Little People Big World is filmed. The family's farm is only 5 miles from my dad's house. When we got there, the tours had just ended, but that was ok with us since we were able to see almost the entire family and took pictures. We also were able to see and take pictures of the house, all of Matt's cars, the zip line, and barn. It was fun for both of us to see since we watch the show all the time!

We ended the evening with dinner at Red Robin with Chris and Shelly Hartenstein and both of their girls. It was then back to the house to visit a little with Dad, Grandma, and Joy.

Monday was a little more calmer of a day. We got up and then eventually made our way over to Tualatin Hills where Jeremy was able to see where I grew up playing tennis and meet my coach. We then made our way around the area by my house and oddly enough ended up buying snow skiis since they were on sale and we can't get them in Texas! After an afternoon of running around, we went back to the house so we could go out to dinner with Dad, Joy, and Grandma to Newport Bay on the water at the waterfront. Once again it was a gorgeous night and we were able to eat out on the dock. The next morning it was time to head home to Texas, but we had a funfilled weekend!

Plano Balloon Festival

The city of Plano held their annual balloon festival this past weekend. Our friends Kristie and Brian invited us to join them for the festivites. Getting there was not the easiest. After sitting for 45 minutes to get through 1 signal we finally decided to park at Sams Club and walk a mile and half to the festival. When we got there, we discovered we were not the only people who had the same idea. It was packed. Since we were all hungry, we grabbed some food, which took another 45 minutes of standing in line. At least we had the counting down and lighting of the balloons to entertain us. Once we finally were able to get food and eat, we saw a spectacular firework show; possibly better than the 4th of July. We then enjoyed the rest of the activites at the festival. Hayllle and Allyssa (Brian and Kristie's 3 year old) had fun playing in jump houses and playing games. After an enjoyable evening we had a nice walk back to the car. It was great to be able to spend time with Kristie and Brian again. For those of you who are wondering, Kristie is finally starting to do better. She has a long way to go, but she is slowly gaining strenght, weight, and starting to live life again.

Making History

The Boyd Bronco Tennis team made history at McKinney Boyd. With a win of 12-7 over Plano East Senior High, we recorded the first win of any team in 5A district play! One of the exciting aspects of being a coach at a new school is that there are many chance to make history and have many firsts!

Mustang Hayllee

Hayllee seems to have made a huge impression on her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Zaccarella. She came home this past Monday with the announcement that she was selected as Mustang of the Month for the 2nd grade. On Tuesday night she was presented her award at the PTA meeting and got her picture with her teacher and the principal. We are all so proud of her. I could not be at the ceremony because we had a district tennis match. Hayllee was disappointed and wanted to know why I couldn't just get a sub. Unfortunately it doesn't work like that for coaches! I made Jeremy take my camera though, and he took lots of pictures so that I could see her on her big night!