Orange Belt!

Hayllee took her test to move up from her gold to her orange belt. She had to do patterns and certain kicks/routines in order to get to the next level! She did a great job and we are very proud of how well she is doing in Karate!

Memorial Day Ride

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took the camper and went to Jacksonville, Texas for a ride at Mud Creek ATV Park. The first day was just not our day! We started off the trip having to go to a funeral for one of Jeremy's uncles. When we finally go back on the road, it was rush hour on a holiday weekend...which meant no movement on the highway! After finally making it through the city and stopping for food and gas, we thought we were home free. Wrong!!! about 45 minutes down the road someone pointed out to us that the back tire of the camper was smoking. We stopped to take a look to find that the previous owners had installed the wrong size tire and it was too big. We thought to stop and put air in the back tire to help even it out, but couldn't find any working air machines! Once we finally did, we realized that not only was the tire the wrong size, but the metal was showing and it was about to blow. We drove slowly to the Walmart in Athens where they were able to put on 2 new tires in about an hour! Once again, we thought we were home free. Wrong again! We got a few miles down the highway and the gas light came on. We were out in the middle of nowhere, and no gas stations to be found. You guessed it. We ran out of gas! Luckily we had gallons in the back of the truck for the 4-wheelers and were able to fill up on the side of the road. Finally, it was on to Mud Creek. We made it, set up camp, and went out for a night ride. Thinking that we were passed all of our bad luck, we were ready to have some fun riding! Not 30 minutes into our first ride, someone got stuck in some thick mud. Jeremy went to help pull them out. He looked back and saw nothing behind him but some think brush, and put is 4 wheeler into reverse. Along with the thick brush was an 8 foot cliff that Jeremy back off of into 4 feet of water! After floating his 4 wheeler a 1/4 mile downstream to tow out, we finally decided to call it a night. Jeremy was safe. The 4 wheeler started (It's a Honda!), and only needed an oil change! The rest of the weekend was much better!

Take Me Out to the Ranger Game!

The 3 of us at the ball game. I am not exactly sure of the face Hayllee is making!!

Jordan and Hayllee with their #1 fingers!

A little bit of rain will not keep us away from a Texas Rangers baseball game. On Saturday we went with Jermey's siter and niece, Jordan, and his friend David and his family to the ballpark to watch the Rangers take on the LA Angels. The game was delayed an hour and our seats were a little wet with raindrops, but we were still ready to watch some baseball! The kids each got their #1 fingers and of course peanuts, nachos, cotton candy, and all of the other baseball grub and we bunkered down in our seats. We were in the front row out in Left Field, so of course Hayllee had her glove, well, Jeremy's glove, there ready to catch any home runs that might come our way! I was happy because I had a pretty good view of Josh Hamilton, my ball player (if you haven't read his book, I highly recommend it!!)! It proved to be an exciting game in the first innning when the LA pitcher was thrown out of the game for intentially hitting our lead off batter! The weather remained warm and overcast, but no more rain for the entire game! After the Rangers win, we went across the parking lot to the Texas Ranger Concert Series and watched Robert Earl Keen perform live! It had gotten chilly by then, but we had our blankets to bundle up in and after Hayllee took a 20 minute power nap, she was up and ready to country dance!

Karate Kid

Hayllee went to her first Karate tournament on
Saturday with Sidekicks Karate School. The
tournament was held at a local middle school. There were a ton of kids there. After watching the instructors and black belt club do their stunts, it was time for Hay to perform. She went to the floor with the rest of the 7 and 8 year olds. She competed against the other yellow and gold belts. The first thing she did was her pattern. She did such a good job that she was tied for 3rd place and she had to do it again for a "pattern" off with another boy that was competing. She ended up with 4th place. After the patterns it was time to gear up for sparring. After getting all of her protective gear on and waiting patiently it was finally her turn. With her braided ponytail sticking out the hole in the back and her pink t-shirt that she had to wear under her uniform, she was ready to go! She had to go against the same boy that she competed against for 3rd/4th in patterns. I don't think that the boy or his dad were prepared for a little girl with a ponytail coming out of her helmet to have such high and strong kicks! She was not intimidated at all! She did a great job at keeping him at a distance with her kicks. The dual was extrememly close but when time was up the other boy beat her by just a couple points. She got 4th place out of about 8 kids in the sparring as well. In the end she brought home two trophies!

Surprise! Happy Birthday Chris!

Jeremy's cousin Chris had a birthday party in San Antonio. He had been planning it for some time and had mentioned it to Jeremy, but we never said much back. However, we knew that we were going to surprise him! It was a surprise! The look on his face when he saw Jeremy was priceless and made the quick trip to San Antonio worth every minute! The party was a blast. It was a beautiful night, so we stayed out on the patio until it was time for the band to play. It was fun to mingle with the diverse groups of people at the party from Chris's wife's friends at the beauty shop, to his fellow fire fighters, his body building friends, and his family. Somehow we all managed to come together and had a blast the entire night!

Keeping with Traditon and Making History

In April we were flown by the school district to Lubbock, Texas for the regional tennis tournament. Yes, you read it right, we FLEW!!! I was excited about this, seeing that all of my year of high school and college tennis I was trapped inside a 15 passanger van or bus! It was nice hop on a plane and then be at our destination an hour later!!

Prior to leaving for Lubbock, we continued our "Kiss the Bronco" tradition at Boyd for sending players to the playoffs. My 4 players and both of us coaches gathered with other athletic teams and the principal for our farewell sendoff.

After checking into our hotel, The Embassy Suites (our district pulled out all the red carpets this year!!!), I went off to the seeding meeeting. Unfortunately my boys singles player drew the #2 seed and eventual tournamet champion. My mixed doubles team drew the #1 seed and eventual tournament champion. My girls singles player was a bit luckier. She was the #2 seed. She flew through her first match. The 2nd match (quater finals) proved to be a bit tougher than expected. After dropping the first set, down 4-1 in the 2nd, a few tears, and an ugly lob fest, she did what she had to do and won the match which led her to the semis which she won. The finals proved to be a re-match of the district finals and Mackenna was victorious again. This time, she made school history as the first Bronco Regional Champion and we are headed to State in Austin, Texas.

We had time to kill after the finals, so the most exciting tourist attraction in Lubbock is the Buddy Holly muesum. It was interesting to the kids for the first 5 minutes and interesting to me for the first 10 minutes. After 45 minutes we were dragging Coach D out the door!

Hayllee on Neiman's Website

About a month ago, Hayllee went in for a photo shoot for Neiman Marcus's website. She took several different poses and they used one! She get's paid a little, which Jeremy puts into her savings account, but unfortunately she doesn't get to keep the clothes. I am not sure who actually buys their kid $99 jeans!!! She has another photo shoot on Monday. We are all so proud of her!
http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?itemId=prod87180041&parentId=cat19160757&masterId=cat10050732&index=1&cmCat=cat000000cat5160748cat10000733cat10050732cat19160757