Chiefs vs. Vikings Game

A few months back one of my team members mentioned that his mom had four tickets to the Chiefs vs. Vikings game in October.  Knowing that my step mom, Susan, is a huge Vikings fan I thought I'd check with my dad to see if they'd be interested in coming down for the weekend and catching the game.  To no surprise, they were 'game'!.

Not only were our seats great - the weather was, too!

And to boost the day's excellence: the Chiefs, who were having a particularly crappy season! - beat the Vikings!  Up to this point the Vikings were undefeated so this was especially exciting!

As always, it was great having Dad & Susan down for a visit!

Homecoming: Senior Year

The football team did their part in making this years Homecoming a great one - with a win against Truman with a score of 42-3!

Hunter and his girlfriend, Ashley, joined several other couples for dinner at one of the kids' family's house.  Later they went on to the dance where Hunter surely made white people everywhere proud of his dancing skills ...

Dayne and Lina Photoshoot

This mosaic is made of all the pictures I took the day of the photo shoot.

This past summer Dayne had the heart-wrenching experience of having to say goodbye to her best friend, Lina, as she packed up and moved to Philadelphia, PA.

Fortunately, Lina has family here in Lee's Summit so they have plenty reason to visit.  In early October they had reason to come back for a visit and a soccer game!  Lina's dad used to play for the KC Wizards and is now a talent scout for the Philadelphia Union.  The Union was playing Kansas City Sporting (formerly the KC Wizards) so it was a great opportunity for the girls to get together and enjoy each others company and soccer!

I took an afternoon off and let Dayne miss school one day so she could spend some time with Lina.  We really enjoyed the Lee's Summit area photo shoot!  Below are some of the day's results!

Taylor Swift Concert Fun

Around February the announcement was made that Taylor Swift would be coming to Arrowhead Stadium in September!  Immediately I thought to invite Trista and her girls to KC for the weekend for some concert fun!

The stadium starts to fill up

Kylie's first concert!

Two of the coolest moms around

As soon as the sun fell, so did the temps!  It was pretty chilly but it didn't stop us from having a blast!

I thought Taylor did a great job!  It was almost like a  play where she told a story behind each song and one transitioned right into the next!

Taylor takes the stage!

"Mean"

"Back to December" ... she made it "snow" by dropping confetti from the top of her stage, cast a blue light on the confetti and the wind carried it all around the arena. Well done!!

The girls were ready to get back to warmth!

It was so wonderful having a good friend and her daughters join me for a wonderful time!

Labor Day - 2011

This represents how glorious time at Grand Lake is!

This year, as with many summer weekends and holidays, we were lucky enough to be invited back to the Reustman lake home in Grove, OK.  ... and a bonus was that Gretchen & the kids were able to join us! (Donna hadn't been feeling well and didn't think an 8 hour road trip was a good idea so she didn't join us: ( ).

We arrived in Grove late Saturday morning and got right to some R&R!  The weather was beautiful, the company was great, the food was great, the water was warm ... it could have only been better if our Nana had been able to join us!

Dayne and Zoe (who is 100% fearless!) tubin'!

Kylie patiently awaits her turn on the tube.  She and Dayne did a face dive into the water and it really scared Kylie (understandably!)

One of the many delicious meals we had, courtesy of Chef Dick, was smoked beer can chicken.  To an outsider, it may not be that funny ... but, as is the case with many things, we can make fun out of some really odd things!

Each of the three chickens were each posed in a way that said, 'Hey, how *you* doin'?'

Dayne and Kylie in the hot tub. The temp dropped 30 degrees in 24 hrs ... so the hot tub felt good!

Graden with his sister, Gretchen

Graden & Dick preparing the 5 racks of ribs for our feast!

It was a great holiday weekend filled with good fun, good people and new memories for all!

Kenny Chesney Concert: Good times, Good Music, Great friends!

In late March it was announced that Kenny Chesney - along with Uncle Kracker, Billy Currington and The Zack Brown Band - would be coming to Arrowhead Stadium for a concert.  The first concert at Arrowhead since 1976 or something crazy!

Graden thought it'd be a great birthday gift - and I couldn't have agreed more!  So, we picked up the phone and called our friends the Benhams and Hermsens to see if they'd like to join us!  We were so thrilled when they said they'd be here!

The Tailgate Camp

The day of the concert we went tailgating - my first tailgating experience ever!  We had a blast!  We got there a little after 10am and set up our "camp" of food, game set of "bags" and of course, beverages!  In addition to The Benhams and Hermsens joining us, we bought tickets for Hunter and his friend Zach.  We knew we'd be doing some drinking, so we wanted to be responsible and make sure we all got home safely!

Graden and Trista reigned as champs in 'Bags'

Trista, Bryan, Graden, Adam & Renee

Oooh!  Look who we ran into!

The crew as we head into the stadium to our seats.  We had awesome seats!  And the concession stations & restrooms were indoors with air condition if we needed to cool off!

Happy 12th Birthday, Dayney Wayney!

What do 12 year olds wish for, anyway?  I can't remember!

This year for Dayne's birthday she had a posse of friends over for a sleep over and time at the water park in Independance!

The next morning, they weren't quite swimmed out so we headed to our neighborhood pool for some more sunshine funshine!  The girls played chicken, Sharks & Minnows and did group jump shots!

Oh, and made "George Washington" hair styles! (They recreated this event from Dayne's 8th birthday party that some of them attended, too!)

Danye and her cousin, Zoe.