Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone! We love to dress up for Halloween. Sadly, this year is the first time we did not do a family theme. So sad. But everyone enjoyed their costumes. 

Rebekah wanted to be Elsa from Frozen. Her friend, Bridgette, dressed up as Anna. There were a TON of Elsas and Annas running around. Emma wanted to be a pirate. We based it off of some pictures of Elizabeth Swann from Pirates of the Caribbean. I found all the items at the thrift store and altered them. Her friend, Olivia, is dressed as a demi-god at camp half-blood from the Percy Jackson series. Rebekah also went to school as Pippi Longstocking. Though I don't have a picture, Clay put on all his St. Louis Cardinals gear and dressed as their manager.

I decided this was the year to pay tribute to my grandmother, Loretta Thorpe Chase, who was an actual riveter during WWII. I only found out about this a few years ago. She would put the kids to bed and work the night shift. She worked at Douglas Aircraft and did riveting on the SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber. There's a video below about these planes.

Lego Club

Rebekah loves going to Lego club after school, even though she is the only girl in the club. She has fun creating things. She always has a great story to go along with her creations.

Accessories make the outfit

We had our parent-teacher conference for Rebekah today. We got to see some of her school work. On display in the hall were all the jack-o-lanterns the kids made along with their instructions on how to carve a pumpkin. I got a kick out of Rebekah's pumpkin.

School Dance

They had a fall dance at school for Rebekah. We made it a daddy-daughter dance so that I could work on my homework. Rebekah had a fun time with her friends.

What does the fox say??

Orbital Picnic

Time again for the Orbital Employee picnic. We had fun hanging out with the Williams girls. The girls all loved getting their faces painted. 

First day of School

Ready to start another school year. 

Rebekah is starting 2nd grade with Mrs. Ellison, who Emma had.

Emma is starting 7th grade. She is taking 2 high school level classes this year: German and Algebra.

Swim Team

We had a great season on swim team this year. Emma swam with the 11&12's and Rebekah swam with the 7&8's. Here's some photos of Rebekah in action: She got new goggles about halfway through the season. Rebekah decided she really like Breaststroke.

Here's our Emma. Her favorite stroke is butterfly. At the awards night she got the "Dead Bug Fear Award". Apparently there were a few morning where there were a lot of dead bugs in the pool. She would not get in for practice because of all the dead bugs. We didn't find out about that til that night. She was still a big help to the team. She volunteered as a Junior Coach helping the 6 & Under kids during practice.
 
 
 
 

 Here is how Clay & I spend most of the swim meets. All the families need to volunteer so many hours to help run all the swim meets. Now that both the girls are swimming, Clay & I can volunteer together. Our favorite job is timer. We have our backs to each other in this picture because we are timing for different lanes. I'm the one in the big hat. I always wear it at the pool.
 

Light as a feather

We went to the county fair to see the demolition derby. I must have forgotten to take pictures. While we were there Rebekah wanted to go into the bird house. She really enjoyed being with the birds.

Surprise visit

We got a phone call from Clay's 2nd cousin, Steph, saying she was in town for just a couple days. So right after church we drove out to DC to pick them up and take them to the Iwo Jima memorial. We had a great time catching up.

 While we were chatting Rebekah was taking selfies:

 After our visit we drove back and went to a farewell open house for a couple of young men in our ward leaving to serve full-time missions. They had a great house with a wrap around porch and a great porch swing. Clay & I enjoyed the breeze as we sat on it. Then Emma and my visiting teacher joined me on the swing.