We had a nice fall break. Carl and I attended the Saint James Art Festival, which was nice, as it was cancelled last year. The boys went to the new Malibu Jacks, where we played video games, mini golf, and rode a new roller coaster! We also spent time with family and friends.
One of the very best things about the last few months, is that Preston's age group was approved for the Covid vaccine! He is now fully vaccinated! He was very happy to be able to get vaccinated, as he knows how awful Covid can be.
Evan continued to fish when the weather was nice. He has also gotten interested in deer hunting. Mr. Roth has been a wonderful mentor and has taken him out many times. Evan doesn't have his license yet, so he can't actually hunt, but he enjoys going out.
Aunt Sharon visited and we celebrated Mom's birthday together!
We went to a couple of football games. I enjoyed this particular game because we won and U of L retired Lamar Jackson's jersey.
We visited Gallrein Farm, where we picked pumpkins, went on a hay ride, did the apple cannons, the corn pit, and the petting zoo. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun!
We went to Boo at the Zoo with The Amshoffs. The kids had a blast.
Chancey hosted a Cardinals in Costume event, which Preston loved. The school also let the kids dress up for Storybook Character Day. Preston wasn't sure about going as Harry Potter again, but he ended up loving it.
We carved pumpkins the day of Halloween. Unfortunately, some of our pumpkins rotted while decorating our porch. I had to go get several new pumpkins, which was hard to do on Halloween, since most stores were sold out. Thankfully I found some at The Home Depot and we were all able to carve a pumpkin.
Last year Granddaddy was in the hospital on Halloween. We were grateful that we were all able to be together again this year!
We have all made some new friends in our new neighborhood, but we ended up back in Hunting Creek for trick or treating. It was nice to see our old neighbors and the kids had a blast. I especially liked the candy trading at the end of the night.
Grammy and Granddaddy took us on a trip to Orlando. We hadn't travelled together for quite some time, as our last trip was set up for 2020 and we could not go due to the pandemic and Granddaddy's health. We all stayed together in one home, which was nice. The kids got to spend a ton of time together there when we were not at a park and they enjoyed swimming in the heated pool.
The parks were lots of fun. We visited both parks at Universal Studios, Hollywood Studios, and The Magic Kingdom. Highlights included the boys riding all the super fun roller coasters. We did have a bit of bad luck on the last day at The Magic Kingdom, but a kind cast member helped us out, and we were able to ride all of Granddaddy's favorite rides before we left. I will forever be grateful for Dallas, as he truly made the magic happen and helped us made some amazing memories.
Carl stayed home, as he isn't really a fan of the big crowds at the parks. We were happy to return home and see him and celebrate Thanksgiving.
We got a new Christmas tree this year! The boys had fun decorating it with us. Preston was especially happy to get to use the ladder!
Our gingerbread house turned out great. As usual, there was lots more candy and icing eaten than used for decorating!
We made Christmas cookies with The Petrosky Family in a very impromptu cookie making party, followed by pizza and watching a movie. We also made Christmas cookies with The Amshoffs. That was really nice, as we had to skip it last year.
We visited Lights Under Louisville, which is a family tradition that we started the very firs year it opened. 
The Congleton family came to visit and see our new house. It was so good together! The kids played a lot here and we also went to play at Defy.
Preston enjoyed the antics of our elf, Sir Christmas Pants!
Christmas Day was really nice. We had presents here in the morning and then went for lunch at Grammy, Graddaddy, and The Nickel family. Preston's favorite gift was his scooter bike and Evan's was his crossbow.
We had so much fun together! We wish the Nickels could have stayed longer, but we really enjoyed our time together.
The pancake party was so much fun! I hope to do it again next year!
We had fun celebrating Christmas with the Amshoffs a couple of days after Christmas. Andy was the life of the party!
We celebrated the new year here at the house with just the four of us. We had our junk food dinner followed by games of pool, Farkle, and Exploding Kittens.
Although things are more normal that they were in 2020 and even for part of 2021, there is still a pandemic going on. The vaccines tend to keep people from getting extremely sick and dying, but some people refuse them. Variants of Covid-19 continue to develop and some spread pretty easily. We know SO many people that have gotten Covid recently. Thankfully, no one has gotten super sick. We are grateful for that. There have been about 307 million cases worldwide and about 5.49 million deaths. The United States has had around 836,000 deaths. Our healthcare providers are exhausted, as are other professionals, such as teachers. There are often staff shortages, when people get sick and have to quarantine. I am hopeful that things will be improving soon. I am really ready to be normal once again.
