Kim and I flew to Oklahoma this October to meet a bunch of family and celebrate our Grandma's 90th birthday. It was really great to hang out with just Kim for a long weekend, see family I haven't seen in forever, and celebrate my fantastic Grandma.
Braun's on the way out of Wichita
Yum!
Mom needed someone to cook a gluten free pizza in the church's industrial oven. I used all my substitute lunch lady training to get the job done.
The kids made a "city", complete with king's tower, hospital, school bus and jail. Also an intruder and giant.
I think we're doing something right because Laura just said "oh no, the people need food and no where to work to get money! We need somewhere for them to work!"
Emily & Max's mom shared these pictures with me from the school Fall Dance. I think its fun that Laura hung out with Emily and Mason at the party and Adam hung out with their younger siblings, Max and Grant. Guess good families stick together! (Oh, and I hung out with Julie and Janel, their moms)
(Jim was there too :) )
Emily and Laura with the principal (Mad Hatter) and a teacher
Older Siblings (Mason is fire)
Younger Siblings
(Grant is a Hershey bar and marshmallow)
Younger
Older
(Mason & Grant's mom and dad were graham crackers. Cute!)
Laura competes in 2 karate tournaments each year. Its her 'big thing', comparable to 4Hrs prepping for the County Fair, musicians prepping for a big recital, a football kid prepping for the playoffs. The spring tournament is all National Karate students and takes place in a huge high school gym. The fall tournament, Diamond Nationals, is held in a hotel/convention center and draws people from around the country and includes any number of different types of martial arts. The fact that there are different styles of martial arts fascinates us and also makes judging really interesting. And there's a evening finale of the best of the best that Laura just loves.
This year, she mirrored her Diamonds results from last year. 4th place in Form (a memorized, practice fight) and 1st place Consolation bracket in sparring. She lost the first sparring match in a very close fight with the girl who ended up in overall first, then won her next two matches decidedly (exactly what happened last year). She's so proud and so are we!
Good friend Tanisha, also a brown belt from Laura's school.
