Tyler and I were able to go to the Juarez temple the first week of November. We traveled with some friends across the border and the timing was great. You never know how long it will take to get across the border, but it was ok on this night. The funny story was that we were supposed to be meeting our friend who drove after we walked across the border on our way home. We had left our bags in his car as we walked across and the keys to our vehicles were in those bags. Our friend said he would be meeting us at the designated parking lot, but he forgot and just headed straight home. By the time we called to check on him, he was half way home and had to drive back downtown to where we were meeting. So we waited quite awhile in a dark parking lot downtown, but it was me, Tyler, and another friend, Jenna so at least we were together. It would have been an even faster time all around without that little mishap. However, I was still happy that we had made it to the temple and that Tyler and I were able to be there together. I also had to include this picture of Taryn that my friend sent to me. Taryn joined the safety patrol at school and goes early a couple days a week to help with traffic control and playground monitoring. She loves being helpful and she's made a lot of friends in the younger grades as she helps watch them on the playground. I think she's so cute and it made me smile when my friend saw her in the carpool lane and sent this picture to me.
Tessa's final two games of the football season were in November. The next to last home game was also senior night. The drumline still went down to the track to play cadences with the cheerleaders. They had a lot of fun playing new cadences and even taking turns switching instruments.
I always walk down to the front of the stands to be up close while they play on the track, and I was able to get a couple pictures of the entire section in-between songs. There were other parents getting pictures as well, so I was happy to take the opportunity to get those pictures too. The seniors had extra leis and mums so you can see who they are in these pictures - Fred, Steven, and Josh. Tessa was a little sad through the game because she'll miss these guys so much, but she's had so much fun getting to know them and learning from them this year.
I took another picture of Tessa in the stands as they played during the game, and I also took one more picture at the end of the game during the school song. They always play the school song after the game while the football players walk over to the stands in front of the band. The percussion section doesn't play during the song, so they just stand there with their arms upraised like the football players.
The next week was the final football game of the season. The band had so much fun during this game knowing it was their last time to play together. The drumline goofed off the most by switching instruments for the cadences. Tessa took turns on each of the other bass drums. They all switched drums for one song and decided to keep switching. When I saw her on the 2nd bass drum I had to get a picture. My favorite was when she played bass drum 4 because it's the biggest drum and you could barely even see her as she peaked around it when I took the picture.
Tessa even took a turn in another section with her neighbor trumpet player who sits behind her in the stands. He taught her how to hold the trumpet properly. I thought it was pretty cute and had to get a picture of that too. They played their final time down on the track with the cheerleaders. Tessa has really loved playing the bass drum, but she's seriously considering trying out for the quads next year.
UTEP had a great football season this year winning quite a few games. Our friends, the Garners, invited us to a game when SDSU came to play against UTEP. We went out to dinner together and then headed to the football stadium. The crowds were crazy. It took us awhile to get into the stadium because there were so many fans in the parking lots surrounding the stadium. They had all kinds of tailgating parties and performances before the game, so the parking lots were packed. Once we got to our seats, we enjoyed watching the game. It was a good game as we cheered on UTEP, but they ended up losing to SDSU who was undefeated thus far in their season. We made it through the 3rd quarter before it got too late and we were pretty tired and decided to call it a night.
Aubrey tried out for All-region band the first weekend in November. Parents were not allowed in the building, so I waited in the parking lot while she auditioned. I took a picture of her with her friend Allison while they waited for the results. The results showed up on line and Aubrey found out that she made 5th chair in the top band. Allison made 6th chair. They were both so excited. As we drove home, Aubrey called Halley, her cousin and teacher, and Grandma and Grandpa to tell them the happy news. We ran a few errands and she requested sushi as a celebratory snack. We are so proud of her and all of her hard work and determination to do her best.
The All-region clinic and concert was the following weekend. They spent one night doing a sectional rehearsal, and then they spent Friday evening and all day Saturday in rehearsals with the guest conductor. They got to wear their formal dresses for the concert and I took a picture of her before we headed across town for the concert. Mrs. Allen, Aubrey's band director, always gets corsages for the players, so I took this picture of Aubrey after the concert with her corsage.
We purchased the plaque with Aubrey's name on it and we enjoyed listening to her concert. Their clinician is also a composer and the majority of their songs were his pieces. Aubrey's favorite songs were a pirate song and frog song. They were really fun to listen to and Aubrey said they were really fun to play. She was in the front row, right in the center, so it was hard to see her while they were performing since the director blocked most of our view of her, but I was able to get a picture when they stood up after their songs.
We also took some pictures with her friends, so here she is with Allison and also one with Lydia. Both are flute players in her band at school. Aubrey's known Lydia since elementary school and from church. Allison is an 8th grader who Aubrey met this year, but they have become really close friends. It was such a fun night listening to great music.
After the concert on our way home from the east side, we stopped for dinner. Aubrey wanted surf and turf, so we ate at Kona Grill after Tyler suggested their food. It was very good food, but very expensive. Taryn's kids meal included this orange that had been cut to look like a bear, so the girls were very impressed and wanted a picture to remember it. It was fun to be able to spend the evening together as a family.
Tessa's cross country team had plans to attend a race in Houston at the end of their season and to make it there, they had to host a 5k fundraiser. I promoted it to all of my friends and many signed up and supported Tessa and her team. I wanted at least 10 people to sign up to get a discount on the price, but then I saw that the largest "team" that signed up actually got a trophy. The Kasallis family said they'd do it, so I created the team "Kasibbons". The Garners and the Cains from our ward also signed up plus a few more friends from church and school, so we ended up with 23 on our team. I even bought us all matching crazy socks so people could distinguish our team members from everyone else during the race. That was fun. We took a picture of most of our team before the race. I found Tessa and took a picture of her with her friends before the race as well. Here she is with Mieryda, Hannah, and Bob.
The cross country kids were originally just going to work the event and not participate, but once they found out that the company takes care of the fundraiser work, and they wanted more entrants, their coach told them they could race. Tessa ran with her friends while the rest of us amateur runners stayed towards the back, but we all raced and had a good experience. Tessa was super excited because she placed first in her age group. I was so happy for her and even more so when she was so excited to tell me that it was her first gold medal. In all of her racing meets, she always came out 2nd place or below, so she was super happy that she finally got that elusive gold medal.
As they announced the top three racers of each age group, I took this picture of Tessa as her coach gave her the medal and a high five. He was super proud of her too. We took a picture of our family together after the race. Aubrey didn't get to attend because this was the same day as her all-region rehearsal, but we had Nat in our picture, one of Abby's friends and volleyball teammates. I even got a medal for placing 3rd in my age group. That was a fun surprise.
We did end up getting the Largest Team trophy with our 23 members. The kids loved the trophy and wanted to hold it for their pictures. It was a huge trophy, even bigger than the top racer trophies. The funny part of the story is that they awarded the largest team trophy at the very end. The guy had to go back to his paperwork to verify who the winning team was even though I had kept track of the team numbers and knew that we were the largest team. The best part was that when he announced our team name, Kasibbons, he didn't know how to pronounce it, so he said "casi-bons". We all couldn't stop laughing and now we occasionally use that name instead of Kasibbons when we refer to our blended family name.
We were so happy for all of the support our friends gave us by showing up and running a 5K with us. Here's a picture of our entire team. We love them all and were so happy to spend the morning with them. It's a great group of friends!
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