Tessa and the Franklin marching band performed at a festival held in the Walmart parking lot put on by law enforcement and first responders. They played some band tunes and then got to walk around all of the booths. Taryn, Aubrey and I went to cheer them on.
Aubrey hung out with the band kids while Taryn and I checked out all the free food and activities they had. We found horseback riding so Taryn took a turn riding the horses. She thought it was so fun. She also got to do some rock climbing.
Taryn's birthday is almost always during the intersession break from school, so she's not in school on her birthday. It also seems to always fall on a weekend or on a day where we have sports or other school activities for the older girls. Therefore, we let her plan a little party during the break when she could invite some of her friends over to celebrate her birthday. She wanted to do pancake art and have a spa day. We colored some pancake batter and they had fun creating their own very colorful pancakes. Taryn was very impressed with her chicken pancake. They did pedicures in the foot spas and even tried some face masks.
The girls had fun hanging out and we picked up cake balls from Starbucks as the "cake" which was Taryn's choice. Taryn's friends from school who came to her party were Malerie, Isabella, Maddy, and Sophia.
We also got to celebrate Taryn's birthday at our weekly Sunday Kasibbons dinner. We made a yummy dessert, sang to her, and she got to blow out the candles.
They always perform first since they're the hosting school. They perform first and then stay to volunteer by helping sell concessions, or lead bands through their performance times. I helped with equipment, watched some of the bands, and then helped in the shout out station where the parents can pay for a message to be read over the PA system before their band performs.
She always had her tenors plus one of the big marimbas that she plays for the show, so she always needed help moving her equipment on and off the field. Some of these pictures were taken by other photographers and then posted on Instagram or Facebook, so I always loved finding ones of our band with Tessa in them and then saving them for myself.
They are always better quality pictures, but I definitely like taking some of my own as well. Tessa loved being in a big frontline although she missed marching on the field for their show. She was able to play tenors during the show sometimes which made up for the fact that they weren't marching. She also liked being in the front center on one of their biggest marimbas.
Another weekend was spent at the SAC for the SISD Marchfest. They practiced and warmed up together in the parking lot before performing.
The SISD Marchfest was a finals festival which meant everyone performed and then the top bands performed a second time in the evening before the final results were announced. It made for a very long day, but I loved getting to watch them perform multiple times. During their break between performances, I was able to catch Tessa with some of her colorguard friends. Here she is with Sherrie, Isa, and Ayla. Isa and Ayla are some of her cross country friends who decided to do marching band this year, so it's been fun to see them all together.
Their first performance was during the heat of the day, but they performed well.
After their performance, they waited for results and the percussion section always hangs out together. They like to take naps and they always seem to find a way to rest on each other by being a pillow for someone else and using someone else's legs as their own pillow. We found out that Franklin was in the top 7 bands, so they made the finals and got to perform a second time. This performance was in the evening.
After their finals performance, we waited in the stands during the parade of bands where the drum majors and color guard captains are presented on the field to hear the results. We didn't move up any higher in the rankings and I think ended up 7th overall for the day, but the kids had fun dancing in the stands. I took videos as the kids danced to the music while waiting for results.
Aubrey's dance team, Vortex, performed at a school pep rally. The pep rallies are always during the school day, so I don't get to see them live, but I love seeing pictures and videos that show up on their school Facebook page. Aubrey loves dancing and she has the most fun during the jazz and hip hop numbers.
During the intersession break in October, Tyler's brother Tim and family came to visit from Utah. They have never been to visit us in El Paso, so we were so excited that they came. We scheduled a trip to the Juarez temple to do baptisms with the older kids, so as soon as they showed up, Tyler and Tim drove the teenagers down to the temple. They took pictures afterwards which I was grateful for.
Lora and I took Taryn, Anson, and Teagan to Urban Air since we have annual passes. They played and had fun while the others were at the temple and then we met up at L&Js for dinner when they got back into El Paso. L&Js is our favorite Mexican restaurant so we wanted our family to try it too. Our favorite dish is the green Chile chicken enchiladas. Everyone else tried them too and agreed that they were delicious.
The next morning was Taryn's actual birthday. Since we were so busy with the kids' activities and visitors, we celebrated the whole month long. When she had her party with friends, I used the pancake batter to make a tower of 11 pancakes for her to eat. I even put the "11" on the pancake which I was super proud of. Taryn thought it was really cool and even got to blow out candles. We ended the night with Crumbl Cookies and we sang to Taryn as she blew out a candle from her cookie.
The rest of her birthday was spent running across town for all the sporting events everyone had going on. We started the morning at Tessa's District cross country meet - her final race of the season. It was fun having the extra family members there to cheer her on.
It was a nail biter of a race. We watched as she passed by us a couple of times and then we waited what seemed like forever before they came around the final bend to race towards the finish line. Tessa had been coming in the top of the Open races all season. As she raced down the final shoot to the finish line, she took the lead and looked like she was going to finish first. However, one of her teammates, Olivia, barely squeaked past her by a nose right at the finish line. It was such a good race, and Tessa was very excited that she finished 2nd overall in Open for the entire district. We took a picture of her with all the sisters and cousins after she finished.
Makaela is the cousin closest in age to Tessa so they hung out the majority of the time. She wanted a picture with Tessa after her finish. I also took a picture of Tessa with some of her closest running teammates, Brooke and Mieyda.
We like to try timing Tessa so we know her time, and Lora was very proud of herself for getting the exact time on her phone that Tessa clocked in at. The course is very hilly and loops around a golf course, so it's a harder course, but Tessa was happy with her time and we were all super proud of her silver medal finish. We cheered really loudly when they called her name.
Here's Tessa with the other top Open runners - Olivia who got 1st place and then one with Olivia and Sienna who got 3rd place. All three girls are from Franklin HS.
The top 10 girls in Open were all from Franklin. Their cross country team is a powerhouse team. They are tough to beat. Maybe one or two kids can get up there, but the majority of the top runners in all divisions are from Franklin. Tessa loves her cross country team. Here are all the girls who ran open for the district meet and then a picture of more of the Franklin girls all together.
After all of the awards had been given, the coach had the entire cross country team gather for a team picture. They are a hard working team who work out and run 6 days out of the week. They are a great team and Tessa loves being a part of it.
After the meet, we ate lunch as a family at Olive Garden which was Taryn's pick for her birthday meal. We all enjoyed the yummy food and then we of course had to tell them it was Taryn's birthday, so they brought her out chocolate cake and had everyone sing to her. Anson was happy to be in the birthday picture. We love our Taryn and can't believe she's already 11! Man, time just flies and these kids just keep growing up.
During intersession, Abby had two volleyball games. One was a home game against Montwood and the other was an away game at Eastlake. These pictures are from the Montwood game. It's fun having parents who are photographers because they take great action pictures and then post the pictures for all of us to enjoy. Abby loves being able to set during the games, and I love being able to see the awesome pictures of her after the games.
The next intersession game at Eastlake was during the time that Tim and Lora and family were in town. We all traveled together to the east side to see Abby's game. They were very impressed at the level of play our girls showed. Volleyball is very big here in El Paso, and they said Abby's team would definitely beat their high school volleyball team in Utah. They loved watching Abby play. Abby was on the Instagram stats page again for her assists as they beat Eastlake 3-2. They took a quick picture at the end of the game with the cousins who stayed for the entire volleyball game.
Lora, Makaela, and I left after Abby's first volleyball set to rush back to Franklin for the football game that Tessa and Aubrey were performing at. Here are some pictures of Tessa when she plays her tenors during the football game. They always spend the 3rd quarter in front of the cheerleaders playing cadences while the cheerleaders dance. They become good friends with the cheerleaders. They sometimes even let the cheerleaders wear the tenors, like in this picture with a Varsity cheerleader, Mia, and Tessa and Gisele will get to use the cheerleader's pom-poms to mix it up.
This also happened to be the football game where the middle school bands were invited to join the high school band in the stands and on the field during half time. Aubrey sat with the flute section and had a fun time. We were able to make it from Abby's game just in time for the half time show. Tessa and the high school band performed their show first and then the middle schools joined them on the field to play the fight song. Aubrey is in this second picture in the flute line. Lora and Makaela were also very impressed with our marching band show. Marching bands are not very big in the Toole area where they are from, so they were very impressed with the performance, the props, and the entire show. It was a long day and we were happy to have Tim, Lora and family along for the busy day to see all the girls doing the things they love.
Some final pictures for this post. Tessa and Abby doing a silly selfie and the girls at a young women's activity where they carved pumpkins. We have a good youth group and the girls like doing their activities together.
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