Colton Mom Day

By Colton Walsh, "On Saturday morning we went to mustang donuts to get, well, you know - donuts, then we got in the car for 30 min to go to the Minecraft experience. It was really fun they had a ton of projectors on the wall and these cubes that interacted with the stuff on the screens. After that we went to Grapevine Mills Mall and got an escape room booked and then went to build a bear. I picked out a wiener dog, but then I noticed none of the outfits fit him. So, I got a fox and a ginger bread man outfit but the stuffing line was too long and we had the reservation for the escape room in 5 min so we got a worker, Carla who was very nice, to hold our stuff because it was the last ginger bread man outfit. She held our stuff and we ran to the escape room and made it just in time. We went in the escape room and it was a cabin in the woods escape room with a cool opining fire place to a gold mine with TNT. We escaped with 10 min left then we went back to build a bear to stuff, name, and buy my fox. We named him Thomas Fink Walsh but we just called him Fink. After that we went to Rain Forest Cafe. I got a grilled cheese with apple sauce, apple juice and an ice cream sandwich. Then we went to the Gaylord TX and went to ICE featuring Rudolph it was so cool with these big ice sculptures. But it was freezing. After that we got Aunty Anne's pretzels then we explored and tried to find Cadie, but we could not. We watched the trains and once we were done we went to this cool playground (Oak Park I think) with a big net and watch tower with a giant slide. Then we went home and watched Inside Out 2. I loved spending this time with my mom and i had a lot of fun."

 

Ranger Mom Day

 Donuts, shopping, Meow Wolf, escape room - time with this great kid is always amazing.

Pink!

The concert was SO good and worth the wait. It had been rescheduled once or maybe even twice. We went with Courtnye and one of her friends and we had the BEST time!

Displaced for a long time and finally back home

What a crazy fall. Because of the leak we found in June, we had to move out of our house in August. It snuck up on us and I didn't realize how bad the mold was and how extensive the repairs were going to be. Our house was completely torn apart. The boys and I moved into Nina and Papas house, Cadie moved in with DD and Big John, and Grant floated around. It felt like our lives had been turned upside down and I was so grateful for family who took us in. It was hard to be apart as a family, but we also made some fun memories. Ranger stayed in the king guest room at Nina and Papas, and Colton and I bunked up in the smaller guest room. Ranger loved having his own room and Colton loved being with me. It was convenient for Cadie to be able to easily get to and from school, but I know it was hard for her to be away from us. 

While the repairs weren't quite done, we needed to be back together so we moved back into the house at the beginning of November. The good news is that we got Ranger his own bathroom out of the deal and I love my new kitchen.

We also owe big thanks to Nick who came to our rescue and served as GC for the repairs. He is so wonderful to work with and we trust him implicitly. I am grateful that Nick has been a part of our lives for almost 20 years!

Anastasia The Musical

By Cadie Walsh, "My school's fall musical was Anastasia, and my role was Assistant Stage Manager (promoted to Co-Stage Manager midway through production). Rehearsal started the first week of school. Anastasia was unlike the previous shows I've participated in due to living with DD & Big John, and the fact that we had a new technical director. Mr. Burnam is a fabulous teacher who brought many new ideas to the table such as projections and moving lamp posts. He helped the show be the best it could be! The main person I hung out with during production was the wonderful Faith Mazzucchi. She's a junior this year, and is the best stage manager our theatre department could ask for! Other honorable mentions are Lauren Tharp, Biv Bhattarai, Julia Kerr, and Bellamy Mcclung-Gonzalez! Becoming better friends with these amazing people was the highlight of my Anastasia experience. Faith drove me home most nights after rehearsal, and we got to have so many fun conversations. We honestly weren't sure the show would be ready in time due to some unforeseen circumstances such as the director (Ms. Murphy) catching covid, working out projections, and our props master having the audacity to get sick during tech week (sarcasm). Unfortunately my best friend, Layne, was unable to perform the duty of props master for a majority of tech week, and the entirety of the show. Luckily, I was able to get the props situation worked out with the help of my friends in the cast/crew, so everything worked out fine! Overall, Anastasia was the most challenging show I've been a part of, but I'm thankful for the learning opportunities it presented, and the friendships it allowed me to create/strengthen!"

Cadie had lots of fans! Grant, DD, and Big John went on opening night. Nina, Papa, and Ranger attended Friday night. Colton and I went together on Saturday night. Hannah, Eisley, Preston, and Parker went on Sunday and Colton, Nina, and I also went for the final bows on Sunday for the last show. Cadie worked so hard all the way from casting, to costuming, stage design, and backstage management. It was fun to volunteer to serve dinner to the cast and crew on Thursday night before their first show. I love getting to see Cadie in action. We are so incredibly proud of her!

Ranger's 14th birthday Weekend

By Jack Ranger, " About 30 minutes before everybody was supposed to arrive was the first time I threw up. I wasn't feeling sick until about 2 hours before the party. Once everyone was there, we left pretty quickly. The 2 cars were my mom and then Aiden Phillip's mom, Yvonne. We got here and I still wasn't feeling good, so I went upstairs to Cadie's room and stayed there the entire first day throwing up with the exception of dinner. The next day, I woke up feeling completely normal. We had pancakes for breakfast then we drove go karts for a while. We decided to play Tag around the property and the tagger had a go-kart. That quickly ended when people started jumping in the lake to "escape." We all swam then for a while. Then we just hung around driving go karts and also played Pictionary together. Then we went home."

Rangers birthday party included Ben and Steve Bratton, Hunter Hubbs, Cooper Glennon, Shep Lance, Drake Soukup, Aiden Phillips, and Louis Bickel. We were able to drag Ranger out of bed to at least sing to him on Saturday evening, but he was pretty much in bed most of the day. He got to play with his friends on Sunday, but it certainly wasn't the party he was hoping for. His friends all swam in the lake, made rockets, canned honey, rode go-karts and slept in the tree house and I think they had a great time.

We also had a family celebration for Ranger, Cadie, and Preston at DD and Big John's house. Happy 14th birthday Ranger!