Family Pictures, First Cheer, & A Snake Bite

We got up this morning and watched some cartoons, had some breakfast, and then got cleaned up to go to JC Penny and have our family pictures taken.  There was this cute family there waiting to see the pics they had taken, and this adorable little 2 1/2 year old boy took a liking to Autumn & wanted her to sit by him.  Anywhere she went, he followed her.  When she sat in this chair and draped her legs over the side, he made her scoot over so he could do the same!  It was so cute.

After the family pictures, Mom & Nate & Riannon & Lexie stayed to pick which ones we wanted to order.  I brought Nick home so he could get ready to go to work, & then Autumn & I went over to Mom & Dad’s house.  We had hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salad, and watermelon.  Pam & Dave & their son & daughter-in-law & grandson were there to eat & swim w/ us, too.  It was a full house!  Autumn got dressed in her cheer uniform super fast after we ate & I took her over to her first cheer game.  It was a heat index of 107 degrees (actual temp 105), and we were all sweating like crazy.  The game before us went over, so we didn’t get started until 1:30.

It was so cute to see the little 1st Grade football boys run through the sign.  I’ve never seen helmets like the ones they were wearing before.  Even though it’s just flag football, they make them wear helmets.

I ADORE this picture of Andrew coming over to tell Autumn that the family had gotten there to watch her cheer.  They came about 15 minutes after we got there, and they brought chairs to sit in which was so nice.

Here are our cute girls sitting on their cheer buckets.  Those little pop up tents behind them are life savers!  I think Mom & Dad have one, and I’ll have to bring it next time.

SO STINKIN’ CUTE!!!

I was so pleasantly surprised when Karri & Kylie stopped by to say hi.  I had told them about it, but didn’t know if they would be able to come.  That is going way above & beyond the call of friendship to come on such a hot day.  Karri actually knows quite a few girls on the team from teaching them at school & she used to babysit Coach Rachel’s daughter when she was little.

Coach Rachel & Kara are AMAZING!  They had these white towels soaking in cold water in a cooler, and they went around and put them on the girls’ necks to keep them cooled off.  They also had spray bottles that they used to mist the girls.

During half time, the girls did this cheer where they say, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, my name’s Autumn & I say hi.  6, 7, 8, 9, 10, back it up & meet my friend.” They started w/ the little girl on the left hand side of the picture and went down the row.  It was precious!

She came over and said hi to her cheering section.  It meant SO MUCH to me that so many family & friends came to support Autumn.  It made her feel like the most important person in the world.

I loved this picture I got of the Dads all holding their big umbrellas around the perimeter of the tent to give the girls more shade!

After the game, we all gathered together and made a tunnel for the players to run through.

I have to admit that I didn’t really watch the game, especially since most of it took place at the far end of the field where we couldn’t see.  But, I guess we won b/c after the players ran through the tunnel the coach had them take a knee on the sideline and told them the cheerleaders and something special for them.  They did a cheer that goes, “Split the V, dot the i, rock the C-T-O-R-Y!”

One funny thing I have to mention is that Autumn told me the field was “boring.”  I asked her what she meant and she said that it didn’t have lots of lines on it or cool pictures (logos) like the ones on TV have!  LOL!  As soon as we were done, our family all loaded into our cars, cranked the A/C, and went to Sonic to get 1/2 price drinks.  I got a Route 44 Cranberry limeade w/ a splash of mint (a drink Liz introduced to me that I now love).  Autumn enjoyed her cherry slush, and changed into her swimsuit as soon as we got home.

I was so flushed and hot that I had a rip roaring headache.  I took some medicine, sat in the recliner, and promptly fell asleep.  Mom said I was so out of it that I was snoring!  When I woke up the kids really wanted to go swimming, so I took them out and it felt so good to be in the water and cool off even more.  Nate had to leave and hand out Air Force stuff at a football game at the city’s stadium for the recruiter he’s working with.  That way this time at home doesn’t count against his time off.  Why is it that men always look so handsome in uniform?  We’re so proud of him!

After swimming, Mom & Lexie & Riannon & I made party ham rollups for dinner w/ grilled garlic broccoli.  After dinner, we all sat down to watch football.  Jackson especially loves football and will sit and watch it w/ Papa for a long time.  I’m sad the BYU game got delayed due to lightning, b/c they switched it over to EPSN3, which we don’t get, so we couldn’t watch it.  Nate gave Jackson one of the little Air Force footballs he was handing out, and Jackson was cracking us up.  He kept hopping around the living room and saying his version of “down, set, hut.”  Then he’d bend over and actually hike the ball!  It was so funny.

Autumn asked Papa if he could make smoothies, since he hasn’t done that in a while.  Nate wanted to get in on the action of getting a taste of the smoothie from Papa (he usually just gives this to the kids) before putting it in cups and handing it out to everyone.

Autumn & I finally got ready to leave at 8:30 so we could come home and I could get her to bed since she had such a big day.  I was driving past the neighbor’s driveway & saw a stick in the road.  But then I noticed the stick was moving & sure enough, it was a snake!  I hurried and got out my cell phone & called the house and told them to come out and look at it.  Nate & Dad came out & looked at it & determined it was a garden snake & not poisonous.  They got it to crawl on a broom so they could move it to the bushes near the backyard, but Nate decided he wanted to hold it.  Notice how he has his shirt pulled over his hand to protect it.

You can’t really tell in this picture, but the snake is sinking it’s fangs into Nate’s hand right here!!!  It bit him twice before he was able to scoot his hand up closer to it’s head so it couldn’t bite him.  His shirt was so thin that it didn’t make any difference.  Also notice that he came out to catch a snake barefoot!!!

He brought it up on the porch where we had better light, and so people (that wanted to) could come out of the house and look at it.  Jackson didn’t want to touch it at all, he wanted to keep a safe distance.  He had a death grip on Lexie’s shirt and was not about to let go.

I put my hand out and let it wrap its tail around my wrist.  I’ve never touched a snake like that before, so it was a cool experience.  What a crazy way to end such a fun & busy day!!!