halloween, the races and football

halloween.

the best parts...

boyd's team won their football game.

my sister came to town.
my mom came to boyd's game.
the racetrack campground opened.

darth vader.

lots of darth vaders.

kevin's fog machine.

the fall races are always my favorite as far as weather goes,

except we had some rain and mud this time.

and a tornado warning.

but we had fun.

lots of it.

and as always, good food, although we tried to keep it simple this year.

steaks, spaghetti, chili, and hamburgers.
and desserts. they were so yummy.

boyd's team has made it to the playoffs.

the first round is this coming weekend.

we are hoping for the best! 

the coach had 15 of the boys at his house this past weekend for a sleepover.

apparently they ate way too much sugar, stayed up most of the night, and farted a lot.

sounds about right.

i've grown to love these kids.

i'm going to miss them.

for our last regular season game, this past weekend,
we were playing a team that had not won all season.
we were up 38-0 at halftime.
we weren't aware at first, but during halftime, our coaches taught our boys a new play.
they said when they wave their hats, back off and let the other team run the ball.
we saw several coaches waving their hats towards the end of the game.
our fastest runner had to slow to almost a crawl, and i was proud of him for being able to do that.
and so, at the very end, the other team was able to score.
i swear, we were standing up and yelling for the other boys to score maybe more than their own fans were.
i teared up, of course.
people in the stands were shouting to our coach, way to go, and good job coach.
the coach on the other team came up and thanked our coach before the game was even over.
we could have run up the score, but it wasn't necessary.
i think i saw more compassion that day than i've seen in a long time.
maybe it was the push that those other boys needed to come back and play next year.
i want boyd to play hard and win, and i also want him to be compassionate as hell in this life.
i will never forget what happened last saturday.
thank you coach for showing our boys how to play this game!

life is full.

these days are {mostly} good.

i'm thankful.
 

love,

nicolle