October

October marked the beginning of Fall, which is something I look forward to all year long! It's my very favorite season and I love it for so many reasons--But most of all because I love all of the traditions that come along with it. But before the traditions could begin, we had a busy couple of weeks to start off the month...

Daddy had a random day when he was able to go into work a little later so he joined us for lunch at school...a rare treat!

An after school treat, just because!

Our dogs have the best life. I looked over one morning to see Cam curled up next to me under the covers just like a little human.

Kyndall had her very first sewing class the first week of October and she was so excited to finally use her new sewing machine. Mrs. Dian is her teacher and she has a two hour class with her each Thursday night.

She practiced different seams and even learned how to use the embroidery feature on her machine

A beautiful Sunday morning at church

Back in September Kyndall's friend Malani gifted her a "spa day" for her birthday gift. She was able to cash it in on a Sunday afternoon and she was thoroughly spoiled by Malani and her Mom!

They even went on a mini shopping spree to Super Target

Doing her homework and she tells me she concentrates better this way...

Kyndall and I were asked to walk along with the Crosby "float" in the North Forney High School Homecoming parade...

Another Thursday night sewing class...

It was only her second lesson and she made this trivet!

When Daddy works late, we have a dinner date!

Practicing her sewing at home...

Finally, the long awaited and much needed FALL BREAK had arrived! Kyndall had an early release day followed by 9 glorious days of freedom from school. I picked her up and we headed straight to one of her favorite restaurants for a girls lunch to kick off the week...

First on the agenda for Fall Break--Catching up on sleep. By 9:00 that night these two were out cold.

We met up with Kyndall's friend Ryann and her Mom the next morning at the pumpkin patch which is one of the Fall traditions that I love so much.

These two don't see each other very often so they always have the sweetest reunion!

Later that evening we attended Forney High School's production of my very favorite movie, Steel Magnolias. Kyndall loved it!

The weather was so gorgeous that we decided to skip out of church (just this once!) and use our annual passes to Six Flags the next day. Even though we have yearly passes, we don't go a whole lot because it's usually just too hot. So, we took advantage of a cooler day and it was perfect!

A glimpse into the future?? Scary!

Our favorite snack

Kyndall's friend Malani also has a season pass so we met up with her for a little while and the girls decided to ride the most ridiculous ride in the whole park. None of the parents were brave enough to ride so we stood in line with them and then put them on all alone. I was a nervous wreck but Kyndall had absolutely no hesitation about getting on this crazy thing!

This is what they rode! Those are free flying swings you see spinning around in the air way up above even the highest rollercoaster in the park! Nuts!

They said they loved it!

For many months we had been planning a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for Kyndall's fall break. Having lived so close to the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains when we lived in Jackson we had been itching to get back that way and there's no better time to visit the area than in the Fall. So, off we went!

Dinner in the airport before leaving Dallas

We love Southwest Airlines! While waiting for our flight they played a scavenger hunt type game and we ended up winning a flight voucher thanks to me having postage stamps in my purse!

The stuffed animals always have to come along too, of course...

Hello, Nashville! We've missed you!

Matthew upgraded our rental car to this sweet Jeep for the week!

Our first stop was a visit to Cade's Cove

It was a cloudy day so it was hard to see the mountains but it was still beautiful!

One of the things I miss most about living in Tennessee is seeing all of the beautiful fall colors. We have very few trees here and the ones we do have don't change into vibrant colors the way these do. This sight just screams FALL to me!

We rented a condo rather than a cabin for this trip so that we could be a little closer to the Gatlinburg strip, which is where all the action is. We were pleasantly surprised with our accommodations! 

There was a little stream behind the parking lot of our condo which was really fun...

One of our favorite things to do when in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is to have dinner at the Dixie Stampede. We heard good things about Dolly's new dinner show, called Pirate's Voyage so we decided to try it out this time.

The show was GREAT and we actually enjoyed it even more than the Stampede!

Matthew was randomly chosen to be a part of the show and he was a good sport about it!

Another of our favorite attractions is The Island. It's fun just to stroll the shops while listening to the live music and taking in the sights.

Fudge making demonstration and sampling

Matthew's idea...of course!

Ice cream to end the night while watching the dancing fountains

Back in our cozy condo winding down for the night

We spent the entire next day at Dollywood and it was Kyndall and Matthew's first time. I had been once before when I was about Kyndall's age but obviously I don't remember a whole lot about it. Dolly is my very favorite singer/celebrity and Kyndall seems to be taking a love for her lately as well so we were excited to spend the day at her theme park!

These two have no fear when it comes to rollercoasters. They broke a new record on this day, riding their biggest and fastest one yet and they both came off smiling.

This was more my speed! HA!

I did agree to ride one rollercoaster but only because I knew it wouldn't take me upside down

My favorite part of the day was the hour we spent walking through Dolly's museum. It was absolutely fascinating to me to see all of her personal awards, dresses, old family pictures and special memories up close.

We also had the opportunity to go inside Dolly's tour bus. This bad boy gets 7 miles to the gallon! 

It's never too cold for Dippin' Dots ice cream

We opened the park at 10:00 a.m. and closed it down at 9:00 p.m.! It was a great day and we ended it with a steak dinner at The Alamo Steakhouse before heading back to our condo.

We spent the next day exploring Gatlinburg, starting with lunch at our favorite place...

Our favorite Gatlinburg attraction is definitely Ober!

We took the sky tram up to the top which afforded us some gorgeous views of downtown Gatlinburg and the beautiful Smoky Mountains.

Once we made it up to Ober we bought tickets to ride the ski lift up to the top of Mt. Harrison. Kyndall was not a fan which made me laugh since she has no fear when it comes to rollercoasters!

Matthew was in the chair ahead of us and he turned around and took this picture of us

There's Matthew

We made it to the top! The views were absolutely amazing!

They had even had live music to set the mood...

Time to head back down...

This is the alpine slide which Matthew and Kyndall ended up doing once we got to the bottom

 Matthew and Kyndall coming down the Alpine Slide....

Another one of Kyndall's favorite things to do in Gatlinburg is to go gem mining 

Here's what she ended up with....

We spent the rest of the day strolling the Gatlinburg strips looking in all of the little shops, stopping to listen to the live music, grabbing samples of yummy treats and just taking in the sights and sounds of this quaint little town that we love so much.

My favorite fall treat happens to be an orthodontic nightmare so unfortunately I had to pass it up this year!

Of course our animal lover sought out all the cute pups walking along the strip

We bought some homemade fudge and truffles at the candy shop and decided to try them out when we got back to our condo that night....

She never met a chocolate she didn't like

The next morning we said goodbye to the Great Smoky Mountains and made our way back to Nashville where we would spend the evening at the Grand Ole Opry! Again, it was Kyndall's very first time and we were pretty excited for her to experience it. Matthew and I went several times over the years that we lived in Jackson but we always felt like Kyndall was too young to appreciate it. Matthew went all out and splurged on front row seats which made it even more exciting!

We were at the Saturday night show

Anytime someone asks me my favorite thing to do in Nashville, I always tell them without hesitation The Grand Ole Opry so I was excited when Kyndall said she loved it too!

We can never seem to bypass the gift shops...

The following day was Sunday and sadly it was our very last day of vacation. We had a few hours to kill in Nashville before catching our flight so we headed to another favorite spot, Opry Mills Mall. Kyndall did some shopping and ended up with these new glittery school shoes, among other things.

We landed back in Dallas around 9:00 p.m. and we were greeted with some pretty scary weather. We had just gotten into our car and were headed out of the airport parking lot when our phones started buzzing with a weather alert. It told us a tornado had been confirmed AT THE AIRPORT! We didn't really know what to do so we just kept driving--fast. The wind was crazy and there was lightening all around. I finally convinced Matthew that we needed to stop so we sought shelter at his office which was nearby. We jumped out of the car and ran inside as fast as we could but once we got inside it was even more eerie because we had no idea what was going on outside except what we could find on our phones. We could hear the tornado sirens all around us which was even more scary because at night you cannot see anything and can only rely on the sounds. I stepped out on the dock of the terminal and took this video. Although you can't see anything, you can definitely hear the screams of the siren.

One the sirens stopped we decided to make a run for it and try and drive home which was a very dumb idea. We were in two separate cars and I was following Matthew as closely as possible but the wind was so intense that it felt like it was going to blow my car off the expressway. I could barely see the lines in the road and there were fewer and fewer cars driving along with us as time went on. I kept feeling like we should stop and just pull over somewhere but we drove on. Little did we know we were quite literally driving right through the storm. There ended up being many tornadoes touching down that night but thankfully we were safe and so was our home. Many parts of Dallas were not so lucky and there was devastating destruction all around. It was easily the scariest night of my life but I am so thankful that were were kept safe. It certainly wasn't the ending to our vacation that we expected!

The next week it was back to business as usual with school and all of our weekly activities. Kyndall made a hat at sewing class which she ended up wearing for "crazy hat day" the following day at school. I'm really impressed that after only a few lessons she is really catching on!

The whole school was asked to wear orange for bullying prevention day. Here's Kyndall's class with their sweet teacher Mrs. Bailey

The school's art club made these awesome posters and put them up all around campus to encourage students...

Kyndall and her little friend Karlie on Halloween dress up day at gymastics

Heading out for their weekly Saturday morning Daddy/Daughter breakfast date to the Waffle House. I love that after all these years they're still doing this!

Lunch after church at Kyndall's favorite place--Cane's chicken

The many faces of pumpkin carving...

The GA's group from church took their annual trip to Wal-Mart to purchase items for the Christmas shoe boxes which will be sent overseas to those less fortunate than us and this is one of my very favorite holiday traditions. We do a shoe box from our family as well and have been doing that since Kyndall was a toddler. It's such a simple thing but such a great reminder of just how very blessed we are.

Kyndall's friend Malani had her last softball game of the season so we braved the cold and rain to cheer her on!

Finally! Halloween had arrived!

Kyndall went as a cat this year

My Mom flew into town from Tallahassee just a few hours before we headed out to trick-or-treat. It was fun having her tag along since she doesn't get to see or experience very many of the things Kyndall does.

Kyndall's friend Avarie lives down the street so she came down so they could trick-or-treat together

I love our neighborhood at Halloween! It is literally crawling with kids and parents all out having fun and we always bump into lots of friends along the way. Kyndall and Avarie ended up seeing their friend Katie. All three of these girls are in the same class and are good friends.

We also met up with a few other friends once Avarie had to go home for the night

With temps dropping into the low 30's that night I didn't think she would last long but I should have known better. Not even the cold could stop this girl from hitting the streets for 2.5 solid hours. She had a lot of loot to show for all her hard work!

October went by so quickly, especially since we had a week off from school and had a nice little break right in the middle. It was definitely a fun month!