Thanksgiving - Snapperbowl

We are currently in Florida. Isn't this a lovely place??

Several members of Joshua's football team have travelled to Florida to play in the annual Thanksgiving Day Snapperbowl. We brought our friends, Braiden and Kirstin with us. They had not been to the ocean before, so that has been a lot of fun -- getting to experience the ocean with them for the first time. Many of the kids go to school with Braiden and Kirstin has a friend from school who came with her grandparents so everyone has someone to play with which is great.

All the kids have been a great help with Ellie and she is just in love with Kirstin. She lights up like a Christmas tree when she sees her. She has really enjoyed having lots of kids around.

Ellie got her first trip to the ocean as well and she pretty much had the same reaction as Josh did when he was her age and first went to the beach. She doesn't care for the sand and the ocean scares her. She did, however, LOVE the spa. She has been sporting her bikini, and I'm proud to report, she has gained enough weight that her tummy sticks out on her bathing suit. Considering how small she was and is, this is a GOOD thing.

We had Thanksgiving as a team yesterday. Everyone brought a dish and we had LOTS of food. And while it was nice, I really missed being at home with family on Thanksgiving. It was nice to do it once -- we'd promised Josh for two year that we'd let him go one year -- but I doubt we'll do it again. I want to be home for the holidays. We are VERY THANKFUL this year, to have Ellie HOME with us. She is certainly one of our many blessings. We are thankful that we can share Joshua's excitement as he comes to Florida to pursue his passion. We are thankful for so many things. It has been a hard, but very rewarding year.

The boys lost both games they played in. The first team was really good, and the second team was NOT made up of 10 year old boys -- they were the biggest kids I've ever seen. One of the kids on the team came off the field and told the coach, "Coach, that kid was shaving while I was trying to tackle him." They were also a team that showed very poor sportsmanship, threatening at one point to "kill" the quarterback -- resulting in a 10 (or 15, I can't remember) yard penalty and a stern warning from the referees. Why that kid wasn't taken out, I don't know. The boys literally got beaten all over the field. There was no possible way our boys could have held this team off. I'm not kidding at all when I say some of them were at least 7th or 8th graders. They were MUCH taller than our kids and our boys reported they had deep voices -- like someone older. They never took a knee when a boy got hurt. They earned a flag on at least 95% of their plays, making the game go longer and longer because they kept getting penalized. It was a horrible experience for all involved.

This is the trophy we got for "showing up". Mr. Poss called it the "trophy for the team whose members didn't shave."

This is Josh after the really hard game. He had trouble bringing down these kids and THIS boy is strong.
We are glad to have tomorrow (Saturday) off to just enjoy the pools and beaches. We'll then start home on Sunday.

The kids have all had a great time playing in the ocean.

These are some of my favorite photos of the sunset.

Ellie (and her mom) have discovered some type of "cookie" called "Mum Mums" that sort of dissolve in baby's mouth. Ellie is pretty fond of them as you can see. I've not seen these back home so I got a couple of boxes to take home.