I haven’t done a really good job keeping up with this thing. To be honest, one of the main reasons I started making posts more consistently was because I knew that my mom was checking often to see new pictures of us. Once I started working full time and then she went into the assisted living home, I kind of let things slide a few weeks here and there. Now that she’s passed, it’s been kind of hard to find the motivation to keep up with it, but it’s still fun to look back at the pictures and see what we’ve done. I can’t say that I’m going to get back to posting weekly, but hopefully it won’t be several months like this last time has been. Here’s what the end of 2025 (and the beginning of 2026) has looked like for the Darr family!
AND as luck would have it, I downloaded these backwards…so I guess we’re gonna travel back in time through the post since I don’t feel like moving them all around, haha.
Yesterday, we went hiking in Government Canyon (which is literally down the road from our neighborhood) to go see the petrified dinosaur tracks.It’s a five mile round-trip hike, but they are really cool to see.It got up to 85 degrees, but luckily it wasn’t humid.A lot of the path was rocky like this, which made it a little difficult at times.Happy New Year!!This was the first year we got fireworks for NYE.Each of the kids even got into the fun.I was surprised that she wanted to (she’s gotten rather cautious), but she did great!Roasting marshmallows over the grill.It’s much easier to do it this way (especially since we don’t have a fire pit).All decked out in her warm clothes…This was the year of new video games for this kiddo.She’s a kid after my own heart.Santa knew he wanted games, too!She was excited to get one of these…but then she got tired of it asking for things all the time, haha. She has since enlisted her brother to help her keep the thing alive. 😀Sprinkling reindeer food on the grass for Santa’s reindeer.All cozied up.Dad showing her how to fly her drone.It’s hard to believe we have a 9YO! We had her birthday party at Urban Air (a trampoline park).She pretty much lived in this ball pit.This was probably her favorite place.One magical thing about going to Six Flags at the beginning of winter break: she got to see “snow”.She was so excited to see this guy. She ran up saying, “Yetiiiiiiiiii!”If there was a chair that she could sit in, she had to sit in it.These singing trees were pretty cute.Seeing all the Christmas stuff was fun.Waiting for Abigail and Dad to get off a ride.She got him to go on Green Lantern with her.At Halloween, this arch was covered in jack-o’lanterns. At Christmas, it’s all lights. She likes to sit in the tester seats…because she says that then she can just pretend to go on the ride (she’s not ready for big coasters yet).We loved all the trees that were around the park!Holding on to her hat.She was excited to get to go in the engine.This is always the first ride she has to go on.I meant it about the chairs…The other cool thing about going on the first day of break (as in, we got home from work on that Friday and then loaded everyone up to go): it was pretty empty.Ward Christmas party…he likes us…I promise.This was her, “Please let me run with the other kids” face. I finally relented.Winter concert. Luckily he’s tall or we would never get any clear pictures of him.Paul went up to Dallas for an LP thing and while he didn’t get to do a whole lot of sightseeing, he did get a picture in front of a sign.I think this was from Thanksgiving break. The kids and I went up to Buc-ee’s for some new Christmas shirts.Slides can be staticky.We met up with some friends of mine from high school that were passing through San Antonio. We went to Pinkerton’s BBQ and had a nice visit.Annual picture with Santa at Bass Pros.She was excited to get an Arctic fox from Bass Pros.Giving Machines 2025This is one of her favorite things to do.Playing with Joseph’s LEGOS.Daddy-daughter bonding time……beating the snot out of each other on Street Fighter. Abigail is surprisingly good.Paul took Joseph camping back in November with some other men and their sons in our ward.Making s’mores.It might have been his favorite thing that night.I pulled out my old Letterman’s jacket and she wanted to wear it.3rd grade performance.She also performed for the Veterans’ Day assembly. Paul missed it because……he was able to support Joseph at HIS Veterans’ Day performance.He’s come a long way as a percussionist.We went to a fancy LP dinner.I guess the fun of getting a Lunchable is getting to build giant sandwiches.Abigail found a legit 4-leaf clover in the backyard.She was pretty excited.I love that she dresses up as whatever she wants for Halloween and doesn’t care about gender-stereotypes.This was at the end of trick-or-treating. She was beat, haha.Dad has really been working with her to bike without training wheels.Fall concert! He got to wear his Halloween costume.This was her initial go without training wheels…Costume parade at the ward trunk-or-treat.Joseph opted for his knight costume from last year.Waiting for the trunk-or-treat to start. This was a really cool idea that they had: huge coloring sheets that took up the entire table with crayons already there so the kids could color while waiting.Author visits are fun!Our pumpkins this year. I hadn’t done mine yet (I ended up drawing Jack Skellington’s face on that big orange one and Paul finished painting it for me…October is never a month where I have free time).School trunk-or-treat.We went to Six Flags in October. Here Abigail was holding on to her glasses so they wouldn’t fly off.I love these guys.Trying on her Luigi costume.National Night Out band performance at our park.Abigail has been asking for a couple years now to make an ofrenda. I finally got around to doing it.Quality time playing games together.A book Abigail wrote: “My Superhero Mom”“My mom gives me bandaids when I get hurt”“My mom gives me hugs”“My mom helps me feel better when I’m sick”“My mom cheers me up when I’m sad”“I think my mom is a superhero”Um, all the heart-eyes possible for this, y’all.She was excited to see fall decorations at school.
