{ fall festival }

Our fabulous friends, the Myers, host a shin-dig in their back yard every Labor Day weekend called the Fall Festival. The guest list is pretty eclectic, ranging from family members to high school buddies to small group friends. In years past (before kids), the activities at the Fall Festival consisted of a pop-a-shot tournament, a bags tournament, a ping pong tournament, and a crazy-long Texas Hold 'Em tournament. These days most of us are chasing kiddos around the yard instead of just kicking back in our lawn chairs, but it's pretty much the same stuff (minus the pop-a-shot, and the poker is a little more tame). The annual invite requests that guests "BYOPNP" (that's Bring Your Own Pack N Play, for those of you who don't speak Mommy).

Hannah and her pals are at such a fun age right now. Brian had a great time getting them fired up with some exciting games. (By "exciting" games, I mean he literally said "Hey girls, on the count of three, run over to that fence!" And so they did run - A LOT - giggling and squealing the whole time.

Here they are, awaiting instruction for the next sprint. I love the crazed look in their eyes!

In between his coaching duties, Brian had time to be a serious contender in the Ping Pong tournament. That is, until Joel cashed in on all of Brian's unforced errors to take the 2010 title. (As I type this, Brian is sighing and mumbling something about "next year...")

The rest of the evening was just spent hanging out with friends, enjoying the cool fall-ish evening, and partaking in what may have been the final grill out of the year.

And while it may or may not be true that I missed a phone message from someone trying to give Brian Mizzou/Illinois tickets for that day, thereby causing him to miss the chance to see the last Border Wars game ever to be played, I'm sure there's NOWHERE else he would have rather been on Saturday than at the Fall Festival. (Not even at the pre-game brunch with the MU players that was included in the ticket offer).

If that were true, then I would be married to the most forgiving man in the world.

And for real, we did have a wonderful time at the Fall Festival.