Marriage Retreat and Valentines Day!

So a few weekends ago we were given the wonderful opportunity to attend a fellowship of christian athletes coaches marriage retreat in Franklin Tennessee!! It was one of the coolest things we have ever done! I don't believe that marriage retreats are for marriages that are in trouble or failing (well I believe with the divorce rate at 50% everyone's marriage is in trouble with the devil in this world) and I will take ANY chance I can to further strengthen our marriage and our walk of faith! It is beyond special to have them both like at a christian marriage retreat! 

So Cody left school early Friday for us to get there by 3:00pm to check in to the Embassy hotel which many of the conference sessions were held at also. (Driving pic above) We were very pleasantly surprised to see how nice the hotel was!! We had no idea! Each hotel room was like a mini apartment with separate rooms and everything!

We arrived just in time and immediately were handed a lanyard with a detailed schedule of our weekend and headed off to the other place the sessions were being held, D1 sports, as they fed us dinner there along with two marriage/coaching sessions. The guest speakers for the six sessions over the weekend were pastors and really neat people! For Friday's sessions, we learned about our impact on players and our impact on each other in marriage. We also broke out into huddle groups and got to meet really interesting couples from around the state! The huddle groups focused on scripture and reinforcing and discussing what was being taught in the sessions. There was a dual focus for the weekend being of course marriage and strengthening/connecting that bond even through difficult sport seasons where you may be away for most of the days for months on end, and coaches christian impact on their schools and players.

It was beyond amazing being able to connect to other coaches wives who understand what it is like to have a coach as a husband and how different it is to any other job a husband might have. We just get it and it's nice to be able to have that in common. 

They then fed us dessert and we went back to our hotel at 11:00pm. The next morning we woke up bright and early at 6:50am to make it to the start of the conference day #2 at 7:00am. They were long days but soooo worth it! We ate the huge breakfast the hotel provided along with other coaches and thier wives (I love meeting new people especially with things in common) and had individual prayer and bible study time for an hour with our table and then just Cody and I before the first official session began. 

Us in one of the breakout sessions

We listened to an amazing sermon on inspiration and then broke out to our huddle groups from there. Then all 125 couples there were given the opportunity to choose 2 out of 4 group sessions to attend and Cody and I chose the 4 quarters of marriage and health. We then went back to D1 Sports to eat the catered lunch for us as we broke into our huddle groups to discuss the mini sessions with our table. We then had another short session and the coaches broke away into coaching groups and the coaches wives all went back to the hotel for the coaches wives session. I thought this was a very special thing to do so the wives can connect to each other and our husbands can connect together on coaching and how to improve/implement ideas and positive christian impacts on their players! The wives broke into groups after the speaker talked and worked on scripture versus and implementing positive action words into our lives to help us better understand and cope with football seasons such as patience, understanding, forgiveness, humbleness, etc. I struggle most with patience but I am working on it very hard! See, my grandfather was the assistant head coach at UT for a number of years a long time ago so my grandmother was a coaches wife. So I have heard coaches wives stories my whole life and I definitely knew what I was getting into marrying Cody and being just that! On the other hand back at D1, the coaches were learning different coaching strategies and actually completed a workout all together which they loved! 

We all met back together 3 hours later for the scheduled date night they had for us!! We had reservations at the Rainforest Cafe in Nashville's Opry Mills mall and loved it so much!!! When else do you get the chance to go to the Rainforest Cafe!? It is so magical and reminded us of our Disney honeymoon!!

I got to sit behind a fish aquarium :):)

We finished our meal with their famous dessert, the volcano! You better believe we ate every single bit of it too haha!!!

After dinner we walked around the mega mall and got back to the hotel at 11:30pm. We watched movies in our bed which is so awesome by the way, and fell asleep excited for the next day. 

So the next day we woke up bright and early for our 7am session and ate our breakfast with our prayer time again and then headed to the final session about investment and how you can invest in your faith, coaching, and marriage. We listened to the pastors wonderful message, sang together, had our final huddle groups and left at noon back home. We met so many new friends and hated to go!

When you leave something like this you just feel renewed and refreshed with your passion for the Lord and your connection to him just continues growing from there. There is no better feeling in the world! It is wonderful to be able to worship God as a unit in marriage and you can also be each other's study buddy of the Word! So much fun, forever bible study buddy!

So for the following week I kicked my cooking skills into high gear and started making healthy meals for Cody and I that were vegetable based. We are both trying to lose weight. Above is one of my favorite meals, omelette with spinach and zuchini noodles cooked with olive oil!

Oh and on MLK day we took this opportunity to take down all of our Christmas decorations. It was so incredibly sad but much needed!

I rode my hot pink ripstick many times this week because it is to darn fun!

A few nights ago Cody and I put together our last night stand that we got from Gigi for Christmas! It was so fun to build something together! I got to use my pink tool set, right up my alley! We put the sucker together super quick because this was my specialty in my Engineering fundamental classes in college! I love building things! Almost as much as I love writing! It took us this long to build our last one because the one before was missing an important screw and we had to send it back.

So the other weekend we went on a fun date night with Cody leading it full of surprises that I didn't know. He is so sweet! We first ate Chinese food then went to starbucks, then he took us to the mall so I could buy my favoite body spray perfume things at Bath and Body Works because he knows how much I love that and then took us to see the movie, The Resurrection of Gavin Stone, which was surprisingly really good! We ended the night with a surprise trip to get ice cream (our favorite!) and stopped by his parents house to say hi. Cody is always so much fun and loves to always surprise me! 

Now since the Christmas decorations are put up, we tried to decorate for valentines day but this is all we could muster to find but that's ok! And yes that is my smoothie so stay tuned for the awesome recipe blog post coming soon!!

So now on to Valentines Day!!

So on the morning of Valentines day, I woke up (Cody was already at work) and I came into the kitchen to this beautiful setup Cody left for me! He really went above and beyond to make me feel special. We really love Valentines day since we are both a romantic (lucky right!) and really try to make the other person feel happy and special. So I immediately opened the blue gift bag and inside was a GORGEOUS necklace and earring set Cody picked out himself for me! He really has an amazing taste for jewelry especially being a guy, and I love everything he has picked out over the last 6 years! The small vase of roses you see are actually chocolate roses! He is so creative (and knows I LOVE chocolate). The big red sheet is actually a mega card! I was so shocked with the size of it and absolutely loved it and his sweet words. 

After I opened the gifts, I worked on my gifts for Cody the rest of the day until he got home at 4:30. We then rushed to Bonefish Grill because we had reservations at 5 and ate an amazing, amazing dinner.

Here is my chocolate rose and if you can see, the gorgeous necklace he picked out for me!

After our Bonefish selfie by the water fountain outside, Cody had surprises planned the rest of the night. He then loaded me up in the car and handed me the sweetest card! Then he took me to Starbucks, our favorite place ever! (I love tea and he loves coffee) When we got back in the car he told me we were heading to bowl! I was ecstatic because I love bowling so much and we hadn't gone in over 3 years! I won by 3 points! It was such a fun game especially since Cody and I were so evenly matched. When we got back in the car he handed me a hear-shaped box of sour gummy worms! 😁 

Cody then surprised me taking me to Brewsters to finish off the night with more chocolate!...Chocolate ice cream that is. We got home and watched an episode of our favorite tv series, criminal minds and I had Cody open my gifts to him.

The main things I gave Cody were a plush emoji (that we use all the time), a reeces heart, two cards because I couldn't decide which was funnier, and sweet hearts. I actually made a love card of our love story out of the sweet heart messages if you have ever seen anything like that. He loved the creativity! 

Cody really knows the way to my heart, red roses, chocolate, sour gummy worms, and sweet words. I love him so much and enjoyed our first Valentines day married emensly! Everything is just that much sweeter being married!

With so much love,

Cody and Kayla Raborn

2-15-17 

New Years!!

So throughout the rest of Christmas break, Cody and I just really enjoyed spending time together. We would sleep in, run necessary errands, cook together, and spend time with our families. 

So one of the amazing gifts mom gave to Morgan and I for Christmas was seeing the Light festival at Rock City! It was beyond beautiful and just the most amazing Christmas thing I have ever done! We walked through the lights and the different scenes for over two hours! The weather was perfect, the night was perfect, and the people we spent it with was the best part! We definitely had a blast!

Our group picture!

By the way, I am very sorry all the pictures are dark, they were obviously taken at night and I did my best to try to lighten them up!

This was the ice adventure land! Lights were just canopied throughout the trees and through the rock canyons. It reminded me of the movie Frozen. 

We next stood with the city behind us. A fun fact is that at this exact spot you are able to see seven states at the same time (in the day time)!

One of the parts of the light extravaganza was gnome world! It was personally my favorite part! They had all of the mother goose nursery rhymes such as Hansel and Grethel set out, illuminating in black light! You can't forget those old nursery rhymes, you just can't. This generation is losing that sweet touch and it shows. My kids will be very familiar with all of them just like how Cody and I were raised and probably like how you were too!

We walked down to the polar bear cave in honor of it being my favorite animal :). It was so precious!!! The mama bear was rocking her cub!!😍

Towards the end there was this gingerbread light village that was so neat! It must have taken them FOREVER to set all of this up! I really took the time to notice this throughout the whole Rock City and appreciate it because WOW! You can tell a lot of work was put into making it the attraction it is!

So the following weekend was of course New Years, and Cody and I were beyond excited especially with it being our first married New Years (sorry you must be sick of that now but hey only a few more firsts left! ha). But another aspect we were excited about was that we were having our very own New Years party and it was at our apartment! We have never hosted New Years none the less even have been together married in our own apartment for the celebration! It still blows my mind y'all. We got all dressed for our 'party' and I wore (above) this cute little sweater I got from mom for Christmas. It is a rose gold champagne kind of color with rose gold sequins on the shoulder part of the sleeve if you can see. I absolutely loved it and have never had something quite like it! I felt festive lol!

I even felt so festive I had to join the bandwagon and take a mirror selfie! 

So later back at the apartment we popped open our bottle of bubbly sparkling grape juice (we don't drink) and cheered the New Year in!

But of course had to have crackers and different meats finger foods. It wouldn't be New Years without that would it?! It was like a luncheable on steroids!!!

A few days later we got all ready for the national championship which was a surprising game! We watched it with our dad at our uncle's house before he left back to Texas. Above of course I had to sport my other new sweater from mom with the slits at the sleeve. It is a new 'in' look too and I am trying to decide how I feel about it. So far I am indifferent leaning more towards the side of loving it! But anyways, we loved watching the game and talking football with dad. We were right in Cody's alley with that but what you may not know is that Morgan and I have always LOVED football and have talked to our dad about it our whole lives along with watching what seemed like almost every game that was on with him. That was one of our ways to bond with him and it is so beyond cool. Dad always waned girls and got just that but now he even has the best of both worlds! Girls who love football!!! Dad loves it!! :):):)

And now, yes, this last shirt is olive. (sorry for the overload on clothes, I just stopped shopping 100% for 5 years in college because I didn't have the time and now am taking some of that time back for myself and finally getting a small new wardrobe for the first time since mid-high school!) Olive is an 'in' color and I don't wear 'in' colors until they are 'out' for 2 years. I have always been like that for some reason. I guess I don't pay that close attention. So when I bought this only a few months when people stopped wearing it (because of winter) I was so proud of myself and actually LOVED it! What do you think?

I hope all is well for everyone and you can make 2017 the best year yet for you! 

P.S. The next blog coming up will be all about our marriage retreat and our first married Valentines day ;).

With so much love,

Kayla Raborn

1-22-17

Family Christmases and Bowl Games

Christmas time, the best time of the year!! And having our first married Christmas has been the best Christmas yet by far! We are finally together for real for Christmas!

So Christmas for us basically started December 8th and went through the 28th (We like to spread holidays out in our family).

So starting the weekend of December 8th, Cody and I finished buying family gifts, each other's gifts, and started wrapping them all. We kept our presents for each other under the tree for weeks to build anticipation ;).

I was surprised at how well my honey can wrap gifts and how much tape you can possibly fit on one present #went through 3 rolls lol

While caught up in the excitement of wrapping presents I started to smell something funny. I knew I was in the process of cooking Cody supper but I looked over in the toaster oven and saw black and popped the toast out and quickly made another lol. Does it look burned to you? I don't know it might still have been ok....?🙊🙈

So for the week of the 12th I went to Walmart and bought cookie supplies and decorative boxes for Cody and I's Christmas gift for our family. Since this is our first year being married, we wanted to give back to our family for all the support and help each of them have given us this past year of planning and helping us set up our little place. I don't know what we honestly would do without family. So as our Christmas gift to them (which we hope to continue for our tradition every year as our own small family) we gave them a box full of four different types of cookies: 

Peanut butter kiss cookies which are our favorite.

Sugar cookies with icing in between and rolled in sprinkles.

Red velvet crinkle cookies (another family favorite)

And my unique recipe of marble swirl cookie of half chocolate chip cookies and the other half brownie cookies. 

The night before we left for our Nana's Christmas to kick off the festivities, we made rounds to all of our family members in Chattanooga, visited, and dropped off the cookies. 

So the next afternoon we picked up our cousin Nathan and made the drive to Gatlinburg. On the way there as we entered the back roads of Pigeon Forge we passed the most breathtaking church with the gorgeous sunset setting behind it.

Besides Nana, we were the first ones to arrive at the casbin and toured the three story cabin quickly claiming our room (ours had a door directly to the porch and the hot tub, perfect for us!). It was so neat, the married grandkids got an entire floor to ourselves. The top floor had two bedrooms overlooking the living room, the main floor had two bedrooms and a nice living room, and the bottom floor had a pool table, separate living area, porch/hot tub, and two bedrooms. Within the next two hours everyone poured in and we were having an absolute blast together catching up and helping Nana cook dinner. And of course we used this time to set up our first annual prank for the older adults ;). Before most of us got here, me, Cody, and Nathan went around the cabin hiding pictures of Nicholas Cage pictures (such as below) all around the cabin. We plastered it on the inside of the toilet lids, inside the shower wall behind the curtains, underneath the covers in their beds, and inside the microwave to scare the poop out of people! It was epic. BEYOND EPIC. Easily the best prank year yet and it had just begun. So all through the weekend we heard loud gasps as each picture was found (oh and by the way the pictures were the size of a standard copy paper sheet of paper :):)) The first few found were found in the toilet and under the sheets. We designed it slowly that way so the surprises could last all weekend. *evil laugh

So night time rolled around and we all got in our pj's and I came up with one of the best surprises, my shirt. Everyone loved it so much. Cody found this at Walmart and had to get it for me for our Dyar Christmas because I've never seen a family Christmas more like the Griswolds than ours!

We then iced our cookies which is one of my favorite things about Nana's Christmas. I always make two of the colors and try my best to make civil beautiful cookies now that I'm older, but one always sneaks in like that camel. It is a camel that stepped on a land mine and the blood splattered everywhere on it. I promise I'm not graphic, it is tradition for us and you should see everyone else's ones! I was just proud I only did one this year!

This is Cody's cookies and he is still learning how to do the family graphic cookies so he did a scuba diver Santa. We are working on that ;) Still really creative though!

So after cookies, the older adults started going to bed one couple at a time until it was just us grandkids left at 3:30am. We used this window of opportunity wisely because we knew our uncle Wade wakes up an hour later and we started operation prank #2. So we gathered around the pool table with a bunch of gag gifts strategizing which older adult gives these gifts to the other. See, our prank is us gathering random gag gifts to give to the older adults from other older adults such as: From Nana to Jody, From David to Wade. And when our Nana passes them out, the person "giving" the gift will start to silently panic inside thinking oh my goodness I didn't give a gift but I don't want to take it back because it looks bad to do, and I'll just go along with it just in case someone else got it for me to give that person. So they sit there silently anxious to see and own up to their 'gift' while the person receiving the gift silently panics because they didn't give that person a gift and feel really bad. So if you can follow that, it really is genius. So for the next hour we wrapped these fake gifts and practiced forging their handwritings and placed the 8 gifts under the tree among the rest of the gifts. They fit right in and no one suspected a thing. The reason that aspect worked because when we all came to the cabin, we always put our own gifts under the tree for people so it didn't look suspicious. So we went to sleep with so much excitement and anticipation and woke up at 8am.

So after our yummy sausage balls breakfast, Nana sat us all around like usual and started passing out the presents. The first phase was for Nana not to be suspicious or recognize the forged

"To and From's" handwriting and it worked! Nana didn't even hesitate! So the gifts were successfully passed out to their new "owners" and we started opening gifts. The first gag gift opened was my aunt Jody opening her gift from "Nana". It was a necklace box with hand sanitizer inside. Aunt Jody was immediately confused and looked at Nana and asked what the story was behind this hand sanitizer and Nana was like, I didn't give you that. Then Jody was like, but it has your name on it. And we were dying laughing inside but tried to hide our composure. So she just set it down confused as Nanas attention was pulled to something esle. Luckily there was so much chaos that no one noticed the odd exchange. The next fake gift opened was my uncle Wade opening a gift from my dad. His expression was priceless. He told me later that he was a little panicked because he and dad agreed not to do anything for each other that year, but the most surprised look was when he opened the army men first followed by the silly putty. It literally took him 5 minutes to decide dad really didn't give it to him. Luckily dad was across the room so he couldn't confront him or ask him what the heck it meant lol. The next gift was for my sweet daddy from sweet Jody. Man she is such a giver. She apparently wrapped up Nana's car keys and gave them as a gift to dad. Wow an entire car! And Nana's to be exact! Such a sweet gift. LOLOLOLOLOL. You should have seen the look of pure shock and surprise on Nana's face when she realized her car was a gift to dad hehehehe. I mean, the best "present" yet 😂😂😂😂😂. The next "gift" was to Tonya from Nana. It was a Dora the explorer puzzle. Tonya was so sweet and thanked Nana for the gift (but couldn't figured out why Dora, ironically she loves puzzles and Nana has actually given her puzzles in the past) and since Nana was so busy she didn't look at what she was holding and said you're welcome and went on. (Don't worry, 30 minutes later we told her it wasn't from Nana). The last "gift" from Nana was to Jody. It was a ring box with a Hershey kiss inside. And poor Nana since she was so caught up in the gifts and everyone opening the real gifts she never really picked up on the prank and when she opened the Hershey kiss from Jody she just looked at her super confused then thought we had gotten a hold of it and switched it and we all had a good laugh. See that is what I'm talking about loving pranks so much, but they are harmless and so much fun. They bring people closer together. That is the key. Well maybe they were all harmless besides us giving Nana's car away. 😂 (of course dad really didn't take it). So that started off our day just incredibly exciting and with lots of good laughs. And on a serious note we LOVED all the sweet thoughtful real gifts Nana got us. My favorite gift is the stadium chair she gave me so I can sit in for all of Cody's games!! I can use that for the rest of my life so many times a year.

So after presents, we all cleaned up and headed to our event, the Dixie Stampede!! We loved it so so much and ate our weight in chicken! The riders were so tallented and the show was so amazing! It really put us in the Christmas mood!

Pictures and videos weren't allowed but I managed to snap this photo before the show started. The Dixie Stampede was truly amazing and I highly recommend it to everyone!

Big group pic of the Dyar clan!

After the Dixie Stampede we went back to the cabin and played games and told stories until the wee hours of the night!

The next morning we all ate at our favorite resturant, Applebarn! I was so tasty and amazing! They always have birds inside the restuant an I just couldn't help but stare at these cute little lovebirds! They never left each other's side!

We all went our separate ways after breakfast, some going back to Chattanooga, some going back to the cabin, and our car visiting the Christmas store!! Cody and I (along with Nathan) were on a hunt for an angel to top our tree! We didn't even have a star so of course our preference was an angel so we scourged around the huge huge store, tying our hands to not want to buy everything lol and found our perfect angel! We then went back to the cabin to find everyone packing up which was odd because we were scheduled to leave the next morning. Apparently there was a predicted snowstorm coming and we were on a steep hill. In order for the working folk to make it back in time the next day and for our safety, with heavy hearts left a day early. Me, Cody, and Morgan stayed at Nana's house from Monday until Wednesday to spend time with our dad before he headed back to Atlanta since we only see him a few times a year. On Thursday we went home, unpacked and repacked for Gigi's Christmas, and after, went to Cody's papaw's assisted living homes Christmas party which was really sweet. After the party we left for Knoxville again that night. 

We arrived at Gigi's house and were greeted with a big wet kiss from Sasha! Sweet doggie! We all trickled in as dinner time approached and ate stew and got into our matching pjs. We played family games, watched the adults open their presents, and went to bed at 4:00am. My family doesn't sleep y'all and I love it! Poor Sasha was so confused! She probably thought she missed bed time and it was the next day because she stayed up late with us all and she has a strict strict bed time of 9:00pm and has never in her 9 months of life gone over that time. So she was walking around all 15 of us very baffled. 

The next morning we wake up at 8:00am to Sasha jumping on all of our beds! She beat us downstairs as all of us grandkids lined up on the stairs waiting for Gigi to let us down to the living room. We started with stockings and moved to the couch for the other presents. Gigi and Granddad are so sweet and always work so hard to think of us grandkids and what we need. Cody and I got our long wanted nightstands from them!! They are so beautiful and are a chocolate brown color! They are my favorite gift from them!!  

Hey even Sasha got nice gifts! This is so priceless! She got her very own UT football jersey and even wore it for us! She ran around the house like a little football player! She fit right in!

And hey when push comes to shove and you've had a little too much fun, you might become a little sick from all the excitement. Poor Sasha (she was ok!)

Our matching pjs! The girls had matching ones and the guys did. It was so cool to be the married grandkid at Christmas! Times are changing!

This was the chaos of all the leftover trash from the present boxes and all of us 10 grandkids. The best part of this picture is Sasha! If you look really close you can see her with a panicked, what's going on face right in the middle of everything lololol.

I love the socks!! It seems like I always need socks lol.

So after we opened presents, we ate our morning rice breakfast Gigi made and left to the Raborns Christmas around 2:30pm. 

As we traveled the trips back and forth between Gatlingurg, Knoxville, and Chattanooga, my little riding buddy Max (from the Grinch who stole Christmas) of course had to come along to double as a soft buddy, a comfy pillow, and a holder of my headband :).

We got to Cody's parents house around 7:00pm after our churches Christmas Eve performance which was amazing by the way (and Cody's first time going to church on Christmas Eve (I know, how did they not do that growing up, it was my family and I's favorite!)). We started off the night eating a big feast my mother-in-law made and then opened gifts and played a game and left early unfortunately................yeah. 

Cody and I were exhausted and a little grumpy from lack of sleep and over stimulation of family and travel. Don't get me wrong, we wouldn't have it any other way but this was our first time home in over a week and our first time alone in the same room in over a week. So we settled down in our little 'home' and enjoyed each other's company and started our own traditions we wanted to implement for our little family for the years to come. Oh and I of course had to document my Christmas Eve outfit! I loved the Christmas leggings so so much! So me! (pic above)

So now at this point we were relaxed and ready for just our very own fun Christmas stuff just the two of us! I tell you, there is nothing better than married Christmas!! So late on Christmas Eve night, we started our thing. We got into our comfy pjs (and my fluffy new slippers which I love!) and watched The Christmas Story, "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" while we made our gingerbread house! Neither of our families have ever had the tradition of gingerbread houses so I though that would be a wonderful thing for us to start and have our future kids do!!

We then went to bed and woke up early because we were too excited about each other opening our gifts for one another!

(Closer picture of baby Cody!)

So we opened each other's presents and loved everything we got for each other! It was so much fun! Cody was so thoughtful with his gifts and we finally got to use our stockings!! For breakfast we had sausage balls that Nana left for us and we played with our presents and put them together (I got Cody a stationary bike that he had been wanting), and played football plays with Cody's new football game he got in the picture above! I love how he can now visually teach me his favorite plays so I can be the best coaches wife I can be!  

One of the awesome gifts Cody got me was floam! It is a squishy slime that I love to play with! It came in like a painters pallet thing with different colors and glitter. (I am such a kid ;))

One of my favorite things is the clothes Cody ordered for me! (I made him a list because I like clothes!) I loved the shirt and the lace part in the front so much! Below is the cutout back and the cool lace features of the tank top underneath! We finished the day off seeing a movie and making brownies for dinner and watching Criminal Minds.

The next morning was my mom's Christmas at her house! It was so much fun!!! Cody and I got over there at 9:00am and all ate sausage balls with mom, Nana, and Morgan and then opened our presents. I made mom a huge Shutterfly picture book of my graduation, wedding showers, bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinner, and the wedding. She loves pictures so much so she loved it which made me really happy because she is almost impossible to shop for. Mom made this Christmas so amazing and welcomed Cody into our little mix! It was so special. Mom takes so much time and energy to surprise us with the things she gets us and really goes the extra mile to listen carefully throughout the year to what we have been needing and wanting. Because of that we got really neat things including that really pretty hot pink rip stick that I had secretly been wanting for over 3 years. I am a stunt junkie and crave learning anything challenging like that or things like unicycles (which I can ride expertly!). Later that day, we all ate lunch together, bonded over family games, made hamburgers, and left around 10:30 at night. It was a blast!

A few days later we went to my uncle Wades house to watch the vols music city bowl game. *grumble growl, I'm trying to be positive about it because we should have been in a much bigger bowl game. But we had a blast together spending time with dad and having soup Jody made for all of us and playing board games! The Dyars are fun to be around! Even cousin Nathan was there! It's always a party when hes around!

And of course, I had to wear one of my favorite gifts from Cody, my UT alumni tshirt. Uncle Wade was so jealous lol. But I love it so much and it means so much to me! I can't wait to wear it to a game next season!! I was the most shocked person ever when I opened it up because I had looked so long for one online and couldn't find one! He is a sweetheart!

With so much love,

Kayla and Cody Raborn

1-22-17