Missing You All

Since I am having to be away from the family for Thanksgiving, I guess St. Thomas, Virgin Islands isn't too bad of a place to be.

We got here late Tuesday night, sharing a charter flight with Texas Tech. It was a four hour flight which wasn't bad at all.

Today we had practice after lunch, then went on a snorkling trip then came back and went up a tram to Paradise Point where we saw a bird show then had dinner.

I am posting some picture for you to enjoy (if I can get them to upload, the connection is reallly slow). We are staying at the Frenchman's Reef which is a Marriott property. Iguanas roam free around the grounds, big ones too.

We start our games tomorrow. We play Central Florida tomorrow, Villanova on Friday and Wisconsin on Saturday. We leave here early Sunday morning and should be back in town by noon.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

MOOOOORE FOOTBALL

For the first time since 2001, Lorena football has made the playoffs. That means Jon's high school football got extended by at least one more game. In order to advance to the playoffs they had to beat the league's top team which, up until Friday night, was undefeated in league action.

Jon was credited with two touchdowns and 102 yards in the victory although he said he only scored one. The error makes up for the one that he got shorted earlier in the season!!! He is now over 1,200 yards for the season.

I didn't get to see the game as the Lady Bears had an exhibition game last Friday. However, Heather and Brodie each kept me informed throughout the game via text messages. They will play on Thursday night so both Bruce and I will get to see it.

The roaming photographer again captured family pictures in the stands and I've included one of Megan, Heather and Parker.

Friday Night Photo Bug

Since I am friends with most of the media/photographers that cover high school football games, it gives me a hook up to get pictures taken. Friday night Lorena had a home game and the photographer got several good pictures of the Bennett Clan.

In addition, there’s a good article on Lorena’s game and Jon made the front page of sports. He ran for 196 yards and four touchdowns.

To view the article and pictures go the to the Waco Tribune-Herald's website: click here.

Scroll down to the High School Section and click on the Come Back & Vote link. Jon’s action picture should pop up, you will also be able to read the article. From there if you click on Fans in the Stands: 3A Games: Oct. 17 you will be able to see several family pictures: 113 – Me and Parker; 118 – Chris; 153 - Heather and Jon; 159, 171, 172 - Jon; 290 – Heather; 298 – Parker sleeping.

Enjoy!!

Friday Night Lights Again

Went to Jon’s game again last night. They went into the game underdogs, the local paper had them losing the game 28-24 on the road. Oh, how wrong they were!!! The Leopards won 56-35.

First off, Jon-Boy just busted it loose last night, 38 carries, 202 yards rushing, a couple of caught passes and THREE touchdowns. Not only that, he really punished some tacklers and also laid some hellacious blocks for others.

Noticed a big difference in him this season as compared to last. This year he keeps churning when the tacklers get him, last night he was twisting and turning and gained extra yardage most of the time.

For the second straight week, he made all the local TV station’s highlight reel. In fact one of the stations said this during his segment. “And here’s Lorena’s Jon Bennett a favorite and his grandma too, here’s to you Julie….” Talk about doing a double-take when we heard that!!!!

Gotta go for now, am at the football stadium getting ready for our game with Iowa State, GO BEARS!!!!!

Frisco Softball

On Saturday, Ninny and I went to Frisco to watch Ashton play softball. She plays every Saturday morning and since I'm either working on a media guide or at a football game, I haven't gotten to see her play.

Thursday morning on my way to work I realized that if I got up early and headed up there, I could be back in time to do what I needed to do at the equestrian match. So, mom and I left at 7 a.m. and drove to Erin and Bobby's house. We didn't tell Ashton we were coming.

When we rang the doorbell around 9:15, Ashton asked Erin, "who's ringing our door bell on a Saturday morning." Erin said, "go open it and see." The look on Ashton's face was priceless! She was totally shocked that we would drive up there just to watch her play. The game reminded me of when we used to watch her mom and aunts play at that age.

After the game we got food from Rudy's and spend some time visiting before heading back around 1 p.m.

We had a really good time not only watching softball but playing with Landry and visiting with Bobby and Erin.

Picture Shows

Last night Lorena played at the Waco ISD Stadium, a first visit there for any of us. It is a really nice complex.

Jon had a really good game although he only played three quarters. He got his knee bunged up in the first half, he played a little bit of the third quarter (I think the offense was only on the field once, it that tells you how the game went). The trainer and the coaches decided to hold him out the rest of the game as a precaution.

I don't have his stats but do know that he had two touchdowns, gained lots of yards, had a touchdown called back and laid two awesome blocks that resulted in touchdowns.

On the Waco Tribune-Herald's website they have a slide show of pictures from various high school games, both fans and game action. On their fan site there is one of Megan and Parker (#57) and on the game action Jon's pics start about #155, he's #21.

Go to the following link, at the top of the page you'll see Photo/Video, click on that then go to Fans in the Stands (3A) for Megan and Parker and High School Action (3A) for Jon's pics. Click here for pics.

OH CANADA!

Wow, it is sooooooooooo beautiful up here, and cool (weather wise) too.

We left the Ferrell Center at 12:45 yesterday and despite a large amount of traffic heading north, didn’t make too bad of a time getting to DFW. As soon as we got in the terminal, a big thunderstorm blew through the area. Well, you know what that means, DELAYED FLIGHTS!!!

Ours was supposed to leave at 4:45 but they kept posting delays. We finally took off about 6:35. The four-hour flight passed pretty quickly and since I didn’t get to bed until 1:30 a.m. the night before, I slept for the major part of it.

The Vancouver airport is gorgeous. They are hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics and they probably have been working on it. There are several historical and Native American art areas that we passed through on our way to customs. May I just say, MY PASSPORT IS NO LONGER A VIRGIN. Although I was disappointed that they didn’t stamp it, I was really looking forward to that. Luckily, the lines for customs weren’t very long, I’ll bet we didn’t stand in line for more than 10 minutes. Maybe it would have been a longer wait if we had landed at our original time.

We got up this morning, had breakfast in the hotel, and then got of our bus to do a little sight seeing. We went to North Vancouver to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. It is this neat nature area that features seven suspension bridges and a rain forest. Everyone, even a couple that had to be talked into it, ventured across the main bridge. We all received a certificate that has an official stamp and states, “I made it across world-famous Capilano Suspension Bridge. Be it known to all people that the bearer of this certificate braved the heights of 230 feet and a 450 foot span across the raging (they sure weren’t raging today) waters of Capilano Canyon in North Vancouver British Columbia, Canada. In due respect for this act of daring bravado, the proprietors of the world’s greatest suspension footbridge hereby grant the bearer bragging rights for the period of two years from the date of issuance (but there’s no date on it!!)”

Our hotel, the Fairmont Waterfront, is right across the street from where all the cruise ships dock. When we came out of the hotel this morning there were two of them that had docked this morning. Boy, are they big.

That’s all for now, we’ve got a game tonight against Simon Fraser University. Not expecting too much since we have seven newcomers and have had only four days of practice.

Later.