January 2022

 Movie Night to celebrate Evan's Birthday.

Jake ran the Carlsbad 1/2 Marathon again this year after it not being held for a couple years due to Covid.

Skylar and her girls had a bowling day for MLK.

Punta de Mita (Brittany & Jake's Wedding)

 Jake and I felt very blessed when we found out that Jake and Brittany wanted to invite us to be apart of their wedding weekend.  Due to covid they had to switch their wedding location from Cabo to Punta de Mita, which was a spot in Mexico I have always wanted to go.  

Everything about the trip was perfect!  The hotel was practical empty which meant the kids had two pools and the water slides to themselves. I'm definitely not a foodie, but man, I have never had such wonderful food like we did during the whole trip.  The actually wedding was by far the prettiest wedding I have ever attended.  They treated their guest so graciously and really rolled out the red carpet for everyone who made the trip down for their special day.

Welcome drinks as we arrived.

Just hanging out in one of the many pools at the resort.

Jake got to play golf one morning with Jake, Bobby and my Dad.

Lounging.

Enjoying the view.

The best part for the kids was being with Lennon and Morrison for 4 straight days.  They must of went up and down the slide 100s of times during the trip.

Jake and Brittany hosted a beautiful welcome cocktail reception the night before the wedding.

Shocking up more sun!

Wedding ready.

The beautiful couple.

FCGS Soccer Banquet

We couldn't of been prouder of Madden for completing his first year of competitive soccer.   The club put on a lovely banquet to celebrate each player and each teams accomplishments during the year.  Madden had a great time running around the whole night with his teammates.  It even got Madden in pants and a collared shirt.

December 2021

Skylar and her friends had a holiday gift exchange party.

 

We celebrated Jake's 40th Birthday

Christmas & New Years Eve 2012

After not being together last year for Christmas, it was so nice having the whole family back to doing our traditional Christmas Eve.  We all went to my parents house, got their earlier and did a couple hours of tamale making with the family.  It was like we didn't skip a beat, back to boss each other around and complaining about how everyone was doing something wrong...haha!  It was great!

Skylar and Madden even got in on the tamale making.  

Our last Christmas Eve before we have a new baby in the family.  Toni is pregnant and expecting a little boy July 2022

All the little cousin patiently waiting to open gifts.

Skylar and Madden leaving Santa cookies and milk before bed.

Walking in and seeing their gifts.  They were both up bright and early.

After a wonderful holiday with family, we were locked up for New Years.  Yes, after almost two years the Ernest family went down with Covid-19.  Lucky for us it was super mild.  I tested positive first and then Jake and Madden fell a bit ill, Skylar we are still stumped on as she never felt sick so we are thinking she may have been patient zero.  The week after the holiday it was just us hanging in the house, watching a lot of TV, and Skylar never really getting out of her pjs.  Jake came up with the idea that on NYE we would do a cake decorating contest.  We broke up in teams and each had one hour to do a circus theme cake. We all had fun with it.  The decorating turned out to be pretty hard so they weren't amazing but for first timers we were pretty happy with them.

The kids and Jake stayed up to midnight by playing video games and poker.  I choose to go to bed around 9:30, so I did see the east coast ball drop.  It was nice ending the year with the four of us together.

Holiday Cards 2021

 

Friday Night Lights - Fall 2021

 Boy, did we have a fun FNL season this year.  About a year ago we decided to leave the team Madden has been playing on since first grade.  Jake had been assistant coaching and just felt like it was time to move on.  Last spring we landed on a great team and had one of the best seasons Madden had ever experienced but unfortunately we couldn't stay with that team because several of the boys were a year older and they moved up.  We were once again without a team and stressing that Madden wouldn't found a team to play on.  Then luck fell our way and Madden's buddy Ian had a spot on his team and we were in! Jake being the awesome guy he is, reached out to the coach of the team letting him know he would be more than willing to help out with practice, etc.  Two weeks later the coach text Jake, told him he didn't have the time and that Jake was the the Head Coach.  So we went from almost not having a team to having a team and Jake now head coaching.  Jake had been a assistant coach for several seasons so he was more than happy to step up to the challenge, and boy, a challenge it was..haha!  Several of the boys on the team either had never played or hadn't play for many years.  

The first couple games were rough to watch and I was already planning our exit for when the season was over.  Jake seeing the struggles and if you know Jake, hates to lose, really took the time and worked with our team.  Half way through the season the boys got their groove.  The highlight of the season for me was when we played the team we had left and we beat them.  We ended the season winning 5 straight games and had a ton of momentum going into the playoffs.  

The playoffs were amazing, they had us playing back to back games and we were dominating each team.  The first round I believe we were scoring 40+ points and the boys were stoked.  After 5 playoff wins we were in the championship game!  Madden has been playing FNL since kindergarten and had never won a playoff game and now he was in a championship game.  In the end we lost and were the runners-up, but boy, it still felt like a championship win to me.  From seeing where the boys started to being in the big game was just amazing.  

I couldn't of been more proud of Jake and Madden for all their hard work and commitment.  

Madden's highlight reel from these season was awesome and I didn't even get all his touchdowns on tape.