Family Christmas Letter 2016

Christmas Letter 2016 by Matt Kinnell on Scribd

Happy Halloween!

Okay, this post is a bit late, but we had to show you the girls' Halloween costumes this year.

Family Photo Shoot 2016

For our family photos this year, we went to Gratz Park in downtown Lexington, and our friend Hannah took some very nice pictures.

A.J., age 14

Sometimes Dad has to go to extremes to get A.J. to smile.

Essie, age 11

Chloe, age 11

Some Flippin' Fun

Had a little fun with the slow motion option on my iPhone the other day.  

My kids are super talented...well, most of them.  (Hahahaha)

Fall Break 2016

The kids had Fall Break last week and after running ourselves ragged all fall with the girls playing on the 6th grade basketball team and AJ playing JV soccer, we made the unanimous decision to stay home for the week. 

We kicked off the Fall season with a fun bonfire and hayride at church.

On Tuesday, Dad took a day off of work to do what the Kinnells like to do best - hiking!

We headed a bit south of our home and fueled up at the Bluebird Cafe in Stanford. Yum!!!

Next we went over to Shaker Village to do some hiking.  Shaker Village is only located about 20 minutes south of us, but none of us have ever hiked any of the trails around the village.

This trail lead down from Shaker Village to the river, a round-trip of 3 miles.

As we hiked, we could just make out High Bridge (at first)

Essie & Chloe can always find something to climb.

A much better view of High Bridge

Mom & Dad

Looking back up the Kentucky River at High Bridge

Kinnell Kids

AJ

Essie & AJ

The Dixie Belle riverboat, which docks at Shaker Landing

Heading back up to Shaker Village (we took the road this time)

Mom & her girls

Girls' 11th birthday

Sunday was Essie and Chloe's 11th birthday.  We celebrated on Saturday night, though, with family.  The girls caught Olympic fever this summer and requested an Olympics cake.

New school shoes

The girls' favorite thing:  Adventures in Odyssey

Grandma Melanie gave them some Adventures in Odyssey devotional books for girls: Candid Conversations with Connie.

Double Dutch jump ropes from Meemaw

And handmade aprons from Meemaw.  These girls are good cooks!

New basketball shoes from Aunt Buffy, since our toes were coming out the end of our old ones

And something the girls have been wanting for a long time - Kindles!

Aaaaand we've lost them.

And the obligatory cute "first birthday party" picture to show you how much they've grown.