Rest of November

November flew by!

At Longview, the kids had a Turkey Trot again the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.   They all get so nervous for it and Jon and I are always telling them to just do their best and have a good time and that it's all about just participating.   They were sure cute.  The day was a little cold, but not snowy.   They ran by grade and the girls ran separate from the boys.

 Hannah (in the middle in the orange shirt) running next to Heidi (in red)

 Kate (in white) running next to Josie (in black)

 4th place - 4th grade girls

 Jack (on the left - in the navy blue jacket)

I was TERRIBLE about taking pictures on Thanksgiving and had such a great day, so I'm sad that I only got one picture!

Our tables all set for our yummy dinner.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at our house.  We had our family, my parents, Rich, Misty, Sophia, Max, Owen, Mike, Mandy, Zoey, Alyssa, Jason, Meg, Lucy, Nora, David, Sandy, Dawson, Juliann, Julie, Diana

It was a fun group and we all had a wonderful day together!  We ate and after cleaning up, went to my mom's for more visiting and food and to open new Christmas pajamas from my mom.  Jon had to go to work at 9 that night, so he just stayed for a few minutes.

I ended up going to St. George with next morning. (and didn't get any pics of that either :( )  My good friend was going to take Lindsey and a couple girls for a soccer tournament, but her sweet little 3 year old had a brain tumor a couple weeks before and obviously couldn't leave her or take her.  So, I took Lindsey, Grace & Addie.   And I took Sam.  Emily did a great job taking care of the other kids while Jon slept or was at work.   

We left early on Friday morning and had a good drive.  We hit some snow near Cedar City, but it was just starting and it wasn't too bad.   The girls played a game Friday afternoon.  It got really cold by the end of the game and I was in the van with Sam for most of it to keep him (and myself) warm.   That night, the team had tickets to the new Mockingjay movie.  Sam lasted for about 1/2 an hour and then he and I walked around the lobby for the next 2 hours.  Loooooong!

Saturday morning, the girls had a really early game and again, it was freezing, so Sam and I stayed in the van.  He slept a little and I read conference talks and I'd hold him and feed him.  The team went to breakfast at Kneader's after that morning game and then we went back to the hotel to check out.  I had the hotel reserved for one more night just in case the girls won enough games to play in the championship game, but it looked like they wouldn't be.  (I was praying that they would have a good time, but not win because I really, really didn't want to stay another night.  Sam had a cold and was miserable and Lindsey had a cough, so she kept me up a lot of the night coughing.  And, I just wanted to get home).

They played Saturday afternoon and right after we hustled out of there and started towards home.  I knew another storm was coming and had been in Salt Lake that morning.  I wanted to have as much daylight as possible.  We made it to Fillmore and stopped for gas and food.  I nursed Sam and while I was in the bathroom, he threw up all over Lindsey.  

We got back in the car and once we hit Nephi, we had snow on and off the rest of the way.  Sam cried most of the way after Fillmore and was just miserable.  Addie was sitting next to him and was so sweet and patient with him.  She'd hand him a toy or put his binkie in and I kept asking her if she thought he was breathing okay.   Poor little baby.  I wanted to just be home soooo bad!  

Thankfully, we made it safe and dropped the girls off at their houses.  Jon listened to Sam and he definitely had bronchiolitis.   There really is nothing like HOME!

 A couple more misc. pictures from November..

 Both girls were so tired after church one Sunday

Lindsey is a huge fan of the show Once Upon A Time and she drew Regina - she's amazing!

Emily - Fall Ball - November 21, 2015

Emily turned 16 at the end of October and was excited to go to her first High School dance.  Her best friend Kate talked her into asking her "friend" since she wasn't old enough to go.   It was perfect!  Gage was a perfect gentleman and his mom was so sweet in coordinating his vest and Emily's corsage with Emily's dress.

To ask Gage, she filled a bucket with Reese's PB cups and he had to finish the sentence to find out who was asking her..

Then, with Kate's help, he answered!

 Her room was covered in confetti - covered!  It was a pain to clean it all up, but her and I did it late that night so that she could sleep and so that it wouldn't be spread throughout the entire house.

We went dress shopping and actually found a dress at a mall, in the first store we looked at.  All the dresses were sleeveless, but most came with a small scarf looking thing.  I asked the lady at the store what options there were to make it more modest and she said that they have an alterator who can add sleeves with the scarf of fabric for just $25.  Nice!  The dress was on sale for $80, so for just a little over $100 she had a beautiful, modest dress!

She looking absolutely stunning and I am still in awe that she is old enough to date!

She had a fun group to go with and I think they had a really good time!  They had a breakfast together at her friend Sophie's house and then went to Nickelmania.  Then, they got ready and met and ate at Gardner Village.  Then, they had a blast at the dance and had rented out Classic Skate (which was the only disappointment because it's so disgusting and people didn't clear out of their until almost midnight, when our kids were told they would have it from 11 to 1 a.m).  

Anyway, the first of many, many dances I know!  Thanks for being such a gentleman Gage!

Hawaii - Day 6 - Waimea Falls (for some of us), Matsumoto's & our last day

Our last full day was Friday, November 6th.  The week had gone by so fast!

Our plan was to take both cars and go hike to a waterfall at Waimea Falls.  Jon and I had done the hike on our trip there and knew that the kids would like it.  To get around the island, we usually depended on our navigation on our phones.  My mom, Sam, Emily, Lindsey, Hailey & I were in the minivan.  Jon had his mom, Jack, Kate, & Hannah with him and we headed there.  Our phone rerouted us and ended up costing my car about 2 hours!  So sad!  We drove all the way around the island and missed the hike.  I felt really, really bad.  But, there wasn't a darn thing we could do about it, so we just enjoyed the beautiful view - and we got to see China Man's hat.  

After we met Jon and the other kids, we headed to Haleiwa.  We ate at Freddy's and then went to Matsumoto's - for delicious shaved ice!  It did not disappoint!  Yum!

When we got back to the condo, we spent the late afternoon at the beach and at the pool and then ate leftovers for dinner.

It was sad to see our trip come to an end!  We had a wonderful time!  I love being able to take the kids away from their busy schedules and their friends and have them all to myself for a few days.   The kids were wonderful!  They slept great and were so good.   Our mom's were the best sports!  They were so kind and patient and helpful and we loved having them with us.  Jon was amazing to have a wife, 7 kids and 2 mothers to worry about.  

We got up really early on Saturday morning and headed to the airport and flew home.  The kids were really good on the flights.  Sam was a great baby and at a perfect age to go!   We came home exhausted and ready to sleep in our own beds, and came home to lots of school work for the kids to catch up on, but it was so worth it!   Aloha!

Hawaii - Day 5 - Polynesian Cultural Center

On Thursday, we spent the day on the Laie side of the island.  We got up (to find that 1/2 the power was out in our condo - so we called maintenance), got ready and then headed towards Laie.  We stopped at a little Hawaiian version of a strip mall at a couple of shops and then went to see where Diane & Jack (my mother-in-law & father-in-law) lived when they lived on the island.  Diane led us right there.  She hadn't been back since they moved - which was back in the 60's.   It's just a couple of blocks from BYU - Hawaii and what a fun moment to share with her.  I think that really thrilled her to see if - although I'm sure she wished that Jack was there with her to see it.

 In front of the house

After seeing the house, we drove a couple blocks to the Hawaii Temple.  It's incredibly gorgeous.  Everyone got out of the car and walked around for 10 minutes while I nursed Sam in the car.  We were supposed to meet Brad & Mary (Brad is my 2nd cousin) for lunch, but we ran out of time.  The PCC is only open from noon to 5 to see the villages and since it's not cheap, we wanted to see all that we could.

We grabbed McDonald's for lunch and met Brad & Mary at the entrance to the PCC.  Brad was sooo kind and let us use some of his discount passes, so we were able to save some $ getting in.  It was awesome to spend the day with them seeing and experiencing the different villages.  The PCC is amazing!  We had a nice cloud cover for a lot of the day, which helped a ton.  It was really hot so the clouds made it perfect!

Fiji Village 

 Tonga village - our favorite!

 Tahiti village

 Kate getting a Tongan tattoo 

 Tonga spear throwing - I had gone to nurse Sam again

 New Zealand performers

 Jack with the Tongan chief

 My cute mom - she was excited to get a Tongan hat made out of coconut leaves

In the middle of the afternoon, they stop the village shows and have a parade.  Each country is represented...

After the canoe parade, we headed to New Zealand.  The kids had a great time trying the Poi balls.

And then, we tried the stick game.  The cute lady was so kind to let Hailey do it with her.

Hannah's face!

We also saw the Samoa show and that's definitely a highlight.  There was a 3D movie we watched and then it was time for our Luau. 

The kids liked the food okay and there was some performers that danced during dinner, so that was fun.  We had the option to stay for the night show, but Jon and I had seen it a couple of years ago and it was okay (not as amazing as it was when I came to Hawaii when Emily was a baby) and we decided to head back to the condo with our tired kids, mothers and feet!

We loved the PCC and it definitely was a highlight for all of us!