This and That, January Version

Compared to December, January was fairly tame.  We still had more going on than I would have liked, because all I really want to do in January is sit wrapped up in blankets by a fire.  Alas, life asks more of that than me.  Right now.  Maybe some day?

So here are the other things we had going on...

We had a youth temple trip, combined with the Spanish Branch!  That went really beautifully, I was so happy with our turnout!

This picture is mostly just the youth

And here we've added in the grown ups!

It was also Colton's first time doing baptisms at the temple, so that was happy!

That was in the late morning.  Tom and Donna had come over to babysit Camille, and we just barely had enough time to grab dinner at Five Guys and say happy birthday to Donna before we had to race to the stake center for Standards Night.  (In our defense, we'd planned our temple trip before we knew that the stake also had plans for us that day!)  Craig was hosting a panel discussion for the parents, and I sat and typed up notes on the whole thing, so we had a lot going on that day.  We were very relieved when we climbed into bed that night!

Our next-door neighbor's house suddenly went up for sale!  I shouldn't have been surprised since all the signs were there-- they'd been throwing away a TON of stuff, and having random cleaning people over (like professional grout and carpet cleaners-- that kind of thing).  Plus, as far as I can tell, they only have one son, and he lives in the Seattle area with his wife and kid, so what they're sticking around here for is anyone's guess.  But having said all that, I was still a little surprised when I saw the For Sale sign on their front lawn!  And what was even more shocking, the house sold in less than a week!  I've only knocked on their door a handful of times, but even from those brief interactions, it was immediately clear that someone in their house is a smoker.  Even with all the carpets and grout cleaned, who would buy that???

Anyway, I did look up their house on Zillow because I'm nosy like that.  Their house is a mirror image of our house, and it's fun to see what's the same and what's different (for example, their basement and bonus room over the garage are both unfinished!  I never knew that!).  It made me laugh as I looked at this birds eye view and realized you can see my big blue van parked next door!  😂

Bentley sent Kendra a song to listen to that Averi had liked.  And since Kendra also liked it, she looked up the singer on insta-gram and found this picture of her in concert:

and then, because she's a super-sleuth, Kendra looked even closer and spotted Bentley and Averi in the audience!

Both of them are... staring at their phones.  Of course...!

Kendra was also the one to notice that the snow melting on our trampoline looked a LOT like a yin-yang symbol, which I thought was pretty cool!

But speaking of Bentley-- my sister Natalie took her son Samuel out to BYU to audition for the music school, and while they were there, they took Bentley out to dinner!  I always appreciate people looking out for my boy!

And I love how Bentley and Samuel look related, but in a cousins-not-siblings way...  You see it, right?

I decided to see if I can pull off purple lipstick.  The consensus was: kinda?  I don't know that it's the best look on me, but it's fun to change things up every now and then!

Kind of a cross between emo and frostbite.  But not in the worst way...!

The Young Men had a wrestling activity last week and we got some fun pictures from it!  (The Young Women were busy on the other end of the building having a nerf battle, but I didn't think to take any pictures!)

Love this face that Ryder is pulling!  Craig said he actually did pretty well, especially considering he's never tried this before and was going against some kids who have been wrestling for years now!

None of the kids Colton's size showed up that night, so Craig paired himself with Colton.  He didn't trust any of the bigger kids to not hurt him...

And there's Ryder again!

Kendra's Indoor Drumline had a preview night, so we got to see her perform the first half of their show, "Don't Look Back," which is the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.  I'll be excited to see the rest in a few weeks!

And the entire 4th grade had a music night where they sang and danced for us, so that was fun!

Craig and I had a date night to the temple (where it was pouring, so we had to take our selfie under cover!) and then on to Chuy's for dinner!  It doesn't get a whole lot better than that!

We also had a really fun pizza night with Adam, his sister Christine, who was visiting from Utah, and the Holbeins!  Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures of that, either, but a wonderful time was had by all-- the pizza, cheesecake, AND focaccia bread were all delicious, Hazel was as cute as ever, Adam's sister was delightful, and I always enjoy a chance to hang out with Brittney.  So life was good!

On the way home, we stopped for a minute to appreciate all the stars you can see when you're a little further away from the bright lights of Charlottesville!  I tried to do this once before, about a year ago, and it turned out they'd been manuring the fields and the kids were too distracted by the smell to appreciate the stars.  This time they enjoyed them a LOT more, and I've gotten a bit more knowledgable thanks to my stargazing app, so I could point out all the planets that we were seeing (Venus, Jupiter, and Mars; Saturn was hiding out near the moon, but it wasn't bright enough to actually see) and all my favorite constellations (the Pleiades, Cassiopeia, and of course Orion's belt with Sirius following behind).  We didn't stand there for too long, but it still made me very happy!

The really bright star here is Jupiter, and the Pleiades are just up and to the right of it!