With our Halloween running over (trick or treating getting postponed and then going to Kings Dominion the day after), I sort of feel like November started a couple days late? Is that a thing? And then the kids didn't have school the first couple days, so that was awesome-- we had a five-day weekend, which we very much enjoyed (and also gave us plenty of time to adjust to the time change). The weather was great, so there was much raking of leaves and building of treehouses:
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| No clue what Ryder was so upset about here...? But everyone else seems to be having fun! |
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| Camille is ready to be a homeless person |
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| Colton is getting so good at riding his bike! |
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| The tree house is coming along! |
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| This is my new favorite park |
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| This is from Riverview Park, and now you know why it's called that! It runs along the Rivanna River for a few miles with this lovely walking/biking trail the whole way. It's wonderful! |
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| We also got our family portraits and I LOVE them!!!! I'll share more later. For now, know that all my favorites are coming to a Christmas card near you very soon! |
My parents came for a quick visit, which was wonderful and somehow I didn't take pictures of them here at all. I do that a lot, I'm afraid-- I'm the worst! But we had a great time and ate a TON of wonderful food and sat around talking a lot. All of my favorite things! We also took the kids to see Beauty and the Beast where my bestie Sarah was playing the role of Mrs. Potts! I was really nervous to shell out that much money and worried the kids would be awful (especially since it started when they normally go to bed!), but it was WONDERFUL! The kids loved it and we all had a great time. Yay for awesome family time!
And then the NEXT day, also while my parents were here, Ryder had his birthday party! It was a bit early, but since his actual birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year, we figured we needed to get a jump on things. Speaking of which, he opted to take a couple friends to Jump! so that was a lot of fun for them. And I stayed home with my parents while Craig took him. So everyone had a good time!
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| Opening his presents and cards from Henry and Owen |
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| The candles make this look even weirder, but this was the cake he requested: his name spelled out (and all I had was pink) and extra M&Ms. He was happy. |
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| Gotta love that gleeful anticipation! |
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| Money shot |
After the party, we went up to Carter Mountain, because it's one of my favorite places. My kids have this place where they love to hide, so here's Bentley with his buddy Asher up in a tree over the hiding place:
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My parents left (sniff, sniff!) and I had to get to work on Stake Conference stuff. I'd offered to buy some of the food for the dinner we were giving for all the female leadership in the stake. All I had to get were rolls and salad, but when you're feeding 120 people, that's a lot! I looked crazy!
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| 360 rolls, 20 bags of salad! |
Craig got there with me for set up at 2pm, and then I had to help run some of the training. And then the dinner, which Craig helped out with, too. (To thank him, we let him join us and eat, too!) Then they had the Saturday adult session, which was nice and easy and I could actually sit with Craig, so that was lovely. And we stopped by Five Guys on our way home and got me a milkshake! And then the NEXT morning, I had to speak at the general session of Stake Conference, so that was a big deal and I spent a TON of time working on that talk.
They'd actually asked me to speak a year ago, but then it snowed and everything got canceled. I didn't think I could possibly get that lucky again, and I was right. So I'd prepared. I don't normally get too nervous about public speaking, but this felt like a big deal.
Anyway, I think it all went fine. I was super relieved to be done and took the best nap EVER that afternoon!
And then the next day I was back to cleaning house because Craig's Aunt Lynda and Uncle Greg were arriving that evening! I'd already mopped and polished floors, but so much stuff can only be done the day of (like vacuuming). Or, if your kids are super gross like mine, you really have to clean toilets about five minutes before your company arrives. Plus I was making dinner for everyone (in all fairness, Tom and Donna had offered to just take us all to dinner, but I was worried the timing wouldn't work out, so I'd decided to just make a big pot of chili for everyone). So that was a busy day, too! But so fun to see everyone again!
AND THEN, the next day, Craig managed to be a chaperone for a school field trip to see Hamilton!!!! And he'd managed to score a ticket for me and one for Ryder (who we hadn't been able to take last year), so we got to ride on a school bus to Richmond with a bunch of high schoolers! TOTALLY WORTH IT.
And yes, the show was great even a second time! I think in some ways I enjoyed it more-- I could take my eyes off the main characters and watch the dancers more and just appreciate some of the more technical aspects of it all. Seriously, it is SUCH a great show!
The next day we headed up to Culpeper for more family time and so Craig could make PIES.
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| Hey, we got a picture of Lynda and Greg! Here they are listening to Colton's books! |
AND we also celebrated Ryder's birthday some more!
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| This time he wanted doughnuts |
We also let him open up a few more presents on his actual birthday:
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| He was really excited about the fitbit we got him! |
And... I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving. But it was wonderful with really great food and family and a lot of over-eating and all that good stuff. Everything you could ask for in a holiday!
November has been great, but a little on the insane side. And I expect December will be even busier! Here we go!!!
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