Sunsets and Escape Rooms

The day after Halloween, a Friday, was pajama day, which seemed like an excellent idea for a bunch of tired kids with sugar hangovers.  The bus was super late picking up Camille, but there was such a gorgeous sunrise I really couldn't complain!

Craig took this one from his truck as he was driving to work.  It might be the only time my photography skills have beat his, but I had the advantage of standing still in a spot with a very clear view of the sky!

And then the next day, Saturday, I was able to babysit for my friend Kristen the other day while she and her husband went to the temple!  They lost Akston a year ago this month, and shortly after that learned that their next son, Benson, had a lesion in his brain and would immediately need the treatment that Akston wasn't able to get.  Miraculously enough, they'd banked cord blood from his baby sister, Esther, who was born (along with her twin Wesley) during the whole ordeal, and Esther was an exact match for Benson.  So he spent months in Boston with his Dad while he underwent treatment and is now healing beautifully.  But it has been A YEAR for this poor family, and when she asked if I could babysit, I was THRILLED to actually be able to do anything to help out.

Their oldest, Ember, is the most helpful girl ever, and Camille also pitched in.  I brought a bunch of Ryder's really cool Imaginext toys and threw them in the back of Craig's truck, which basically functioned like a play pen and they played happily there almost the entire time.  And Esther slept in her stroller and then allowed me to carry her around as long as I was wearing my reflective sunglasses and she could pretend she was basically being carried around by herself.  Whatever, that works!  So we had a great time and Kristen and Nat were able to enjoy the temple for a bit.  Yay for beautiful Saturday afternoons at the temple!

Ember, Wesley, Benson, Cole peaking out behind Benson, and Camille

After I voted Tuesday morning (I get SO EXCITED to vote!), I went walking in the woods and caught this lovely bit of sun poking through the autumny trees

Remember how in the previous post I mentioned my friend Kim and her awesome trunk-or-treat trunk?  Not only did she make all those cool potions bottles, she also set up an escape room in her basement!!!!  Who does cool stuff like that???  We (Craig and I) got to do it on a Friday evening with a bunch of other grown ups, and it took us a little over an hour to complete and it was just as awesome as the professional ones I've done!  She had ciphers, a safe, candles, scales that had to be balanced just so, a cauldron where the fire would change color...  So many cool puzzles!  So then they invited the YW to come do it, and we figured out they could do it on Election Day, since there was no school (because the schools are used for voting).  

Marianne, Lilyann, Ember, Jadyn, Violet, Kendra, McKinley.  These girls were so smart, they finished way faster than the grown ups!

So I enjoyed watching as the young women struggled to figure out all the clues, then Kim also fed them dinner (how nice is she???).  I loaded everyone into the van and took them to Get Air, a trampoline park, where they joined the young men for their actual Tuesday night activity-- two hours of jumping and dodgeball.  Talk about the most fun afternoon ever!

Group jump into the foam pit

So that was a super fun day, followed by me staying up half the night watching the election results.  I was SO RELIEVED when it was all declared and done in the morning, none of this dragging it out for weeks like in 2020 (and 2000!  I still remember that!).  

The following Thursday evening was all-county band, and we got to watch Ryder perform!  I really enjoy these concerts-- the music is usually quite fun, but they only do about three songs, so the concert isn't too long.  A win all around!  (I was a little surprised when it turned out the all-county orchestra was also performing, but they were pretty quick, too, so I'm not complaining!)

And then on Saturday, Ryder got contact lenses and a haircut!  You can barely recognize him any more, he looks so grown up!

I also enjoyed another quick walk in the woods, this time venturing closer to the stream here

On Friday (sorry, this isn't quite chronological-- it's hard to get the photos in the right order!), Craig and I sat with Megan at the Fluvanna v. Monticello football game.  We were mostly there because Kendra's marching band was playing stand tunes and we wanted to hear them one last time for the season.

Kendra and Evan

And then Saturday afternoon I had choir stuff and Craig put the kids to work raking leaves.  They had so much fun-- they actually managed to build a leaf fort with a tunnel and everything!

They made Olivia work her way through the tunnel

Can you tell they're related?

All the leaves in her hair! 😂

My choir, meanwhile, was rehearsing with Charlottesville Ballet, we were doing a few songs with them for their Veteran's Day Concert.  Unfortunately I didn't really understand what the deal was with the concert so I told Craig to come and bring the kids, thinking it would just be a nice, short, free concert.  I didn't know that, after our three songs, the ballerinas would keep performing for another hour!  I LOVE ballet so I was thrilled to get to sit and enjoy that, but Craig and the kids...  well, let's just say that they were very gracious about me filling their afternoon with ballet!

The original plan had been for Craig to make quesadillas, but we felt everyone deserved a night off after that, so we went to Cook-Out instead-- and ran into Chris and Julie Shaw with their kids!  So that ended up being a fun, spontaneous double date!