October In-Between

We got home from Leah's Monday evening, and then I had one week home before I headed out of town again.  But that week sure was busy!!!

The Teachers Quorum held a thank you dinner for all their mothers, which was really lovely of them:

Clockwise starting bottom left: Noah, tony, Alex, Karyn, Kim, Daniel, Ryder, me, Sandy, Gideon, Truman, Megan

My family is continuing to keep Bentley occupied, and I sure appreciate them for that!

My Mom took him out to lunch on his day off!

And here's the Nilsen family after church with Bentley!

And Tracy and my Dad took him to the temple!  The big news there was that a temple worker asked my Dad if Bentley was his son or his nephew, so that made his day!

Adam and I continue to find look for free days when we can enjoy the beautiful fall weather by hiking the Trails at Monticello:

Camille's class went on a field trip, and when they returned, they found themselves having recess at the same time as the kindergarten classes.  So she and her friends organized the biggest game of Ring Around the Rosy EVER:

(There's Camille in the purple shirt with her back to us)

And speaking of Camille, here's a class picture where you can actually see her!

I'm very excited that we've entered fuzzy socks season!!!

And this picture of Craig and Camille (getting pizza at Costco after we've cleaned the church) is just so cute:

(Not sure what Colton is doing in the background there...?)

We bought Ryder the Halloween costume he'd been begging for and it was almost too perfect to be believed:

😂😂😂

The Stake organized a youth service project-- same as last year-- where they put on a Halloween party for CAFF (Community Attention Foster Families) and it was a big hit:

Our YM were in charge of the fishing pond-- Craig used the wall hanging from his office to great effect!

And the YW did facepainting again

Kendra and Ryder, however, had a band competition at Charlottesville High School, so I went to watch them: 

I didn't take any more pictures because I just wanted to enjoy watching.  Sorry, that's not exactly the best, but you can see Kendra conducting and Ryder playing the bells!

And Craig caught this beautiful sunrise for me:

And then I was trying to pack to go see Bentley!  He'd requested that I bring him a few items that he hadn't been able to fit in his suitcase when he flew to Seattle.  Unfortunately, when I tried to put them in my carryon, this was what it looked like:

His axolotl costume, temple bag, camera, tripod, and backpack...

That's fine, I don't need any clothes...

Homecoming

While we were in New York, Kendra was having a lovely time for homecoming weekend!  And it was a good thing Adam was in charge, because he was the one to realize that we'd forgotten to order a boutonniere for Emmett!!!  😬😬😬  But Adam just called around to his florists until he found one who had a wedding in town that day, and asked if he could steal one of their extra boutonnieres!  All Kendra had to do was run out to Clifton Inn to pick it up!  And then it just happened to match the flowers in her corsage, too!!!  Adam is a magician!

The lighting is a little off here-- her dress is actually Cinderella blue-- but you get the idea!

It's also very sparkly!

Here's Kendra with Emmett (and his boutonniere)!

And a bunch of Kendra's friends

And then Kendra was also very excited about the flowers Emmett got for her:

So I'm glad that all worked out and we didn't make her miss out on her senior homecoming dance!  Next time we'll plan more carefully!  (Who am I kidding, we probably won't.)

New York in the Fall

We had planned on going to visit my sister Leah back in May, but things got so crazy busy that we decided to postpone.  Until October!!!  In May, Craig had been planning on seeing Stranger Things on Broadway.  I lost interest in that show after the first season (I should say-- it's a good show, I just don't like seeing desperate moms searching for their kid), so I said I'd see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child instead.  Craig was slightly indignant-- "But I want to see that, too!" -- so we compromised and we all saw Cursed Child!  

But first, we had a big problem to figure out.  

In our rush to make plans with Leah, we'd forgotten to run it all past Kendra.  Who was already very excited to go to homecoming that very same weekend.  Big oops.  After talking about lots of ideas and throwing out most of them, we finally decided she would stay with Adam for two of the nights, and then the last night she'd spend in Culpeper with Grandma and Grandpa.  And all the grown ups were happy to have her (and Adam was happy to help her get ready and take her picture and everything!).  So we got that figured out at least.  (And homecoming will get its own post!)  

We also thought we'd have to wait until after the halftime show to pull Ryder away and begin our drive.  That was going to be terrible-- I was guessing we'd arrive around 4am???  Fortunately, it turned out that the marching band doesn't do a halftime show at the homecoming game, so that made things a lot easier.  I had started to dread the trip before it had even begun!  Now suddenly everything was very doable!

So, yes, as soon as everyone was home from school we finished loading the van and drove to Leah's!  Even then, we didn't arrive until well after midnight.  I would have felt bad about keeping Leah up so late, but that was one of the games the Mariners were playing against the Tigers in their final division series game, so Leah was still up anyway!  We dropped our suitcases, put the kids to bed, and kept watching the game with her and got to cheer as the Mariners won in the 15th inning!  Craziness, but a great way to start our trip!

I'd hoped we could make it to the Met in the morning before our show, but we were all pretty tired and slept a little too late for that to be feasible.  (We could have made it, but we would have had to rush like crazy just to have an hour at the museum, and that hardly felt worth it.  It takes me about that long just to find the right room!)  So instead we took our time, letting the kids hang out and play before we headed into the city.  Camille and Theo made the best of their time together:

Camille picked out costumes for Theo and he was very nice about indulging her!  

Then we took the train into the city. 

Usually we just drive, but since there were only five us (and since it's hard to find parking for the van), this seemed more cost effective.  And it was kind of fun for the kids

We got off at Grand Central Station and took a minute to let the kids enjoy the huge ceiling and everything there.  (Camille pointed out a mouse running around in the food court!  Welcome to New York, kids!  I guess I should be glad it wasn't a rat...)

And then it was a short walk to Times Square:

We go to NYC fairly often, but we don't usually go near Times Square, so it was fun to show it to the kids for the first time (although it would have been more impressive at night).  As we were standing taking it in, Colton commented, "That lady just picked up a pigeon!"  We turned to look and-- sure enough!-- there was an older woman clutching a pigeon to her chest.  As we stared, she pulled out a reusable shopping bag, put the pigeon in it, and clipped the bag shut!  Either she's a weirdo who finds hurt birds and patches them up, or (and this is probably more likely) that pigeon was dinner that night.  Welcome to New York, kids!

We had some time before our show, so Leah treated us to lunch at the Brooklyn Diner right there-- they actually managed to seat all seven of us right away, which was sort of a miracle!  Then Leah took Theo to a bubble show (she'd already seen Cursed Child twice in the last year and figured that was plenty for now) and we headed to our theater!

And we LOVED the show so much!!!  The story alone was very cool, but the special effects were AMAZING!!!  We were totally in awe of the whole thing!  So glad we finally got to see it!  Now I want to go back with Bentley and Kendra and see it again!!!

So that was just a fantastic afternoon.  We'd talked about getting Shake Shack after the show, but we were still pretty full from lunch and Brian had offered to cook for us, so we just took the train back.  There had been all these predictions of rain, but we hardly saw any at all, so that was a relief!  But no need to push our luck, either!  Brian made us tacos and we had a nice cozy evening with everyone!

The next morning we went to church with the Westchester Ward.  They had the coolest tree in front of their building, I just loved it:

I enjoyed sitting together as a family, and Craig enjoyed not being in charge.  (And it wasn't terrible leaving after the first hour, either!)  Craig took Theo, Colton, and Camille out in the row boat, and I mostly followed Leah around talking.

My Uncle Bob and Aunt Lorraine are living in Queens serving a mission right now, and they had to go to a stake conference in Connecticut, so they stopped by on their way home and it was so nice to catch up with them!  True to form I didn't take any pictures, but we had a lovely time!  It was especially brave of them to come by, since the last time they came Griffey bit Uncle Bob!  😬  But he stayed very calm this time, only pacing around so he could eye my Aunt's turkey sandwich (that is-- Griffey stayed calm and eyed the sandwich, not Uncle Bob!)

We had planned on going to Blaze and the Eastchester Columbus Day Festival that afternoon, but they were predicting a big storm so the festival got canceled and we kept watching to see if Blaze would be shut down, too.  (And while we waited, we watched K-Pop Demon Hunters, which was pretty fun and Leah was also watching the Seahawks win!)  But we never heard any news about Blaze, so we loaded up every rain jacket we could find and wrapped Camille's foot in plastic (since she was still wearing a boot for her broken toe) and headed out, fingers crossed that it might be fun and not terrible.  And it was awesome!!!  Not only was it NOT canceled, it barely rained while we were there (it was just picking up as we left, in fact) and Blaze (as I'd heard!) was so cool!  AND double bonus-- because of the storm predictions, there weren't too many people!  Jackpot!!!

We lost Brian for this shot!  But we've got everyone else, at least!  Those are all carved pumpkins making the sign behind us

Us Seattle-ites have to get excited about a kraken!  (This was in a lake with steam rising up all around it!)

They had different themed sections.  This one was mostly farm stuff and featured a moving windmill!

Ryder still likes pigs!

And Camille likes horses!  (I liked those sunflowers!)

There was a whole row that had various Celtic knots!

And I just thought this blue pumpkin was so pretty with all its intricate carvings!

Did I already say Welcome to New York?

Seriously, how cool is this???

Zodiac signs for our two pisces!

The Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz!

I think these dinosaurs were my favorite!

Another water-themed zodiac sign

And for the big finish, this amazing Headless Horseman!!!

So yes, we really enjoyed Blaze!  And I was so glad the storm held off for us!

Once we got home, Brian whipped up several dinners for everyone's dietary needs (spaghetti and meatballs for us, vegetarian for Leah, pizza for Theo, and non-acidic for himself) and we stayed up late watching the Mariners beat the Blue Jays in their first game of the playoffs!  It was a very happy day!  When I was finally turning off my light, I could just barely hear Ryder and Eliot still up talking and it just made me so happy that they got to spend some quality time together.  Cousins are the best!

The next morning we packed up and headed home!  Leah had zoom meetings so we were anxious to get out of her hair before those started, and I needed to get back in time for choir.  Considering all the major cities we were going through, the traffic wasn't too horrendous, and once we got on the express lanes around DC we were able to zip on home.  Yay for always being a carpool!

I was so glad we were able to have such a fun time with the Maddens!  

Gauley Marathon ft. Kendra

And now-- a guest post from Kendra!!!    

    Over the summer, the Young Women went white water rafting in West Virginia. While there, our guide mentioned that in the fall they have Gauley season which involves more intense white water rafting and I desperately wanted to go. I started pestering my parents about it and looking at possible dates and things. The Gauley is split into two sections, the Upper and the Lower. The Upper is super intense with five highly technical class 5+ rapids. The Lower on the other hand is comparable to white water rafting we have done in the past. I originally argued for the Lower Gauley since I'm pretty sure Mom would not support me and Dad doing the Upper. Then, when dad was looking at prices he was offered a discount where you could do the entire Gauley for less than it would cost to do half the Gauley. With that offer we decided to commit to 26 miles of white water rafting aka the Gauley Marathon. 

We made our down payment in August and one month later we headed out to the wild and wonderful state!

    We drove down Sunday evening and spent the night camping in a Boy Scout camp. This was very bare bones camping. We showed up, set up, ate dinner, slept, and left. We didn't even make a fire. 

Dinner was really good though!

     Instead of making a fire we opted to star gaze and yap, which was also really fun. We went to bed and woke up the next morning at the wonderful hour of 5 am. The one upside to this insanity was that the stars were out in abundance. 

You can see Orion over our tent! And this was taken on my phone! And Orion is our favorite constellation so we were feeling pretty hyped 

    We needed to be at ACE at 6 am so we broke down camp as fast as possible and ate muffins in the car on the way there. We got to ACE and signed in and listened to a brief safety lecture before being dismissed for ~1 hour to take care of any final business.

Wet suited up!

After that we got on a bus and headed to the start of the Gauley! 

Dad and I are in front with the yellow helmets

     The rafting itself was really fun but definitely scary at times. I fell out of the boat. Twice. Luckily our guides were very well prepared for emergencies and everyone was ok but it was definitely alarming. The first time our boat hit a rock at the wrong angle and completely tipped over. This was double fun because the boat right after us also tipped over so we ended up having 11 people in one boat that is really meant for a maximum of 7. I was kneeling in the boat and the water was up to my waist. Both the guides quickly flipped over their boats and we all dispersed back to our original boats. 

You had to high five Pillow Rock with your paddle

There was actually a reason for this-- the goal was to weight the raft on one side so we wouldn't tip over as we hit that rock, which we totally succeeded in doing!

Unfortunately, right after that we were supposed to go to the left of Volkswagon Rock, but somehow we went right over it, which was NOT the plan...

There's us on top of Volkswagon Rock 

And there's me shoving dad into the rapid as we flip over... Oops?

Everyone in the water!

The second time I fell out was on a rapid called "Box of Fluffy Kittens" and it was very deliberate of our guide. Like, this rapid is known for tipping people out and could have easily been avoided. This time was fun because I ended up going under the boat, which I wasn't prepared for but I'm pretty good at holding my breath and it was really only a second where I realized that there was something on top of me and then I was out.  

See Dad fell out on his own too!

     We stopped for lunch around 11ish after going down a (tiny) waterfall. This was fun because we got to watch other boats go down the waterfall and not all of them made it through without tipping. After lunch it was incredibly chill, just a lot of itty bitty rapids and paddling. After we finished our adventure we hopped on the bus to head back to ACE and got there around 5pm. We were told that they would be showing the video of our trip at 6 so we decided that if we hadn't left we would go watch. And then they didn't show it and we decided to head on out since we were driving home that night. The drive home was uneventful, we called different family members to tell them that we were alive and had a ton of fun. 

So yeah it was a super fun trip and I'm really glad I dragged my dad into going with me!

P.S. from Alanna-- I could not BELIEVE it when Craig agreed to do this!!!  I spent the whole time praying that they would survive.  I was honestly very nervous about it all.  But now that it's done, I'm very glad that they had so much fun.