Second Half of November

Dan's boss was out of town the week of Thanksgiving so he offered us his UVA basketball tickets. We had a fun time, despite getting there super late. And UVA stomped the other team into the ground so hard that you felt sorry for them. Eli was in awe the whole time. Or he was just perplexed. It was noisy in there.

The next day we played at Grandma and Grandpa's house while Dan worked. Thursday was Thanksgiving. Dad decided to try deep-frying the turkey. That was quite exciting and scary. You can hear that oil sizzling like crazy.

It was delicious.

Yes, I wore my festive harvest sweater for the occasion. We took a nice walk after dinner and then, at night, Dan continued his tradition of Thanksgiving night shopping at Walmart. It was pretty peaceful this year - not too crazy. We hit it up on our way to Old Rag. Mom and Dad kindly watched our kids so we could do this hike.

As I said, we left at night and got to the parking area around 9. There was only one other car in the huge parking lot. We started hiking and went until almost midnight. We saw a skunk, a little owl, and lots of crickets. We got as far as we could before coming to the "Backcountry camping prohibited beyond this point" sign. We picked a spot and slept in our sleeping bags under the stars (no tent). I'd never done that before. It was cold. We both have mummy bags, so it was mostly just my face that was cold. If I'm going to do that again, I need to get a ski mask.

We wanted to be there for the sunrise, so we woke up around 5 and saw some lights of others on the trail in the distance. We packed up and started again. It was hard in the dark because right at that point is where the boulders start. We quickly caught up to the people with the lights - turns out it was two teenage marines who were using their cell phones to light the way and could no longer find the trail. So we stayed with them and led them through to the top. We didn't end up seeing the sunrise because it was cloudy. And more clouds quickly rolled in. But it was pretty (and COLD!) while it lasted.

 I took this picture of the people on the rock across from us.

 So then she took one of us.

Pretty cool! The hike down was a lot easier and it started to warm up.

My attempt at a long-exposure shot.

We started seeing TONS of people hiking and when we got back to the parking lot, it, and the other overflow parking lot, were totally crazy. There were at least 100 other cars there, so I'm glad we did things like we did! We had the top pretty much to ourselves (just two other groups) so we had a great view and then we got home early enough to do some other things.

We went with my mom to the Green Valley book fair which was great for children's books. Then we celebrated Dan's birthday with my parents, who wouldn't be able to come on his actual day.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving break.

Our TV picture was messed up so Dan researched it and tried to fix the TV on his own. Didn't work. Broke the TV. Bought a new one on Saturday to get the Black Friday deals. Now the old one is sitting in our living room...

And lastly, we played in the leaves.

The First Half of November

A girl moved in to the ward with her family over the summer and she ended up in Afton's first grade class. They became great friends, but then Marie moved back to Texas in November. We had a few playdates before she left.

Afton had her class' stuffed animal for the weekend. Of course we forgot to take it anywhere, but I'm sure Felix didn't mind.

The entries from students before her included outings to soccer games, church, the grocery store, etc.

We took advantage of a beautiful Sunday afternoon and went walking along the river.

We had parent-teacher conferences. It's a lot trickier with kids in two schools! Both got glowing reviews. Here's one of Sam's assignments I found hanging up in the hallway.

After conferences, the kids and I drove over to Mom and Dad's to hang out since the kids didn't have school that day or the next (Election Day). Eli discovered the wonder of Rock Rainbow Bridge.

The weather was gorgeous so we decided to go to Skyline Drive. Mom waited in the car while the kids and I did a fairly quick hike to Dark Hollow Falls. Most of the trees had lost their leaves by that point, but it was a good length and fairly quick, although Eli did NOT want to be held which slowed us down a ton.

We went back to my parents' house for a while and then drove home just in time for dinner and then I was out the door to vote. I thought if I went late enough, the line wouldn't be very long, but I ended up waiting in pretty cold weather for about 45 minutes. Here was my view once I was in the door, which took about 30 minutes to get to!

 Dan went earlier in the day and he also had to wait a long time. There was another polling place literally next door with NO line, but since it wasn't our assigned polling place, none of us could go there. Lame.

Sam found out his bus driver's favorite candy is Snickers, so each day after Halloween he brought her a snickers until his stash ran out.

The big kids' Christmas wish lists.

I got a Halloween funfetti cake mix on sale and promised the kids we would use it. There's always a good reason for cake!

 Dan bought me a new pad for camping since I had such a terrible night's sleep when we went in October. The boys had to try it out.

 I see this car all over the place and every time I think to myself, "Really??? Do you REALLY love Canada Geese?" Because I think you're the only one.

 Our maples were rockin'.

Afton dressed up as a "baby nurse" for career day at school.

 In these glasses, Eli bears a striking resemblance to this Robin Hood character.

We went to the temple and stopped at Great Falls State Park on the way home. It was super crowded that day (the weather was beautiful) so we didn't get to stay long since the line to get in took forever, but it was pretty to see.

 Below Sam is waving at some kayakers. Or the people on the Maryland side... Not sure.

Thankful Tree 2016

Our thankful tree started like this:

Here are a few close-ups.

We weren't very good this year about remembering every night to add a leaf to the tree, but Afton wrote a ton in the last few days. Here's a smattering of hers and Sam's.

Afton: I love Sam and Eli, Mrs. Remme (her teacher), light, moves (movies), ulachrisity (electricity - she put that twice), family, time, blake (I thought that must be a boy from school but she meant "black" - her favorite color), love, lots of fun, BFFs (she wrote that when her friend Marie was here), (Marie wrote one that said BFFs, also. Tender.) numbers, ABCs, whit (white), love you, candy, mom and dad, ice cream, natr (nature), hog wortes (Hogwarts),  har (hair), all of the leafs (leaves), everything, everyone.

Sam: Earth, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, ice, land, fire, wind, light, air, metal, water, trees, science, shelter, and dinosaurs.

I am thankful for our thankful tree.