Bear Lake for Fall Break- hey that rhymes!

BEAR LAKE
We were so anxious to get up there, we left Wednesday NIGHT after mutual, after cleaning up the house, I think we left around 9:00.  Which is pretty weird for us.  Normally we would just wait.  But really- I'm so glad we didn't!  It was one more morning that we got to sleep in, one more day that we had to vacation.  We didn't get up to the lake house until midnight, but we all settled in and went right to sleep.  In the morning we slowly got ready for the day.  We headed down to swim or so we thought and ended up on kind of a wild goose chase, following the family around Idaho looking for something to see.  The Oregon Trail museum was closed, so it was on to Soda Springs to see the geyser, which was actually really cool and very random.  Only problem was we hadn't been planning on ANY of it, so we struggled to really enjoy the day.  The kids just wanted to swim.  Luckily, and against Ruth's will, we ended up swimming that evening.  I wish Ruth would have been there with us, but I understand why she wasn't.  Kind of a bummer, I'm going to have to look into a new place to swim while we're up there.

Friday, Nate, Brad and Noah got up early to go fishing in the FREEZING cold.  The rest of us slept in and played games, watched tv... bummed around... my favorite thing to do.  It was a nice relaxing morning.  Unfortunately, when Nate got back, his neck had taken a turn for the worse.  He was in excruciating pain and could hardly move.  I felt so bad!  He didn't want to ruin the fun for anyone though, so he just carried on as usual.  We went and got shakes on our way over to Ruth's to play with the cousins and then everyone headed up to Coopers together.  After Coopers we went back to Ruth's to watch the Jazz game.  It was such a late game, we thought we weren't going to be able to watch the whole thing, but Grandpa and Dawn informed us that they were up at the house with the game on. So we let Grandma go to bed and went to the lake house for the last half of the game.  That was a really sad game!  We had been ahead the ENTIRE game!  Only to lose our lead in the last five minutes.  Then of course, we ran the clock out too much, or not enough, and lost by ONE POINT!!  So sad.  Everyone was bummed.  Then we went to bed.

these two were buds for a lot of the trip- made me smile

Saturday we had bacon for breakfast, which is always a good thing.  I made eggs for the adults :).  We got all ready for the day and went and had fh'zookies with Grandpa Hatch, Dawn, Grandma Ruthie, Aunt Jen, and the Eagle Mountain Mayneses before they all headed back home.  I splurged and had some of the fh'zookie and while it was delicious, I was slightly bummed that it tasted a little burnt.  Oh well, it was worth it :).  Kinda.  We went back up to grandpa's, watched Ernest Goes to Jail (an ol' family favorite from my childhood), then went back down to the lake for some rock skipping.  That was a LOT of fun!  Probably my favorite part of the trip.  It was nice and relaxing, everyone was happy, I was taking pictures... it was great!

We headed back when we were ready and didn't have to rush home for a change.  We stopped at Costa Vida in Brigham City and got home around 8:00.  It was fun that the older three realized there was a dance that night, so they showered and I cut Brad's hair, and they headed out to that- his first dance!!  The rest of us got ready for Sunday.  Haircuts for Noah and Jackie too.  It was a nice evening.  I loved that we weren't rushed all day.  So nice!!  Fun trip.  10-17-18--10-20-18

Week of 10-28-18

PRIMARY PROGRAM
The big day finally arrived!  The kids were so excited and so ready!  All three of them had all their parts memorized.  We knew the songs including Noah and Erika's special verse of Let Us All Press On!  It was a fun meeting.  I thought the kids all did really well.  It's cool when it all finally comes together and works out!  I made another video for the kids to watch in Sharing Time.  I think they liked it enough.  10-28-18

HALLOWEEN PICTURE SCAVENGER HUNT
Monday was a day off from school so we spent the morning getting the house cleaned up (shouldn't have taken all morning, but it did), then got ready to go to our movie.  Unfortunately, there were not any movies during the day since it wasn't a normal holiday/day off from school!  We were so bummed!  Luckily, Kelly thought up a really fun idea to do a picture scavenger hunt.  Kinda like the one we did with all our friends last year at the Clemens's party.  So we divided into three groups- took some convincing of some of the kids that they wanted to participate, but it ended up being a LOT of fun!!  Charity, Luke and Erika were on a team.  Kelly, Molly and Noah were on a team.  And Bradley, Jack and I were the other one.  We cheated and used the car :). Mostly because of how sore my legs still were, but also just to be silly.  We had a lot of fun looking around for Halloween things and racing the clock to get pictures of everything on the list.  We got back just in time and were the last ones back.  Charity's team won.  It was really cool- I'd love to do this again as a family.  Even Molly was fun and had a good time running all over the neighborhood.  Here are some of my teams pictures.

We had to go get some ice cream to celebrate the win :).  We got it at Sam's Club where we got Brad's costume.

SPIDER AND FLY CAFE

We had the FUNNEST time at the family dinner!  Nancy went all out on decorations, cute idea, and food!  I was so impressed!  Crazy Halloween-themed foods and crazy utensils- it was a lot of fun!  I sat by Molly and Jack and Luke and LOVED their reactions to everything!  It was so funny to see Molly's face when she realized there was a fly on her cup and spider on her plate :).  She did like the olive spider and the donut spider legs as well.  I loved Luke's reaction to the blood and bones cheesecake.  And I am hoping I can recreate the yummy "keto-friendly" entre one of these days- SO GOOD!  It was a lot of fun to see everyone in their costumes and spend time together as well!  Nate was having such a good time, he accidentally ate a whole plate of pasta :).  Good times.  10-29-18

REFLECTIONS JUDGING

I helped Natalie with judging today.  We provided the lunch for the judges.  Molly and I went over to the school and she watched movies on my phone while I judged Fine Arts 2D entries and Photography.  I don't know why, but I kind of liked it :).  My mom came as well and helped with the music and literature entries.  Lots of fun.  10-30-18

THE NEXT DAY

I seriously sat around all day Thursday.  It was my rest day after the craziness the day before.  I think I did some laundry, but that was it!  Molly and I vegged!  We did get up and go take Charity to her Laurel lunch and then went to lunch with Uncle Steve, but that was it!  And we had a blast with Uncle Steve at Carl's Jr.  I wish we could have had more time with him, but it was nice to see him again!  Feels like it's been forever!  Molly and I enjoyed the day.  11-1-18

BIRTHDAY TABLES WITH ERIKA

Erika chose Wendy's this time!  We were thrilled with the easiness of that idea :).  And we were on time for once!  We had fun sitting there with her and talking about her day.  It's so interesting how much of a kids' mind is spent thinking about where they sit and who they sit by- that is one of the few things I hear about that goes on in my kids' classrooms.  Seating charts.  It really is a big deal!  And when I think about it- of course it is!  I'm glad she is happy with where she sits though :).  She seemed to have a nice time and even missed some of recess to be with us.  I thought that was nice of her :).  11-2-18

JACK'S FIRST BASKETBALL GAME

This was so adorable!!  I mean, I know I shouldn't say that about a boy's basketball game, but seriously!  Jack was SO CUTE!!  He really hasn't paid enough attention to his brothers playing or maybe just wasn't feeling super assertive, but he was seriously the cutest thing!  The whole game!  And he was trying!  He had the ball a few times and even took a shot at the basket!  He was just not really sure what to be doing the rest of the time.  But SO CUTE!!  He told me tonight that he thinks maybe they need to have a practice :).   Which, I do have to say, it's REALLY STUPID that they don't have practices for this age group.  Just 20 minutes before their game.  Seems a little ridiculous to me.  I get it, they don't have enough gyms to work with, but still.  Lame.  But Jack decided he is going to ask dad and his brothers to help him out a little this week.  He really did great though!  Especially for his first time on the court!  It was so fun for his proud mom!  Nate seemed like he was having fun coaching, got really excited for the kids who made the points.  He is so good to do that!  It doesn't look easy.  11-3-18

PICTURES

Kelly and I went through the boxes of pictures in my closet tonight!  She organized them all by who is in the picture!  I got rid of a bunch of things we don't need to hang onto.  Doesn't look like we did much, now that it's all cleaned up and reorganized, but it's a good three hours' worth of work, so I hope it was worth it :).