Thanksgiving

It's been so incredibly warm this November!  October was cooler with plenty of rain and snow, but it completely turned off recently.  That's fine for Thanksgiving at the cabin!  We'll take it.  The kids were able to play outside a lot.  We had a smaller group this year, only 20 people, but it was perfect.  Lots of turkey, potatoes, yams, and oodles and oodles of leftovers!  We built a few fires, worked on several Eric Dowdle puzzles, watched a lot of movies, and hiked the loop 3 times.  The next day, we went swimming in Kamas.  It's always a great way to top off a busy weekend.  We sure love Thanksgiving!

Birthday Week!

 We started off birthday week with all 4 kids participating in the primary program.  ALL 4 KIDS!  This will be the one and only time this happens.  Tommy is a sunbeam, Anna is turning 11.  Soak it up.  They did such a fantastic job.  Bevan and I sat on the bench, together, like newlyweds or something.  It felt so good and went by way too fast.

Bevan's birthday was on Wednesday.  He had to work that day, of course, but we still decorated the house during playgroup that morning.  All the extra kids were very entertained with all the streamers, balloons, and (most of all) the very tall ladder.  I gave them the bag of leftover ballons and it kept them busy for an hour.  I also started marinading steaks and baking a cake.  Bevan was very suprised when he got home to the house transformed.  We ate dinner, blew out candles, ate cake, opened his presents, and went to bed way too late!

It wasn't until the weekend that we celebrated Drew and Tommy's birthdays together.  We had pizza and rootbeer on Friday, and then cake and presents on Sunday.  How long can we pull off doing this together?  When will they start insisting they get their OWN parties?  I'm living it up right now!

Anna didn't get to have her friend party until the next weekend, so we just kept the house decorations for an extra week.  Her original plan was to go ice skating with her friends, but we found out at the last minute, the skating rink in Midway wasn't opening in time.  Yikes!  Plan B was bowling in Heber.  They had a blast anyway.  It's amazing how much older they get, the less you have to actually plan anything.  You just plan a destination and they entertain themselves.  Anna got a punch pass for the ice rink in Midway, even though she can't use it yet.  Will it ever get cold?  It was a great way to wrap up birthday week!

BYU vs. Idaho State

 It was such a great day for a football game.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  We had plenty of room for cousins to run around.  The cougars tails were so delicous and I never knew I could actually get sick of them!  The game flew by and I was so glad that Idaho State actually scored a bunch of points.  It definitely made it more interesting.  I hope this stays a tradition.  The absolute highlight is that we didn't lose Dallin this time.  Win win!