The year is flying by and we are now in November. We did a lot of activities as a family throughout this month including sports, hikes, dancing, new additions, and even Thanksgiving.
Russell and Colby started the month out with some fun wheelchair basketball. Russell: "Every year the Fire Department helps with a wheelchair basketball charity event; LCFD against another team. It was fun to participate this year. I got a phone call from Diego saying the people who were supposed to help backed out last minute and they only had two people. It was perfect timing for Colby and me because we had just gotten back in town. We headed right over. We picked our wheel chairs and tried to practice and get tips and hints for the other team.
Once the game began, we were already up 5 points. The point of the scoring goes with people paying money to add points to the team or take them away. The game was hard. I got my fingernails smashed a couple of time and it did not feel good. Poor Colby got his fingernail smashed really hard and had to bow out. He was our photo man after that. We won the game 136 to 130. Let's just say we really only made 10 points in the 4 quarters we played."
On November 1, Jacee had her new baby so we have a new niece!
Hattie Jo Hulet is her name and she looks so cute from the pictures Jacee has sent me. I can't wait to meet her in person hopefully soon.
Tami and Roy finally made it to Zimbabwe at the beginning of November.
Their visas finally came through about a month after they were supposed to. After the 3 weeks or so in the Provo MTC, their visas still had not come so they went back to St. George and worked in the temple and mission office there for about a month until the visas were approved. Then they were off to Africa. Tami said the flight and trip out there was about 24 hours long! They arrived safely though and are loving the mission so far.
Brooklyn loves going to the story time at the library. During one story time they read a story about ballerinas and a real ballerina came to see the kids.
Brooklyn was so excited to see her and wanted to get a picture with the ballerina!
Emily and I decided to sign up fro a half marathon in January. Well, okay, I wanted to and when I asked her if she wanted to join she reluctantly said maybe. So I signed us up! Our first training run was pretty interesting...
Interesting because it started snowing on us while we were running! Poor Brooklyn was in the stroller while we were running so she was in the blizzard too. I think we were supposed to run 6 miles that day but cut it to 3 or 4 instead.
Speaking of running, Emily had her Cross Country banquet this month and was presented with a Varsity Letter!
We were pretty excited about this because we knew she had worked hard to earn it. We may be looking into a Letterman jacket soon because she has now lettered in cross country and track. Cross country has been so good for Emily this year. She has been happier and more excited to participate. She has also made a lot of good friends and friends she has a lot in common with. Emily really debated on whether to continue with marching band or give cross country a try. Russell and I both feel like she made the right decision. She liked band and had fun but by the end she was really burned out and not her happy self. By the time she got to the State Competition she was not having fun anymore. With cross country though, she was excited and happy for every meet and every practice even the hill repeats! I am glad she found a good niche even if she did get some flax from the band teacher.
For Safety Week at Canyon Elementary, Mrs. Kendrick had a great idea to teach the second graders about fire safety. Russell had a blast going to all of the 2nd grade classes and teaching them about how to be careful around fire.
Russell brought his structure gear and had them put it on. The kids loved doing this. Of course he had to bring up Charlotte and have her put them on too. Hyrum Fire also came and brought their fire engine for the kids to look at and have fun.
Logan is part of a new club at the elementary called the Kindness Crew. It consists of only sixth graders and this is the first year they have done it.
As part of the Kindness Crew, these kids are to be examples to the rest of the students by showing kindness to others and helping others. As the leaders in the school, they can make the school a kinder, better place. Logan likes being part of the Kindness Crew. During an assembly at school he and the rest of the group presented different ways to show kindness and gave everyone a challenge to do at least one kind thing for someone else in the school per day.
Russell was called as the first counselor in the Elders Quorum. Because of this we will sadly be getting released from being the Activity Days Leaders. We have had this calling for three years and have loved it! To finish the year out strong though, we planned four more fun activities for the boys. In November we called it Science Month for Activity Days. First we made Stomp Rockets out of paper and a launcher made out of PVC pipe. The boys had a great time building. Each rocket had different designs and colors. Once they were done building them, it was time to launch them and see whose rocket would go the highest. In the end my rocket won. During the launching process they found multiple ways to launch more than one rocket at a time. The boys loved it but the rockets were smashed by the end!
Next activity days we dove more into different parts of science and engineering. First we talked about structural or civil engineering and the boys engineered bridges and buildings with spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. It was fun to see the boys put some effort into making their structures. They all had different designs and some held up and some fell apart. Next was defense engineering and the boys made spoon catapults with rubber band and Popsicle sticks. After making the catapults, they had a war with marshmallows. Finally we talked about chemical engineering and the boys made slime. One boy did not like this at all. He said the texture and even the look of slime made him puke. We all laughed and his partner got to take more slime home.
This trimester Emily is taking Social Dance as a PE credit. This sounded like such a fun class for her. As part of the final grade, the class put on a show for the parents and it was pretty impressive.
The next dance was the Swing Dance. This was a fun dance to watch. All of the kids did different steps but they all did great.
The next dance was the Waltz. This was a very graceful dance and some kids were graceful and some were not. At one point I think Emily and her partner got ran over by another couple. We had to laugh.
Their self choreographed dance was really good and quite funny. The beginning of the dance was the best. At the beginning of their dance, Emily would act like she had a fishing pole and cast it to the boy. After she caught him she reeled him in and he acted like a limp fish and hopped sideways to her. The crowd kept cheering and we kept yelling their name and number. Emily and Sawyer kept moving on round after round until finally there were only two couples left standing.
They danced one more round and the winners were announced. Emily and Sawyer won second place!!
This year I made another fun tradition with the kids when they are out of school. When they have a day off, I take them on hikes around the valley. The elementary kids had a day off of school so I took Logan and Charlotte up Blacksmith Fork Trail.
I really wanted to take them on Letham's Hollow but when we got up to the parking area it was covered in sticky deep mud from the snow. I really did not want to get the van stuck so we drove back to Blacksmith Fork instead. They grumbled that they didn't want to go hiking but once we were on the trail, they had a great time. The trail was snowy but not bad enough that we couldn't get through. It was actually pretty warm and we just needed hoodies. I really like this tradition.
On the Saturday before Thanksgiving we did a family Turkey Trot.
Tiffany had a fun idea for all of us to go running together. Most of us did just over a mile and the older half did just over 3 miles. Then Emily and Tiff went on to do 9 miles! We all had fun and at the end made a fun memory.
Thanksgiving at our house is not just one day it is two days. It has become a tradition for Tiffany to make our own family Thanksgiving dinner aside from the real day. So we get to celebrate as our own family and have leftovers for the rest of the week.
This year we experimented with different ways to make our traditional recipes. Because we are still experimenting with Colby's diet restrictions, we couldn't add any dairy or eggs to the dishes. Instead we used coconut oil, oat milk, and just left out the eggs. In the end, everything still tasted great. In fact, I thought the sweet potatoes tasted better with the coconut oil! The mashed potatoes were a little drier than usual but we just added more gravy.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Farnsworth's this year. We all met at the Stewart's in Lehi and Jen hosted. We had a great time. The older kids and adults played games all day while the other kids spent the day learning different Cat's Cradle yarn games. They also ran around crazy saying they were turkey drunk but that's normal...
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Fall Y'all!
