Thanksgiving Week

The week of Thanksgiving, we decided to take a trip up to Victor, Idaho again. We wanted to ski and check out Teton Springs again where we had just bought a lot for a cabin. The snow was good and the skiing was fun, but a couple of the kids had new ski boots which meant they were pretty uncomfortable. Nate was a champ and sat on top of the freezing cold mountain with Laura trying to warm up her numb feet so she could keep skiing. He's great like that. Also that week, we finished up a challenge from President Nelson. He challenged the whole church (and world for that matter) to use social media to express what they were thankful for the week leading up to Thanksgiving. We don't post on social media much, but Nate and I both did the challenge. And since none of the kids had social media, I made them a poster to write what they were thankful for. It was really cool to see the impact his challenge had all over the world. We then had Thanksgiving at home with just our family. We were sad to not be with our extended family, but we had a nice day. The next couple days were spent getting a Christmas tree and watching Hallmark movies while we set up for Christmas. Or maybe it was just me who was watching Hallmark and doing the decorating. But I did have some help picking out the tree. We went to a new place with the Nelson girls to pick it out and then went to lunch while the boys went off roading. It was really fun! Ollie wasn't sure what to think of everything. He tried eating the tree skirt and drinking the water under the tree for the first few days, but thankfully that didn't last. 

November

Lia and Laura were supposed to have a mountain bike banquet at the end of the season but, like a lot of other things, it got cancelled. So, we had our own banquet. After dinner we gave Lia a shadow box with one of her jerseys, her race plates, and a few other things in it. She was very surprised and I was surprised by how emotional she was about it. It was a great night and probably better than it would have been had we had it at the school. We also celebrated Ollie's first birthday. He got to sit at the table and eat and he had his "friend" Bandit over that night along with Bandit's owners, our friends the Todds. Megan made him a cake and he got a couple presents. Next, Megan made a diorama for school and a fancy dessert for us, Lia's faced swelled up like it's been doing lately and we're not sure why, Ollie went for a ride in the car with Lia and Laura, Lia and Laura got some candy from their young women leaders while they watched a meeting over zoom for church, Megan made a fort in her room, and Lia had fun with some pasta. 

San Diego

In November, Nate and I took a quick weekend trip to San Diego. The weather was a little cold and rainy, but we had a great time. We try to take a trip every year with just the two of us but the covid outbreak made it a little difficult in 2020. We were grateful to just be able to go somewhere. We stayed in a cool hotel, ate good food, went to the zoo and to the USS Midway aircraft carrier and museum and walked around Old Town. It was a great trip! I'm so thankful Nate makes it a priority to go every year and I'm thankful to our kids for letting us go. 

The New Truck

Nate started looking for a truck several months before making this purchase. He brought home an F150 just to check it out and Josh begged him to at least look at the Raptors before making a final decision. Josh has been obsessed with Ford Raptors for a long time. He knows all the stats about them and had ridden in a couple with some guys in our ward who have them. So he and Nate started looking just for Raptors and found the one they wanted. For not being much of a car person, it's pretty cool! And it's the newest car we've ever owned...like it still smells new. The day we drove it home was the best day of Josh's life!

Halloween 2020

Halloween this year was on a Saturday. So the kids dressed up for school on Friday (I didn't get a picture of Josh) and then we celebrated on Saturday. We had a little covid-safe "party" at Janet and Kent's in the afternoon and then our Halloween dinner and parties/trick-or-treating that night. Lia was a skier and then changed into a ninja costume that night with her friends, Laura was a reality tv star named Carole Baskin from the show "Tiger King," Josh was a lumberjack, Megan was a scarecrow (along with a few of her friends but I can't find the picture of them together), and Ollie was a crab. The elementary school canceled the Halloween parade, which would've been my last one ever, and no parents were allowed for Megan's class party. I was bummed about both of those things and the lack of real family parties, but it was still a fun holiday under the circumstances.