The past 6 weeks have flown by! We got back from Hawaii and went back to school the second week of October. The weather has been pretty good so far this fall. We had one day before Halloween when we woke up and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground, but it melted by the next day and now it's November 19 and we still haven't had another snowflake! In fact, today it was even raining! I am happy for it to not snow until December!
Caleb went snowboarding for the first time this season yesterday with Benson and Cole at Grand Targhee. Benson's dad drove them and stayed there all day. I guess they can make snow up there, but they only had certain runs open. Caleb said it was great and there were hardly any people there. We bought him a snowboard rental from Al's for the season and he bought his season lift pass with about half of his lifeguarding money (it was $500!). So he better go a lot this winter!
End of the trimester - Gabe ES
We have all been busy with school (except Josh) and we are almost to the end of the first trimester. Tomorrow we have our last real day of school and then Tuesday is the attendance final. Then it's Thanksgiving Break for the rest of the week and we start the second trimester on Monday, November 27. Gabe was in a class called ES (environmental science) this trimester, and he went on a bus to the woods every other day. He worked with a group of 3 other girls most of the time. He said they were smart and nice, but not at all "hot." So, they got a lot of work done at least! ;) His class ended this week, so Josh and I and all the parents had to go watch the high school kids present. Gabe's group talked about global warming and stuff like that. Here are some pictures!
Halloween
Also, I need to write about Halloween! Avery dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood. We tried to put a bonnet on Zeus and say he was the grandmother, but he didn't really keep it on. I sat on the front porch handing out candy and Claire came and sat by me and handed out candy until about 7:00. Then her kids were done and she went home. Josh walked around with Avery and Zeus. The Milners were there walking around for a little bit, and then I guess they left and went somewhere else. Avery's friend in the neighborhood, Nora, also walked around with her for a little bit. Caleb and his neighborhood crew were out trick-or-treating in makeshift costumes. Caleb found a blond wig in my costume bin and put his snowboarding helmet and goggles on. I don't know what the other boys were, but I guess people still gave them candy. Then they went swimming afterward I think. Gabe was at a Halloween party at Evelynn's for most of the night. I was very happy that I had planned for myself to fly to Wisconsin for a solo trip the day after Halloween. I was so excited to NOT have to go to work the next day! ;) Here is a picture of Avery and Zeus on Halloween. I also have a couple pictures here of me and Josh and Avery at the pumpkin patch. We probably picked the coldest day to go there, but it was the Saturday before Halloween and we still hadn't gone, so we finally gave in to Avery and went at about 4:00. The boys were both busy, so it was just us three!
End of Football
I'm kind of writing out of order here, but Caleb's football season ended about two weeks after we got back from Hawaii. Caleb played mostly JV this year, but always suited up for Varsity games as well and sometimes got in for about 5-10 minutes here and there. The last game was against Rigby and the JV lost 19-21 against Rigby, which was sad, but we were like, "At least it was a good game and it was really close." Then the next night, the Varsity played Rigby and lost by 42-0! It was insane. A lot of people were saying we need a new head coach. Rigby is good, but they should not have beaten us by that much. So that was a big bummer. Caleb didn't even play once though, so we can't say it was his fault! Here are a couple pictures of Caleb this season. (The last one is just Caleb with his friends having a party in the back yard.) Hopefully, next year he gets to play more Varsity and they have a better season.
Trip to Wisconsin
As I mentioned earlier, I got to go to Wisconsin all by myself for a little trip! I booked this back in September because my mom was getting after me about coming to see her new house. I found this flight using my skymiles, so it was free, and I flew out on Wednesday, November 1 and came back Sunday afternoon. It was really nice to be able to just eat lots of food, go shopping, and hang out with my mom. I also got to see my grandma, Rachel, Brayden, Jasmine, Jesse, and Gini and her family. It was a little weird going there this time because this is the first time I've been there since my grandma moved out of her condo and my mom moved out of the house I grew up in. Rachel is currently still living in that house with Jasmine and Brayden (and I guess Jasmine's boyfriend, Ben...) so it's all weird. I like my mom's new house and it seems like she's really happy there and getting settled with Jesse, so that's good. My grandma is in an assisted living home that's only about 3 minutes away from my mom's new house, so that worked out really well. I'm not sure how long Rachel will be living in the Mequon house because my mom was planning to sell it, but I think there's just no good place for her to move right now. (It's kind of a tricky situation...) When they do move though, there's going to be a LOT of stuff to clean out of that house. Anyways, here are some pictures from my trip!
