A Warm November and a Happy Thanksgiving!

This month of November was such a pleasant surprise! When we had that little snow storm hit right before Halloween, I thought, "Oh great... the next six months will be filled with snow." But then the snow melted away right after Halloween and we didn't see another single flake until November 27th! (The eve of Thanksgiving) Then it decided it was really going to let loose and it snowed for the next 5 days straight! So right now we have a good 6 inches on the ground and the Rexburg roads are filled with icy, packed-down snow in their usual Rexburg winter fashion. I really try hard not to even leave the house and drive around town when the roads are like this, PLUS filled with college students from California who have never driven in snow before! So it may be a loooong winter of being a hermit if this snow doesn't melt.

The month of November has been a lot of hanging out at home. I have been studying every spare moment for this teacher exam I have to take. I actually am going down to Pocatello tomorrow morning to see if I can pass this first exam. It starts at noon and is supposed to take about 4 hours. I am NOT excited for it. If I do pass (hopefully), then I will start studying for the second half which is in the content area of English. Once I pass that one, I can start applying for teaching jobs. I am guessing it will probably be next fall when I would start teaching full-time.

The kids are all content hanging out at home after school and playing the XBOX or watching TV. The latest excitement is that we just subscribed to the new Disney Plus, which enables them to watch every Disney movie or TV show. That's kept them quite entertained. Definitely worth the $12 per month.

Avery is doing tap lessons every Tuesday after school and the boys are on a break from sports right now. Gabe tried out and made the highest level of travel soccer team a couple weeks ago. I was hoping he wouldn't because it's also the most expensive! lol But he's excited about it so I guess we will pay for it. *sigh* That starts up with indoor practices at the end of January and goes until June! They play games all over Idaho and a couple in Utah I think.

Caleb is trying to decide what he is going to do for the next few months. I told him to sign up for recreation leauge basketball again but I think he is dragging his feet because last year he had kind of a useless coach. He might just play church ball instead. (A group of boys from our church have games once a week.) Caleb also finally had his end-of-season football party on November 14th. We had it at the Vivint building (Josh used to work for them selling home alarms) and they were able to play basketball and ping pong. We had a big banquet for all the boys and their families and then we showed the highlight video that I made. It was a fun night! All the boys got awards and Caleb's was "Most Dependable Player" because the coach said, "We could always know for sure that Caleb wasn't letting his guy through and he didn't mess up on snapping the ball once all season."

Avery got to have a fun "Frozen" day with me last weekend. The new movie, "Frozen 2" came out and the local movie theater had an event where you could come and meet Anna and Elsa before the movie and do some other activities. The boys had gone with Josh to help his dad move some hay so me and Avery had a girls day. We met Anna and Elsa, saw the movie, ate lunch at McDonalds, (and even got a Frozen toy in the Happy Meal) and then Avery went to a birthday party for her friend, Adrie. She said that it was "the second best day ever" (after a day at Disney World). Here are some pictures of the "Frozen Day." Also, note that Avery lost one of her front teeth right before this. She has already lost just her two bottom ones so this is the third tooth ever that she has lost.

In addition to her "Frozen Day," we also had a little "spa night" a couple of nights earlier. Both of the boys had friends over and were busy playing Madden on XBOX, so Avery asked if we could do a spa day and put masks on our faces with "pickles" on our eyes (I realized after some questioning that she meant CUCUMBERS.) Here is Avery with her mask, her cucumbers, and her nails done.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Avery finally wore us down and convinced us to put up our Christmas tree. We had been telling her, "Not until after Thanksgiving" for about two weeks already and then FINALLY we agreed. So it was Sunday, November 24th when we finally put it up. We justified it by saying, "Thanksgiving is late this year."

For Thanksgiving, we went to our church just down the road. Josh's sister was going to host everyone at her house, but as the guest list grew she decided to reserve the church and have it there instead. It worked out well because then everyone did the traditional game of lighting (basketball) after eating. (Not me... I was in a food coma.) Here are the grandkids that were there (except for Gabe because he had just barely stepped out, but he was there too!) Shannon's family and Heather's family didn't come this year because they were doing other things. So this is just the kids of Josh's brother (Bryan) and two of his sisters (Janelle and Jenni). Tyson (the boy in the pink shirt in the front row) is a Junior and plays on the high school Varsity basketball team so he typically beat everyone at lightning. lol

On Black Friday, I started out by shopping online the night before and I should have just stuck with that! But no. I was lured into going to Kohl's because I had some $10 coupons that had to be used in store. I even had a couple of friends give me theirs so I had a total of 3 $10 coupons and 1 $5 coupon! I couldn't let that $35 go to waste! However, if I would have realized beforehand that they couldn't be used on toys, candy, Under Armour brand, Levis, and a whole host of other things I probably wouldn't have dragged my whole family along to Kohl's at 9am on Black Friday!

We created quite the scene at the check-outs as one by one all of use failed to be able to use our coupons. It was one per customer so I had told each of my kids, "Here is your coupon, go get in line." Gabe had just a pair of Under Armour socks. They were going to be about $12 so he had the $10 off coupon and I gave him a few bucks in cash to pay the difference. Well nope! The coupon wasn't allowed on Under Armour! Meanwhile, at a different checkout lane, Caleb had an $8 blanket to buy. Well nope! He needed to have OVER $10 in order to be able to use the coupon. So he tried to grab a candy bar at the checkout to bump it over $10, but NOPE! That wasn't working because it was candy! The cashier had mistakenly told him, "Oh, you must not be able to use it on the blanket," but it was actually the CANDY that was messing it up. So then Josh ALSO had a blanket. NOPE! Same problem. He just got out of line and was like, "I'll go look for something else." Meanwhile, I had a few little toys and also some socks. Well apparently I couldn't use the $10 coupon because the socks were only $9 and the toys wouldn't help bump it up over $10 because the coupon wouldn't apply to toys. So then I at least could use just the $5 coupon on the socks! SHEESH! And literally all of this was happening at the same time at four different registers. I have never been so frustrated with Kohl's in all my life. In the end, we did end up leaving with 2 blankets, a pair of shorts for Gabe, a pair of socks for Avery, and four little Hatchimals toys (for the gift exchange with Josh's extended family... we have a bunch of little girls to give gifts to.) But we ended up paying full price for one blanket and leaving one $10 coupon unused. I think total we ended up spending about $30 for all the things, so still a decent deal. But it also came with the cost of about 50 people in line staring at us as all heck broke loose and every cashier's light started flashing for help. Oops. Maybe they shouldn't have so many friggin' exclusions on their coupons!!

Then I also went to Bath and Body and got a whole bunch of hand soaps on sale to give to teachers and friends. Everyone can use soap, right?! After that it was about noon and we were all ready to get the heck back to our quiet house in Rexburg. Idaho Falls was CRAAAZY! When we got home, Josh took the kids sledding at the sand dunes and I stayed home and studied. Caleb looks really small in this picture but I think he was standing downhill. haha

Last but not least, I have to share these awesome pictures of Caleb. There is an ap that lets you age progress a photo so that you look like forty years older. Well here is Caleb's current school picture next to him as a grandpa. hahahaha The missing tooth only adds to the appeal.

He kind of resembles Santa Claus right?? And on that note.... Merry Christmas!!! ;)

Fall hikes and activities, Football Season Ends, Grandma Sue and the Bestors visit, Halloween

Well it's crazy to think about how much our weather has fluctuated this past month! I just looked at my last post and we were SWIMMING at beautiful Grand Teton National Park on Labor Day! Yeah... that's not how this post is going to look. Are you ready for some SNOW pictures?! (Stay tuned...)

Fall Hike to Mesa Falls

When October began, everyone was looking forward to the changing leaves and the fall temperatures in the fifties and sixties. The first day of October, our family drove up to the Mesa Falls area in Ashton just past Josh's childhood home and went to see the waterfall there. Then we went for a little hike at Bear Gulch to the abandoned train tunnel. We got to see some pretty fall colors. It's a good thing we took pictures because that's about the extent of fall colors we got this year! Here are some pictures:

Treehouse Nursery

Another fun thing we did the first week of October was go to the Treehouse Nursery Fall Festival. They have a hayride, a storybook walk, and a pumpkin cannon there! We also love getting the scones. On the plus side, the food inspector wasn't able to come there yet, so they were giving out their scones for FREEE! It was amazing. Here are a couple pictures:

Football Season Ends

Over the next couple of weeks, the boys had their last football games. Caleb's team had a record of 3 losses and 5 wins, but I feel like that doesn't truly reflect how good they were. Two of the losses, they were ahead the whole game and then lost in the last two minutes by 1 point. It was sad. But on the upside, I think this will be good for next year because it will keep them in the B division. They played in the A division a couple years ago and it was awful. They lost almost every game. So in my opinion, staying in the B division and winning most of your games is better! :) Caleb enjoyed playing center again and was the biggest boy on his team.

Gabe's team only lost one game and it was to Josh's hometown team, North Fremont. Gabe got to play typically about half the game, but he was having to share time with about 18 other boys who had all played together already for the past five years. He did really well though and improved a lot. There were even a few times where he broke through and sacked the quarterback. He isn't fully convinced about playing next year, but we will see. He is also thinking he will do spring soccer again in a few months. Here are some football pics:

Grandma Sue Comes to Visit (and Aaron's family)

On October 16, Grandma Sue came to visit! She flew into Idaho Falls at midnight on Wednesday, October 16. The next day, we got the kids out of school early at about 10am and then Aaron's family arrived in Rexburg! They had driven down from Montana to spend the day with us and with grandma. We ate lunch at out house and then drove out to this corn maze that's near Rexburg. We had the whole place to ourselves because it wasn't officially open. Mom knew the people that owned it and the came and let us in to use it to be nice, since they didn't officially open until 4:00 that day, but Aaron't family would be leaving to go to Yellowstone by then.

We went through the corn maze and played on the big slide with the kids. There was also a slack line that everyone attempted to master.

Yellowstone

That afternoon (Thursday), the Bestor family drove their camper and went to Yellowstone. We stayed home with grandma and slept in our beds. Then they next day (Friday) at about 1:00, we loaded the kids up and drove with grandma to Yellowstone. We were there at the park from about 3:00-7:00 and we met up with Aaron's family at their campground. We drove to Old Faithful and walked around the gift shop as it began to SNOW!! At 5:00, they kicked us out because they were closing. So then we sat there in the hail and snow, waiting for Old Faithful to erupt (at about 5:30). It was quite the experience!

After that we drove to see the "Grand Prismatic Spring." Tiffany really wanted to see it for the first time, and was excited because in pictures online it looks like this:

Well the day that we went there, this is what it looked like:

Yeah. We couldn't see it. It was so cold and the heat of the ground mixed with the cold of the air just made everything really foggy and misty. I guess we will have to go back in the spring or summer! Good thing we only live an hour and a half away. When we finally got back to Rexburg, it was about 8:30pm and we were STARVING because we hadn't eaten in Yellowstone and were just trying to get back as soon as we could. (The weather wasn't great - it was snowing still and getting dark.) So when we finally got back into town, we ate dinner at Freddy's and that burger and fries never tasted so good!

Sunday we went to church with grandma and then relaxed at home. We celebrated her birthday a few days early with lava cakes. We also carved pumpkins with grandma. 

On Monday, grandma and I went shopping in Idaho Falls while the kids were in school and Josh was at work. We went to Kohls, Ross, and out to lunch at Kneaders. We had to be back by about 2:30 to pick up kids from school. Then we went out to dinner with grandma at Da Pineapple grill that night.

Early on Tuesday morning, we left the house at about 6am to take grandma back to the Idaho Falls airport so she could fly back home to Wisconsin. It was so fun having her visit us for a few days!

Halloween Fun

So then it was October 23 and we had lots of fun Halloween activities to look forward to. The first one was on Friday, October 25th at Avery's school. The Burton elementary school always has the best Halloween Carnival. There's a different game set up in every classroom and you just walk around doing each little game. Then there is also Bingo and some yummy treats in the cafeteria like soft pretzels, nachos, caramel apples, and more. It was actually a decent temperature that night! (Maybe like 50 degrees) We were able to snap this picture of me and Avery in our matching mermaid costumes outside and the grass looks green and it's a beautiful fall day, right?

But then the next day... this happened!

That was on Saturday afternoon (October 26) when the first snow fell. Avery was in heaven and instantly put on all her snow clothes and went in the backyard to start building a snowman. I was not as excited. That snowfall was pretty short-lived though and it pretty much had all melted on Sunday. Phew, we thought. That was close. It was WAAAAY to early for snow.

But then... Monday morning came. Big, fat, fluffy snowflakes had fallen all night long, covering the ground in about four inches of snow! The bad news was, it was Monday morning and the kids needed to go to school! The wind was blowing and the drifts were about a foot high in some places! When we pulled into Avery's school parking lot, the principal was standing in the drop-off lane directing cars not to come through because the snow was too deep and two cars had already gotten stuck! We had already shoveled here, but you can see how the whole ground was covered in snow as I left my house in this picture! Not what I wanted to see on October 28th.

Of course, Halloween was on October 31st, which was a Thursday this year. Avery had her class party at school during the morning and both Josh and i went and helped out. Her teacher, Miss Homer, is a BIG "Harry Potter" fan and so she had planned all of these Harry Potter themed stations for them. The one that Josh and I were at was "wand painting." I didn't get a picture of her with her wand, but here is one of her standing with some friends outside her classroom.

After school was over and we all were back home, we got ready for our trick-or-treating. Gabe got ready to carry out this year's Halloween "trick." Josh had built a special table for Gabe to sit under that had a hole cut in the top. Then we placed a plastic candy bowl on the top of the hole with a hole also cut out of the bottom of it. We took some heavy plastic and taped it to the bottom of the hole in the bowl so that Gabe's hand could come up through the bottom, but yet the candy in the bowl would stay sitting on top and not fall through. Gabe would sit underneath the table and wait for someone to come try and take a piece of candy, then he would reach his hand up through the bowl and scare them! We had painted some red on his hand to it looked a little bloody too. He had a fun time scaring children. haha

Avery went around the neighborhood with her friend, Kendalin, and her little sister, Madi, and Josh and their dad, Jay. I stayed home and sat next to the table like i was the one handing out candy, then Gabe would do his little trick and scare them while I tried to capture it on film. I got a few good ones! Caleb went around trick-or-treating with his friends, Benson and Sebastian. They were on their own as they went around our neighborhood from about 5:30-7:00. By then the sun was setting and we were freezing and it was time to call it a night!

Caleb dressed up as a character from Fortnite names Drift. His costume was basically a black shirt, black sweatpants, and a red vest sweatshirt (which we had). Then all I had to buy was the mask! Here are some Halloween night pictures:

So we had snow on the ground for about a week. Then the temps did warm up enough that it pretty much all melted. There are still a couple of small spots here and there in our neighborhood that have patches of snow, but for the most part we have  green grass and clear road (for now... knock on wood.)

It's Saturday, November 9th today and the temperature was about 50 degrees again. Josh spent the day cleaning out the garage and raking up leaves in our backyard with the kids. I spent the day putting the finishing touches on the yearly Christmas books for the grandmas and grandpas! I finally placed the order so it's good to have that off my list!

I have also been busy studying to become a high school teacher! I signed up right at the end of October the day grandma Sue left town. There is a program that is completely online that you can do if you have a Bachelor's degree that enables you to study and take this teacher's test within a matter of about 8 months. So I am spending all of my free time studying in preparation for these two big exams. The first one is the "how to be a teacher in general" test, and the second one is in my content area, which I have chosen as English.

So wish me luck on that! Hopefully by next fall I will either be teaching full-time or at least substitute teaching until a job opens up that I like.

Josh is still the K9 officer with Drax and a sergeant at the police department. We are happy this week because the race for city council and mayor just wrapped up and we had everyone win that we wanted to! The position of mayor has a little bit of an effect on Josh directly because the mayor will have a say in who advances to higher positions with the police department in these next few years. We are hoping to see Josh go from sergeant to lieutenant and then possibly assistant chief here in the next four years, so we are happy that the current mayor (Mayor Merrill) won re-election and that he really likes Josh.

That is what's new for now!