November 2023 So many grandparents and trips.

Nov 4 - We went to the Law's farm for a cookout.  The first adventure of the evening was catching a bird in the cabin.  The little guy is in Andy's left hand. 

Girls enjoying the sunset and lit by a bonfire. 

Nov 6 - Melissa and the kids spent the morning exploring Recapture Pockets, then went for a dip at Bluff Resorts. 

Nov 8 - Grandma and Grandpa Aurich arrived for a couple of days' visit.  They helped the kids break open a handful of geodes and sort through a bunch of their rock pile with the assistance of a flow chart. 

Goldie and the kids enjoying a pre-quiet time story from Grandpa. 

More rock time with grandpa. They stayed just a couple of nights before heading to Great grandma Flick's.  

Nov 10 - Friday we drove to Nana and Granddad's.  Holly Anderson texted the previous week and asked if I'd share a memory of Bret related to music or film. His 40th birthday would have been 11/13/23.  I asked her if she was planning a party, because I would love to crash it. Well, Bret's little brother Ollie responded just the same (from Texas).  So Holly threw a party!. We came up to spend the weekend with Nana and Granddad and visit the Anderson's. 

Nov 11 - Melissa and Belle enjoyed a brunch date Saturday morning. Melissa has been struggling with a gallbladder pain for months and a "healthy" acai bowl was too much for the morning.  But she recovered within a couple of hours. 

Saturday afternoon playdough.  

Finally at the party.  Bret and Holly's families and a couple of other friends gathered for an ice cream party. We spent about 3 hours chatting, eating and crying.  It was so much fun sharing memories.  It was lots of fun to see Bret's family again and to meet Holly's (we'd only seen them at their wedding).  

We all wore our "fandom" shirts.  My kids decided to wear full costumes, with masks and all.  I'm so grateful for Bret's memory and Holly's continued friendship. 

Nov 12 - Helping Nana make dinner.  We made the wantons and dipping sauce. 

Nov 13 - Before heading home we went to the Orem Temple open house with Nana and Granddad.  It was very pretty inside. 

Nov 15 - back in Blanding.  The high school put on The Little Mermaid and Melissa and Grandma took the kids.  They all really enjoyed it. 

Nov 16 - I ended up with a couple blocks of dry ice in a pharmacy shipment.  So I brought it home for a couple of minutes of fun.  I love the twin's faces looking at the CO2 coming out of the straw. 

Melissa thought it would be a good idea to teach the kids to read and write.  Maybe she shouldn't have taught Finn.  

Nov 18 - Day one of Thanksgiving weekend!  10 hours in the van and 1 hour in a pool at Mountain Home Hampton Inn & Suites. 

Nov 19 - Sunday we kept driving.  This trip was a little different.  Grandma Clift was just cleared from a COVID infection and had been too weak and too confused to go to the beach. We stayed a Sunday and Monday night near her nursing home in Hillsborough, hoping to see her a few times before Thanksgiving. 

Nov 20 - We spent basically the whole day Monday with Melissa's 2nd cousin Kristen Kerr Brady. All our kids had shared a couple of pen pal letters and they got along really well for the day.  


Melissa and her cousin met at BYU, simply because Melissa knew her grandmother's maiden name was Kerr. 

That night the kids and I spent another evening in the Embassy Suites pool, but this time Melissa decided it was too cold to join us!

Nov 21 - Tuesday, we stopped at a park to hike and enjoy a little nature on our way to Seaside. Each of the kids found some leaves they were pretty proud of.   As we were driving, we learned that Grandma Clift tested negative for COVID, so we decided to fulfill our original plans to see her before and after Thanksgiving. 

Melissa and I put together a year in review type book to share with Grandma.  It had monthly pictures with short captions for what we were up to.  We made sure to include some pictures of Grandma Workman too. 

Once the kids lost their patience with being cooped up in grandma's little apartment we told her we were leaving to visit Wayne and Stephanie, but that we'd be back soon.  Melissa asked grandma if it was okay to have a picture together and she responded, "only if you take off that silly mask!"

November 22 - Finn loves waking up to see Ava!  Probably his favorite part of the weekend. 

We all went for a walk down the promenade mid morning.  Mya was kind enough to escort my girls for most of the walk. 

We made our way back on the sand.  All three ended up with boots full of water and sand and frozen to the bone!  That didn't stop them from going back out at least once a day to get wet and cold. 

After lunch we went back down to the beach with Trisha and Jeremy, without kids. 

Melissa and her sister's photo turned out better than our couple picture, no fair. 

Nov 23 - THANKSGIVING!  3:09 PM, let the feast begin.  


Nov 24 - We went to the Seaside aquarium, with a small touch pool. 

Rode the carousel, visited the candy store and walked a bunch.  

Melissa went with all the teenagers and most other adults to a Hunger Games movie.  So the kids and I went down to the beach to dig and watch the sun set.  Then Melissa and I joined Trisha and Jeremy at dinner with some of their old Oregon friends while the kids were babysat by their cousins. 

 Stephanie and Wayne, ever the gracious hosts and awesome Aunt and Uncle. 

On the way back to home we visited Grandma again.  Here Hannah is playing one of her piano lesson songs. 

Then we all got to take off our masks for a photo.  Grandma in snuggling Jelly the jellyfish (Lily's naming choice).  Melissa crocheted Jelly so grandma would have something to snuggle and fiddle with.  She loved her and spent the visit either resting her arms on Jelly or playing with her beaded tentacles. We overestimated the ability to get on the road that morning and missed the hotel pool entirely.  

Nov 26 - so we stopped for a night at Nana's instead of trying to get all the way home in just 2 days. We helped decorate the tree, the kids loved it.  

Nov 28 - Tuesday we finished decorating our tree too. 

Nov 29 - Melissa took the kids to Wish on Wednesday night while I was teaching. 

Nov 30 - Melissa pretty much finished up the Christmas decorations by getting her new Christmas village all laid out.  Thank you Grandma Flick!  She sent this home with us on our trip in October.  






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