November

 Happy November!

The most fabulous month of the year!
There's soups, fall leaves,

warm jackets, Thanksgiving dinner,

and THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

(known the rest of the world as

"Veteran's Day")

Sterling starts us off with 

a pretzelmaker at the mall!

His favorite new past time

is running down to GRAM-GRAMS!

Can you find Mitchell?

(looking down in the middle)

He qualified again this year

 for HONOR BAND

on his trombone!

So proud of him!

Check it out!

And speaking of proud,

let's head over to our

VETERAN'S DAY CELEBRATION!

Can you find Cora?

Blue sweater, bangs, wavy hair,

far away gaze...

Britta's turn to sing

her patriotic heart out!

front row, bow on her shirt,

mouth wide open...

We had a SURPRISE awesome visit

from Nick and Andrea!

Genevieve had a dance concert

at BYU-IDAHO

and they came to stay for a few days and watch!

We took a quick morning jaunt to

the BURLEY TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE!

We all rode in the RV

and got a VIP tour!

(well they make you feel that way.)

A fun story: 

We left at like 5 am to get there

right when it started,

but the line 

was literally three times

around the temple already!

Nice problem to have! 

We knew if we waited that long

that we wouldn't get back in time

for Genevieve's show,

so Nick walked around the temple

working his charm and

next thing we know,

we are RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE LINE

with our new "friends" who

were "saving us a spot."

That guy can convince anybody

to do anything!

Richard was part of a

Volleyball State Championship team

in high school.

They just sent him a memorial trophy

to commemorate their induction

into a Hall of Fame.

Now we head back down to Vegas

for a desert Thanksgiving!

(But there might be some fun stops along the way!)

we found a KIDTOPIA

somewhere in Utah.

This is the kind of place

where a picture is worth

1000 laughs, giggles, and screams.

waiting for the balls to drop!

Do you have a license?

weird brothers

super fast slides!

some kind of portal...

...probably to another dimension

apprehension...

determination...

exhilaration!

We loved it there!

We would definitely go back another time!

We worked up quite an appetite,

so it was time to fill our bellies!

(though some of us were filling our shorts)

Then we stopped off for the annual IKEA trek.

Finally at Lisa's!

We walked to Lone Mountain!

Some of the kids hiked up the mountain with Lisa.

The rest of us stayed behind.

We found new friends along the way!

The kids did find a little cave up the slope a little ways.

And Dad told them legends about it.

Sterling played in the trail.

Right in the middle of the trail.

We found a playground...

and Colette couldn't contain herself.

Hold your horses!

Down the slide we go!

Grant and Mitchell are never too big to play!

What does Richard see in the sky that we don't?

Grant and Mitchell are Sterling's perfect playmates...

they do whatever he tells them!

This way or that way?

CAN WE EAT NOW?

Britta helped me make sweet potatoes!

They were my favorite!

(and I've literally never said that about sweet potatoes!)

Parker loves getting dressed up for any occasion!

Some of us didn't even bring shoes.

Then we finished the night

with a friendly neighborhood game of baseball.

It was an absolutely perfect Thanksgiving!