Thanksgiving 2023

Well this was our first Thanksgiving without Miles - sniff, sniff. His lack of presence, among other more significant ways, was definitely noted in how many rolls we had left over - pretty sure Miles would have eaten them all up, ha! While we missed him, we had a pretty great day. Plus, we got to chat with Miles on Wednesday AND then a bonus time on Thursday. So we were all pretty grateful for that!

Our day started with the Montrose's annual Turkey Trot. Jonas decided to sleep, but the rest of us got up and participated. Lucy ran/walked the 2-mile course with her friends. Ben, Emmy, and I ran the 4.3 miles course. Ben rocked it, of course. His time being sickeningly in the 32-minute range. Emmy and I did well and managed a 37:04 time. Emmy's knee really started bothering her, but she pushed through and managed to finish well - although not her best time. There was a good crowd there and it's always a great way to start off Thanksgiving.

Csilla and her family came over around 2. Csilla and I had planned a photo scavenger hunt, with Ben contributing 4 awesome scavenger clues to add to the experience. We broke the teams into boys versus girls - seeing as there were 5 and 5 and so it worked out well that way. We had 4 clues to find and with each new clue, there were photo challenges to accomplish as well. The photo challenges ranged from easy, to moderate, to hard/embarrassing. The harder it got, the more points the photos were worth. We had 75 minutes to get done as much as possible. 

The boys started off strong and fast on the scavenger clues - beating we girls at each clue. But, in the end, the girls came out on top with a big win - 550 points to their 350 points. And we realized that maybe boys vs. girls wasn't as even or fair as we thought! Early on, when I was telling Emmy how bad I am at clues and riddles, Emmy exclaimed, "Oh we are so going to lose!" However . . . I told Emmy I thought we'd do well with the photo challenges - and that's exactly what happened. The deductions of the detective clues were more up the boys' alley; the photo challenges and its social skills were way more up the girls' alley. So girls won, ha! The adults chipped in and the 1st place kids each got $35, with the 2nd place kids each getting $10. Everyone was a good sport about the whole thing - even Jonas. Although when we got back home he told me he wasn't doing that again, haha. Contrast that to Lucy's and Lexi's comments that they wanted this to become our new Thanksgiving tradition. So funny.

But it was a great activity to get us out and active for a little part of the day at least.

We came back and the kids played some games while the adults finished getting dinner ready. Dinner was delicious, complete with our traditional fare of turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, rolls, and cranberry salad (I forgot to cook the green beans!). Csilla brought over some deliciously fresh sourdough bread and yummy mashed potatoes. After dinner, Jonas headed out to Abby's house for round 2 of Thanksgiving. The rest of us played a few more games on the computer, ate pie, and then the Rodriguez family left. 

We did a few things, spoke with our parents, and then actually talked with Miles. We watched a little show and then called it a night. Well, at least the old people called it a night. Jonas was still out, Emmy went out as well, and Lucy watched our once-traditional Thanksgiving show: Jack Frost. Poor Ben is on-call all Thanksgiving and the weekend and ended up getting called in at 3am and working until 11:30. Bummer, but at least we had him for all of our Thanksgiving fun!

So here are some of our pictures, but definitely not all of them. Also, I didn't get too many from the boys, so theirs are lacking. But Jonas will be happy about that, ha.

Challenge: a reflection of your whole team in something other than a mirror.

Challenge: a human pyramid. Bonus if you get someone else to join you. (Which we did, but he got cut off just about . . . )

Ugh, this was Emmy retrieving one of the clues. Csilla and Ben went out earlier to place the clues and Csilla insisted this clue be put out in the middle of the pipe. That Csilla.

Challenge: fill up someone's gas. (Funny, Emmy actually knew this kid and has a class with him.)

Challenge: Get four strangers to do the YMCA. My proudest contribution to our challenges. :)

Challenge: Shake hands with a police officer.

Challenge: picture with an animal statue.

Challenge: Find someone older than 70 and get their picture with their ID. Oh this one was hard to do and Csilla basically butchered it, ha! She was thinking on how to approach this lady and kindly find out her age . . . but it came out as, "We need to get a picture of the oldest person in this store. . . " Bwaaahaaa. This cute lady turned out to be 79 and was pretty clueless, even after our explanation, of what on earth we were doing. Loved it.

Challenge: Whole team in a boat. You can't see the boat, but we're in it. We did ring the bell to ask for permission. . . but when no one answered . . . we just did it anyways.

Challenge: Whole team jumping with all the feet off the ground.

Challenge: A bonus to shaking a police officer's hand - get in the car. Another bonus was to get hand-cuffed. But they wouldn't/couldn't do that. Which made total sense after we asked, haha.

Challenge: Whole team with a for-sale sign.

Challenge: Sit on someone's chair/bench on their porch. Bonus: Have the stranger homeowner sit with you.

Challenge: for sale sign.

Challenge: Ask an employee what their favorite candy is. Then buy it and give it to them.

Challenge: Find and flag and say the Pledge of Allegiance. We would have gotten bonus points if the owners were home and joined us.

Challenge: Reenact a scene from a Disney movie. Love this.

The boys did two scenes. They were so great that we gave them credit for both! Love Sye!

Approaching the officers . . . :)

This video is so cute! But I can't get it to upload on my blog, so check it out here. Challenge: Get a kid to give the whole team a high-five.

A few I don't have . . . one challenge was to do a TikTok video on a stranger's driveway. Bonus points if you get the homeowners to join you. We did the macarena and the homeowner's joined in. It was awesome. Another big challenge was to go to a public place and ask people if they had seen your pet tarantula Gertrude. Then call, "Gertrude, come to Mommy." Emmy was all over this one. :)

(I got our TikTok video...)

Miles and the other elders playing in their Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl. :)

Creepy picture Face-timing with Elder Maxwell!

Girls' School Pictures 2023-24 and Jonas' Army photos

I thought I had posted these. . . but I guess not! I am just posting the girls' pictures as Jonas will have senior pictures and I will post those separately as soon as we get them. But I will post a few of Jonas' army pictures that I don't think I've posted yet.

Emmy, 10th grade.

Lucy, 8th grade.

Miles Mission Dump

I just want to post the pictures that Miles sends me . . . however obscure they are, ha! I don't have the descriptions of what's what or who's who, but that's okay.

Miles went through his first transfer and stayed in his same area with the same companion - and he's happy about that! He also flew to Salt Lake City to meet with the Mexico consulate - which is basically the final step in the Visa process, so that was good! My parents picked him up from the airport and took him to the consulate's office for his 5-minute interview. Then my parents hosted Miles for the rest of the day, dropping Miles back off at the airport around 3pm, I think. Miles went to the Church History Museum, Temple Square (my mom said he had fun visiting with the sister missionaries there), the Utah State Capitol, Cafe Rio, etc. It was a good day for them all!

We visited with Miles today and he told us he got his Visa, yay. We still don't know when he'll go to Mexico, of course, but at least the Visa situation is done with.

Miles really likes his ward. They make a lot of contacts, but not a lot of 2nd-contacts. :) He still doesn't understand most of what is said to him in Spanish, but he does know he's improving little by little.

He's always upbeat and positive and just rolling-with-the-flow when we talk to him.

Utah Capitol.

More of the Utah Capitol.

I asked my mom to take pictures of their day with Miles. She sent me five - and this was the only one with someone in it, typical of my funny mom. :) But at least I got one! (Even though I wanted some pictures of Miles with them . . . haha.)

Oh I guess Miles did take one of himself in the Church's history museum . . . so at least I had two for the day! 

September and October calendars, Plus Halloween

Better late than never . . . 

Halloween came after a busy week and weekend! So Lucy was our lone pumpkin-carver, creating her awesome pumpkin on Monday. She did a fantastic job and it looked so great!

A classic, spooky pumpkin . . . 

For Halloween, Jonas had to work. Which was lame as hardly anyone came to swim as, ummm, kids were out trick-or-treating. Fail on his work to keep the pool open . . .

Emmy hung out with Abby, I think. And Lucy was our lone trick-or-treater and dresser-upper. I don't know why, but she chose to be a ghost. And she was excited about it, ha. Funny girl. She went out with a big group of friends and had a really great and fun time.