This was another Sick Christmas.  All of us were sick at least twice this December with everything from stomach flu, regular flu, diarrhea, pink eye and a cough/cold that will NOT STOP.  Sickness notwithstanding, we managed to get through four choir concerts and an orchestra concert before school got out.  

Here’s a funny conversation Rock overheard recently between Levi and Liberty:

“Yeah, Bill Cosby started Microsoft, and he’s the richest person in America.” 

And there you have it.

Tips for An Easy Thanksgiving Dinner:

1. Have one of your kids get sick so that half your guests decide not to come.
2. Assign out all the last minute food items that make you crazy and wish you hadn’t offered to host after all like gravy and mashed potatoes so you don’t have to worry about it.
3. Buy your rolls at Costco and your Pumpkin pie too.
4. Make sure your “fresh” turkey is really fresh and not half frozen.
5. Don’t actually cook your turkey.

This year, thanks to a sick Libby we had just my parents, my sisters and us.  I planned it just right so I only had to worry about the turkey at the last minute.  I did not follow tip #4, unfortunately and when it came time to get the turkey ready, I realized it was partially frozen.  Sigh.  But it only bumped us back an hour and our turkey was cruisin along ready to be done in 2.5-3 hours.  At 2 hours I checked it in 5 different places and the temperature was 10 degrees higher than was recommended for a done turkey. Gasp! I texted our few guests, “The turkey is done early and you better get over here pronto!” and we scrambled to get the table set and the last few things done.  They rushed to get everything finished, arriving shortly thereafter and we proceeded to cut the turkey.  When Rock kept running into bone and couldn’t find the meat we realized that we’d put the turkey in upside down and that it was not, in fact, cooked yet. Yes, we are turkey challenged.  Thank goodness for the microwave!  Our turkey was perfectly moist and miraculously tasted great despite our ineptitude.  Alli put it perfectly when she said, “This was the easiest Thanksgiving dinner ever.  You didn’t even have to cook the turkey!” 

Luckily the turkey turned out ok and we were not reduced to eating our new hamster.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We have a pet at our house.  Well, a pet more exciting than a fish.  Levi worked very hard and saved for a long time to buy a hamster.  It is the first exciting pet we’ve ever had and Levi is very proud of his Snickers. 

It’s that time of year you all look forward to… when you get to see my cherubic little ones prancing around in a fall wonderland of pumpkins and corn, sweetly smiling at their mother in angelic cooperativeness as I take their pictures. Ok, so that’s not how it works.  They are no longer chubby or cherubic (were they ever?) and they have never smiled sweetly in total cooperation.  It’s more like they run around as fast as they can ignoring my constant pleas to “Hold still for ONE SECOND so I can get a picture for the blog, dangit!” Time marches on and they get older and older.  I wish they’d stop that.  But, here they are for your viewing pleasure. I might just add in some oldies just to remind you that they once were cherubic and chubby.

We went on a cruise! The end of September. Don’t know how to describe it really.  It was fun to get away, fun to see how the whole cruise thing works and fun to hang out with Derek and Penny.  But the food was blah, our shower flooded the entire bathroom every time we showered and I spent the second day of the cruise with blurry vision.  All in all I’d say it was a good experience even with the few hiccups.

Waaaayyy back in August we had Rock’s family reunion in our favorite place, Eden, UT!  Loved the views, loved the company! 

Still catching up from Summer… my goal is to be all caught up by the end of October!!!

While Reagan was away on his 50 mile hike this summer we took the rest of the kids camping up at Red Fish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains.  We couldn’t let Reagan have all the fun. It was beautiful and fun and peaceful and unforgettable.

We did have a few small hiccups on our drive up.  The first was not so much a hiccup as a really sad commentary on the dessert where we live or more likely the fact that we need to get our children outside more.  In our defense, family outings are rather painful at our house so we don’t  do them as often as we should.  As we drove up into the mountains Liberty asked, “Mom, is this a forest?” Mom: “Yes”. Libby again: “Oh, at first I thought it was just a big tree farm.” 

Before the drive up I had stashed the DWWWDOC in the glove compartment of our trusty minivan for use at some point down the road.  For those of you not familiar with modern day car travel that acronym stands for Devices With Which We Drug Our Children more commonly known as ipods.  After a pleasant first hour drive I went to pull them out, but the glove compartment wouldn’t open.  I pulled and yanked but it wouldn’t budge.  Finally we had to pull over so Rock could try.  The kids got to enjoy some dangerous scenic overlooks while we wrestled with the door.  I could have sworn I took a picture of them dangling themselves over the cliff while their father and I tried to save the devices, but I guess not.  We did finally get it open but not without breaking it.  It would no longer close, but hung open on my legs the entire rest of the trip.

The next hiccup was more like an upchuck.  Libby got car sick.  Luckily her mother is uber prepared and whipped out a ziplock back for her to be sick in so we had no messes to deal with.  Handy things, those ziplock bags.  Just think what MacGuyver could have done if he’d had those in the 80s?!  Libby managed to recover, but only after a good sleep.

The rest of our campout went swimmingly.  The kids loved the gigantic rock right near our campsite.  I was not as thrilled by it’s mammoth size, but that only added to their pleasure.  They had a great time climbing to the top over and over.