November started out with us babysitting Avery and Aria. Todd and Kailee took her Mom and Dad and Weston to Hawaii for a week. We stayed with their girls at their home while they vacationed. The first day, we kept Aria home from pre-school as Paul had to work in the temple and I would be home with the girls by myself. I didn't want to brave driving her to school. Speaking of driving....we got a call from Todd when they got to airport. He realized that he had not left the keys to their big car with us. It was too late for him to bring them to us so we had to improvise. The truck keys were at their home and we had our car so that was our modes of transportation. Paul picked up Olivia and Carly on his way home from the temple as they wanted to spend the weekend with us and help with the girls. We went out to dinner at Costa Vida and when we got home, Carly and Olivia helped the girls frost sugar cookies which I had made earlier. |
| Frosting cookies together |
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| The girls loved being pulled across the floor on a blanket |
Saturday, we braved getting everyone in the car and truck, again, and drove to In 'N Out for lunch. We needed a break from the house. Olivia and Carly were a big help entertaining Aria but Avery would have nothing to do with them. Sunday, we even made it to Sacrament meeting on time. I was grateful that Olivia and Carly could help me with the girls at church as Paul went up to Heber for meetings there. He took the girls home later that afternoon and then we had a nice Sunday dinner. |
| Olivia and Carly loved doing Aria'a hair. I was not so creative during the rest of the week |
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| Waiting with Grandpa for dinner |
The week was filled with Aria doing crafts and projects that her Mom had bought. Everyday we did a new one and sometimes two. We took Aria to preschool and to gymnastics during the week and went out to lunch everyday.
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| Pretty good balance |
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| One of Aria's creations from play dough |
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| Aria spent lots of time doing crafts her mother had left for her to do. She love the unicorn she colored. |
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| Aria fixing Ariel's hair with lot of bows and hair clips |
On Thursday, we decided to take the girls up to Heber. We wanted to bring some things home and give the girls a change of scenery. We played at our home for a while, then went to the city park, and then to Dairy Keen for lunch. It was a fun day.
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| The train set always an attraction for Aria and Avery |
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| Avery enjoyed the ketchup more than her hamburger. |
That night, our last night with the girls, Todd called to say that Nicole had sick children and couldn't take the girls on Friday while we worked in the temple. It was decided that Todd would take a red eye home, by himself, so he could be here in time for us to make our temple shift. Paul picked him up at the airport at 9:15 and they were home before 10:00, giving us plenty time to make the temple. We had not told the girls that Todd was coming home so it was fun to see their faces when he walked in. They missed their parents a lot.
The month also brought a couple of football game and basketball started at BYU. We couldn't attend one of the games due to a 'Cream of the Crop' dinner, so Todd took Aria and she enjoyed her cougar tail. Todd joined us at the last home football game.
We went up to Salt Lake City one Saturday to pick up a scrapbook from Diane, Elliot's daughter. She is living with him and together they created a book about Grandpa and Grandma Richards' lives. It is a wonderful depiction of them and is such a treasure.
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| At Mod Pizza for lunch after picking up the girls |
Friday was our temple day so we left the girls to hang out at our home for the day. We planned to be home by 5 and then take them out to dinner. We woke up to 8 inches of snow on the ground with threats of more snow all day. We made it to the temple without a problem but coming home was another matter. We left the temple early, before our actual shift was up because of the snow storm that hit Provo. When we got to the canyon we found that it had been closed and the road report said it would be closed for 8 hours. We called Todd to see if we could spend the night at his home but when we got to Lehi the roads were only wet. Figuring we were beating the storm, we decided to try to make it home via Parley's Canyon which meant going up through Salt Lake and Park City. We knew it would take a extra hour but that would still get us home we thought by 5:30 or so. As we approached the turn off for the canyon, the snow kept getting worse but we couldn't turn around and go back to Todd's. When we got into Parley's Canyon it became bumper to bumper traffic. We found that there was an accident on Interstate 80 about 10 miles out of Park City. We entered the canyon about 4:30 and didn't make it home until 7:30....almost 3 hours to go what would usually take 45 minutes. But we did make it home and were able to fix dinner for Charlotte and Jillian and spend the evening with them.
On Saturday we took the girls to Provo. Paul and Dad went to the BYU basketball game while Jillian and Charlotte and I went to the movie, Frozen II. The girls had already seen it but wanted to see it again. It was almost sold out so we had to sit in three different locations but it was a fun movie to watch. When it was over, we met Paul and Todd at PF Chang's for a late lunch or early dinner. It was a fun day.
Sunday was church. We only went to Sacrament meeting so we could get down to Todd's. He and Kailee were fixing dinner for us so we could eat before taking the girls back to the airport to catch the shuttle back to Rexburg. Dinner was great and we even had a little time to relax before heading to the airport.
I got this unexpected text from Braydon. It melted our hearts. So grateful for his thoughtfulness.
And thus ended November!!!
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