Texas Thanksgiving

What a fast week! Two solid travel days, two house hunting days, a day at the ranch, Thanksgiving, and birthday celebrations, and it was done! Phew! The good news is that we seem to have found a house that we all kind of liked (kids joined us on the hunting!), and we are under contract for a great price! Fingers crossed.

Other good news? We got to see a lot of family that week, too! We stayed with cousins, Addy and Will, so we got in some good quality time with them in between house hunts. Addy was pretty excited to have a sleepover, like her favorite Peppa Pig!

Will was pretty excited to eat! He spent a lot of time in this chair. Haha.

There was a lot of reading at night before bed, mostly older cousins reading to Addy.

The kids enjoyed hanging out with baby Will, too! Hadley especially got a kick out of walking (and following) him around. He took a few steps on his own while we were there! Love that stage! Maybe he'll be walking on his own the next time we see him.

After a couple of days of house hunting, we had a small (24-hr) break to run up to the ranch to see Granna and Grandad, so of course we did.

We also got some time with Uncle Michael, which the kids enjoyed. 

Luckily, the ranch had beautiful sunshine (opposed to Houston's constant overcast/on-off drizzle), so we took advantage of it!

In between, the kids tried their luck with the HEBuddy Bucks machine. Hmm, I wonder how much of our future will be spent here...

Then it was back to Houston to commune with the other side of the family at the brewery! Colorado and Ohio family had all convened in Houston this year.

The next day was Thanksgiving, so there was work to be done before we could eat.

But it all came together for a great meal! Happy Thanksgiving!

The following morning we met up with Aunt Loni and her friends not far from the house we put an offer on. We had a tasty brunch, and then a large game of tag ensued.

And from one large meal to another, Addy and Will celebrated their birthday that night with a cousin and their extended family for a big, Chinese meal, and we got to tag along! So much yummy food! Owen ate a pretty good meal; we asked Hadley to try at least a little piece of each dish. Lobster, chicken, fish, pork, shrimp, soup, and veggies - she was out of her comfort zone, but at least she tried them all!

We had a mini birthday with Addy and Will upon our return to the house, before we had to leave the next morning. They were turning 3 and 1 the following week!

Our intrepid travelers! This is getting to be old hat to them, but it may be one of the last holiday trips they have to take for a while! At least we got upgraded to Economy Plus on the return flight. Extra snacks and legroom? Yes, please!

Reality hit, of course, back in the parking lot in Salt Lake City with two inches of snow on the windshield. And us without our snow brush - still rookies at this after 8 years.

Idaho's Last November

Wow! November is nearly gone. It's been a whirlwind, mostly because we put our house on the market. That's right! Our time in Idaho is coming to an end; we are heading back to our Texas roots. Lots of mixed feelings, but excitement for our future endeavors. Anyway, there was lots of cleaning and donations, and our house sold in 3 days! We will miss this house. It has been good to us.

Not much other than that life-changing event going on... except maybe the return of big jackets to our daily wear and belly rubs for Ollie.

One afternoon, we had to evacuate the house for an inspection, so I took the kids to the Festival of Trees, which is a fun diversion for a good cause. 

They humored me with a Santa's lap pic. Owen repeated his last Christmas' wish of an ATV (this time he clarified "a big one"), and Hadley actually said "anything". I think we'll be lucky if we get much of anything this Christmas, what with the upheaval of moving cross-country right in the middle of the season! Stay tuned for our moving adventure!

Hallow-winning!

Oh my goodness, October is long gone, but we did do some stuff worth noting. The first was a family day at the art museum where we made some sculptures out of scrap wood in a study of symmetry.

We also took advantage of the leaf piles in the street on a sunny day bike ride. The second picture is how everyone reads at Barnes & Noble, right?

Right up there with the pumpkin patch in fall traditions is the corn maze. We explored the mid-level maze and solved the farm scene crime (animal/weapon/location eliminated at stations along the way) with friends. I love how kids just run with abandon with no idea where they are going in a maze. I always wonder what would happen if they were in there without adults checking the map?

Once the maze was conquered, we took in the extras like a zip line and corn cannon. The corn maze moved its location closer to our house this year, so it was a lot of fun and not as long of a time commitment! Woohoo!

In the spirit of college football, we tailgated with some Montana State friends at the Idaho State game. Pretty amazing to get 2nd row tickets for four the night before for less than what we are used to paying for the price of one ticket.

A few days before Halloween, the kids' school hosted a trunk or treat, which means they had volunteers line the parking lot with their cars' trunks all decked out to pass out candy to costumed kids. They also had hot chocolate and a few carnival games.

The three first grade teachers had a car with a theme from the movie Hocus Pocus. Hadley took a picture with her teacher, Mrs. Johnson.

On Halloween eve, we carved our pumpkins. The kids drew their own faces on them and scraped out most of the gunk themselves! I just helped with the sharp knife and some stubborn gooey innards. Turned out pretty well, I'd say!

Then it was finally time for the real deal! First, class parties.

Then the first grade put on a Halloween program with songs and poems in costume. Hadley is on the right side, second row from the top. Of course, the tallest kid in her class somehow stood right in front of her, so I couldn't see her most of the time! But other than that annoyance, it was a pretty cute show!

To finish up the longest Wednesday ever, we walked down the street for our annual gathering of friends. It was fun, but the big group got broken up into much smaller groups as the kids dispersed into the dusky darkness. Hadley went around with a group of 3 other girls from her class and nearly filled her bucket. It was cold though, so everyone was ready to be done after going around a couple of blocks.

Owen actually went out with the bigger kids this year. He was so excited to be with the older friends, but I think he was a little disappointed in their super-short excursion. (They returned early to eat candy and play video games while the rest of us were collecting more candy.) Hadley definitely had more candy to sell back to the dentist this year!