October and November

Nicole and Michael took me to a high school football game and got a few free Bojangles shirts. Hard to believe next year Mike will be a freshman. 

Nicole had the best luck ever because her birthday fell on a school holiday. On a Monday. That happened to have amazing weather in mid 70s and clear skies at the beach. So she invited friends and we took a ton of kids to the beach!

We couldn't have done it without Marian and my friend Robin driving van loads alongside me and Jim driving too. We had everyone come at 7 or 7:30- early for a holiday but we wanted max time at the beach. Fortunately, they all still came :)

I made breakfast sheet sandwiches (layers are pancake, egg, sausage, cheese, pancake) using the boar meat from Nicole's birthday hunt. Also cinnamon rolls because...teens!

We had them do a scavenger hunt with points per item and you wouldn't believe the things they found. We showed them the north side of the island with all of the tide pools and they had a blast.

You can see how far we are from everything else, it was so fun it felt like a private beach party!

We ordered pizza to the parking lot and brough it out to eat. Perfect lunch idea- except for no tables to put the pizza on- oops! Lots of water and lemonade, chips and individual ice cream cups kept them all full.

Such a fun group! At this age it was funny to see the boys stick together. They aren't so sure about things, friendly but not too friendly haha.

Sand fun

Volleyball

Waves were mild, which made it super safe (some people hadn't been to the beach!!) but still enough to catch some waves. Such a great 16th birthday party!

John has a great teacher this year who really gets him. John is all joy, all excitement, all the time.

Michael on his first cast of the night at the pond in our neighborhood. Not too bad.

Nicole in XC all of a sudden figured out how to push herself and cut MINUTES off her time overall this season. I loved seeing her lose fear and really push.

General Conference beautiful chaos.

Because all the stuffed animals should be listening too.

Deer hamburgers are amazing. It's hard to go back to chewy, fatty hamburger meat after being spoiled like this.

Another meet, another big effort.

Mike and Jake were on the same soccer team again for their school. Since Mike's graduating it was really special since who knows how high school will go. They are both hard workers with little fear and that makes them so fun to watch!

Jim had a pumpkin patch day for patients and employees so went too. Finally a chair to fit us all!

Nicole got to chuck an apple for free, it was fun!

Diana was thrilled to see a pig. 

Goats!

Cow ride is the best. We took up a whole train and told him to gun it. He did!

Nicole and I at the back hoping not to get all the dust in our eyes. Sorta worked.

Tube rolling was semi dangerous for the younger ones who couldn't keep up but we didn't lose any fingers or toes...

I found corn in the dryer a week later.

John trying out the tractor

Date night to a wedding reception is not Jim's favorite. But there was food :) and he even had a pocket to hold his drink if he needed both hands to eat.

Katy loving sitting between mom and dad for scripture study.

On a campout, there is always something forgotten. This time it was the seasoning for the shrimp and steaks Jim brought (he eats well on campouts lol). Thankfully they'd also bought Old Bay chips haha and the extra crumbs made great seasoning.

While the boys were camping, the younger girls went with me to the Homecoming football game with Nicole. Diana, who knows nothing about football, was loudly asking the most hilarious questions and making comments that made everyone laugh. She certainly kept us entertained.

Nicole last minute decided to go to Homecoming. I wouldn't have gone without a date, but I guess it's just a big social event with friends all dressed up.

She trusted me with her hair and makeup.

And a dress came at the last minute, thankfully!

She and some friends went to meet others together.

Excited for the fun!

John decided he was too hungry at lunch and needs two sandwiches now. Oh boy.

The boys won the championship game against a great team I was so proud of them! Michael really did a stellar job in goal, and Jacob even scored goals this year. We've enjoyed how the charter school league isn't crazy competitive, we'll see how soccer goes for Mike next year.

We were invited to sing in Stake Conference with the Koffords and got there early enough to practice and also get a picture at the temple.

High school girls!

Evelyn and D!

We've had gorgeous fall colors this year, I feel like we're in Boston. I just randomly took this pic across the street. It's all bright reds and golds here, so beautiful.

Ward Halloween party with random costumes. 

Diana got facepainted so she became a tiger shark lol

Nicole told me she did the "Peak" pose and was dying trying to keep up her pace while the guy took the picture. haha

Nicole, Michael and Jacob helped out with Miracle League one morning

Instead of paying 2k for a company to replace a whole fence line, Jim took care of it himself one Saturday. Pretty impressive!

Because you just use the options at hand. 

Katy at piano lessons in the morning :)

Halloween tradition of dry ice root beer. I couldn't find any root beer flavoring, so I secretly just poured in a few bottles of root beer instead of making it from scratch. They didn't care, it was just cool to see the smoke of the dry ice.

Mummy hot dogs are also tradition. Katy and John helped me make them this year.

John was the perfect spider

Trading candy!

Off to our first "For the Strength of Families" campout

Beautiful weather and location about an hour and half away at a LDS church camp called Eagles Nest.

We printed out good, clean camp songs and the high school girls led the singing!

John particularly liked the bumble bee smashing song. Also the banana song.

Playing games in the dark.

Early morning hike and devotional!

All about testimonies- so we have different parts of a testimony on the tree

Gaga ball was a favorite for these kids. I still don't know how to play but they love it

Katy and other sweet friends. This was such a dreamy campout because the kids never argued once. They had fun the whole time and never got in trouble once. All of the kids. 

We took some quiet time at lunch to read scriptures and ponder the devotionals.

Then the dads did half hour wilderness stations teaching them about compasses and GPS, knot tying, first aid, and whittling.

Canoes and paddle boats were available for everyone to use

Nighttime smores and singing

Jim's nighttime devotional on the atonement

Peach cobbler made in a dutch oven by one of the dads was amazing!

Games in the dark

Next morning on the way to devotional. Singing the bee smash song because John requested it.

Brandon's morning devotional about spiritual momentum was great.

He had John truly thinking he could move the truck. While it was in park.

As the devotional continued, there was such a sweet feeling. John put his arm around the teen next to him because he was a little cold, and then another one came and put his arm around him too. Two older boys just being kind and John felt so loved.

Campfires in shorts...welcome to the south.

Gorgeous sunrise

We did a confidence course with lots of fun challenges

Mike and I on the two person rope challenge

Diana and her friend

Katy's friend decided standing on the ground would work best

Yes, we did see a snake. One. At the very end of the campout. And it was harmless. Just HUGE.

Taking the older kids through the course

Dallin beating Jim and Nicole

Somehow Jim got talking about how Nicole shouldn't get a boyfriend until she's at least 20. Nicole was so red from laughing she could barely see. 

Kids practicing shooting at camp

Brandon's first aid was perfect because all of the kids had different things he could really take care of. They also loved getting wrapped with the tape as you can see from Evelyn's head.

Overall we had such a good time! Plenty of fun, effort to have spiritual times, delicious food all with great friends.

To get lots of driving time in, Nicole has been going with Jim to practice shooting her rifle. There are some older guys there that always give her tips. 

Nicole is a team captain for basketball and is an important part of her team this year. Figuring out leadership and what it means to carry that load of being able to score and be there for her team has been good for her.

John on his way to a field trip at a pumpkin patch. In the center of the bus, both thumbs up, all the energy there!

He's the one on the green pumpkin.

Jim wanted to hang up his first buck skull. So he boiled it outside until the propane ran out. Started boiling it inside but added cloves...and then a handful of lavender because that wasn't helping with the smell enough. He is hilarious.

The kids helping process the deer meet.

We got a dog. Picked it out in February and had it trained until now. But we sent her back after a few days. It was SO sad, but the right choice for us. She was well trained, but still a young and energetic dog that would take a lot of my energy- and take away from the energy I need for the kids. As helpful as the family could be, it would be on my shoulders to make sure she got food, cleaned up, walked, trained, monitored to make sure her interactions were trained right with the kids, etc. For the first time in my life, I had two nights of anxiety attacks. I was devastated because I was the one who asked for this dog, and wanted it so much. It also had a skin condition that made her smell and shed a lot. All of this energy needed and that just overwhelmed me even though I kept telling myself everything was fine. The kids were so understanding, and I felt awful for being so human with anxiety attacks. We are getting over it, but it was a tough experience. I'll never forget Diana telling me through her tears that she loves me more than this dog that she'd anticipated with such joy all year.

Nicole got her first deer!

They got up super early and she got a perfect shot off.

Gorgeous morning for a hunt!

First win of the season! Nicole has made this team have such a good vibe. Last year there was a lot of that "club" attitude and snobbery. The varsity coach took up the two sophomores to varsity that were like that and the other ones were older and on varsity this year as well. So Nicole, especially as a captain, has been able to make a fun vibe. She works with the freshman instead of putting them down, and I see them talking and working together instead of trying to do a one man show. 

When you ask your kids to put up decorations.

On Thanksgiving morning we ran a few miles to the temple. Such a good tradition to keep our families focused on our eternal family that we are so grateful for.

Made a new cider that was to die for. I doubled it and should have quadrupled it. Star anise was a new flavor for me and totally made this drink!

Lots of rolls!

Pre-dinner charcuterie board/table haha

20 pounds of mashed potatoes was definitely enough. My kids barely eat any for some reason. Just wait until Diana hits basketball season lol.

Jim all tuckered out from good food. Best kind of nap there is.

Another early morning hunt with no luck. They are trying to find a spot in public lands to hunt but no good so far.

I have big plans for primary this year. Each week in singing time, I'm going to incorporate a name of Christ so they can get to know many of His names. The other side of this is a puzzle of a picture of Christ, so through the year they will piece together this puzzle as they get to know Christ better.

Michael really wanted to make a ping pong table, so Jim helped him and they finished within a few days of Thanksgiving vacation.

We had meat from Nicole's first deer that Jim put in the smoker and it was amazing.

I love that these girls have high school together. They were laughing over the heart on the apple bite.

World cup hopes were very high and the kids liked watching it on tv. Next up, Christmas season!