November

 Well, here we are in November.  I love November because it's the start of the holiday season--a time of laughter and making new memories with family and friends.

November 2nd: Abigail has been practicing her back bends.  She is not in gymnastics, but her friend taught her how to do them and she is determined.

November 5th:  It was a dreary day, so we ventured out to Get Air to let the girls get some energy out. 

November 9th: having fun with the guineas

They love to cuddle on the couch with us.

November 12th:  Andy and Emma went to the last Utah Utes home football game.  It was cold!  (I guess this is the best photo I can get.)

November 19th: Today was Emma's end-of-the-season mountain biking banquet.  

Before it got started, they had a slideshow of photos playing.

7th grade girls with Coach Annie

Later that night, Andy and I went to the annual wine and cheese party at the Ostroski's.  There is always quite the spread.

November 20th:  Today was our first day of skiing for the season!  It was one of our earliest days of getting out and, actually, the snow was quite good.

November 24th:  Happy Thanksgiving!

Instead of a green bean casserole, I made bacon-wrapped green beans.

Once again, Emma made the pies--apple and pumpkin. (I didn't get a photo of the full pumpkin pie.)

November 25th:  We missed it last year, but this year we got our permit to cut down our Christmas tree in the Uinta National Forest.  It was a beautiful day!

This is the one!

Emma insisted on dragging it back to the car.

Ta-da!

November 28th:  At the end of each month, our school has a Motivated Moose assembly to recognize students who have been following our school rules.  Abigail was one of the 4th graders chosen this month! (Even more special was that I announced the names this month and got to announce her name.)

Around 5:00 that evening, the power went out.  When the power goes out, you do what you can to pass the time.

October

The girls' activities definitely slowed down in October but the fun stayed strong!

September 30th-October 3rd: Andy and I took a trip to Los Angeles/Hollywood to see Jack Johnson at the Hollywood Bowl. It was so much fun! 

October 1st: Andy's cousin, Claire, lives in West Hollywood so we got to hang out with her for an afternoon.  She took us on a little tour of the area. 

Later that afternoon, we explored Hollywood Boulevard and acted like typical tourists.

We stopped at a cantina Claire told us about.  The inside resembled Star Wars.

October 2nd: We started the day with an 8-mile (roundtrip) hike to the Griffith Observatory.

That night we went to a Jack Johnson concert at the Hollywood Bowl!

The girls rotated staying with Andy's mom and my sister and, I think, had just as much fun.

October 5th: Abigail had her last soccer game for the season.

October 7th: For ELA, Emma had to read The Outsiders.  As a final activity, they dressed in character and watched the movie.  

October 8th:  We went to see The Lion King at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake.  It was awesome!!

October 13th-16th:  Fall Break!  We ventured down to Cedar City to do some mountain biking and hiking with friends.  

The fall colors were spectacular!  We drove to Cedar Breaks National Monument one afternoon.

October 14th: We had to buy tickets for this hike, but it was well worth it!  Kanarra Falls is a 4-mile (roundtrip) hike through amazing scenery--along water pretty much the entire way.  We did some research and learned that there are a few crossings so we purchased some neoprene booties to help with some of the cold from the water (and it was cold).

getting our booties on

We even had to climb up this ladder.

This was where it got the deepest.

There were a few small obstacles along the way--all very doable.

October 15th: bike ride!

October 18th: Emma had a fall band concert.  Ahhh...brings back memories of my own band concerts in middle school.

October 23rd:  We got some snow today--a lot of snow, actually.  After a delicious breakfast at Five 5eeds, we walked around the bat exhibit at the Swaner Nature Preserve.

It was perfect conditions to walk the Moose Trail in our neighborhood.

October 24th: The 4th grade classes at our school made altars for the upcoming Dia de Los Muertos. Abby did hers on her great-grandma Abbie.

October 29th:  We had our pumpkin carving party tonight!  It had been a couple of years and it felt good to get back to "normal" again.

October 31st: Halloween!  Abigail dressed up as a zombie cheerleader and Emma wore a penguin onesie.

 Andy was a wizard and the Sp.Ed. team were Giving Trees.

We went trick-or-treating in Summit Park this year.  It was great!

It was a little hard for the girls to go through their candy.  With both of them wearing braces, they couldn't eat half of it.