November's Novelties

New Family Pictures!

 

So...there's this little puddle by our bus stop....

Alissa got a 4.0 for the first quarter and this is her receiving the Principal's Award

 The highlight of our November fun was at the very end...we surprised the kids with a trip to IDAHO to see both sides of our families!  The Hansens came up from Utah and stayed with Matt's uncle Terry so we were able to spend time with everyone over the long weekend.  This is the shot of us on our way...

We made it across Washington and were just coming up on the border to Idaho (we went the Montana route but regretted it when the roads were slick and snow covered all the way through Montana and into Idaho) when a scary thing happened...  A car was passing us on the left going around 75-80mph when a moose stepped out in front of their car - they hit it hard and pieces of their car were flying into us so Matt hurried to swerve away from the debris but going as fast as we were he overcorrected and it made us spin backward and the back corner of our van and the rack in our hitch smacked into a guard rail and we scraped along it until we came to a stop.  Yikes!  If that guard rail wasn't there we would have rolled down the embankment for sure. 

We were all okay so Matt checked on the other people and, miraculously, they were okay too - their car was another story.  He found the moose - it had been catapulted across the highway and down into some trees - it was dead with a big long tongue hanging out he says.  The police were quick to arrive and got the accident report they needed.  Matt used some tools he'd brought to pry back the rack that had been twisted into the back corner of the van and we were able to drive away and finish our trip.  I can tell you we were wide awake for the rest of the night, that's for sure!!  We had some fantastic teaching moments with the kids about guardian angels, wearing your seatbelt and praying (they thought it was odd that we had them kneel with us to pray before we left but now they know why!).  We were greatly blessed.

 Once all that drama was taken care of, we were happy to be able to spend time and make fun memories with our loved ones for the next 4 days... Our first night involved games and treats...

Our Thanksgiving Feast was at my sister Delene's house - her garage works perfectly for this big crowd of family I have - she even has a great wood stove in there that kept us toasty warm.

 I couldn't resist getting a shot of this long table full of yummy desserts - I LOVE Thanksgiving!!

 After we were all stuffed we hung out to chat or play games or look through the Black Friday ads or watch the football game on TV and to catch up on everyone's lives.  Love it and love all of them.

 That evening, we went over to Uncle Terry's house to enjoy some quality time with Matt's side of the family - Turner Rummy was the highlight of the night for me - I love that game...even though I lost!

Early the next morning, Matt and I were thrilled to get to take Alissa to the Rexburg Temple where she did Baptisms for the Dead for the first time.  Her best cousin friend Bailey also got to go for her first time with her mom and we were joined by my sister Taletha and Matt's parents.  We were able to do baptisms for a lot of family names that Matt's Uncle Gary had found doing Family Search work.  It was an incredible experience.

 Our wet hair froze quickly in the cold Idaho weather and Bailey's hair froze the best!

We stopped to pick up the kids from Uncle Terry's house where they'd enjoyed playing on the bounce house in their basement with their cousins Ruston and Kurtis.  We also had a large pile of Christmas and Birthday gifts to try and figure out how to fit in our van - Matt got it all to fit - what a guy!

 This is Matt's favorite feature about his Uncle Terry's house!

The next day started with a trip to my sister Bethia's Beauty Boutique with Alissa and Carly to get our hair done and we talked Alissa into waxing her eyebrows for the first time - OUCH!

Then we enjoyed some sledding fun!  My great sister-in-law Kim supplied us with all the snow clothes we needed and Matt's cousin Quinn has a house up in the foothills with a great hill right in his back yard.  Uncle Terry brought snowmobiles and a 4 wheeler to pull us back to the top - the perfect way to go sledding in my opinion!  There were lots of memorable moments.

 

  Matt's cousins Clay and Quinn made some really awesome jumps.  Matt's mom went down with Jacie once and they got turned around backwards - she plowed right into that baby tree and bent it then flipped head over heels out of the sled! 

Quinn's wife Kara was a great hostess and had lots of hot chocolate and sugar cookies to decorate.

 

Grandma Twins!

My new favorite picture of Trevor!

We said goodbye to our Hansen loved ones as they headed back to Utah then our final night was spent with my family for the ever-awesome Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner then games, fun and more memories made.  We had a wonderful time.

Pictures of the besties... April did an epic photo bomb...

 The next morning found us packing up and loading the van then one last photo with my parents before we all had to say goodbye. 

 Then our vacation came to a close - this picture reflects my feelings exactly!

 

We had a wonderful visit and we made it home in good time, on dry roads and thankfully with NO Moose collisions!  A great way to end our November and now we are diving head first into our December fun.  Happy Holidays!