November 2016.

Produce Tuesday.

Thought it was funny when Faye and a couple of friends started a little baseball game.

I attended an insanity certification to renew mine.

Daylight savings time calls for an early morning walk with these two. They thought 65 degrees felt pretty chilly!

Apparently I was very tired in November. Isla documents.

Faye took this picture of Little Swimmer. Maybe she foresaw what was to come, as he passed away in late November while the kids and I were out of town.That fish lasted two-and-a-half years!

Sunday, November 6.

I spent a lot of time collecting Reflections entries from the Scobee students, having them judged, and preparing the winners to advance to the next level. Isla is usually very patient while tagging along with me to various school events and in the teacher workroom. This day she had had about enough though, and I resorted to letting her take pictures!

Finally lost a top tooth. This also happened to be election day. Without knowing who the winner would be, Everett told me, "Maybe if Donald Trump wins, he'll actually turn out to be a good president."

Cute Isla the tag-along again. This day we went with Rick as he got his picture taken for advancement in the military, and then we all went to a doctor appointment where we got to see the baby jumping around in an ultrasound. Rick has had his easiest schedule every for the past couple of months! It is wonderful to have a co-parent.

We went to an auto show. Rick wanted to check out some cool cars. They did have some fun things for the kids, and I got to see my dream 12 passenger van. Afterwards we walked along the Riverwalk for a bit. It was fun to be downtown. 

 Sunday, November 13th.

The kids and I took a trip to Virginia the week before Thanksgiving! The kids all missed school on Friday, and we took off the Thursday before Thanksgiving. It has been a long time since we have flown anywhere! They were excited to fly, but after we landed the girls decided that is was... just ok. Ordering beverages is always a highlight though. We really enjoyed just being at my parents' house and exploring Washington, D.C. It was really cold and windy, especially the day we went downtown. We still were able to see the Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial, Natural History Museum, Air and Space where the kids participated in a paper airplane contest, and other things from a distance. Got to eat at Cafe Rio on the way home! And also drove by the house where my dad grew up. The boys, my dad and I attended a high school football game one night. (Which was terribly depressing, as my alma mater suffered a heartbreaking loss.) The boys built lots of impressive fires with Pappy and went canoeing one day. The girls drew up plans to build a dollhouse with Pappy. Lots of Monopoly games. We had a lovely early Thanksgiving dinner with the Taggs, which also happened to be a birthday dinner for Carson and Uncle Darin. 

When we got home from Virginia, it was time to celebrate Thanksgiving with the other set of grandparents! Rick's parents had arrived and had started preparations for Thanksgiving dinner. Grandma GJ pampered the girls with nail polish, hair and lots of shopping. She bought each kid a big set of Pokemon cards, which was pretty much everyone's dream come true. Grandpa Sam also took the boys out to Academy Sports and bought them a second bow and arrow so they can shoot together. And of course we feasted!

Carson's 9th birthday party was great! Easy to plan, too, since it was a repeat of last year and Rick was in charge of all the games, aka sports. He led them in baseball, soccer and football games.

One night Grandma GJ had some special activities for the kids. She read them the nativity story and led them in a nice discussion about it. She also had each of us gather in a bag five items that represented ourselves, and we took turns explaining what is important to us.

Sunday, November 27th. Watch out, John!

I failed to get pictures of our thankful tree, but throughout the month of November we had our tree up and added ornaments each (some) nights that said what we felt grateful for that day. Here we took the thankful ornaments down and decorated it for Christmas.

The first of many of Miss Faye's lists,

Isla is a good little writer!