29 November 2015

Dear all,
   I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving...we sure did!  Wednesday morning, we decided to take the pickup instead of the car, because the weather forecast sounded pretty bad. So we got away by about 8, but weren't able to go very fast, and we saw lots of cars, pickups, and semi's off the road, but your Dad just kept on keeping on...and we got to Coeur d'Alene that evening, and met Heidi and the kids in time to have supper together. We went to Golden Corral for supper, then we checked in to the Days Inn, where we had adjoining rooms. The next morning we had breakfast, and then headed for Moscow!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving there. Aimee made rolls that were amazing, and she did mashed potatoes, Stephen carved the turkey, Kathy Mobley did the sweet potatoes, and the gravy...everyone helped with cooking and cleanup, and it was great. I had brought 2 peach pies, and 3 pumpking pies.
   Heidi got to talk to Kevin at some point, and found out that he was in Turkey on Thanksgiving!  But the next day he was back in Quatar (sp?).  Heidi, your Dad, and I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in Pullman the two nights we were there. The first night Luke and Noah stayed with us, then the second night Naomi and Shelby stayed with us. So much fun to have them with us, and to eat breakfast together at the motel.
     Friday morning, Aimee, Kathy, Heidi, and I went to the mall; I don't think any of us found anything there. But then we went to Bruised Books, in Pullman. It's my favorite used book store. We each found some treasures there.
   Noah's birthday was on Thanksgiving day, but we celebrated it the next day. His baptism was at 4pm, lots of family and friends were there. Some of his siblings and cousins sang a song, accompanied by his Grandma. His Aunt Chaney and I gave the talks. His dad baptized him, and both grandpa's were the witnesses. Then his dad confirmed him, and both grandpa's, Uncle Stuart, their Bishop, a friend from the Ward, stood in the circle. I hope I didn't forget anyone. His Aunt Jada gave the opening prayer, and Ellen gave the closing prayer. His mom played the piano for everything but the musical number.
   Then afterward we went back to their house, and made hamburgers and french fries. Aimee had made a chocolate cake with white frosting. The kids decorated it like a candy land board. It was wonderful! 
   The next day, as we were heading back to their house from the motel, our pickup died! We ended up having it towed to a Ford dealership in Pullman, where we traded it in on a new pickup...new to us anyway. It's a white, 2012, F-150, with only 69K miles on it. It's not at all what we had planned to do...but it feels right, now that we've done it.
   Heidi and the kiddos got home last night. Dad and I got home this afternoon, after spending the night in Missoula. Gran, Grandma, and Grandpa are all doing fine.
   We missed all of you we weren't able to be with...so much.  Love you!  Mom/Johanna/Nana

Hey everyone-

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We really did, and especially enjoyed the long weekend together at home. We had Thanksgiving dinner with our friends down in Owatonna; the Hunt and Anderson families. We had lots of good food, played some games, watched football, and went home with some leftovers. So, I’ve been slacking on getting this email sent out these past couple weeks – my bad! Anyway, I will catch everyone up real quick the best I can.

Brad and I spent the weekend together a couple weeks ago and had a great time. We toured the Coors Brewery in Golden, which was pretty educational and FREE, so that good. We also hit up a robotic exhibit up in Longmont, which was also cool, but not free – oh well. It was a good time. On the way up to Longmont Saturday morning we could see several hot air balloons going up just north of Broomfield – must have been 10-12 of them. As we were driving thru Lafayette it appeared one of the balloons was going to land right on hwy 287! It didn’t, but it sure was flying low.

The following weekend we did our final yard/winterization at the house. My old VW made its way down into our little tuck-under garage we have in the back, put snow tires on my Honda and (Fatbike) Minnesota, hauled about 32 bags of leafs and yard debris to the dump, did a final mowing, and probably a few other things. We now have about 4-5 inches of snow in the yard, so it was all done just in time.

We have been super busy inside the house as well. We rearranged ALL the furniture, moved our TV room up to the “Porch” from the basement, finally got a new kitchen (with benches) table, sold the grey sectional that was in our front room, and have even begun decorating for Christmas. Nat and the girls are LOVING it!! Speaking of the girls……Maddie’s and Macy’s final day of Fall session preschool was last week. They put on a very nice ceremony for the parents and students. Nothing too crazy, but it was a good time. The week prior, Maddie and Macy started a gymnastics program, which they are really enjoying! There is a church about 2 blocks from our house that has a gym where the program is held. I believe it’s a 2 day a week type program, so it leaves plenty of time for trips to the library and indoor play dates.

Alida is growing really fast and eats about twice as much as either of her older sisters eat at most meals. She started walking about a month ago, and now she is almost running! She has really taken off. It is so funny to see her grab something she knows she shouldn’t have, turn and look to see who’s watching, and then start running as if she can get away with a new treasure – totally comical. She is a very happy baby. She does get mauled/tackled by her sisters more often than she would like, but she is being a pretty good sport.   

Alright, I’ve heard of two new vehicles in the family fleet recently, but still no pics??? What’s the deal? I’m a car guy – I need a visual, please.

Hope you are all happy and healthy! Some pics are below of recent events.

I think I'm seeing a trend! Seems to be the favorite pastime of one year olds! - Nana

Hi everybody,

  I'm with Sam on the new vehicles, we need some pictures and more details.  Thanksgiving was very nice here, we did have a lot of snow that day though.  The food was excellent as always!  We spent most of the day here at home, but did go over to the Stecklers (Bill and Karens old neighbors) for a while in the afternoon.  

Winter has come to Colorado stronger than usual this year.  Colder temps and more snow that most years so far.  Joseph has even enjoyed a snow day off of school already.  We had a fun snowball fight in the backyard that day.  The cold and snow has not been great for bike riding so I've been training in the garage on some cycling rollers I found on Craigslist.  They are quite challenging.  I want to make sure I'm ready for the big ride in Seattle next year. 

Joseph had his first piano recital a couple weeks ago.  He performed very well.  We've got some recordings of him playing that night, when I get them uploaded I'll send some links.  Joseph will be starting winter soccer soon. All the games are indoors at the rec center.  This is a new thing for Joseph. He's played soccer for several years now, but the indoor teams focus much more on ball control since the playing field is so much smaller.  Should be FUN!!

Lynsey and I had a wonderful date night this past weekend.  The movie theater near us was playing Roman Holiday for a couple of nights.  They have an arrangement with TCM and when we found out it was playing we couldn't pass on the opportunity to see it on the big screen.  It was great! I never get tired of watching that one.

We are finally back in our regular ward building again.  There was a gas leak and we've been having our meetings in another chapel for the past 3 weeks.  It took quite a while to fix all the problems, and then another week or so to get all the inspections done.  We are lucky to have another building so close.

We're looking forward to seeing Dad this week and Sam and Brad this weekend.  Well it's getting late so I'm going to call it a night.  I've attached a couple picture from a hike Joseph and I took.  

Love you all,

Ben