Life got busier for K with the start of club volleyball. This year she is practicing twice a week instead of once a week like last year and is also doing conditioning once a week, which she didn’t do at all last year. I am so proud of her being able to have Acro, Young Women’s and now volleyball 3x a week and still keep up with her homework and have the energy to do things like have fun at her school’s fall social and have her best friend over to spend the night. K is such a strong girl and I wish her the very best this volleyball season and am looking forward to seeing her perform her Acro routine at the Holiday Show next month. K also went to a special showing of the Harriet Tubman movie as part of her social studies class.
Hubby is also plenty busy with not only work (as always) but he is currently the Sunday School President and the EQ 2nd Counselor — and with the changes recently made to the duties of the bishopric and EQ, he is basically the ward mission leader now. We plan on having the missionaries over twice a month instead of once a month and are trying to figure out other ways we can help. It’s so strange being on the member end after serving a full time mission because honestly, I feel like if anyone has had more than one conversation with me they know I am involved at Church and have had plenty of opportunities to ask me which one. I’ll be thinking about next steps. Other than that, my Katie A and I had a lovely time taking a sister we minister to out to eat lunch at Panera Bread and I got to hang out with some wonderful LHC Ward women when a former member of the ward, Undrea, was visiting from out of state and we had lunch at Shelly T’s house. I got to meet U’s husband for the first time and S was just the best hostess. I am so grateful for the people I get to meet at Church and the opportunity to serve them and be served by them.
D is getting excited for basketball after attending a skills clinic at a local high school and buying some Issue #1 Donavan Mitchell shoes. His ankle is still acting up once in a while, especially after his final Turkey Trot at his elementary school. He ran so hard and performed so well but the next day he had to wear his boot around. I am proud of him for putting the boot back on and having a good attitude about it. I am curious to see how basketball season will affect his recovery and grateful we already have a check up scheduled.
N also did really well in the school Turkey Trot and even took D’s place participating in the city Turkey Trot the next day with Hubby. She dressed up for Spirit week every day I was lucky enough to be doing the Thursday folders for her class when they set out to find turkeys for a scavenger hunt. Then the next day I was helping set up for the Turkey Trot when it was announced her class won the hunt and I got to see the huge smiles on their faces as they walked out to take the school wide photograph. I am so grateful I get to volunteer at their school! And the weather was absolutely perfect for both Turkey Trots. We felt so lucky after that horrible weather we had the week of Halloween!
M’s horseback riding lesson also got to be in that wonderful weather the 2nd week of November. She is learning how to canter showing a lot more control of the horse and we are so proud of her. M is also preparing to perform her hip hop routine for the Holiday Show next month, loving school, Activity Days, play dates and Girl Scouts. She only had one cooking class in November so one of the days she didn’t have class she and N and I (and D a little) made our GD/DF (other than the Hershey kiss) cookies and D declared they were the best cookies he had ever eaten in his life. That made my heart smile. We may have made a huge mess in the kitchen but we also made memories to cherish.
Speaking of making wonderful memories, N is very lucky to have siblings that were excited to help make a great trip for their little sister. D & M reminded me that now N is in school full time she should get a turn in the rotation of Hubby and I taking individual children on trips. We decided we wanted to surprise her and they were so giddy. I asked her if she could do anything in the world, what would she want to do and she replied she wanted to go see Mickey Mouse at the place they have Cars Land and she wanted it to be at Christmas time. We decided I would pull her out of school for a few days after the Disneyland Christmas decorations were up but when it wasn’t supposed to be too crowded for Thanksgiving yet and that we wouldn’t let her know until the day she was leaving for the airport. It made me so happy to see how happy they were for her. N was so surprised it was as though she was in shock and began crying, poor dear. She cheered up when we got to the airport and slept most of the way on the plane. Thank goodness for Lyft making getting to the hotel so easily. The next morning we walked to Disney’s California Adventure with no rush and were able to do everything we wanted before the park closed at 8pm (due to short wait times for everything) and even walked back to our hotel to go swimming in the afternoon when N got too warm. We headed to Cars Land 1st since that’s our favorite area but also got to see the newly renovated Pixar Pier and the Incredicoaster ended up being N’s favorite ride! I think it helped to know it was her big sister M’s favorite ride. It’s definitely in my top 3 at DCA along with Guardians and Radiator Springs Racers but N hated Guardians. Mickey’s PhilharMagic got a lot of laughs out of her and she decided Sully was her favorite Disney character after riding Monsters, Inc. and chose a Sully stuffie to be her souvenir of our trip.
On Wednesday we went to Disneyland after sleeping in and discovered that day and the next ABC would be filming their Christmas special. We watched the holiday parade and N hopes we can catch a glimpse of ourselves when we turn on the tv Christmas morning. The filming crews created a lot of bottlenecks and Disneyland employees were able to invite their friends to be extras so it was much busier than DCA. But we had a great time with surprises like finding out spinning on the tea cups during the parade gives you an amazing view and finding out N absolutely loves Star Tours — we rode it 6 times over the 2 days we spent at Disneyland. Other big hits were Smugglers Run, Buzz Lightyear, It’s a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight and Smuggler's Run. Getting to pilot the Millennium Falcon was even better than I had imagined! Totally fan girl dream fulfilled! I loved the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay at the Haunted Mansion and thought Hyperspace Mountain was fun but N did not agree until she was safe at home and talking to her siblings about her trip. lol. The one ride she hated was Indiana Jones but of course there is more to Disneyland than rides and N enjoyed doing things such as watching churro toffee being made at the Candy Palace and eating snacks, of course. After we checked out of our hotel on Friday we ate brunch at Storyteller's Cafe and happened to be there one of 4 days they are celebrating Mickey Mouse's birthday. N enjoyed interacting with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip & Dale as we ate lots of yummy food. Character dinning is still totally worth it for this girl! After our brunch we hung around Downtown Disney and then eventually made it home at 2am due to our flight being delayed. I love looking at all the pictures and all the fun we were able to pack into such a short trip. I can see why so many people love to visit Disneyland during the holidays!
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