Thanksgiving

We arrived to Nola at about 1:20am. It's the Sunday before Christmas. We stopped outside of Phoenix where Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Hunt met us for dinner. Outside of Houston the next day, we met with Andrew, Brian, and families for dinner. I love family. I am a more complete version of myself around family. 

As I wait for kids to get ready for church, I'll document Thansgiving:

Lex told Clayton that he would get in trouble if he was found on his phone, so I took great joy in taking pictures of him on his phone. I threatened to send them to his mom, but mainly just sent them to him.

Cousin shenanigans. 

I was sad that Elijah wasn't there to participate. Of course nothing is as fun without that kid.

Jon took the kids golfing. Golfing is Claire's new thing.

Jon recommended that she needs new clubs. The fact that we got them off Facebook Marketplace for $20 isn't good enough. So, David got her new clubs, so I"m trying to sell her drums to pay for her clubs: telent trade-in.

A necessary part of every Thanksgiving--the suspicious turkey neck:

Volunteering at Feed My Starving Children

Easting birria: 

Cousin game time!

Most of us did the Turkey Trot. David got 3rd place in his category.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Family favorite: The un-talent show.

I picked up claire, someone posed, but the favorite was an arm-wrestling match with David and Tyler.

At the apex of actin, David whispered, "If you don't let me win, Caroline will divorce me."

Guess who won.

Temple trip

A hike/run at Pass Mountain

Decorating Grandma's tree

Look who I caught on his phone at church!

We went to church with my Uncle Robert. Robert has the best sense of humor!

Thanksgiving was absolutely perfect. My favorite part was when the room was filled with the family, we got a FaceTime from a certain missionary and projected it on the TV. We all went around asking him questions. I asked him to show us the floor of his bedroom. He got a standing ovation at his clean floor from his male cousins.

My other favorite part was a conversation we had in my parent's office. My dad had bursitis from a fall he had on his bike the week before. Hunt performed surgery in the office to drain the wound. There was quite a familial audience and afterwards we had an extensive conversation and learned the word, "wenis," the colloquial term for olecranal skin. Even better was that I did a little research in there and learned that opposite on the wenis, is the wagina. AKA the antecubital fossa. But I like wagina more. Maybe I can use that one in the clinic.

I still have to upload Thanksgiving pictures, but here are a few extras before then.

Zoe's birthday dinner. 

I never would have pegged Iris as my child who would get 3 piercings in each ear. 

That is...

3 times in the same hole.

She isn't one for pain, but took it like a champ when her friend pierced them for her.

And this kid. I miss him. I haven't talked to him in 3 weeks. 

     He thought he'd be in the Virgin Islands for a while, but he got transferred back to Puerto Rico, where he and his companion are working really hard, including a fast from social media and calling home.

He sent me this email last p-day when I asked him if he was doing anything fun that day: "Sorry it's been super busy. P-days we actually go out and don't really rest."

      A few weeks before that, he told me that he didn't want to write certain things in his emails: like how he didn't always have electricity and how expensive food was. He said he didn't want people to feel sorry for him nor to send him money. LOVE!

 

Grand Canyon 3.0

Last fall and this fall, we went to the Grand Canyon 3 times each (one of the trips was a David-solo trip). While I do agree that it is beautiful, I hope to not go there 3 times next fall. These pictures are from our most recent trip. 

Cousin hikers:

Claire, Elise, and Elle ran ahead 

and I stayed with Sybil, Livy, and Iris.

Sybil wanted to hike ahead.

Livy was exhausted at the end. Sybil to the rescue!

Rim2Rim2Rim

The 4 crazies (David, Hunt, Jon, Tyler) did the crazy hike. Lex and I hiked down to meet them starting at 11pm. I think we got to them 1.5 hours later--it was a tough hike--Tyler's first time.

Family breakfast the next morning:

the crazies

 

Finals are over (for me, but not my teenagers)!

I few days ago, I finished a book for the second time: Better, by Atul Gawande. He's one of my favorite authors these days. In the final pages, he writes the following:

 "Write something. I do not mean this to be an intimidating suggestion. It makes no difference whether you write five paragraphs for a blog, a paper for a professional journal, or a poem for a reading group. Just write. What you write need not achieve perfection. It need only add some small observation about your world."

Last night we had a Posada in our house: pozole, tamales, a 7-coned piñata, and 30 people I didn't know. It was wonderful. This morning I sent out an invitation to the Relief Society hat anyone can come over to have a bowl of pozole because I still have so much that I'm afraid to carry the huge vat from the garage fridge to my stove. So the ladies will arrive in 45 minutes either to warm, cozy soup, or a river of pig bones and hominy in my kitchen.

Here's a quick picture dump since I've been delinquent for 2 months:

A quick visit from Jon.

The Halloween school party. Sybil stayed true to the hot dog. Claire bought that outfit when she was about her age. Sybil had been a hot dog for at least 3 years. last year she was a hot dog old woman and this year she claimed she was a hot dog cheerleader, but didn't really want to carry the pom-poms.

The most important part: the candy exchange

Claire and David made a quick trip to Houston to go to the mission farewell of a good friend.

Zoe was my "patient" for a video I had to make of my nursing assessment. 

I am now well acquainted with her tympanic membrane.

Iris and her friends at homecoming. I hosted them for "Brunch and Bouquets." Which is where they hang out all morning, eat, and assemble bouquets. Then they got ready. I curled a lot of hair, and then we went to park for pictures. They had pizza at our place before heading to the dance.

Usually Homecoming is preceded by a varsity football game.

The only varsity team at Iris' school is chess, so their homecoming game wasn't as action-packed.

Sybil at her piano lesson. I realized that I hadn't taken a pic of her halloween soccer outfit/makeup.

The spooky team.

Stephanie came in town and we went to a pumkin patch.

Sybil's favorite Halloween candy:

Iris' spooky orchestra concert:

My white coat ceremony:

Iris hosted on Halloween:

Ok, this was a poor attempt at writing. I'm sorry Atul Gawande, but I need to go make a pig bone river in my kitchen.