Weekly Review November 27 '10

I'm a little late getting this weekly review posted--we were traveling home on Saturday, so I couldn't do it then.

We really enjoyed having Erin visit us last week end, even if it was a short visit and we were running around like crazy most of the time she was here. Seth really took to her--as you can see in the photograph, he even started playing with her hair, the way he does with mine!

Frank took Erin to the airport early Monday morning. We're glad she made it home safely but sorry that she caught some of our germs! Frank stayed home from church on Sunday to try to get some rest and get better, and it seemed to help--he was able to go to work on Monday and got a little bit better each day. I had ward council before church and choir practice after church, so I had a busy day. Tanner had BYC after church also, so I took him home with me. Erin helped us out a whole lot by driving the other boys home, after helping Scott return the trailer we borrowed for Scott's Eagle scout project. It was a bit of a drive, so we really appreciated that a lot!

The rest of the week was busy with preparations for our trip to North Carolina, as well as parent / teacher conferences. School started 4 hours late on Monday (Seth didn't have school at all that day) and they got out 3 1/2 hours early on Tuesday. There was only about an hour between the time I had to pick up Seth and the time I had to pick up Jared from school on Tuesday, but the school was also having their book fair that week and had planned a story time / picnic lunch for the preschoolers so I brought lunch for Seth and I, and we stayed for the story time.

I had conferences for Seth and Jared on Monday afternoon and for Tanner and Scott on Tuesday afternoon. Everyone is doing pretty well; Scott's grades could use some improvement. All of his teachers say the same thing--he is pleasant, respectful, polite, intelligent, and needs to work harder! It was nice to be validated that way--exactly what I tell him all the time at home. Tanner and Jared's teachers also say that they are pleasant, respectful, polite, and intelligent--no complaints about them at all. Seth is doing well, also. We are grateful that we have such good boys.

Tuesday evening we got everything packed and ready to go. Frank had a lot of work to do that day and got in enough hours on Monday and Tuesday that he didn't have to work on Wednesday, so we were able to leave about 10:30 instead of around noon, as we had planned. The trip went smoothly, without too many stops. Seth and Snickers both traveled pretty well--better than we had expected, anyway. We made it to our destination around 7:00. We stopped by Frank's parents' house for a few minutes to say hello to everybody and then we got settled in the little house we had rented for our stay. Frank and I had some shopping to do that evening, also--groceries, since we were making sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, a chocolate cream pie and layered banana pudding as our contributions to Thanksgiving dinner.

The house we rented had a full kitchen with all the kitchen utensils provided, which made it possible for us to cook. The house also had a dining room, a living room, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a covered back porch with a washer and dryer. Nice! It was a bargain, too--didn't cost much more than a hotel room would have cost. It was really great to be able to spread out and not be in each other's faces. Frank and I had our own room with attached bath. One of the bedrooms had a bunk bed with a double bed on bottom and a single bed on top. Scott and Seth slept in the bottom bunk and Jared slept in the top. (Seth ended up in our room on the floor all 3 nights, though.) Tanner got the other bedroom to himself. Everyone agreed that he should get it, since he has never had his own room!

We spent Thursday morning cooking. Then we all met at the church for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice day with Frank's family, playing games and eating lots of good food. Pick up sticks was a particularly popular game. We had enough food for dinner, also, so we all stayed at the church for that. Frank's mom made a blanket for Seth--it has a great dinosaur print on one side and a fleece frog print on the other side. Seth loves it!

Seth's new blanket

Frank Sr. and Frank Jr.

Mom says "I love you!"

Granny & Grandpa

The whole family, except AJ (hadn't got there yet) and Jon & Frank (they were taking the photos).

Frank with his parents and siblings

AJ and James

Me relaxing, back at the house.

The next morning we slept in a bit. It was Tanner's 14th birthday, so we opened presents first:

He got an MP3 player, a game for the Wii, and a scripture marking pen.

He also got some nice cards and a gift card to spend. We all wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie, so Frank took Tanner to see it first and then I took Jared and Scott to see it. (We didn't want to take Seth--too much for him!) We all enjoyed it and look forward to seeing part 2 of HP7 this summer. While Frank & Tanner were at the movie, Frank's parents came over for a while. I showed them a bunch of the photographs we have on the computer. That evening we all met at the church to eat again--there was still lots of food left! After that we said our good byes to Frank's siblings and families. We wanted to get an early start home on Saturday.

We got up early and made it to Frank's parent's house by about 8:30. We said our good byes and got on the road. The trip home was also pretty uneventful; the traffic was maybe a little bit heavier. It was definitely colder! Thanksgiving Day was quite pleasant, but on Friday it started raining and got colder. Saturday it was clear, but very windy and FRIGID! We did see some nice views on the way home, though, like this:

Everyone is glad to be going home and keeping busy with games and movies:

It's become traditional for us to play the "license plate game" on every trip. That means we try to see how many different state's license plates we can spot. At the beginning of this trip, the boys were saying that we will probably never see Alaska or Hawaii, and I told them that actually I have seen both of those plates on other trips, more than once. They didn't believe me, but on the way home we saw first Hawaii and then Alaska--ha! Told them so! :) We didn't see all 50 states, however. I don't think I've ever seen all 50 states in one trip before. Someday we will take a big trip across the country, and then maybe we will see all of them! When I was a kid, I remember we never saw states like Delaware or Connecticut. Now it is easy for us to find those ones, but we rarely see Wyoming or North Dakota. On this particular trip we saw every state on this side of the Mississippi River except for Rhode Island (and we usually see that one, I'm not sure why we didn't see it on this trip). Then there were about 7 western states that we didn't see. Anyway, I digress!

We got home in time to unpack and make dinner. After I got Seth to bed, I went over to my friend Rebecca's house to visit with her and my friend Marci for a few minutes. Marci and her children were here for Thanksgiving and stayed with Rebecca.

Something funny Seth is saying these days: "Aw, nuts!" He says that when he doesn't get what he wants or something goes wrong.

It was great to see Frank's family and to get away for a few days, but it is also good to be home!