December and Christmas

 December came and went in a blur, as usual.  I struggled this year finding the enjoyment of the season.  I need to do better next year.  I loved having everyone home for the holidays, but it also takes some adjusting.  I'm still trying to figure out this parenting adult kids thing.  I think I'm not doing so well.  Hopefully next year I'll have a better grip on everything.  I'll let the pictures tell the story...  Of course they loaded in a crazy order, but I'm not taking the time to switch it.  I'm killing this blogging thing.

We went to St George between Christmas and New Years and went on this fun hike.

We went to a Japanese steakhouse to celebrate the new year.  It was a fun experience!

Sage tinted Kate's lashes.  It was quite the experience.  We were all laughing pretty hard.

Jake got a fancy new guitar and I love hearing him play it most nights.

Sage killed us all in Cover Your Assets.

We went to Top Golf.  The extra boy is Kate's boyfriend.  He's very nice, but I'm not sure how I feel about this development.

I really don't work very much, but somehow I always work on dress up days.  My family finds this hilarious.

Everyone in their Christmas Eve pajamas.

I was in charge of our ward RS Christmas dinner.  Way out of my comfort zone.  But thanks to an amazing committee it turned out great!

Sage went to the Christmas dance.  You can ask her for more details...

We went to the annual live nativity.  It gets better every year.

Started the season off at the Wright Christmas party.

November Happened

 November was a pretty unexciting month.  Maybe because we were so busy in October.  Mountain biking ended for the season, fall break was over, and we kind of just dug in to life.  Sage went to her first high school dance.  Girls choice.  She ended up having fun, but didn't enjoy the stress leading up to it.  She's chosen not to go to sweethearts.  I'm glad she went, and also glad she's taking a break.  She has plenty of dances in her future.

Kate and Zack were both living their own lives at opposite ends of the state.  It's still crazy to me that I have two kids in college.  Jake's busy as always with work.  

Thank heavens we had Thanksgiving to give November something fun.  For the first time in a while we stayed home.  The college kids came home and we all enjoyed some family time.  For actual Thanksgiving we went to the Spjute ancestral home.  To start things off some of us met to play some pickle ball.  The Johnsons showed us all up.  Then we went shooting up Farmington Canyon.  Dinner was amazingly delicious.  We ate, talked, ate, and talked some more.  It was a perfectly lazy Thanksgiving.

Jake decreed the rest of the weekend an auto mechanic weekend.  They all worked on Kate's car, Zack's car, and Sage's car.  Don't ask me what they did, but 2 of the 3 cars were more functional after.  The boys say this is fun.  The girls not so much.  But the girls are grateful to have functional cars!

Weekend of the cars.  My contribution was bringing food

The feast

Safety lesson pre-shooting

Sage does dry needling.  Seems very painful

Jake and Sage made a box for our home gym.  I was especially happy when I saw that they signed their names on it.

The annual turkey trot.  Even 10 degree weather doesn't stop us!

Midway Bakery opened again.  This is obviously worth documenting

The cute girls in Sage's dance group

Cousin time!  Sage had a sleepover and went to Sundance with Chloe and Sierra 

This is apparently how teenagers smile

Sage's dance group

October Part Two

 Jake and I got back from Colorado, were home for a few days, and then headed to St George for fall break and for the state bike race.  We spent the first couple of days of the break in Lake Powell.  I've never been that late in the year, but it was really great.  So few people there that even the main channel was pretty smooth.  We talked the Mackays into coming with us, and we had a lot of fun.  The weather the first day wasn't ideal.  Cloudy and a little on the cold side for boating.  But the second day was perfect.  Beautiful sunshine and warm water.  We were sad when we had to leave.  It's always good to leave wanting more!

In St George we just hung out, did the normal things...biking, Jeeping, even a pedicure this time.  Sage had her last race of the year at Three Peaks in Cedar.  This year's race was a little different.  Every team in Utah races and so they split the race up over two days.  Well, there was a freak cold front and storm Thursday night so everyone woke up to a couple of inches of snow on the ground.  It was freezing.  And sad.  They ended up canceling all the races for Friday.  Which is the worst way ever to end a season.  Luckily Sage was able to race, but she only did one lap instead of two.  Makes a big difference.  Oh well.  She did a great job and had a great season.  It wasn't the season she was hoping for, but we're proud of her for how hard she worked and for sticking with it.  

Stopped and had lunch with some skeletons on the way

Had an RS activity on making caramel apples.  We're definitely not professionals...

I told Jake he should be a lumberJake for halloween.  He didn't appreciate the idea.

Some day I should collect all the pics we have of Jake driving the boat

You can't tell, but all of the adults are on the tube.  We let Kate drive.  She did great, but it was a little terrifying.  There's a reason we didn't let Sage drive...

We visited Kate at work at Swig.  She loved having us there.

Hard to tell, but this climb is brutal.  Sage killed it.

My family finds great joy in this picture.  This is the first time I've done any kind of dressing up in years.  And of course I was a dog.  But I tried to be a good sport and go along with it.

State race was on my birthday this year, so we went for a birthday ride after.