November Happenings

 November actually had quite a bit going on.  Jake and Zack started out the month doing a bike race in St George.  For some unknown reason they decided they needed to drive Zack's not fancy car and use the rooftop tent.  This involved working for hours and hours to get the lift finished, and then figuring out the rooftop tent in the dark the night before they left.  I'll never understand the reasoning for this.  We have a lot of other cars that work really well.  Men are a mystery.  Anyway, they miraculously didn't break down, although they did have to dress warm because the Jeep's heater wasn't working.  Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate for this race.  They each did 2 laps before the race was cancelled.  Towards the end it was really cold, wet, and muddy.  They drove to Cedar and spent the night in a hotel so they could warm up before they drove home in the cold Jeep.  I guess this was fun?  I'll pass thanks.

I finally talked Jake into getting equipment so we essentially have a home gym.  Well, I should say that Covid convinced Jake to get gym equipment.  Poor Jake.  He's been convinced to do a lot of things this year.  So now we have an amazing gym in the barn.  Technically it's a company gym, but so far no one's used it.  Bummer.  Jake has repeatedly told me how nice it is to have a gym.  I only said, "I told you so," once.

Zack finally got his Jeep put back together, and then my cousin asked him to build a dollhouse for one of her girls for Christmas.  This was an intense dollhouse.  Lots of detail.  It took hours.  Zack got paid, so he as happy.  You couldn't pay me enough to do something like that.  We were busy working on the hangout room.  With all of that happening, Thanksgiving came fast!  Like everything else this year, Thanksgiving was.....different.  We were at home, and Greg and Tracy came.  It felt like a Sunday dinner with nicer food.   We did do our annual Thanksgiving 5k.  The kids are always so excited.  The rest of the day was low key.  We were happy to have Greg and Tracy here because we're getting sick of staring at each other.  So Thanksgiving was fine.  Just like everything else this year.  It's all fine.  We're fine.  Everything is fine.

I love this space.  So much.  I can dress however, put the fan directly on me, and listen to whatever music I want.  Winning.

This picture does not adequately show how dirty Zack is.  I made him throw away the pants.

Finished!

Having lots of fun putting the rooftop tent on in the dark.

Kate and I delivered bread to a neighbor during our one snowstorm.  

So many hours of work on the doll house!

I forgot to take a picture during our 5k, so this is Sage posing after the fact.

I put Sage in charge of decorations.  As always, she did a great job!

Thanksgiving Covid style.  

The completed doll house

Walls are up on the trailer!

The only picture I have from the St George race.

The Hangout Room

 Let's just start out by saying that Sage is one determined girl.  When she decides she wants to do something, there's no stopping her.  She's always loved organizing and decorating.  One day we came home from mountain bike practice and she told us she had an idea.  Sage's ideas can be awesome, and they can be a little scary.  They almost always involve a lot of work.  And money.  I would say she's a large part of us now having a dog, a trampoline, and a boat.  You might think I'm giving her too much credit, but I'm telling you, she doesn't take no for an answer.  It's awesome.

Back to her most recent idea.  She pointed out that the playroom was mostly not being used anymore.  It was full of toys that our kids were all too old to play with.  Her idea was converting the playroom into a hangout room.  She made a 15 minute video telling us about every part of her idea.  I actually thought this one was a good idea, but I told her she had to convince her dad.  Not an easy feat, but that girl doesn't give up.  She probably introduced this idea in August.  We finished it in November.  Jake can be hard to get time with.  He's really busy, and by the time he gets home he's really tired.  But she waited, and kept bringing it up, and waited, and kept bringing it up.  She finally got him to say she could probably do it but she needed to come up with a detailed plan.  Our friend, Angie, who does organizing and design, came over and gave us a few pointers.  Sage spent hours looking online for the things she needed.  She got the prices all figured out, and then sat down with Jake to talk it over.  Somehow she convinced him and the hangout room was finally a go!

We waited for some holiday deals, and got everything ordered.  There was a week where we had lots of big boxes delivered every day.  We got the toys sorted into donate piles, moved some things down to the basement, and put some toys in the crawl space.  We had to beg Zack to help us move the super heavy kitchen downstairs.  He was not happy, but we were grateful for his muscles.  Then we spent hours and days putting furniture together.  Sage helped with every step.  She put together the desks, chairs, and got the beanbag ready to go.  She cleaned up all the boxes and packing mess.   And now we finally have a hangout room!  And it's pretty awesome.  The hangout room has:  a basketball game (Jake kills us all), Nintendo Switch, Lego center, art center, and a table to play games on.  Sage and Kate both had friends over the other day and they were all up there playing and having a great time.  Last week, on one of the eternal winter nights we now have, the whole family was upstairs for a couple of hours.  It was the best!  

I'm proud of Sage and her determination.  Sometimes her ideas exhaust me, but I'm always glad she pushes me to do fun things.  I'm also happy that my Christmas shopping is done because the hangout room is Christmas.  And when the kids are home for 2 weeks over Christmas break, I know I'm going to love every bit of our new hangout room.

Sadly I don't have any before pictures.  The round table is the game table.  The console the tv sits on took me hours to put together.  It was the worst!

I love these shelves so the board games and sewing stuff actually have a place to go!

This is fun for adults and kids alike.  Apparently, when Jake was younger he always wanted one of these.  Making dreams come true for everyone!

October Happenings

 October was a busy month!  We went to Cedar and two weeks later found ourselves back in St George, all for mountain biking of course.  We had the most uneventful fall break ever.  My poor kids.  Jake and I finally used our gift certificate for a night's stay at the Park City Hotel.  It was pretty awesome, even if it was only for a night.  We also had a gift certificate for $100 at Ruth's Chris.  Jake and I have only eaten there once before for a work thing that someone else paid for.  I was reminded of how cheap we really are as it's impossible to eat there for much less than $200, which is crazy to me.  Anyway, here are the pics that tell the story of October.

Had to add this one of Kate because she actually has a little smile.  

This is how dusty it is when they start.  No wonder Zack always struggles with his asthma.

Jake at the finish line with the boys he coaches

We were so excited to have Heidi and her sister and kids come cheer at the race!  We never have extra people because the races are in the middle of nowhere.

I hiked to the top of the Y with a friend.  I forgot how steep that hike is!

I took the girls to a corn maze for our one fun fall break activity.

Beautiful view from the hardest mountain bike ride I've done.  Jake and Zack and I climbed up 10 miles and 3,000 feet in elevation to meet Greg and bike back down.  Up took 2 hours, down took 45 minutes.  Pretty sure I don't need to do that ride again.

Love our fire pit

Sage and I can both suck our nostrils in.  An important skill.

We went mountain biking with some cousins Sage's age while we were in St George.  As soon as she was riding with friends Sage decided mountain biking could be fun.  She also didn't stop once to complain.  Amazing.

I take one for the team every time we carve pumpkins.  This year wasn't too horrible.

Zack spent hours on this.  He's got skills.

We had a team day to work on the mountain bike trails.  

The beginning of hours and hours of work on the Jeep.  

Apparently we're now out of the cute Halloween costume phase

Although Sage's friend Georgia still managed to look cute.