Most of November

Monday Nov. 2nd

The deer liked to come and eat what was left of our tomato plants.  

Thursday Nov. 5th

Relief Society Craft Night-- we made a simple wooden nativity that was really cute.

Friday Nov. 6th

Jim and Garrett flew to California to see a BYU game with Josh.  The game was Friday night and they stayed with Josh and Tanya, then came back Saturday night.  It was a short trip, but they had a fun time.

Saturday Nov. 7th

I had Paige babysit while I took Maggie and Lydia to see the new church movie, "Once I was a Beehive."  It was a cute movie!

Hanging out with the California McKibben's for the day!  

Garrett and Josh

They went to a Monarch Butterfly preserve that looked pretty cool.

Garrett, Josh, Caleb, Hannah and Luke

Garrett said that Jim struck up a conversation with one of the guides and talked and talked about wildlife and stuff.  

Sunday Nov. 8th

We went over to the grandparents' house for dinner and Grandma was teaching Noah how to play Angry Birds (I think) on her ipad.  

Thursday Nov. 12th

The kids didn't have school on Wed, Thurs or Friday, so we booked a trip to Great Wolf Lodge for Thursday and Friday.  We probably got there around 3 or 4, got checked in and then hit the pool.  

We ate pizza for dinner and then the kids got started on their MagiQuests.

It was so busy that we had to wait in line to use the wands in some places.  

Pixie Hollow

Noah howling like a wolf.  He has a thing for wolves.  He's too funny!

Friday Nov. 13th

Great Wolf Lodge is not the place I would pick to spend my birthday, but it was still fun.  My birthday trip would come the next day...more on that in the next post.  

We had to be out of our rooms by 11, so we hung out in the lobby for a bit while the kids were on their magiQuests.  Noah was eating leftover pizza for a snack.  

Then he got his energy back and started howling like a wolf again!  

Eating lunch a bit later before getting into the pool again.

Bella in the wave pool

with Maggie and Lydia.  The wave pool is everyone's favorite.

Paige and Noah slurping some slurpees.

We left around 7:30 and drove home in the dark in a down pour the whole way home.  The kids had a fun time!!  They'd love to come back every year, but I'm good with the every 2-3 years schedule we've got going on.  

Friday Nov. 20th

Bella was student of the month, so I came to take pictures of her.

Waiting for her turn

Mrs. Sheller saying all sorts of nice things about Bella.

Her two teachers, Mrs. Sheller and Mrs. Gutierrez

This is what they said about her. 

Great Wolf Lodge Trip

Since it had been 3 years since we last went to Great Wolf Lodge, we decided that we should go again.  The kids were so excited to go!  We left around one on Thursday afternoon (the 7th) after getting the older girls out of school.  It takes about 2 hours to get there.  So after we checked in and unloaded our stuff, we got our suits on and headed to the pools.  

I love the outside of the buildings--the wolves are awesome!

 in our room-getting settled in

 Lydia showing her "magi-quest" skills

 I didn't take any pictures of us swimming on the first day--I got a few the next.  After swimming, we got some pizza for dinner and then bought one more wand for Bella and started on the Magi-quest game.  Garrett had to work, so I took the kids around and helped with their game.  I never got a chance to help them the last time we were here because I was always helping Noah and Bella (who were 3 months and 2 1/2 yrs old.)  But I really enjoyed helping them play this time.  The only bad thing was going up and down the stairs between clues.  I swear this game was invented to wear kids out because they are running across the hotel and up and down stairs over and over.  The only reason it was a pain was because Noah was with us and he's a little slow on the stairs.  So it just seemed to take forever.  But, it was a lot of fun.  The kids probably didn't get to bed until 9:30 or 10, which I just hate, but since I was flying solo (Garrett worked till about 11:30 that night), that's just what happened.  

 It's so cute to watch these two wave wands around and then to see their faces when something happens.  

 Pixie Perch

At around 8pm, I think, they have a "bed time story" that these big animated creatures of the forest tell.  (think Chuck. E. Cheese).  We didn't watch it because we were playing our game.  

Friday the 8th

After sleeping in, we went to have breakfast at their restaurant--breakfast buffet and then went out into their big open area where they tell the bedtime story, because they were doing a different story.  

 Noah and a bear on the giant fireplace

 watching and listening to the story  (I love this big old fireplace with the wolves)

 This is where the storytelling takes place.  The moose and the owl and the kid in the tree stump on the left (I have no idea why he's in a tree stump) all talk and there's also a native american lady that comes out and talks sometimes.  

 Bella--of course not smiling.  It's her new thing.

 Then we went and did the magi-quest game again.  We played for a couple of hours, but then we were getting kind of tired of it, so decided to head to the pool.  

 cool aerial view of the pools (from their website)

 the wave pool

 slides and big bucket of water that dumps on people

 Lydia and Paige

There were lots of people from our ward and stake that went on these same days, so the girls had friends to hang out with, I just didn't get any pictures of them.  

Garrett and I did get to go on some rides.  We both went with some friends from the ward and then we went on some with Lydia.

 Noah and Bella

Right around lunch time, Bella was complaining that she didn't feel very well.  Her tummy hurt and she just didn't have any energy.  She looked really pale, too.  I think she was getting a little dehydrated since it is so hot in the pool area, and she wasn't really getting wet.  So I was pushing all my kids to drink water.  We took her out into the main lobby where it was much cooler so that she could lay down on the couch.  She came back in awhile later because it was too cold.  Later, in the day she did have a little diarrhea.  Luckily, I  brought my essential oils with me and I put some on her stomach and later she started to feel better.  

After the pool, we tried to finish up the magi-quest game for Bella.  Paige and Lydia had finished their game, but it was getting late at this point and we wanted to get home.  So, we had to leave without finishing it. 

Right before we left.

We had a great time--hopefully, it won't be another 3 years before we go back.