November

 On the 1st of November we still had lovely weather at home!  So we decided to go on a hike.  Our plan was Fairy Falls in Yellowstone.  Nothing too crazy.  We knew there would be snow higher up.  But there is really no snow at home so when we got to Island Park and it was snowy, we were caught off guard.  We drove all the way to the West Yellowstone entrance to the park just to find it CLOSED!  Apparently they close to cars even if the snow hasn't really started yet.  We were so bummed.  But don't fret!  Island Park is pretty too.  We turned around and stopped at Harriman.  I hadn't really done any exploring at Harriman State Park before.  I know people snowshoe there in the Fall.  And I know there is or was an ultramarathon held there in the summer or spring.  We were not expecting inches of snow.  It was fine.  We had some layers because it's November and we aren't stupid.  But I really didn't plan on being ankle deep in snow! So my ankles got cold.  My socks were not tall so my ankles were exposed and they had snow on them.  Anyway, as you can see, it was really pretty.  We ended up lost and in some corral for cows and broke through ice into some deep nasty mud and decided to turn around.  But it was a fun adventure!

Kaden came to his first haunted house!  He had fun.

Dylan had his end-of-year soccer banquet.  I didn't take any pictures because Dylan doesn't love pictures being taken.  But got this picture of the gifts that Kristy got for all the boys.  It's cool!

Ryan and I got an early Christmas present!  A sauna!!  Ryan has wanted one for a long time.  We finally decided to just put it in our bedroom (I had wanted it downstairs but Ryan wanted it somewhere private).  We measured our space and we barely had space for the smallest two-person sauna we could find.  We had to move our dresser over and now our bedroom door opens with maybe a half inch to spare.  And the sauna slid in right next to the wall and the dresser with no room to spare.  But it worked!!  And we love it!!  I really thought I would mostly use it to warm my bones when I come in from a chilly run, but with all the buzz about how good it is for you, I use it to get nice and sweaty and get all those benefits.

We celebrated Sadie's birthday by going to Olive Garden as a family.

She wanted to decorate her own cake.  I think it's just a white cake with strawberry frosting and strawberries and whipped cream.  

A week later we made a cake for Kaden!  His was chocolate lasagna so we had to show the layers.

Kylee got together with her old team, or at least everyone who was in town for Thanksgiving, and they played around and scrimmaged.  It's amazing how quickly they get out of shape when not playing constantly.  Her team actually wanted Kylee to play with them in Spooky Sixes the month before but she had tickets to a DJ thing in Salt Lake with Avery (It was a Taylor Swift and Harry Styles themed DJ party of sorts).

I have seen Wicked twice on Broadway (or traveling Broadway) and I love it.  And now they released a movie!!  I was skeptical when they said Ariana Grande was playing Glinda because I just don't care for her music.  But it was SO GOOD!!!  I LOVED IT!!  I went with my friends, then I took my girls.  I think Sadie and I saw it three times?  One of those was in the sing-a-long.  It's only half the show and the next part comes out in a year.

Dylan was messing around at the park, like teenage boys do, and fell from the spider web toy there.  Don't worry, he was caught by the cables so he didn't fall and break a bone.  But he got a nice chunk taken out of the back of his thigh.  He had blood pouring down his leg.  He was in pajama pants (kids wear those around like normal pants) and they were very bloody.  Considering I could see fatty tissue, I knew he needed to be stitched up.  I reached out to Jen and James first because I know James is kind enough to stitch people up when needed.  They ended up taking him to his office and stitching him up there.  So nice of them!  I told James I could take the stitches out myself later.  That turned out to be not super easy because it was such a gnarly wound that it tried to heal over one or two of the stitches.  It wasn't fun for Dylan but I got them in the end. 

October

 It's always a treat when the Norther Lights make an appearance outside my front door!

Kaden asked me to take a picture of his art and post it.

I made a trip down to Logan to see Kylee and we went for a little run.  I took her to a trail that I ran once in college.  It's pretty popular and not very far from campus.  We had fun!

Only two kids with school pictures this year.  Sadie decided she wanted long hair now, largely because trying to do the hairstyles required for dance competitions was really hard with short hair.  But also she just wanted it long like all her friends.  I did love her short hair though!

Kaden was flossing his teeth one night when his tooth just came out on his flosser!

I played on an adult coed team in the Spooky Sixes tournament.  Actually I got Ryan to come play with us too because we were really short on players.  Our team was made up of coaches so we often had people missing because they were coaching their kids.  It was fun even though we lost every game.

I got stomped on.  I mentioned this in my NYC posts, but here's my sock when I took off my cleats. I was honestly scared to take my sock off and see what was there.  It was swollen under my toenail and oozing blood and other yucky stuff.  And it continued to ooze all week.

October is not complete without a haunted house!

The best part of the month is that Hailee returned from her mission!  For good this time!

Halloween

Sadie didn't even really want to dress up this year but she's on Student Council so she had to.  Actually I think they had to dress like cowgirls as part of Homecoming / Spirit week so she just used the same outfit.

Kaden picked this reaper costume on Amazon and it was easy enough.

Kaden had a little crew and they ran around together until it got late and then came back to admire their earnings.

 

NYC with Mom- Day 5-6

 Take 3 running in Central Park.  And I still found new places I hadn't seen.  I made it all the way to the north end of the park.

We had tried Liberty Bagels and they fell flat.  But I still wanted to try one I had heard was good called Pop-Up bagels.  The problem was it wasn't close to anything we were going to.  So we had to jump on the subway and make a special trip to the Upper West Side. 

We came out of the subway right by the Natural History Museum so we walked past that as we hurried over to Pop-Up Bagels.

These bagels lived up to the hype.  I was obsessed.  We ate while we walked quickly back to the subway.  We had tickets to Top of the Rock!

Top of the Rock was cool!  The views are awesome.  

I loved seeing the birds eye view of Central Park. And my mom is a little obsessed with the Empire State Building.

We came out at Rockefeller Center and saw the beautiful grounds including the ice rink that's up and going.

After that we went on a journey to get close to the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building to get some pictures.  I didn't have any desire to go inside either building but I do like the architecture of them.  Chrysler is my favorite!

If this isn't a typical New York scene, I don't know what is.  The underground steam (that doesn't smell great) and the yellow taxis.

One more famous cookie stop

And my mom wanted to try the Stardust Diner.  The line was way down the street when we walked past the other night.  So I knew I didn't want to wait in line but we went way early, like 4, and we didn't have to wait.  It's really fun, they sing the whole time.

That night we went to Pier 35 to watch the sunset.  This pier has swings but we didn't really plan to get a turn on the swings.  I just wanted the views.  (Side note, this is the only time the whole trip when I needed to use the bathroom and we were not somewhere that we would be able to find a bathroom.  I knew we were planning on being at the pier for awhile and I knew I wouldn't make it.  I googled public bathrooms near me and was trying to find some and we were not having any luck, we had already taken the subway to this random part of town.  But we saw a nice looking grocery store and I was like, I will buy something if I have to but I need their bathroom!  We lucked out because the bathroom definitely has a lock code on the door but it was not closed all the way so I was able to sneak in.  I would've bought something if they got mad at me.  Tender mercies!  That was stressful.)

The sunset was so great!!

The last day we did another run in Central Park but I refused to take any pictures because I have enough pictures of the park!  So we just got a quick run in and got ready to go.  We were going back and forth about how to get to the airport.  An Uber is expensive.  We could've dragged our luggage to Grand Central Station and taken an above ground train, but that's kind of a far walk with luggage.  So ultimately we got on the subway.  It was a loooong slow ride but it got us there!  Luckily we had plenty of time.

And finally, views of the city from the air.  It was so fun!  I hope to go back again and again,