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.