First came an early birthday party for Anna. She invited her friends Hadley, Zoe, Abi, Jacob and Jacob to come over for a movie night. They made their own pizzas and watched Gnomeo and Juliet. After they had some angel food cake and then they opened presents. The boys left around 8 and then Abi and Zoe left around 10. Hadley spent the weekend with us.
Saturday night we watched an interesting video on the side of the Macy's building and then went to Starbuck's for some warm drinks.On November 11th, I flew to Canada to spend the weekend with my Dad and Mom and my sisters. Dad and Mom had decided to put their house up for sale and move out to B.C., so this was an opportunity to spend one more time in the house. We had a wonderful weekend together. We watched slides, ate good food, played games, chatted, laughed and even cried a little. It was so wonderful to spend the time with family. I came home to this special surprise from the kids. It was yummy!
The weekend after that, we headed to South Dakota for Anna's surprise birthday weekend. We gave Anna an envelope as we left Fort Collins that had a map of the trip to Rapid City. We finally made it to Rapid City after about an hour in blizzard like conditions. We went out for a late supper at Texas Roadhouse and then finally to the hotel shortly before 10. The kids were excited about the waterpark and wanted to go swimming. It was too late to then and we headed to our room to sleep.Saturday morning we woke up and went down for breakfast. The kids were in a hurry to get into the water. Envelope #2 for Anna gave a picture of the waterpark. We headed down for the first time that day and I spent a little bit of time in the water with the kiddos. Later, to the mall for lunch and then a short time sledding and back to the water. This time Paul spent quite a bit of time in the water. He really enjoyed the water slides. Back to the room for pizza delivered to our room. We watched a little TV and then headed back to the water for the last time. This time Paul and I watched the kids swim. They had a blast.
Sunday morning, breakfast and then packing up to head home. Envelope #3 gave directions to Mount Rushmore. We arrived to find that there weren't many people there. We were able to take some pictures, look at an exhibit on the building of Mount Rushmore and then we watched a video. The kids worked on their Junior Ranger badges and we made plans to mail them in when they were finished. We had a quick lunch in Custer, SD and then headed for our next destination, Jewel Cave. We arrived in plenty of time for the kids to start working on another Junior Ranger badge. We watched a couple of videos about caves and then went on our own personal tour (no one else was there). We walked in the caves for about and hour and a half. The guide was great and he even let Anna and Dietrich lead some. There weren't any jewels in Jewel Cave, so that was a little disappointing, but it was still a great tour. The kids took the time to finish up their paperwork for the badges and were delighted to also get a patch this time. We headed home from there (with some bad roads) and finally pulled in around 10p.m.
The weekend after that was Thanksgiving. Paul's parents came over in the morning to enjoy some cinnamon twists. The kids watched parades and a dog show while I worked on getting dinner on the table. It was yummy. Then dishes and finally pie. It was a wonderful day.Chaos ensued at the Timnath Walmart at 10p.m. My friend, Penny, and I went trying to get some early Black Friday deals. It was CRAZY. I was able to get what I wanted and we were out of there. I went to bed and headed out early in the morning when things were quite a bit more relaxing. I had a wonderful time getting Christmas presents and was especially happy that I could find the ornament for Maleah that I had forgotten to order. It was a nice weekend.
That brings us to the end of November. We are already 5 days into December and it has started out much slower. See you again next month.:)
