Fall miscellany

Temple bike ride: Tuesday, August 31

Ana, Seth and Bekah pose outside the Idaho Falls temple after riding their bikes there for a Young Women activity. 

Hammock relaxing: Friday, September 3

Winnie and Andrea try out the hammock in the back yard. We found the hammock at D.I. and bought hammock straps on Amazon.

Laptop check: Saturday, September 4

Seth pulls out his collection of D.I. laptops to make sure they're in working order for a ward family history activity.

D&D: Saturday, September 11

The illustration Seth made of his Dungeons and Dragons character.

Cell membrane demonstration: Tuesday, September 21

Miriam and Rebekah demonstrate how phospholipid bilayers work during dinner. Rebekah was extremely excited to hear that her sisters were learning about cell membranes.

Birthday present: Wednesday, September 22

Winnie reacts when she realizes that Grandma Scott will pay for her copy The Lost Wonderland Diaries for her birthday. The author had spoken at their school that day, and both Miriam and Winnie wanted to buy copies of the book and get them signed by the author at Barnes and Noble.

A dog party: Wednesday, September 29

Ruby (Grandpa Dennis' dog) and Peach on the back porch. Grandpa and Grandma were at hunting camp, so we had Ruby over a few days while they were gone so she'd have company.

Hovering: Wednesday, September 29

Andrea trying out Winnie's birthday hoverboard. Winnie REALLY wanted one for her birthday, so she made a deal with us that she would save up and pay for half of it since it was such a costly present. I gave it a shot before we wrapped it up.

Night games: Friday, October 1

Winnie, Miriam and Seth hiding in the bed of the pickup parked outside the shop. The girls beg to play sardines and warden every year, so we try to squeeze it in before it gets too cold. Bekah was having a hard time finding us, so Seth texted her this photo.

Temple open house: Monday, October 4

Family selfie outside the Pocatello Temple after touring it during the open house.

Winnie, Miriam and Ana with their menus at Hokkaido Ramen and Sushi Bar. After touring the temple, we all went out to eat together in Pocatello.

Fill dirt: Wednesday, October 6

The pile of fill dirt we ordered from HK to replace all the rocks we picked up and raked out of the front yard. All the digging associated with our addition/remodel proved that our front yard must have been in a riverbed at one time. So. Many. Rocks. We spent hours upon hours picking them up and hauling them off. All of the rocks in our rock beds at the front of the house were homegrown. It took us weeks to get the fill dirt spread out. The next we'll have the front yard hydroseeded.

Math: Tuesday, October 12

Seth takes a break from working from home to help Winnie out with her math homework. 

Snowy day: Tuesday, October 12

Winnie scowls with her grumpy snowman in the back yard. We received an early snowfall (it was gone in a day or two), so Winnie took advantage of it.

Blockade: Sunday, October 17

Ana, Winnie, Miriam and Bekah try to stop the van from backing into the garage after church on Sunday. They were unsuccessful.

Mailbox: Wednesday, October 20

Andrea standing next to the mailbox post she and Grandpa Scott made.

Grandpa and Andrea at the box. Let's be honest: Grandpa did most of the "making." I asked him nicely, supplied the materials and found a design idea online.

Hovering: Saturday, October 23

Bekah and Seth smile while hunting together. They were unsuccessful in bringing home the (elk) bacon, but they had a great time together.

Trek yourself: Saturday, October 30

Andrea gives the Vulcan salute in the kitchen while wearing the thrift store gem of a shirt that says, "Trek yourself before you wreck yourself."

Daddy daughter daughter daughter date: Wednesday, November 3

Miriam, Ana, Winnie and Seth pose after completing their escape room. They made it out with a few minutes to spare.

Bird brain: Friday, November 5

The hawk that flew into our living room window and then sat stunned for a few minutes on our AC cover.

Ballroom clinic: Saturday, November 6

Winnie and Kyle Westover demonstrate the ballroom dance steps they learned at a free ballroom clinic at Bonneville High School.One of the senior members of the ballroom team organized and ran the clinic as his senior project.

Miriam and her partner (a member of the BHS ballroom team) dance for the parents following the clinic.

Winnie and Kyle Westover pose at the end of the routine.

Miriam and her partner pose.

Day date: Friday, November 5

Andrea and Seth in Skull Canyon. We used one of Seth's Fridays off go on a drive to Birch Creek and Spencer. We saw pictographs, a bunch of fog, and opals at a gift shop in Spencer. We ate lunch at a little diner in Spencer before we came home.

Dune: Saturday, November 6

Miriam, Bekah, Ana, Winnie and Andrea smile before watching Dune at the Paramount. Those of us who have read the book (Seth and Andrea) approved of this film adaptation.

Mall scavenger hunt: Saturday, November 20

Bekah and Seth show off their completed scavenger hunt list while Andrea and Ana show off their completed scavenger hunt list with one more category completed. We randomly selected items to find at the mall, then gave ourselves a time limit and worked to find and document those items on our cell phone cameras. This was the girls' mommy-daddy-daughter-daughter date.

Thanksgiving

 We enjoyed a lovely dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Scott, Tyson and his family, and Aunt Jessica on Sunday, November 14 and another lovely dinner with Grandpa Dennis and Grandma Susan, Grandma Hendricks, and Rachel and her family on Sunday, November 21. And then all the grandparents left town: the Scotts for New Mexico to visit Ethan's family and the Grovers for Boston to visit Jason's family. Since our little family was on its own for Thanksgiving, we decided to skip town ourselves and make a vacation of it.

We stayed at an Airbnb in Soda Springs Wednesday, November 24-Saturday, November 27. During the course of our vacation, Seth introduced us all to a ridiculous and funny series called Centaurworld. We watched the Bilbo fan cut of The Hobbit. We played Sorry, Mao, Numenera (our tabletop roll-playing game), Screen Cheat and lots of Goldeneye. We had our own psuedo-Thanksgiving dinner with a delicious casserole and other fixings. The day after Thanksgiving, we joined all the other people who thought it would be a good idea to soak at Lava Hot Springs after a day of gluttony. Before we drove home on Saturday, we watched the manmade geyser go off, tasted the soda water at Hooper Spring and saw the Oregon Trail ruts just outside of Soda Springs.

Bekah, Seth, Miriam and Winnie playing Sorry in the living room on Thanksgiving morning.

Playing Goldeneye.

Winnie eating chips and playing Numenera in the basement.

Seth GMing Numenera.

Andrea, Winnie and Bekah in a Numenera selfie.

Bekah, Miriam and Ana at the hot pools. The girls were bored. I could have stayed another hour or so. Because we paid to get in, I made everyone stay for over one hour.

Seth and Andrea at the hot pools.

Seth, Miriam, Andrea and Bekah. Ana and Winnie had moved to a not-so-hot pool.

Eating ice cream in Lava.

The girls watching the geyser go off on Saturday before we came home.

Seth watching the geyser.

Posing by the waterfall after tasting the soda water spring (not pictured).

Bekah's preferred car sleeping position in the backseat on the way home.

Some ballroom

 Ana has performed at basketball halftimes and at a Christmas classic where she competed against other dancers in different styles.

Before their blue dresses were finished, she and her friends performed "Dance with Me Tonight" at a ball game on Thursday, November 18.

Then we spent Saturday, December 4 at Madison Junior High in Rexburg learning all about these ballroom classics. Ana competed in newcomer swing and cha cha, and in bronze foxtrot, samba and quickstep. Ana and her partners received first place in swing and cha cha. She also received ribbons a fifth place ribbon in division B for quickstep and seventh place in division B for samba.

Dancing cha cha with her partner, Asher.

Receiving her ribbon for swing with her partner, Brigham.

Dancing the foxtrot with Giovanni.

Twirling with her partner, Dallin, during the samba.

Dancing the quickstep with Braxton on a crowded gym floor.

And then on Saturday, December 11, Ana got to perform "Dance with Me Tonight" at a ball game again, but this time the girls all got to sport their twirly blue dresses.

Some band

 So many bands! So many concerts!

First we have the Bonneville symphonic band concert at the Hillcrest performing arts center on Tuesday, November 9. Rebekah played euphonium. We could see where she was sitting until the band director had the tuba player scoot his chair farther back.

Bekah on euphonium. This was before the tuba player moved. The combined concert and symphonic bands played "House of Horrors," "Nevermore" and "Incantations."

Warren the tuba player and Rebekah the euphonium player twirling as they play "Cave of the Winds," an unconventional performance which included everyone wearing sunglasses and moving across the stage in various ways.

Next we had the Gem State Honor Band performing at the Blackfoot Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, November 17. Rebekah played first trombone in this auditioned regional honor band.

Bekah in the back. They played "Along an English Countryside," "Divinum Mysterium" and "Puszta."

Then there was the Idaho Falls Youth Symphony Orchestra's concert on Thursday, December 2 at the Idaho Falls Civic Center. 

Again, Rebekah played first trombone, and again, Rebekah sat in the very back.

And most recently we had Tuba Christmas on Saturday, December 11 at BYU-Idaho. This is the part of the Christmas season that Rebekah looks forward to the most. Since the event had to be cancelled last year due to COVID, it was nice to be able to hold it again.

Decked out in their Christmas finery (both Bekah and C3PO, her euphonium). They had more people participate in this area's Tuba Christmas than ever before.

Smiling after their performance.

Halloween

 It was another fairly low-key Halloween this year for our family. We went trick-or-treating this year (whereas last year we took the girls shopping for candy rather than having them go door-to-door during the peak of COVID), but we didn't go to any parties. (We did introduce the girls to Ghostbusters, Corpse Bride and The Addams Family.) Regardless, it was a fun holiday.

Winnie playing Twister at the Thunder Ridge Carnival on Monday, October 25. She begged us to go, and where Fairview isn't holding a carnival any more, we got suckered into it. (None of the other girls wanted to go.) Obviously the Thunder Ridge student council had put a lot of work into it, but they could have learned a thing or two about ticket sales, managing lines and spreading out games. It was a bit of a madhouse.

Bekah and Ana carving pumpkins on Friday, October 29.

Family photo with our jack-o-lanterns.

Silly family photo.

All lit up. Winnie's Black Swan design (from Keeper of the Lost Cities book series), Rebekah's homage to The Shining, Miriam's Neverseen design (from Keeper of the Lost Cities) and Ana's cute bat and star design.

Winnie's long exposure and color changing light picture.

The girls dressed up. Bekah as Kermit. (We got the costume all ready for her to wear to school on the Friday before the holidays, and then she didn't wear it. Since I had put the time into it, I made her wear it for the picture.) Ana as a purple crayon. (Her three other friends were dressed as other colors at school.) Miriam as Animal from The Muppets. (If we had had an occasion to dress up this Halloween, Seth was going to be Kermit, and I was going to be Miss Piggy. Miriam wanted to be a Muppet, too. Then neither Seth nor I had a reason to dress up, so Bekah borrowed the Kermit elements.) Winnie as a unicorn. (No surprise if you know her.)