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.)

Some ballroom

Ana dove head first into ballroom, and it has kept her busy. She's had her share of early morning practices and afternoon rehearsals just like Rebekah with her marching band. She has also had her share of performances. So far she has danced at a football halftime (September 24), an orchestra concert (October 21) and Festival of Trees (November 15). And there will be many more performances and competitions to come.

Dancing to "Get Ready" at halftime.

This number features all of the BHS ballroom dancers.

Performing "Thriller" at the concert.

Not so much a partner dance, but fun all the same.

Performing with gold team at the Festival of Trees.

With her partner.

Trying to fall down at the end of "Get Ready" at the Festival of Trees held in the Elks Lodge. Their stage area is much smaller than what the team is used to.

Marching band

 The season is practically over (the banquet is the week after Thanksgiving), but it's safe to say we all survived marching band this year. Rebekah served as a drum major, and she took her job very seriously. Between early morning rehearsals, after school rehearsals, football halftimes and Saturday competitions, she didn't have much time to spare during the first trimester. 

The team competed at four invitationals: in Rupert, Logan, Pocatello and Rexburg. The people who usually pull the trailer full of equipment to the competitions weren't available for Pocatello's, so Seth and I got to fill in. That meant we met the team at the school at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, attached the trailer, pulled it to Highland High School, detached it, spent a few hours shopping at thrift stores and CAL Ranch, then returned to Highland in time to see Bonneville perform. The kids loaded the trailer back up, and we reattached it and returned it to the high school. Bekah and the rest of the band didn't make it back until they had watched the other schools perform and found out the results of the competition. 

Here is a sampling of photos from the events:

Rebekah playing with the pep band at the beginning of the football game on September 24.

Conducting the band with the head drum major.

Playing a trombone solo.

Waiting in the rain for the show to begin on October 8. I swear that, although it had rained earlier that day, it went away for almost all the football game ... except halftime. It rained all during halftime.

Ana cheering from the stands.

Cameron (percussionist and vocalist) and Rebekah during "Fever."

Rebekah conducting the band at the Madison Invitational on October 30.

Seth and Winnie directing with Bekah on Wednesday, October 27. The band director invited all family and friends to watch the band perform during their last regular Wednesday afternoon/evening rehearsal. They ran through their entire program once, and then the director encourage everyone to come to the field and follow their band kids around. I feel like Seth and Winnie were the only ones to really get into it besides the one dad who relentlessly followed his kid around with his phone and mugged for the camera with her.

Winnie "playing the trombone" with Rebekah while Seth records her solo.