Thursday, December 1, 2016

Fall 2016 Top Ten

At the beginning of every season, I create a Top Ten list of items I hope to accomplish, and at the end of each season, I do a re-cap of what was actually done! Autumn is my favorite season. And it was a busy fall this year--but I'm glad to have the opportunity to look back on what we did together as a family, and reflect on the good times amidst the chaos!

1. Start School!
{done 9/6} Ammon is a junior in high school, Jonah and Micah are in 7th grade, Kanyon is in 4th grade this year with Mrs. Clarke as his teacher, and I am working one-on-one with a kindergarten student in the morning and with the 4-year-old developmental preschool class in the afternoon.


2. Watch the boys' XC meets
{done 10/29} Jonah ran Cross Country for the first time this year, and it was nice having all our boys on one team with one schedule! The twins had a great season, and medaled in several of their races. Ammon also medaled a few times as well as qualified to run in the state XC meet. We were proud of all three of them for doing their best all season long, and were so grateful that they weren't injured this year, either.


3. Celebrate Jonah and Micah's birthday
{done 9/22} The twins had a friend party this year: they ate pizza at Dave's, played at the new Zoom arcade, and had their first birthday sleepover. We celebrated as a family on their actual birthdate, too. with their favorite meals, dessert, and gifts.


4. Go camping at Challis Hot Springs
{done 9/18} We watched the twins'  race and Ammon run in the fun run race. We soaked in hot pools, rode bikes, played games, read books, and most of all: relaxed!


5. Harvest the garden
{done} We grew excellent crops of peaches, raspberries, corn, and pumpkins this year. I've never had so many peaches on the trees--the weight was so heavy that some of the branches broke. The golden raspberries had more grow than we've ever had before, which was so exciting! We also grew apples, onions, potatoes, strawberries, and rhubarb. The onions and potatoes didn't grow so well; we planted them in the garden spot by the house instead of down by the pumpkin patch, and I don't think the soil had enough nutrients. The strawberries didn't grow so well, either; although I put a net over the rows so that birds wouldn't eat them, I still didn't get a whole bunch. The red apple tree had its best crop ever, and the yellow apple tree was in its off year so it didn't produce hardly any. I made freezer corn, freezer raspberry jam, frozen sliced peaches, dehydrated peaches, and strawberry rhubarb jam with the home-grown goods.


6. Kala go to Denver with her siblings 
{done 10/2} This was our first sibling reunion ever. Everybody came except Mick. I flew out of SLC with Cody, Tawna, and Tabbi and flew back with Trina. We stayed at a really nice Air BnB. My favorite part of the trip was after watching the Rockies play, they had the best fireworks display I've ever seen!


7. Kanyon sell pumpkins at the Sac Center
{done 10/15} Kanyon's one-day sale was a complete success! We were so busy at the Fall Frolic, and sold out of everything we had except 8 medium-sized green ones. We were so happy that his final year of growing pumpkins was so successful!


8. Dress Up for Halloween 
{done 10/31} Kanyon and I dressed up to go to school on the Thursday before Halloween--he was a Dementor from Harry Potter and I was Hulk. On Monday--the actual Halloween day--the twins dressed up after school to go trick-or-treating. Jonah was Mickey Mouse and Micah was a Pirate, and Kanyon went as a Dementor again. Everybody created their own costumes by themselves this year which was so awesome!


9. Celebrate Josh's birthday
{done 11/6} We met up with some of the Whall family visiting Rexburg from England, and had dinner with them at Texas Roadhouse. I gave Josh a gift of spending the night at the Destinations Inn in Idaho Falls. We ate a steak dinner with one of his mission friends at our house and Josh opened gifts from the boys.


10. Go to Disneyland for Thanksgiving with some of the Perkins family 
{done 11/25} We had a wonderful time at Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Newport Beach with Mick & Jen's family and Tawna & Bryce the week of Thanksgiving.

No comments: