Thanksgiving Break 2018

Thanksgiving Break from school for all of us started on Wednesday the 21st. Well, all of us except Ammon--he got the whole week of Thanksgiving off from college! He went to a 21 Pilots concert in Boise with some friends on the preceding Saturday, then stayed over in Boise with Tim until Monday morning, when they drove up to Salmon. I scheduled all the boys and myself for our annual eye exams that week: Ammon and the twins on Monday, and Kanyon and I on Wednesday. Ammon made it back to Salmon just in time for the eye appointment. When I got home on Tuesday night, I noticed Micah wasn't wearing any glasses, and asked him what happened to them. He responded that he'd gotten contacts when he went to the eye doctor! It was a total surprise for me--I hadn't even realized he'd wanted to get them! Now there's another recognizable difference between Jonah and Micah!

The weather was beautiful on Wednesday afternoon, so after Kanyon and I got back home from the eye doctor, we went outside. The ditch water had frozen over, so Kanyon was playing in it, and eventually the rest of us were drawn to it, too. Ammon and Tim came over with Tiger, and they went on motorbike rides using the twins' and Josh's motorcycles while the rest of us hung out in the backyard, until Josh got a text that one of the motorbikes' tires had gone flat, and then he got in the truck and brought that particular bike back home.

The fall colors were so beautiful! Jonah took a turn on the rope swing.

Kanyon showing us his run-and-slide technique.

Micah's turn on the rope swing.

Even Tiki got brave and joined us on the ice!

Josh gripped the swing as he slid across.

Snapshots of Instagram are one of the ways I have

to be creative in order to see what my kid is up to!

We left on Thanksgiving morning for Utah to spend the holiday with the Perkins' family at my parents' home in Providence. We got there about a half hour before the meal began. It was delicious! My mom made turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and we had salads, vegetables, and sparkling cider. For dessert, everyone brought different pies. We played board games, electronic games, watched TV, did some art, and took naps all afternoon/evening. It was very relaxing. Tabbi was unable to come, and Tawna and Bryce were with Bryce's family, but the rest of the family that lives in Utah all came. 

BreAnne unexpectedly asked me to take their family's picture that day, 

and I was glad to oblige. (I like to have an updated family picture for each of 

my siblings for the Perkins family calendar that I make for my parents every year.)

Brendan, who's only 7, is almost as tall as my mom!

Sunny, Abbie, and Libby did art all afternoon, and I

 loved seeing their creations! This isn't something my 

boys have ever done: just sat & colored for the fun of it!

This is another thing my boys wouldn't do: jump on the couch and snuggle 

with their parents and siblings!! It was fun to see the Perkins girls do it, though!

My boys took turns playing the Xbox with Mick upstairs instead!

We left on Friday morning to head back to Idaho. We stopped in Idaho Falls for Josh to pick up a bus that had gotten fixed and he drove it back to Salmon and we ate lunch at Subway. We stopped again in Mud Lake to move my belongings from my rental apartment to my new rental trailer home. We'd brought down a flat bed trailer and dropped it off at the apartment on our way down to Utah the previous day, so we just hooked it back up to help move all the belongings.  It was great to have the boys' help. When I originally moved last year from Salmon to Mud Lake, I did it all in one load. I've definitely accrued some belongings in the year that I've lived there, since it took us 3 loads to get everything over to the new place. The whole move took about an hour and a half--not bad at all! My friend Tanis and her husband even stopped by and helped with one of the loads.

My new rental is the same price as my previous one, and the same size, too. However, it isn't on the main highway--it's on a country road near the airport, so the traffic is a lot less and as a result it's a LOT quieter. Also, there's more windows, so it's lighter, and the heat is through a furnace rather than electric heat, so the house feels warmer. It feels more like a home and less like a cave, and I'm really enjoying my new place.

I drove on the bus with Josh to keep him company, and Ammon drove the boys back in the suburban. We took a moose up to the taxidermist in Salmon for Tanis' husband, so when we first got to Salmon, I drove out to Carmen to drop it off, and met up with everyone at the golf course. In the time that I was gone, they'd unhooked the flatbed trailer and left it there, and picked up Josh from the bus barn. We talked about staying in town for another half hour so we could see the Parade of Lights (an annual activity the day after Thanksgiving with Santa Claus at the end), but the boys opted not to. Instead, we took them out for dinner at Savage Grill to repay them for their hard work in helping me move that day.

It was snowing on Friday morning when

we left Providence, but the snow stopped

when we left Utah. 

I never even thought to take a photo of the moving process or what my old 

apartment even looked like on the inside! It was 3 BR, 1 BA duplex, and the owner

installed new flooring, new paint on the walls, and a new toilet before I moved in. 

I found these 2 photos from my previous living room. The walls were wood

paneling, and the ceilings were low, which added to the cave-like feel of it.

My new rental is a single wide trailer--it's nice to have no one living on the

other side of a wall, like my last place (but I kinda felt like I was 

 regressing back in time 10 years to my old digs when I first moved in). 

I just barely took this photo this morning, and it was pretty darn foggy--

otherwise this house usually doesn't blend in so well with the ground AND the sky!!

My new rental is brighter and more airy, but the downside is there's

carpet in the kitchen and bathrooms! Yes--it's got 1.5 bathrooms, so

essentially Kanyon and I each get our own, which is so nice. 

Family dinner at Savage Grill