November 2019 Randoms

Josh drove the bus for the Salmon XC team to the State Meet in Pocatello on November 1. I drove down after work to spend the night with him at the hotel, which was nice because we had a room with a king bed rather than two queen beds. We went out to dinner with the team that night to Villano's, an Italian restaurant in Old Town Pocatello. We'd never been there before--it's kind of a hole in the wall. It was crammed with other teams and people, but the food was outstanding and the service was great! They had the MOST delicious stuffed mushrooms I've ever had! (My friend Gina introduced me to the world of stuffed mushrooms many years ago, and hers are absolutely divine! I've been on a quest to find stuffed mushrooms that taste as good as hers, so that I can have them more than once a year, because she only makes them for me in December, and I FINALLY found them!)

The state XC meet was on Saturday in Pocatello. The weather was divine! Our boy's team got first for the 2nd year in a row, and Micah medaled individually which was so exciting! Both my parents and Josh's parents were able to come, which was awesome, too! It was a wonderful day (all the details and photos about it are on the XC blog post). The meet was across from the new temple construction site, so I drove up to it after the meet to see it up close. How cool is it that Idaho will get another temple?!

In our 2nd grade literary curriculum, there's a unit called "Nature Walk". At the end of it, we have the kids take a 'nature walk' around our rooms looking at and touching artifacts from nature that we've collected. Thanks to my boys' outdoor interests when they were younger and items I've gotten from my Grandpa Perkins, I have accumulated quite a collection! It's fun for the students to see things they normally don't have the opportunity to, and I enjoy sharing what I've gotten with them!

Kanyon actually went with me to see the West J high school play of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". The high schoolers did a great job performing! I loved watching it, and the music was spot-on! Afterwards, Kanyon said "I like the story this way better than reading it in the bible"!

My principal and his family photobombed our selfie!

These were my favorite moments from the play... I laughed so hard at the 

Potiphar servants, the Elvis scene, and the brothers' French dance,
and I just loved the catchy music!

There was one morning I went to practice with the junior high band, to sing the national anthem for the upcoming Veteran's Day concert. When I walked in to the band room, I started laughing--EVERY other student EXCEPT Kanyon was wearing their spirit colors of dark blue, light blue, and gray! He, however, was wearing tie dye, purple shorts, and bright yellow socks!!! This kid...he definitely has his own sense of fashion!

For Josh's birthday, I took him to the Elkhorn Hot Springs resort in Montana on Friday the 8th. (His 43rd birthday this year was rather spread out, and pretty laid back: I'd taken him out to dinner at the 28 Club two weekends before when Amanda & Ryan came to town, and I made him a pumpkin cheesecake and got him a few small gifts, too).  We hadn't been to Elkhorn before, and had been thinking about going there for a couple years. It's about a 2 hour drive from Salmon. We rented a small cabin at the resort that doesn't have water, phone, or internet in it. It didn't even have a wood stove, but it did have space heaters (which weren't enough to keep the room very warm). The cabin was within walking distance to the hot pools. We soaked for about an hour on Friday night, then went in to the sauna which was a SUPER hot pool, and it warmed me up clear through! We walked back to the cabin, changed our clothes, and had dinner at the lodge. The service was great and the food was good! It was such a nice evening! The next morning, we drove over to the Lodge (since it was so cold out) to eat breakfast. Their breakfast was amazing!! I was super impressed by the quality and the hospitality. We soaked at the hot springs and in the sauna again before packing up and checking out to drive back to Salmon. We both had a great time and were so glad we went there. It was exactly the type of relaxing trip that we both enjoy, and we both want to go there again! (Except, next time we'll get a cabin with a wood stove in it!)

After we got back from Elkhorn Hot Springs, Josh reffed some Junior High games, I made some cookies for Joel's mission farewell, and then we packed up and left again, this time for Pocatello. We spent the night in Mud Lake on Saturday night after we did some shopping in Rexburg. On Sunday morning, we drove to Pocatello to attend the Entrikin's ward. It was such a wonderful sacrament meeting and there was a lot of people who came, which was great to see all the support. Tiffany spoke, then there was an all-male pop-up choir that sang "Army of Helaman". I've never seen such a big all-male choir at church before, nor have I heard one so great! I was privileged to play the piano for it, and I was glad that Jonah and Micah joined in singing in it, too. After the song, Joel spoke, which was very heartfelt, and then his Stake President got up and shared very inspirational and personal experiences from his mission. The whole meeting was spiritually uplifting and I'm so glad we went! We ate dinner at the Entrikin's house afterward. It was such a nice meal: they had soup, rolls, baked potatoes, and dessert. Gideon and Alyssa and their family were there, too. It was nice to spend time with them!

One of my "40 Things to Do" list items was to beat Josh at Scrabble. When we were newlyweds, we played Scrabble quite often, and sadly I only beat him about once every 10 rounds (I used to keep track of our games). When I watched Handmaid's Tale this summer, I was inspired to start playing the game against him again! We played head-to-head 5 times over the course of a month, in addition to teaching it to and playing it with the boys several times, and I FINALLY beat Josh by 3 points on November 12th! I was baking cookies for Kanyon's band concert (which was the following night), and Josh agreed to play with me as I was going back and forth baking and cooling the 6 dozen butterscotch oatmeal cookies. I was ecstatic to finally beat him, and glad that my extra practice playing against Kanyon several nights in Mud Lake paid off! I barely beat Josh--it was a close game!

Kanyon's band class played the National Anthem at the school Veteran's Day assembly on the 12th. It was the first performance I'd seen him playing the tuba. It's very fitting for his personality, wouldn't you say?!

His evening concert was the following night on November 13th. The beginning band played, and then his band group played 3 songs, and they sounded so good! I really liked watching him play the tuba and listening to the group play. They had cookies afterward...and I'm not sure why I made so many because apparently EVERYONE brought cookies, and it was WAY more than enough!

Kanyon asked me if he could join me for the West J showing of the "Joseph" play again when I went on the 13th after his band concert. I couldn't believe he wanted to go again--this child of mine that never wants to go anywhere! The show was sold out, but the ticketing lady said that would be okay if I changed my reservation to a plus one. The performance was even better than opening night. I get such a natural high from watching plays being performed and it was so fun having Kanyon with me, too! 

I loved the attention to the costumes; it made such a huge

difference overall. I loved all the details! See the red head-

dresses the girls are wearing? Note below how those same

red headdresses get repurposed in different scenes:

The small details in the brothers' costumes in each scene added a lot, too!

Malaika Rogers was the narrator, and she was phenomenal!

Kaleb Hall made his debut as Joseph!

Another item on my "List of 40 Things" is to get a small tattoo. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while, and I finally decided on what I wanted: a set of 8th notes on my wrist. I want to take music with me everywhere I go, and I like the idea of it on my right wrist because music flows through me like blood, and I conduct music with my right hand. I got it on the 15th in a shop in Missoula on the way to go see Ammon at Parents Weekend in Moscow. It didn't hurt like my last one, and it was really quick, too! I realized shortly after I got it, though, that it is off-center, so I'm going to add to it by putting one more music note to the left of it in the future. 

Josh and I got hotel reservations at the Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort for the weekend of the 15th because the hotels in Moscow and Pullman were either sold out or the prices were totally jacked up--I hate how they rise the prices for parents weekend, and it was shockingly both U of I's and Washington State University's parents weekend at the EXACT same time this year, which wasn't very well planned! Our hotel room was nice, and although it was an hour from Moscow, it was nice to be away from the crowds. We visited Ammon on Saturday morning after sleeping in a bit (he's in a different time zone than us). He's in a different room at his frat house this year, which is better than his accommodations last year. He also just got voted as VP the week before, so he will be getting his own private room with a private bathroom over Christmas Break, which is awesome! We took him to breakfast at the Bagel Shop, which he loves. The food there is good! Then we parked at his frat house and walked a mile to the tailgate parties by the dome. I'd never been go a tailgate party before. There were games, free food and drinks, music, and a TV set up in their frat house's designated area in a big parking lot full of other groups having parties, too. Josh and Ammon played corn hole, we ate, and sat around talking with others until Gabbie and her family came. Then we went to her sorority's tailgate spot to eat and hang out for a while. Josh had bought tickets to go see the game, so Ammon went with us around half time and we watched the rest of the game inside. I was glad--the game wasn't good and we lost terribly, but I was getting cold out, and my feet were killing me and it was nice to give my feet a rest and be where it was warm! After the game, we walked back to the frat house, and then we went out with Gabbie's family to have dinner at Mod Pizza. We wanted to go bowling, but everything was all booked with all the extra visitors in town that weekend. It was the first time we've been to Mod Pizza; I was really impressed! Our pizzas were so good! We took Ammon shopping, then went back to his frat house, where the party continued. I took a nap in Ammon's room while Josh and Ammon played beer pong downstairs with a bunch of other frat member and their dads. Josh had hilarious fun (without drinking!) and loved hanging out with the guys! We left really late to head back to our hotel, and then we drove home on Sunday. We had a great time visiting Ammon!

Totally unplanned, but kind of funny: Gabbie's family all wore white shoes,

and our family wore colored shoes!

We had really good seats. I loved watching the band at the halftime show!

Josh and I had been discussing getting new couches for a few weeks, now that our kids are older, and we can finally get furniture without worrying about them getting destroyed by permanent marker or scissors in the hands of small children. We've only ever had cheap or used furniture in our living room. On the way home from visiting Ammon, we stopped in Missoula again, but this time at the Ashley Furniture store just to look around. We were pricing items, and finding a feel for what we were truly interested in...and we fell in love with a leather couch set that was on sale. We ultimately decided to walk away and not order them, but after coming home, I couldn't stop thinking about them, and ended up ordering them over the phone the next day!! They are dark leather couches, and we got two of them. They are wider and taller than other couches we've had, and everything reclines with a touch of a button on them. They were so comfortable to sit in, and I couldn't stop dreaming about them until they arrived the following month!

I went out with my domino's group to celebrate Tanis' birthday on the 19th. We ate at Stockman's in Idaho Falls. I love their food! And every time I'm with these ladies, I feel so at home and get such a boost! Going out was just what I needed. I ordered the brisket sandwich and French onion soup, which were so delicious. Tanis loves chocolate cake, and ordered the 7-layer cake for dessert, and it was HUGE!!! We had no idea it was so large! We all laughed when it came out, and we helped Tanis eat it, because it was simply too much for one person! I had a wonderful night with my friends!

We love living where we do! The views never get old!

I took this photo of the sun setting behind Bell Mountain on my drive home

to Salmon on November 21. 

Josh took this photo of the Bitterroot Mountains with the sunset reflecting

on its peaks on November 22. 

Ammon came home from college the weekend before Thanksgiving, and had the whole week off, as well as Salmon School District. However, Kanyon and I had school on Monday and Tuesday the week of Thanksgiving, and then we were headed to Mexico on Tuesday with Josh and the twins, but Ammon opted not to come with us because of all the driving. So, we celebrated Thanksgiving with him over the weekend while we were all together. We had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner of pork roast, mashed potatoes, cream corn, and stuffing, complete with homemade pumpkin pies (per Ammon's request). We played several games, watched movies together, and we took family photos up Williams Creek Road. I loved having everyone home, and I am glad that we spent so much quality time together!! I enjoyed every moment; it made my heart so happy!!