I haven’t been able to get out and run. Miserable. It’s going to be hard getting back into marathon shape.
Eli got himself into some trouble so his consequence was to wash the windows.
He was having more fun than he was supposed to 🙂
Paul made food for the bees. 15lb of sugar.
Eli’s school had a Veterans Day assembly and he really wanted dad to be there. I had a seat next to mom and dad, but I had to leave for a minute, and when I got back they were already honoring the veterans. I couldn’t get back to my seat so I had to sit in the back. So, the only picture I have is at the back of the room. No worries, because I was sitting next to Eli in the bleachers 🙂
Eli is doing fabulous at school and his behavior has improved significantly. We are halfway through the year and he hasn’t been suspended from school, so things are going well!
Talking about school. Paul caught Eli wearing my shoes while doing his homework 🙂
Putting away Thanksgiving, I noticed the pumpkin was a little heavy…
I opened the pumpkin and I found Eli’s legos. This made my heart smile. I love finding Eli’s toys around the house. We are so blessed to have him in our lives.
Nisse, the Norwegian elf, is being introduced to our family this year. I wanted to do something fun, but I didn’t want the traditional elf on the shelf or the rules.
Meet Nisse. He will be our elf. He will be in a different place every morning for Eli to find. He will also have a note that will teach about Christ and what Christmas is really about. He will also have Christ centered activities for Eli to do as well.
Nisse’s notes are coming from the church of Christ.org. The ten symbols of Christmas.
The first note Nisse will leave will teach about the Christmas tree and what it symbolizes. Even before Christ’s birth, trees that stayed green all year long carried special meaning for people. A green, thriving tree in the dead of winter reminded people of hope and new life. Because of Jesus Christ, we can have everlasting life (see 3 Nephi 5:13), so we can choose to see the evergreen tree as a natural symbol of Him and His gift to us.
The activity to go along with this will be to set up the Christmas tree. Fun, right?
Nisse came with a HUGE breakfast. More like treats, but this time of year it passes as breakfast 🙂 The table was set up the night before and the french toast casserole was assembled and put in the fridge to bake tomorrow morning.
5:30am came very fast! Paul and I got up to set out all the refrigerated items and put the french toast in the oven to bake. We worked fast and as quietly as we could as we didn’t want to wake up Eli.
I should have had video, but Paul and I were trying to be so quiet. EVERY movement we made was so noisy! We ended up going down the stairs and into the basement laughing, trying to open packages quietly so we wouldn’t wake Eli.
Yogurt with strawberry sauce. Mascarpone cheese fruit parfaits.
Hershey kisses and mandarin oranges. I thought something healthy should be on the table. 🙂
M&M’s, mini powdered donuts, and candy canes.
Eli’s favorite. Icing filled marshmallows covered with sprinkles!
Hot chocolate mugs, chocolate spoon stirrers, and mini marshmallows.
Marshmallow men to put in the hot chocolate. I couldn’t find pretzels for the hands or legs, so toothpicks had to work.
Strawberry cupcakes and blueberry muffins.
Chocolate milk, orange juice, and milk.
With breakfast baking and the table set up, we both jumped back in bed and waited for Eli to wake up and discover the table.
About a half hour later Eli got out of bed, went into the kitchen as usual looking for breakfast and this is what he found!
Reading the note from Nisse.
It was a chilly morning.
Eli loved filling his plate.
Stirring the hot chocolate.
Nisse also gave Eli Christmas socks.
That night Nisse was left in his hiding place for Eli to find tomorrow. He has his note with him to teach Eli about Christmas lights. What is the activity? To go out and look at Christmas lights.
I started out the morning with a well needed run. The fall temperatures are wonderful and the leaves are beautiful. Makes the burning legs and lungs worth it 🙂
When I got home, Eli’s friend was there ready to play with Eli. His parents had a few errands to run so they dropped him off for a few hours. I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to get my errands done without a complaining little boy 🙂
Without giving Paul a chance to say no, I left him with the two little boys. It was so nice to get to several stores and actually look at things, instead of grabbing what I need and hurrying out of the store.
What did these two little boys do while I was gone? Besides playing lots of video games, they…
Threw tomatoes at the fence and at the neighbors house. They had fun cleaning it up.
They turned over the bedroom….
They covered my kitchen with whipped cream….
In the bedroom they were playing an hour of fart sounds.
In the kitchen they had Alexa playing fart music. I didn’t know there was such a thing.
We have birthday weeks around here and this year we carried on that tradition.
We started out the week with a giant cookie! Okay, so the cookie is for me. I wait all year for this cookie and I couldn’t wait to pick it up. Yes, it was delicous!
For dinner, Eli chose to go to LongHorn Steakhouse. They have the best mac ‘n cheese!
When we got home, the primary presidency left a Happy Birthday sign in our front yard. It was cute. We will have to get one of those. 🙂
The next day we went to Boondocks. Eli has been asking to come here for months.
We started with bumper boats. Eli has been asking to ride these boats for several months. Every time we come to try them they have been closed. So, today was it. They were fun, but not as fun as the cars!
All three of us drove our own car.
Eli is a good little driver! He had SO MUCH FUN!
Paul insisted we get to Boondocks the minute they opened and I’m sure glad we did! Eli wanted to go on the cars over, and over, and over, and over…. We were the only ones on this attraction. No lines.
About an hour of this we decided to try something else.
We went inside and played laser tag and then this shooting game. Next time we will skip this game. It was very graphic for a seven year old, or maybe I’m a little sheltered? I’m okay with being too sheltered. We will skip this next time.
We went out side to golf. His little stance is funny.
After golf we drove the bigger cars. Eli didn’t like those as much because he couldn’t drive them, due to his age and height. But Paul and I had a lot of fun on those.
Then it was back to the little cars. Again. Eli was able to go on the little cars a few more times and then the crowds came. We had to wait in line after each round. I’m sooo glad Paul wanted to go early.
For his birthday party I attempted another cake. He wanted a car cake. Sure, how hard can this be. This is the second car cake, the better of the two. With minor fixes, I thought it would work.
It’s well known that I can’t make cakes. It’s a good thing Eli is young and he has a great imagination 🙂 I let him decorate his cake and he enjoyed every minute of it!
Cupcakes I make every year that no one eats. I understand. I’m not offended. They were pretty rough to eat.
Eli did request an additional dessert, peach cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. Now that I can do! I got Paul right on it 🙂 I guess Eli has caught on that I’m not a baker.
The guests arrived.
We did another piñata.
I will be more creative next year.
He opened gifts.
We gave him a bean bag chair. He loved it!
Time for cake… Oh, how I dread the time for cake. Maybe I should ask for cake making/ decorating classes for my birthday next year!
Eli told me we need to keep this because “it was hilarious”. I love this little seven year old!
Sorry, no trick candles this year. Next year will be better! 🙂
And Paul sits calmly like always. He knew the real dessert was delicious. Thank you again for saving the birthday and having a treat for everyone to eat.
My bowl is the vegetarian bowl. The noodles are sweet potato noodles. A little rice and vegetables. The sauce, I can’t remember, but they had numbers or something like that. I told them mild and a drop of heat sauce. The heat sauce was HEAT.
It was really good and I would go back and take Paul with. The bowl was big enough I spit with Aaron and Dad. The only thing I would do next time is add more rice. The noodles were really good, but it needs 50/50 rice/ noodles.
For dessert, we needed to go to somewhere quick because it was getting late and we had Little Pea with us. So, The Chocolate it is.
This was our 18th selfie. Is this how we all want to remember ourselves? Weird side view trying to hold the phone to get everyone in there, wind blown hair – except Aarons hair always looks like that, ha!
Skokie. Half peanut butter and Half chocolate chip. Vanilla ice cream. You can’t go wrong with this!
With the drought this year all the lakes are at a record low.
We have stayed at this campground many times, but can’t seem to remember it, so I’m documenting it this time 🙂 We stayed in the Juniper Campground. This is the only campground with electricity.
We stayed in campsite 23. Every time we come here, we stay at this site.
We stay here because this site has a view of the water. Extremely windy, but a nice view. We usually have to get here early because of the great site.
This year…. this is the walk from the site to the water.
Eli didn’t waste anytime. He grabbed his pail and off he went to play in the water.
See how low the lake is?
I went running every morning.
This is who I saw every morning. It was wonderful.
We drove to the Outpost to get some worms.
Yup! Nasty!
Paul and Eli went fishing. I stayed back at camp where it was warm. It was FREEZING.
We walked across the bottom of the lake bed.
The receding lake showed the foundations of some old houses. Eli really wanted to take our picture.
Ha!
Not sure what’s up with Eli’s smile lately. I have to tickle him to get a nice smile 🙂
It was a fun little get a way for a few days. Extremely cold though. We had the heater on night and day. But, we were also the only ones in the campground so that made it really fun.
Eli is really excited for Halloween. He wanted to decorate the house so I let him have at it. It’s fun to see where he puts things.
He lined up the front of my office with pumpkins and scarecrows. 🙂
I’m teaching Eli how to play the piano. Not sure what this is, but he is practicing. He is such a funny kid.
This is what Eli reminds me of 🙂
Not sure how this happened, but it was just the two of us this evening. Not even sure where Eli was as this time, ha! But, I’m sure he was fine 🙂 We shared a pumpkin empanada on a curb in the parking lot. This is what our date nights are like. But, I can say it’s a step up from our usual date night at Sam’s Club on sample night 🙂
I locked myself out of the house. I don’t know how these things happen either. While waiting for Paul to get home to let me in, I took pictures and sent them to Ferelyn showing her my pumpkin finds for this year. I love it!
I have a little obsession with scarecrows. Two more for my house 🙂
Today’s luncheon we went to my favorite! Summerhays Halibut N’ Chips.
I love fry sauce, and a little fries. The halibut is the best!
For dessert we since we were close to downtown, we went to Brownies, Brownies, Brownies.
Mint brownie, chocolate chip brownie, and butterscotch brownie. I shared all three with Eli and Paul, the but butterscotch wasn’t split equally. 🙂 That one was really good.
This weekend was a school work weekend. Eli needed to gather items for his science project on prairie dogs. He needed to find items and create a habitat for a prairie dog. Can’t think of another excuse to pack up the trailer and head to the mountains.
We had to use the bulldozer to break up the dirt to put it in the box, of course! 🙂
The red leaves are almost here!
We drove up the road to see the salmon run.
Never a dull moment with him 🙂
Showing me the new way of wearing his hat. Mitchell wears it this way, so he said he is going to start wearing it the same way. 🙂 Makes you remember that anyone can be a great example or a horrible warning!
Here they have the Kokanee Salmon.
Tiny little guys! I guess tiny fish for a tiny river?
Several in there, all pointing up stream.
We walked up the river to see how far they have come.
Yup! Trying to catch one.
They came up a long way.
On the way back home, we stopped at Rockport to see how low the lake is.
