A Whistler Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving spent at Whistler.  This year was a little different though.  We ate Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday night and drove up to Whistler on Wednesday (no traffic!) and skied all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.  Ethan flew in first and the three amigos became four.  It was great!  Marcus arrived a couple days later and then we were complete.  The noise level was back to an all-time high, the sounds of pounding feet up and down the stairs and running throughout the house resumed to their usual constant, and the kitchen was always a mess because someone was always eating.  In other words, chaos reigned supreme and I was in my happy place--the eye of the storm.  Thanksgiving dinner was delicious because I ordered brisket from a local BBQ place.  I think I loved it more than anyone else simply because I didn't have to make it.  The pies were good too, and I did make those.

Ethan arrived and suddenly everyone was happy to hang out together

We even put the tree up before we left.  I was at the top of my game this year!

Packing a family of 7 for a five-day ski trip takes mad skills and luckily Randy has those skills.  Too bad I'm not an influencer because North Face should be sponsoring us.  Randy loves their duffels and we have them in every color and a few different sizes as well.

The snow was terrible but we still had fun.  Whistler Village is always fun after the end of a long ski day.  I always get lost and turned around in the Village but Randy leads the way and can somehow always find the Pizza Place and Rocky Mountain Chocolates.  

Henry wins for most improved

check out the base of the mountain with absolutely no snow to be seen

Marcus finally got a new ski coat.  He's been wearing the same one since 8th grade :)

Strolling through the village was so great without snow

The Village always has new stuff to check out

Parker has grown and ended up with a new set of skis as an early Christmas present

French fries and poutine for lunch!

We had our friends over for pie and games

Avalanche Pizza is sooo good!

Views from my run.  It's beautiful and looks just like home :)

hotel life and boys being boys

Ethan in a wheelchair because of course he tore his ACL on the last run of the last day of our trip.  Poor guy.  It was pretty stressful trying to figure out what to do because surgery in WA would've been convenient over the break but all the therapy and follow-up appointments meant the surgery needed to happen in Utah.  Ethan is on the mend now and the worst is behind him. He picked a good season to miss skiing because there isn't much snow anywhere but at Whistler.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Things

We had a gorgeous fall this year and the colors seemed to last forever!  

We had a huge wind storm the day after I'd blown the first set of leaves from the yard.  It was discouraging.  But the leaves were so beautiful!  Usually the leaves on the ground are all brown but not this time.  

My street is always so pretty!

so.many.leaves

I love my heavy duty leaf blower and logged some serious hours with it.

Henry played rec soccer and had a great time and was better than average.  His coach commented that Henry has good field sense and knows how to run to where the ball is going to be.  You can't teach that!

Henry suddenly became Arthur's biggest fan.  Poor Arthur.  Apparently getting thrown around like a football doesn't kill bearded dragons!

I got to help at a stake youth activity.  Randy's been doing this for years and it was finally my turn.  We collected money and food for a local food pantry and made a killing.

I took Henry to the mountain biking park a couple of times.  I run behind him and push him up the hills.

Landon won this trophy in seminary.  He's seen Randy giving these out for years and it was finally his turn to bring it home.  Also, Landon gets up for early morning seminary every day on his own.  Such a good kid!

Randy and Landon in Florida for a lacrosse tournament

The Smith's came to town!  Our BFF's from Rhode Island are still our favorite people.  We ran a slow six miles on a freezing, sunny, Saturday morning and chatted nonstop.  

We had them over for Sunday dinner and played games.  I love them!  And they love my cooking so that's always a win too.

Salmon, delicious salad, homemade bread, and chocolate bundt cake.  We ate it all.

Halloween 2026

Look at me trying to get caught up on our lives!  Halloween wasn't too busy this year or maybe I've just gotten used to the chaos.  We always have a big church trunk-or-treat that's at the same time as the final cross country meet.  Parker willingly runs but doesn't push himself hard enough to be in the top ten and that's fine by everyone.  We were happy the weather was good for all his races.

Parker bought his own running shoes and they are lit (as the teenagers would say)

Luckily they only run in the sand for a small part of the race

Halloween had to be one of the wettest on record because I brought umbrellas for Henry and his friends and they actually used them at first.  The rain was dumping down!  It didn't take long for the kids to decide they were tired of running from house to house and called it quits.  I invited the boys over to our house to swap candy and it turned into a hot tubbing party.  I love that I have so many boys swimsuits in various sizes that no one every has to plan ahead for hot tubbing at our house.

Marcus as Hercules with his cute girlfriend Audrey.  With abs like his and hair liker hers, their costumes were no surprise :)

Ethan and Halli looking super cute

Henry leaving the elevator at randy's work, preparing for a grand entrance to show off his ninja costume to our staff

3 Ninjas who were soaking wet within minutes

Randy dressed up in one of his seminary costumes and made a great Moses

trick or treating to our house so Randy could give away the full-size candy bars he purchased

Seattlites don't use umbrellas so when you seem them out, you know it's rainy!

Hot tubbing muscle men

Another big event that happened in October was when I was in charge of feeding 150 missionaries lunch.  My presidency and I make it look easy and are like a well-oiled machine.  It's so fun and the missionaries are always so appreciative even if it's Costco lasagna.