2007 in Review - November

The first Saturday of every month, Home Depot has classes for kids. They have a different project every month that kids can make. Ryan has been attending these for a couple of years now, and has made his own tool box, a couple of little planters for me, a double picture frame, a sports shelf, and a variety of other things. The kids also get their own Home Depot apron, and a pin each time they complete a project. Ryan has so many pins on his apron that he jingles when he’s wearing it. Every time he walks into the classes, the other kids (and sometimes the parents!) comment on how many pins he has! Here are a couple of pictures of his projects.
Saturday, November 3, the three generations of BYU fans traveled to the Colorado State game. Luckily the weather was much better for this game than it was the last game we attended!I continued to volunteer at Ryan’s school doing “Fun Friday” with all of the second graders. We did art projects/lessons about patriotism and Veterans Day, as well as several other projects relating to the holidays. Ryan was given an assignment in his music class to create a unique musical instrument. They also had to name it, and show how to play it. We created Ryan's "snake horn" using his marshmallow shooter, a funnel, and lots of duct tape!
Friday, November 9, the Utah quarter was released. They held a big shindig at the Rio Grande Depot. Ryan and I went in for the festivities, but by the time we got there, the “first day folios” that we wanted had all been sold. Luckily I have an in-depth knowledge of Internet shopping, and was able to purchase some sets from the U.S. Mint. (That's a giant replica of the quarter in the west wondow of the Rio Grande building.)
Since we were downtown, we stopped at the Gateway. We love the Gateway. Ryan always likes to find my name on the wall of volunteers from the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake. It helps that it is low to the ground. Rara’s, on the other hand, is toward the top, and can usually only be seen with high-powered binoculars. I spent all day Saturday, November 10, attending Cub Scout Pow Wow with my friends and fellow leaders. We actually all quite enjoy it. It’s always fun to get all of the ideas for the upcoming year.

Thanksgiving this year was Marc & Frances’ year to be with our family. We ate at Mom & Dad’s, and then the guys went to a nearby elementary school to play soccer and football. As I mentioned in a previous post, Ryan has a fascination with drop kicking. He and Papa drop kick back and forth across the street in front of their house. They decided to go to the school field where they could really go at it. They had a lot of fun. Mom and Frances and I stayed back at the house, and after cleaning up, looked through all of the ads for the next day’s shopping. We decided on a few places that we wanted to hit for a few good deals.

So, bright and early the next morning (which, for us is about 9:00 instead of 4:00), we went to the couple of stores that we had decided on. I know, we’re just not the die-hard shopaholics. After our minimal shopping adventures, Rara and Aunt Dott got the grandkids together for another holiday extravaganza. When we were all little, the cousins would get together and make candy bar trains. So the now-grandmas decided to start up the tradition again with the grandkids. When Misty found out what her kids got to do, she was a little jealous that she hadn’t been invited to participate! :)
One of our family traditions has always been to go downtown the day after Thanksgiving for all of the lights coming on. This year we went to the Gateway, where John Schmidt performed a concert on the main staircase by the Olympic Plaza. It was a lot of fun.
Of course, one of the highlights (that almost wasn’t) of the month was the BYU-Utah game. I won’t rub salt in the wounds of all of my Utah friends that read this, but you all know how it ended. (Let me just say that it's probably wise to wait until the game is REALLY over before calling and playing your "Utah Man" keychains.) After the game, Ryan and I dropped off a little bag of blue treats at the Davies’ house. They love blue. (I just realized that Ryan is wearing his BYU jersey in most of the pictures on this blog. That is fairly representative of his life. His BYU jersey and his John Beck jersey are his two favorite shirts. He would just wear those all the time if I'd let him.)

Friday, November 30 was Bountiful’s annual Light Parade. Rara and I took Ryan and his friend, Logan. I took a couple of light sticks for them, so they enjoyed waving those around. The various floats and cars are always cute, but this year included something very different from previous years. The boys almost lost their voices screaming about the Star Wars float that was coming down the street. At that point, they totally forgot that it was only about 17 degrees out! The glow of the light sabers warmed their little hearts! After the parade ended, we went into the Rec Center for warm refreshments and visits with Santa.