November 2021

November 28, 2021

We’ve had a good Thanksgiving break. The kids have played pretty well with one another and we had a fun Thanksgiving day with Mom and Dad at 1220. They had Dimitri over, a man they have taught the gospel too and he had lots to share that seemed to interest Hinckley. We played fruit basket turnover which everyone enjoyed and then after pie with more visiting missionaries we went and saw Encanto at the Scera which we all really enjoyed. There is much to be grateful for.

Ready to watch Encanto

Pie time

Thanksgiving feast with Nana & Grandpa, Dimitri, and Grandpa H

Gingerbread houses with Nana

Hyrule castle made from blocks

The new beloved: Squish Punk

Addie and I went and got COVID shots this week, her first and my booster. That was rough, but we got through it. Hinckley got his first this week too. We've set up Christmas decorations and everyone was really hyped up. But Greyson began acting really tired and it turns out he had a fever. So instead of going to This is the place heritage park like we had planned, we stayed home and had our first-ever family movie marathon watching Sing and then Enchanted. And you know? I’m glad we did.

UVU Women's basketball game

 

We wrapped up the week today by going to a UVU Women’s basketball game. The kids sort of enjoyed it and I’m glad we went. I want to take them to more things just to be more aware of stuff going on. Greyson was pretty quiet as he watched with lots of interest and Addie was very sensitive to the loud music and had to cover her ears. She got really bored and finally stopped complaining after I let her look at family pictures on my phone. Hinckley enjoyed it and liked learning more about the rules and the points and so forth. Kas and I went on a date to see Dune while Mom and Dad watched the kids. I have read the book so it wasn’t as interesting as it might have been I realized.

November 21, 2021

Hinckley got his first vaccine today and he also won “the master sword” in Zelda which he was very excited about. We got a notice about his qualifying for the "gifted" program at a nearby school and he is planning on taking the test for it but we are really not sure how we could do it because of transportation questions. I suppose it will work out if it is meant to be so we'll cross the bridge if and when we get to it.

Addie went on a field trip to the aquarium. She was very excited about going on a bus for the first time, having a “stacked lunch”, and seeing her friend Abby who has been gone for the last 6 days. She had a wonderful time. I went with her to music class this week which was really cute. She loves it and gets really into it.

Greyson at FatCats

Hinckley and Addie at Momentum

We raked a ton of leaves and Greyson was eager to come out and jump in the piles. He and I had a date to FatCats and afterward went to the “Pyramid Park” (Neptune Park) in Saratoga Springs. He enjoyed running from thing to thing and was eager to show me everything he could do. Kassie took Hinckley and Addie to Momentum (a rock climbing place) and they had a lot of fun there too. Greyson also enjoyed another visit to the Curiosity Museum at Thanksgiving Point. We've really maximized those passes this year!

We had some people come clean our vents this week and they were here for a long and loud time! I ended up taking some meetings in the garage so I could hear people. I also got another chance to put the dryer vent tubing back on since it had been removed, and this time I crimped the thing and it was a million times easier (I spent an obscene amount of time on this task when we first moved in). I got the Christmas lights up yesterday without too much difficulty, though getting up on the roof with the borrowed ladder was a bit scary but no injuries which is good.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

November 13, 2021

Weave went public this week on the New York Stock Exchange. We watched the live stream of it during breakfast and then I met up with some of my team at the office to eat pizza and cheesecake. There was confetti and balloons everywhere and was kind of fun to see the celebrations and such. I don't think it will change my actual work much as it is really a glorified fundraising event, though we will need to be much more compliant than in the past I think.

There was some controversy about the kids’ school Veteran’s Day assembly. I guess the PE teacher, who is a veteran, said some things that were construed as political and for a bit it looked like he would be fired. Hinckley was distraught about him getting let go and said he cried at school when he heard about it. After talking about it, we invited him to think about what he could do about it. With some encouragement, he wrote a letter to the Principal about his hopes that she won’t let him go. The next day though he found out the teacher would be staying. So it all worked out, we hope. Hinckley's Wednesdays are pretty packed as had knowledge bowl, piano lessons, and boys activities so he was super stressed out about getting his full media time in between all of that. He was pretty upset after the boy's activity in which they played “turkey bowl” with a football and paper towel pins because “only the boys good at football got a soda” and “I only got 4 donuts”. He is very sensitive to competition, justice, and things happening exactly as they should.

Greyson has been watching The Grinch a lot lately and this morning wanted to show us all his Grinch face. He also said that he fired his “coach” (imaginary Coach who looks like me and tells him to do bad things) and hired a new nice coach - which is also me apparently. We’ll see how this coach is for him in his imaginary world. I ran around with Addie and Greyson with PJ masks capes on which was pretty fun earlier in the week. Later they wanted to do “climb on you different ways” and “magic tunnel” which tested my pain receptors and patience. Good things for an aging man who takes himself too seriously!

Addie has been drawing lots of things and bringing them to people. Today she drew Joseph's first vision with Joseph saying "What the heck?!" in a speech bubble with surprise when the Father and Savior appeared. She gave it to the Bishop before church started. Her room is covered in drawings now which is really fun to see for me. She is adjusting to a new tumbling studio and still enjoys it and it is much better for our schedule to not be early on Saturday mornings. On Saturday I took the kids down to Provo where we met Mom. We went to both the Museum of Art and the Bean museum before going to 1220 for some lunch of fresh produce. We finished up with ice cream at the Creamery and a visit to Grandpa H at Jamestown before heading home for a Daddy movie Meet the Robinsons. It was really a wonderful day and the kids did really great at the museums!

Grinch face with creepy carrots from Nana's garden

Ice cream with Nana at BYU Creamery

Addie artwork

Visiting Grandpa H at Jamestown

PJ Masks

Playing "doctor" with Greyson's PreK kit

Nightly ritual to counter the awful Bloody Noses

November 7, 2021

By Monday of this week, Addie and Hinckley finished all their Halloween candy. They both still regret not sacrificing to the Great Pumpkin, so we'll see how that goes next year. Greyson and Kassie went to check out Coconut Cove which is an indoor play place. He ran around for 1.5 hours straight while Kas read a book. She said it was amazing! And he thought it was really incredible. Addie and Hinckley were very jealous. Greyson bonked his head on a bar there and later said his forehead had a stomach ache haha. It was enough that Addie decided she would attend a birthday party later in the week at the same place, based on Greyson's strong recommendation. She had been a little reluctant at first.

Reading with Mom

Hinckley had his first day at “knowledge bowl” after school and he loved it. They will be learning all about geography and will meet weekly after school for a time. He sat at a table with friends and really enjoyed learning geography facts. He and I had a great date at the Museum of Natural Curiosity and discovered lots of areas and activities of the place we hadn't seen before.

Greyson successfully went 4 full days wearing pants as a part of Kassie’s plan to reward him with a sticker chart for doing so. It gets very tiresome putting pants on him multiple times a day when running errands or picking up kids! He is very motivated by getting stickers. So yay for pants!

I enjoyed seeing some of Abi and Brian's house on Elm on Saturday and went with Dad to see Ira Glass (of This American Life) at BYU in the evening.