Gabe's First-Ever Band Concert

On December 5 2019, Gabe had his first-ever band concert! Our school starts band in the 5th grade, and as a 5th-grader, Gabe started learning the trumpet for band class.  He is using a trumpet that used to be Erik's.  So far Gabe seems to really enjoy band. He dutifully takes his trumpet to and from school every Tuesday and Friday.  Sometimes, he even practices! The date and time of his band concert had been determined at the start (if not before) of school.  I was wondering how the teacher (Ms. Pallas) could pull off a full band concert (sorry I don't remember my first concert at all) with the students being such beginners, but the band mainly just played many short pieces from their book, no big long performance piece or anything like that.  It was obvious that the kids were beginners, but they tried hard and seemed to enjoy performing. Even with me sitting on the bleachers close to the front, it was really hard to see Gabe because he was in the middle back.  I tried my best to get good pictures and videos of Gabe.  After the concert, Erik took Gabe to get some frozen yogurt after dropping the rest of us off at home. 

Our Utah Thanksgiving Trip

Here are the pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to Utah. We planned this trip months in advance, so its weird to me that it is already in the past! Anyway, we had a good time.  I didn't make a travelogue of the trip, because mostly it was just visiting with family so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Nov. 27. We stopped in St. George (of course!) and stayed one night.  I can't remember where we went out to eat, or if we even did, I think we got there too late to go out to eat, come to think of it. We actually planned on staying the whole next day and doing so fun stuff, but I wanted to leave for my sister Cindy's (Tootsie) house as early as possible because the weather forecast called for a crazy amount of snow, and I didn't want to be caught in a snow storm, let alone even drive through it. In short, I wanted to be safe than sorry even though Erik said he didn't mind driving through snow, but we left a day earlier than we planned anyway. Luckily my dad was fine with the change in plans, so we packed up, left St. George, and picked him up from his work in Cedar City, before stopping for lunch at our usual, The Pizza Cart. After eating, we drove from Cedar City to our hotel in Sandy. Grandma and Grandpa Nelson followed us there because they were going to stay in the same hotel. I'm guessing we dropped my dad off at my sister Tootsie's house on the way and probably stayed a while for a visit, but I have neither recollection nor pictures of that, haha! And guess what? We didn't see a single snowflake the entire drive up to Salt Lake area!

Lunch at the Pizza Cart.  Yum!

It was a nice hotel. Here is Gabe, standing in the fancy lobby area. 

Nov. 28, Thanksgiving day: After eating breakfast in the hotel's lobby/eating area/restaurant?, we went back to our rooms to get ready for the day and watch a bit of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. Then we went to aunt Tootsie's house in Cedar Hills.  The kids loved playing in the snow, there wasn't too much at this point in time, but just enough to play in. My mom, brother Michael, and uncle Tom were at Tootsie's house as well, so it was nice to see everyone.  Except I didn't see Mark--he works lot so we missed him this trip.

Watching the parade on TV

Fun in the snow in aunt Tootsie's backyard

I was actually hoping to have a Thanksgiving meal with my family the day after Thanksgiving, but my family decided to go ahead and eat a full Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving day without us. I guess it wouldn't have mattered if we waited a day because I'm pretty sure Mark had to work the day after and so did Eric, so no matter what we did, someone would be missing. I would have preferred to eat Thanksgiving with my family, but we planned on going to Erik's aunt Karen's house so we stuck to that plan.  It was ok, I was bored most of the time but at least Elisa had fun with her 2nd Cousin, Isabella. I'm sure everyone else had a good time too:

Isabella enjoyed showing off her rock collection 

"You am pie, Ian!"

Its fun to have a cousin to play with!

The next day was black Friday.  We didn't get up early or wait in a long line or anything crazy like that, but we did go to Kohl's after having breakfast. We got bunches of stuff, mostly Erik got himself his Christmas presents. After checking out, we stepped outside, and snow was falling in huge clusters! I'm fairly certain this was the thickest, fastest-falling snow I've ever seen in my life. So this was the snow that was forecast, a few days late! Though It was coming down super fast, we made it to Tootsie's house just in the nick of time.  If we left much later, we might have had a hard time making it up the big hill to her house.  We didn't even bother parking in her super steep driveway with it snowing so much as it was.  While we were at her house, it snowed and snowed and snowed.  Lisa came an hour or so later, we were worried she'd have a hard time getting her but I guess she's used to driving in the snow. While I hung around the house and stuffed my face with Thanksgiving leftovers, Erik, Tootsie, and my dad shoveled the driveway.  I helped a little by salting with a salt dispenser, but mostly I stayed inside. The kids played outside in the snow almost the entire time! We even managed to get a couple of family pictures taken.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good one to use on our Christmas cards this year. Oh well. We left around 7 or 8 to head back to the hotel and spent our last night there. 

While we were at Kohls, I let Gabe and Ian pick out some Super Mario shirts for themselves.  Gabe also found a Super Mario hat and glove set (for the snow).  He was so excited about it, but it was sadly way too small.  Poor Gabe was heartbroken.  You can see the he threw a big crying fit over that set! After we finally got him to stop crying/freaking out, he forgot all about the hat and glove set and hasn't said anything about it since.

Erik shoveling the driveway

Grandma and Grandpa and all their grandkids

The Thurber family, all grown up

A couple of lame family photos.  I didn't help that both Gabe and Ian were not only not smiling...but frowning. 

Elisa and Aaliyah, the best of friends that cousins can be!

Three little boys.  It was near impossible to get them all to look at the camera and smile at the same time, so this is the best I could get

Nov. 30: We packed up, spent an extra half an hour searching for Gabe's glasses (which he must of left in the breakfast area because we never did find them), checked out of the hotel, and headed back to Tootsies yet again to pick up my dad so he could ride back with us to Cedar City. We hung around her house, just waiting for her to wake up. My mom said to let her sleep so I did--for awhile--until it got pretty late and we Erik was bugging me to go, go, go.  Then she was like "why didn't you wake me up earlier I didn't even know you guys were here".  Well, in any case...we hung around for maybe 15 minutes longer after she came downstairs.  Then off we went to Cedar City, where we dropped my dad off, but not without going inside his house first for a short time.  We headed back to St. George where we met Grandma and Grandpa (Nelson) at Angelica's for some yummy dinner.  We spent the night and headed back home.  We were delayed about an hour just because there was heavy traffic in Wikenburg or Wikiup or Kingsman...well...probably all three of them!  All in all I think we had a great trip up to Utah.

The kids eating at Angelica's

Random November Happenings, Part II

Here is part II of random fun stuff that we did in November:




Nov. 20
Some more pictures of Ian at gymnastics.  He has so much fun and loves his teacher, too!



Same day, after gymnastics. I took Ian to Taco Bell and we shared their box special.  This was his first Taco Bell taco, and he ate all of it, and also ate the cinnamon twist that came in the box.  I ate the big chalupa, my favorite! I almost never get to go to Taco Bell, so its nice that its around the corner from his gymnastics.  It's been a couple months since then and we haven't been back, so I guess its time for another mommy and Ian Taco Bell day!
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Nov. 22

Since getting the new baby piggy, I've made the habit of weighing all of the pigs each week just to make sure they're healthy, but mostly making sure the baby is growing like she should be.

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Nov. 23
We were invited to a "mermaid" 3rd birthday party for our neighbor's daughter that lives nextdoor/across the street. They invited the whole family along so we spent most of the Saturday just hanging out with them.
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Nov. 24
A photoshoot of Fluffers.  I took a bunch, but these are my two favorites.
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Also Nov. 24

Ian discovered his love of playing Christmas songs on the piano, and his piano skills have improved immensly!

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Nov. 26
I finally finished all the panels for Gabe's quilt.  I think I averaged about two panels per month.  After the panels were completed, it didn't take long to finish the rest of the quilt, relatively speaking.
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Nov. 26
My Munchpack.  I shared with the kids.  I think we liked all of it, though the stuffing-flavored potato chips from Ireland stood out the most to me.

Welcome Minnie!

November 12 & 19
 I had been tossing the idea of getting a 4th guinea pig for awhile, and that idea was entertained further when I came across a Phoenix craigslist ad from a breeder nearby who had some guinea pigs for sale.  I inquired about them via text, but at that time she only had boys left and I wanted a girl (I won't be breeding guinea pigs, never not ever). She mentioned that she planned on having another litter ready around Christmas time, so I told her to keep me updated.  Well early November I got a text from her letting me know that she had 4 baby girl piggies needing a good home, and that I could come pick one out. So I caved to my desire for just one more piggy and went to her home (about 15 minutes from our house) to pick out a tiny, noisy, Abyssinian baby girl guinea pig.  I didn't bring her home that day because she was still too young and needed to be with her mommy.  I was actually sent pictures of the available piggies, and I saw hers and wanted her.  Luckily, she was still available when I got there! There was another nice little girl piggy that I was considering, but she had red eyes, and I'm just not a fan of red eyed-pig; they kinda freak me out. I had to wait another week for my chosen guinea pig to be ready to be picked up (they need to stay with their moms for 3 weeks). I could hardly wait that whole week, I was so excited!

Minnie's picture that her breeder sent me

Minnie (circled) with her mommy and her brothers and sisters

The week passed quickly enough-as they always seem to do-and the time had come to pick up my piggy! I paid $30 for her, which is cheaper than the pet stores. I brought a box and she squealed all the way home, I felt bad for her since she was used to being with her family and not alone in a scary box with scary sounds, but she was soon to meet her new family, aka herd! This new meeting of guinea pigs is called a "bonding".  It usually goes very smoothly with females.  And since Minnie was a baby, it went quite since she's automatically placed at the bottom of the "totem pole" for being a baby (a baby wouldn't dare fight any other big pig for dominance). I put her in our bathroom, and then brought in the rest of the herd so that they could meet in a neutral area (i.e., not their cage).  I hid in the bathtub because I really wanted to watch! The other pigs accepted her right away, although they did seem to chase her around the cage for the first week or so. 

Her full name is Cinna-Minnie-Guinea.  It took a few days to name her. We just call her Minnie though. She is so sweet and so happy! I've noticed a big difference in buying a guinea pig from a breeder vs a pet shop.  I suppose it helps to have 3 older, seasoned guinea pigs to help her not be so scared. She was happy and content and not nearly as skittish as the first two we got.  The first two just huddled and shivered with fear inside their huts for the first month we had them.  Minnie was out popcorning and jumping off the huts the first week we had her, and she didn't seemed to mind went I came around. She's even better now (two months later). Also, I don't need to worry about ringworm, I never want to go through that again! Minnie has quite a strong personality, similar Skittles.  She doesn't seem to mind too much being touched, although she's super wiggly when we hold her. And I might have mentioned that she is noisy! Definitely our noisiest, and I love it! I'm wondering if she'll challenge Skittles one day for the piggy throne.  As of now, she has moved up the piggy totem pole, now Fluffers is at the bottom (Fluffers may be a mildly retarded piggy, I'm starting to believe). We love this little piggy and I'm glad I got her.  She has doubled her weight since we got her and continues to grow. Minnie has fulfilled any and all desires I have for acquiring a new guinea pig.  As it is, I'm barely keeping up with cleaning up the mass amounts of turds they pop out every minute or so.  So....definitely no more guinea pigs for us!  In fact, I was offered a cute, sweet, and FREE guinea pig the other day and I had to turn her down.

Piggy meet n greet

My selfie with my new girl!

 

 

 

Enjoying time with her new family

Lap time.  She is so noisy!

 

She was so tiny! She's grown so much since then

Stetson Hills Daddy Daughter Dance

Saturday, November 22, 2019

These Daddy Daughter Dances are becoming more frequent. Instead of Valentine's Day, the school dance was held in November with a "Boots and Bling" theme. Erik and Elisa had to go to a few stores to find the appropriate attire. Elisa found a little cowgirl hat, and Erik found a cowboy shirt. They considered buying some nicer outfits, but neither one planned on dressing up like this again anytime soon.

The dance was pretty similar to previous years. Dinner consisted of a Chick-Fil-A sandwich (which Elisa didn't eat, again), a bag of chips, lemonade, and a store-bought dessert. Professional photos were taken for all of the couples. Instead of a dessert bar like last year, a photo booth was available this year with plenty of props for goofy pictures. After eating and taking pictures, Elisa found her friend Kassidy and spent most of the dance with her. Kassidy kept trying to get Elisa to dance on the stage with several other girls. Elisa did it a few times, but she didn't seem as excited as Kassidy to dance in front of everyone. Erik wandered around trying to keep an eye on the girls. At one point he found they had climbed on top of the bleachers. Even without the dessert bar, the girls acted like they were full of sugar.

 

 

 

 

Elisa hiding behind Kassidy on stage.

 

Goofy girls on top of the gym bleachers.

The obligatory train formed once again for this dance.

One last picture, after the dance

Photo-booth pictures from the dance