Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Tree Fetching

Just one photo of Thanksgiving this year. With Mom still laid up with her knee replacement, I did the whole Thanksgiving meal. It was tasty! We went and picked up Grandma Andy, and it was just our family, Grandma, and Mom and Dad for our meal this year. It was a low-key, relaxing day. After dinner and clean-up, I got to sit down and work on our "Reading Room" puzzle with Kari. We got it done later that night--1,000 piece puzzle in less than one day--new record for us! 

Greg and I went out early at 6:30am the next morning (although, not as early as other years) to do some Black Friday shopping. We hit Fred Meyer for socks and other things, World Market for our $20 of gift cards for being in the first 100 people, Jazzy Bagels for some breakfast, Kohls, and Costco to finish things up. We do most of our shopping online, but it was fun to go out and get started. 

It was pouring rain that afternoon, but we went out to get our tree anyway. Blake came with us in his truck to get a tree for him and Lindsay. We paid the most we've ever paid for a tree, but we got the kind we wanted (8' noble fir), when we wanted to get it (the day after Thanksgiving). $50 felt like an outrageous amount for a tree until I heard that others searched and searched and ended up paying way more than that for a shorter tree. (The recession in 2008 hit nurseries hard, and there's been a tree shortage the last couple of years, which is driving prices up. Hopefully, more people planted not long after 2008, and we can get back to paying a reasonable amount for a tree soon!) Greg was a wet, muddy mess after cutting down our big tree with a big trunk and another one for Mom and Dad. We got it done!

Flannel Friday

Joel and his friends have started wearing flannel shirts on Fridays and calling it Flannel Friday. Joel was been reluctant to move away from his athletic pants, running shoes, t-shirts, and hoodies, but he got on board this last week. He said he felt so "fancy" in his flannel button-up, jeans, and brown shoes.  I told him he looked nice and normal. He said it was normal for me but fancy for him. :-)

Halloween

We squeezed pumpkin-carving in this year between piano lessons, cross country awards night, and basketball. It's getting more and more difficult to find times when we're all home together. Kari was especially proud of her simplistic pumpkin design, and we laughed a lot over her tiny pumpkin face. 

For Halloween we had a poodle skirt girl, an Ewok, and "Charles." Joel dressed up as a Trail Blazer fan and named himself Charles. :) He wore the wig and outfit to school on Halloween and sent me a selfie (I was subbing) before he left in the morning. It made me laugh. Kari went to youth group that night, so it was just the three younger kids out running around the neighborhood. Russell and Ellery came trick-or-treating with them, too.

Cross Country

Kari wrestled all spring and summer with the decision of whether or not to try out for the high school soccer team. She went to the work-outs and practices (and didn't love it), and then when the cross country team started practicing August 1st, she thought she'd give that a try. After the first day, she got in the car and said she "really liked it." After about a week of doing both, she decided she wanted to do cross country and not try out for soccer. She went to all the practices, even when she didn't have good friends going with her, which told us she really did like it.  Cross country ended up being a very good experience for Kari and a great way to start off her high school career. She ran JV some races and Varsity a few races and did really well. The last meet, the district meet, was the most exciting race as Kari blew past several competitors towards the end and PR'd by 42 seconds! Her time was 23:14. We are looking forward to watching her run and push herself again next fall. She tried something new and even though it was difficult sometimes--socially, physically, mentally--she persevered and was brave. She made us proud!

One of her coaches is a photographer and took tons of photos of every race and shared them on FB for us. So nice! All but the first one, at home right before her first race, were taken by him.