Joel Wisdom Teeth

 In an attempt to squeeze in Joel's wisdom teeth removal between fall basketball and Barlow tryouts, we scheduled his surgery two days before Halloween. I promised to save out his favorite candy and apologized for him having to miss his friend's Halloween party. He was pretty silly on the way home, laughing and singing songs from Coco. He laughed with the cat when I got him inside. 

Lots of pudding, jello, applesauce, sorbet, mashed potatoes, and his beloved Cup Noodle. He'll be back to normal life soon, I think. 

Pumpkin Carving

Grant made the best caramel we've ever made, the perfect consistency, for us to enjoy while carving pumpkins. The kids carved them all themselves after Greg helped take the tops off. 

 

Water Polo

When we got back from Disneyland, I got Grant signed up for water polo once again. Unfortunately, the conveniently close program at the Barlow pool is gone, and now we have to drive to Parkrose High School a half hour away. He goes three days a week and absolutely loves it. He's one of the smallest, youngest players in the deep end, but he's doing great and holding his own. He's played in one game so far and scored 6 or 7 goals. His cheeks were bright red, and he looked like he was tired and half-drowning at times, but he came out of the pool smiling and asking if he could play some more. We're thankful for grandparents who are willing to drive him there after school when I can't. 

Fairy Godmothers

Grandpa Arnold

On October 18th, Dad texted all of us kids and said, "My dad just went to glory." I was subbing at the time and shouldn't have checked my messages until later, and it caught me off guard. Thankfully, the class was busy and distracted, so they didn't notice the tears pooling in my eyes. It was time for him to go. He was in pain and miserable. Now he is free and with his Lord. My grandpa was the best of men. My dad looked up to him, admired him, and loved him more than anyone on earth, I think. It was hard for him to say good-bye. I'm so thankful he was able to be up there just week ago to see him one last time. 

I have fond memories of summers at Grandpa and Grandma's house, playing horseshoes, "helping" in the garden, and listening to Grandpa tell stories. He was gentle and strong, patient and kind. He loved God's word and lived a long, faithful life of service to his Lord. Dad did such a great job with the slideshow for Grandpa's service. I loved getting to hear Grandpa's deep, raspy voice again in one of the videos. I'm certain he heard his Savior say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Love you, Grandpa. We'll see you again "soon." 

Slide show 

 

Pumpkin Patch

 We ran out of time to go to a pumpkin patch this year, but I wanted to keep the tradition going anyway, since this is the last year Kari will be able to go with us. The kids wanted to go, too, even though it was pouring rain when it was time to go (we had to make a reservation), or maybe it was because it was pouring rain. :-) They embraced the experience, short as it was. We were only there a half hour, but it was great! 

Friday Night Lights

 Finally made it to a football game. It was senior night, celebrating all the kids Kari has gone to school with since kindergarten and celebrating Katelin on her last night dancing at a football game. 

Pumpkins

 Grandpa grows some BIG pumpkins. The kids have work to do! 

Progressive dinner

Two days after we got back from Disneyland, we hosted the middle school progressive dinner appetizer and served mozzarella sticks with marinara, Caesar salad, and French bread. I love hosting that event. The kids flood in, fill our home with their bodies and voices, eat a bunch, express their gratitude, and leave just as quickly as they came. It’s such a fun whirlwind! 

Wreath Thins

I'm not sure when this started (last year maybe?), but the wreath-thins appeared again this year in my fall burlap wreath on the pantry door. Kari finds it very entertaining. 

Accepted!

 Kari found out she's been accepted to Biola and CBU all in the same day. Cal Baptist is where she wants to go, and they sent her this cool box of fun stuff. Their marketing department is winning. 

Kari was very happy. 

Disneyland 2021

The Moffat Disney trip that was supposed to happen October of 2020 finally came to fruition in October 2021! Our family had some extra challenges this trip, but we still managed to make lots of fun memories and enjoy being together. I got sick the week before we left (when I was finishing up 6th grade science sub job) and spent the weekend before our trip in bed. I thought I was doing better, but I was nauseated and still having my vasovagal (fainting) episodes. I didn't eat much of anything for days, which was so sad because there are so many yummy things to eat in Disneyland! That's one of my favorite parts of going--eating all the treats! I got to enjoy a couple of them towards the end of our trip, but I was still feeling bad and nauseous in the airport and on our flight home. 

Kari came down with a bad cold the day we got there and was feeling pretty terrible but powered through, and then Aubrey got sick. She was up almost all night one night with a stuffy nose, headache, sore throat, and fever. Greg walked to a nearby Walgreens at 5am to get a whole bunch of meds and supplies, including a rapid COVID test (it was negative). We were kind of a mess. Aubrey took a mid-morning snooze on a table in Star Wars Land and then headed back to the hotel for the rest of the day. Greg and I took turns staying with her. I wasn't feeling so great myself, so I stayed with her for the evening. It was so sad! We shared the cold with other members of family by the end of the trip, unfortunately, but at least everyone else didn't get sick until the end. 

In spite of the illnesses, we still managed to get up at 6am, be at breakfast by 6:30am, and in line at the gate by 6:45am. Leah and I had the park reservations on our phones, so we were responsible for getting reservations/boarding passes for Rise of the Resistance in Disneyland and Webslingers in California Adventure. We managed to get board passes every morning for our whole group! It was quite a process of logging in and clicking "refresh" over and over again at 6:59am for when it opened up at 7am. Sometimes we were in the same group and sometimes just an hour or two apart for those rides. Everyone got into the park at the same time. We were at the rope-drop every morning and worked the system to get to the most popular rides first thing and get in before the wait times skyrocketed. 

The parks had been operating at limited and reduced capacity in September, but we decided they had to be close to normal capacity when we were there, because there were so many people! It was super crowded, and lines were long for most of the day. We're used to utilizing the Fast Pass system and never having to wait more than 20 minutes for any ride. It was not that way this time! We regularly waited over 45 minutes for the more popular rides once the early morning rides were done. I think we just happened to be there at one of the worst times for crowds and lines, when Fast Pass wasn't in effect and when crowd levels were higher. Disney World was rolling out the new Genie system, the new Fast Pass system, on October 19th, and Disneyland was probably going to be rolling theirs out not too long after. It was just a different kind of experience. We made the best of it, though. The kids closed the parks out multiple nights by themselves and had a blast enjoying their independence together. It was very nice to have our hotel just across the street from the entrances. 

The boys' favorite experience was building their lightsabers at Savi's Workshop. We had to made reservations in advance. I was sick that night and unable to go with them, but Greg took photos and videos. It looked very cool! They loved it!  

We stayed for the fireworks one night, and no one was very happy about it. It had been a long day, and everyone was tired. We decided to stay, though, and stood in the big crowd on Main Street. Honestly, I was disappointed with the show. It was Halloween themed, and I missed the usual happy, Disney magic. Oh well! Now we know. 

Star Wars Land was very impressive. You really felt like you were in the movies. And the two big rides did not disappoint. Most people rode Smugglers Run multiple times. We got to do Rise of the Resistance three times. 

Some other memories--Grant and Bailey holding hands as they walked through the park, Miles and the train, Joel's big Mickey bread, Dole whip and sitting at a table on the edge of Main Street and people-watching for two hours on the last day, Mickey Mouse cookies and cream macaroon, Splash Mountain multiple times (once with ponchos), Grizzly River run over and over with ponchos, the Coco street show, Autopia with Miles, the grey stuff, the wild ride crew enjoying Incredicoaster, Guardians, and Space Mountain, Bailey's face when she saw princesses.