Almost December!

It’s been so nice that thanksgiving was so early this year! I feel like we’ve got a bonus week to prepare for December. I’m trying super hard to keep my perspective straight that Christmas is a beautiful and joyous time of year and focus on how grateful I am to have time with friends and be able to serve. Because I am! And I don’t need to get stressed or crazy, it’s all gonna work. On Sunday I sat down with my planner (scratch paper) and calendar (phone) and mapped out every event and what I needed to bring and wrote a long list of to dos. And off I go! So far, so good. 🤗

Yesterday the Schoeny’s came over after school. We crafted and then they played bugs in the kitchen and with the nano bugs that have had dead batteries for year. In our quest to make our house a house of order, I ordered new batteries and replaced them. Hours of fun!

The rest of our week has been so exciting that I have taken zero pictures. Same ol’ stuff. Except that horseback and gymnastics are both on hiatus because of the cold, and the free time that has created has been kind of magical. We decided since we don’t have any sports right now we’d be doing family yoga hour more often, but that hasn’t happened yet. 

To thanksgiving! I did exactly zero prep ahead of time because I’m the smartest smarty and I signed up for a freezer exchange, so on Tuesday I made 8 freezer meals. Wednesday was house cleaning and visitor prep, and since I’d been gone Route 66’ing, that took some time. The girls helped tons and it was a great day. 

And back to thanksgiving! We cooked all day. I love to make things from scratch, but I literally did not sit down till around 7pm. But it was fun and I think the most delicious thanksgiving I’ve made yet, so #worthit. 

People pitched in throughout the day. Chantal stayed with me the whole time though. 

Other people held down the couches. Re home projects - theis sectional couch we bought from Buxton’s will move down to the basement when we get carpet and then I will feel safe to put things back on the walls when we get the real furniture that will be in this room. And we’re getting closer!

Matt made his famous fried turkey. I’m always grateful I don’t have to do that part. 

The other guys went out for moral support. It was super cold that day, so Matt fried it on our deck for the first time and all went well. 

Chris has to work at Dick’s at 5, so we ate at 3:00 to give him plenty of time. We put both leaves in the table and rounded up every chair in the house. We’ve since ordered the chairs for the table, fyi. And that lovely art holder will someday live somewhere else too, but you know. #basementflood

After dinner we played Beanboozeled. Challenge #1. 

Chantal loses!

Cousins head into the fray! Both were winners!

And mommy and D. We both got lucky too. 🤗

And that’s  my 10 picture limit.

After T-day check in

Life keeps coming fast and furious, so a check in will do. It’s no surprise that Christmas is just a month away. Happens the same day every year. We got this. 

Last night Frankie threw up, so the few plans I had today were immediately 86’d, which worked out. Sunday’s are always busy with meetings, yesterday we did Tithing Settlement too. Today we talked about Lighting the World for fhe and came up with a tentative plan for the Worldwide Day of Ministering on December 1st. 

Friday we went to the temple in Philadelphia. We got up early and drove to the Stake Center where dan and Chan left their car and we all piled into the Hendervan. It was so nice of them to let us use it, it made the trip so much nicer. 

Sleeping cousins. And Frankie made a goal. This pic was before she left her glasses at the Franklin Institute. :/

We dropped Zoe and the little Ray’s off at the FI and headed to the temple. 

We’ve been so blessed to have been able to go to the Philly temple so many times since ours closed. 

Zoe and the little Rays walked to the temple and met us as soon as we finished. I could get used to days like that. We went to the Reading Market for a pizza dinner. The other Rays, the ones with more mature tastebuds ate a variety of yummy dinners, and then Addie and I waited in the worlds longest line for some Beilers donuts to share. #worthit

D money climbed into daddy’s arms and quickly fell asleep, which is weird because she hasn’t napped in who knows how long. 

We’re so glad D&C moved to VA and we get to see them semi frequently. We had an easy drive back to the Stake Center and said our goodbyes to the VA Rays, then popped over to Wendy’s for potties and frosties. In that order. 

Photo bomb. 

Saturday morning we cleaned the hendervan and then went to see Ralph Breaks the Internet which was cute and fun. 

We ran some errands and got ready for Sunday. 

It was hard to go back to school today, especially for a baby bug that does not like when one sister stays home from school and she doesn’t get to. 4 more weeks of school till Christmas break, yay!

Route 66 - Check in

We are almost to the end of the Mother Road. It’s after midnight and i can’t sleep. We’re staying at the Wigwam Motel which is so cute and fun, but has crappy neighbors that have been bumping their music for hours. I don’t usually have sleep problems, but I’m away from home, exhausted, and drinking lots of caffeine, which doesn’t usually bother me, but maybe now is? Either way, maybe I can be a teeny bit productive with ma blog. 

It’s been a good, long, bonding, exhausting trip. I’m so glad we did it, and also ready to be done. It’s a lot of miles! Today we finished up Arizona and started out California. I miss the mountains and desert, not enough to want to live there again, but I definitely appreciate their beauty. We found a geocache at this scenic overlook and took this shot for our geocaching mom. 

Oatman, AZ is a funny, cute little town. Donkeys roam free and even come in the buildings sometimes. We had fun feeding them. Am I becoming a pet person? We’ve even talked briefly about getting a dog. What’s happening to this 40-year-old?

We stayed for the shoot out. They collect donations for the  Hospital, and have raised almost $100,000! It was fun (if a tad too long) and for a good cause. 

So far, Route 66 in California gets 6 big thumbs down. Crossing the border everything looked uglier immediately. It was weird. There’s not many attractions, not good signage, and a long stretch of old Route 66 has been closed for years because they are “working” to repair some bridges. We ate at the saddest little stop along the way “Baghdad Cafe.” I thought i had read it was recommended, but upon further review, it was just an interesting stop where a movie was filmed. And insult to injury, Amy’s phone stopped working. I’ve been using both phones all week to map and lookup different stops, I’ve gotten quite good at it, so to have hers, with the complete Route 66 app we’ve been following, suddenly stop, it made life a lot more difficult to navigate.

Easily the coolest thing we saw today in California was the Bottle Farm. It didn’t have much to compete with, but it was cool. 

And our cute little Wigwam room. 

Tomorrow we finish our conquering of the Mother Road. I’m hoping for more exciting things to see in California! 

Route 66 - day 2 - Selfie stick edition

More at this fun stop on the original Route 66. 

Dad brought his selfie stick, so we decided to have a selfie contest. I accidentally cut off dads head. 🤷‍♀️

Dads was good, but he didn’t get the whole shield on the ground. 

Amy’s was ok, I guess. 

Then we did the road. Pretty good by Amy. 

Not much road, by dad. 

🤦‍♀️

From there it was on to Memory Lane. 

It’s a stretch of original Route 66 that you can drive on. They’ve got vintage boards and Burma Shave signs, they did a really good job with it! I think this was one of my favorite things we’ve seen so far. 

I’m not great at the selfie stick, apparently. 

The Burma Shave signs are fun. These ones said:

The wolf

Is shaved so neat and trim

Red Riding Hood

Is chasing him

BURMA-SHAVE

Route 66 - day 2

We were so sleepy and it’s hard to drive on little Route 66, so instead of driving all the way to Springfield, we stayed at a boring old Quality Inn in Pontiac, IL. I wanted so badly to sleep in, but it doesn’t look like that is my lot on this trip. I woke up at 6:00. 😩 in my defense, Maryland is on Eastern time, so an hour ahead, and then it was just the second day of daylight savings, so it was really like 8:00. I quietly headed to breakfast and hung out til 8:00 when I went back to the room and helped to stir some already waking sleepers. We slowly meandered our to Pontiac. It was so cute!

We loved these amazing murals all over town! They were painted by mural dogs all in the same day, super cool story. 

The visitor museum. 

#adorbs

#adorbs2

Illinois does Route 66 up right! Tons of guidebooks and info, we left here ready to roll!

See?!

We found this stretch of  the very old original Route 66 right next to Historic Route 66, which is right next to I-55. 

Dad surprised us with these rockin’ Waffle House sweatshirts, and we needed them because it was coldy. 

These little towns are dense and cute all through Illinois!

Having so much fun!

Route 66 - day 1

Amy and I galavanted just a smidge too long, and then accidentally walked to the wrong hotel (twice, ahem... Amy) is we finally threw in the towel and called an Uber. Only for some reason it diverted her so our 5 minute drive took 20. Then it was rainy and trafficy to pick up the car at Ohare, so that all took way longer than we thought it would. But Chicago’s pretty, right?

We weren’t there to meet dad with our cute chalkboard signs, bumsie. But we did find the Route 66 beginning sign. And after a “I’m in a hurry and can’t take your picture” rejection, we finally got someone to snap this of us. 

As we walked back to our car we found another beginning sign! But our friendly photographer cut the ‘Begin’ part out. 🙄

The first day of daylight savings and it got dark so early! 👎🏼

Another nice passerby. 

And we’re off! First stop - Del Rhea’s Chicken for some world famous fried chicken. The biscuits were delightful, but the coleslaw, fries, and chicken were just meh. Glad we tried it, but no thanks. 

Even though it was dark, we had fun and got some shots. 

The Gemini Giant was fun!

Expect loads like this. Loads. 

This sad little 2 cell jail in Gardner, IL was weirdly open at 10pm. Makes for hilarious picture antics. 

We had planned to get to a cute vintage hotel in Springfield, but there were so many fun places to stop that we didn’t make it. We ended up at a Quality Inn in Pontiac, IL after a quick Wally stop. And we’re off!