Tanner

Last weekend I flew home to watch my youngest sibling play in his High School Championship Football game at the Oakland Coliseum. I arrived late Friday night and left Sunday afternoon; a quick but extremely eventful trip home. Each night I stayed up as late as possible, absorbing all the time and attention I could get out of my little bro. Growing up as the 2nd oldest of 6 kids didn't give me very many chances to spend one-on-one time with my siblings. I find myself trying to rid them of the image of my being the nagging older sister/babysitter. But if I loved Tanner then (he doesn't remember me begging him for little baby kisses) he probably doesn't have any idea of how proud of him I am or how much I love being around him now.

And Congratulations to the Concord High School Football team. They won the NCS Football Championship for the first time in their school history. They beat Rancho Cotate High School, 40-37, by scoring a touchdown in the last 25 seconds of the game. It was amazing.

thanksgiving

after rachel and daniel left, i started prepping the house for thanksgiving and more family (yay!). i figured it was only fitting to make my first full thanksigiving meal in our first home, and with that, i decided to make everything. from scratch. except for the pumpkin pie and the rolls. two important components, yes. but as there were only two of us, i started to forget why we didn't just go out for dinner. or order in. the rolls and pie became very long after-thoughts. i still can't decide if it was all worth it, but i guess i'll chalk it up to an experience.

the menu:

roasted butternut squash soup

cranberry sauce

sausage, dried cranberry and apple stuffing

buttermilk mashed potatoes

gravy

a whole (yes whole. i'm still not over it) roasted turkey with rosemary citrus salt

roasted brussel sprouts (for me)

brown sugar carrots (for nic)

cranberry marshmellow salad delight

pumpkin pie (henry's farmers market)

rolls (costco)

so this was our first full thanksgiving menu. i have a feeling in 20 years i'm going to enjoy looking back and seeing this. i'm pretty sure the only things i loved were the cranberry salad and soup. next year if we're alone again, i think i might just go for a pot roast. turkey shmurkey.

and then there was carpet. finally.

after 4 months of living on plywood, we finally had carpet laid. it was a good day.

these aren't great pictures, i know. but it's all i have for right now. finished product to come soon! (i hope)

Daniel and Rachel

This year for Thanksgiving, Nic and I decided to stay in Orange County. After our first year of living down here, I promised Nic I would never go home for Thanksgiving again. This was of course while we were in the thick of traffic heading south on the 5 on the Sunday following the most traveled holiday of the year (the normal 6 hour drive took over 10 hours). Probably not the best moment to make such a statement. Although I don't think the decision will be permanent, we haven't gone home since for this particular holiday. Last year we spent Thanksgiving with some of my family who came down to visit, and this year, we got to spend time with members of both our families.

I had this brilliant idea of convincing my 3 youngest siblings to come down and visit us for a few days before actual Thanksgiving day. The idea was for Daniel and Rachel to drive here from BYU on Sunday and then drive up to be with the rest of our family on Wednesday. I found a great price on a one-way ticket for Tanner to fly down, with the plan for him to drive home with Daniel and Rachel. Unfortunately, my plan foiled with Tanner's high school football team made it to the play-offs. I should say, unfortunate for me and fortunate for him and Concord High. (Stay tuned-I fly home this weekend for the FINAL game of the season at the Oakland Coliseum! Concord High made it to the FINALS for the first time since 1989. I'm a proud older sister.)

Fortunately, Daniel and Rachel were still on board to come and got here on Sunday just as we got out of church. We had so much fun. We ate, we watched movies, we talked, they argued, we shopped, we ate some more, had bowling night at Lucky Strike, watched Harry Potter and went to a live taping of Jay Leno! Nic had to work when we went to the taping, so it was just the three of us. There's something about the experience of seeing a taping of a show that you know will be broadcast on live TV. It was very cool. We didn't end up with the most exciting of guests, but it was the experience of it all that made it worth it. (I should say that Daniel really enjoyed the guest-The Rock, Dwayne Johnson)

Nic makes fun of me because I have a short attention span when it comes to certain things. Well, lots of things. Like in a round of golf, I usually lose interest around hole 13. I typically stick to just 9 :). When we bowl, I lose interest after 2 games. Like clockwork. We paid for 2 hours of bowling, so Nic came up with some ideas to make things a bit more interesting. We bowled with eyes closed, backwards, granny style, left-handed (right-handed for Nic), from the front line, etc etc...I think you get the point. It kept us focused and competitive and it was so fun.

They are both planning to leave on missions next year, so it was so nice to have so much quality time with them. I'm not gonna lie, I cried when they left...And I miss them a whole lot. I'm so glad we'll be together for Christmas so soon.

Worth the Wait

We are finally on the last leg of our remodeling journey...the hardwood! Nic started the installation of our hardwood on Saturday. To say we are excited is definitely an understatement. Yay!