November 2021 Roundup

November is a very transitional month here. The fall season of soccer ends and we suddenly have our weekends back. We say goodbye to Halloween and hello to Christmas. We pack away the shorts and tee shirts, and move into winter clothes for good. The highlights of the month were watching Sophie's team become U10 champions and our road trip to St. George, but here are a a few other things we were up to:

Took advantage of a beautiful November day and went to the zoo with the two little boys

Having fun with a few Boo at the Zoo games that hadn't been cleaned up yet

Running away from me in the maze

It is so fun to see these two become better friends now that Davey is off at Kindergarten

We had large patches of lawn sustain grub damage, but it's tricky to reseed in Texas as the window between scorching and freezing is usually very short. Luckily we seemed to catch it right this year and by early November there was new grass coming in 👏

It's exciting anytime the Discovery Center adds something new! This month brought an outdoor play area with a ropes course, swings and sand box.

Silly Griffin

Sam's had hot chocolate to sample, which made for a happy Charlie!

Boys live here :)

Dave is gone more now on weekends and evenings with his bishop calling so the kids are happy whenever they can catch him for a snuggle on the couch

Charlie loves this box at the Discovery Center that creates pictures by rolling a ball, controlled by a computer, through sand. He always runs to it first to see what the new image will be.

Once it was Starry Night - so cool!

Charlie called this Lego creation his "Christmas Lights"

Decorating the tree!! This moment looks magical but I promise there was plenty of arguing over who hung what and where they put it.

I also gave them their Christmas jammies on this day so we could have fun wearing them all month long! This year they were from our kids consignment store, which has great selection if you shop early. This will be my new plan going forward. Who cares if they match?!

Snowman branch, brought to you by Davey :)

Thanksgiving - Headed Home

On the drive home to Texas we made a couple stops again to break up the drive. The first was new - the balanced rocks by the Vermillion Cliffs, not far from the Marble Canyon bridge. We had driven by on our way there but it was getting dark and we didn't have time to detour. This time we did and it was cool to see a field of giant boulders scattered around an otherwise flat landscape. 

Big rock balanced on a small base

Overlooking the Colorado River

The critically endangered Condor can often be seen hanging out on the bridge and sure enough we saw a few when we were crossing! There are only about 500 left in the wild so it felt pretty cool to find some here! They're atually pretty ugly, but the nearly 10 ft wingspan is impressive.

On our drive out we saw this cool ombre rock formation. My mom and I both agreed we'd like a sweater in this color scheme. Anyway, on the way back I was able to locate it again, even though I just had a vague mental idea of where it was, and took a picture :)

The messy face of a road trip baby

Quick stop again at the Navajo zoo and this time the education building was open

Thanksgiving - Zion's National Park

Our day in Zions was very cold. We had to get an early start since the park is so popular, even in the winter months, and we wanted be sure we could get parking in the main lot and access to a shuttle without a long line. The kids didn't even mind that masks were still required on shuttles because they said it helped keep their faces warm :)

Our main hike was the Riverside Walk that follows along the Virgin River to the start of the narrows. It's perfect for families as the main path is paved, yet there are tons of rocks to climb and parallel dirt paths along the water for older kids who are feeling more adventurous. Dave hadn't come to join us yet at this point, so I was grateful to have grandparents and cousins there to help with the other kids while I pushed Griffin in the stroller. 

While climbing big rocks we learned neither kid had hardly any traction left on their shoes which made for a slippery experience on the sandstone, but they persisted despite the sliding

The red cliffs still look beautiful in the winter

The Virgin River was such a pretty color of blue, but sure looked cold!! We saw lots of hikers in dry suits headed to the Narrows and I was glad to not be among them. Just thinking about wading in the water made my feet feel numb.

Charlie and Jack were good hiking buddies

Griffin had a great nap despite his swollen lip

End of the trail, you can see the narrows up ahead

All the Howe and Hindman cousins

Griffin and I matching in our periwinkle blue

We also made one quick stop at the Three Patriarchs before heading home

Poor Charlie passed out on the return shuttle