November: dance, soccer tourney, bridal shower & Thanksgiving

Annabelle went to Girls Pref with Matthew and had a great time. They dressed up like Woody and Bo Peep.

 

Jane dressed up as a Dalmatian and Adrian was a firefighter. 

Scott had told the girls that if they had an undefeated season, he'd wear a suit to the last game to look more professional. Well, it happened! Their team went undefeated this Fall! 

We love and look forward to our weekly phone visits with Charles. We usually talk in the mornings before I head into work, usually sometime between 7-845am. Every once in a while if he's busy at our usual time, we'll connect once I'm back home from work, around 2pm. They are currently 7 hours ahead of us. Sometimes it's 6 hours, just depending on daylight savings. 

Skye and Jane showing off the mini pies they made at the Skolmoski's for their youth activity. They were delicious! 

We were able to get tickets to the Pentatonix Christmas concert for the family! Nora decided she didn't really want to go, so we invited Jane (and our) friend Kylee. The 3 girls painted their faces like the grinch. We loved this concert! We knew lots of the songs and sang along! Also, Scott from Pentatonix was on Dancing with the Stars this year and his partner Rylee is from Utah and although she was still filming DWTS, he invited her to come out for the show and they filmed a TikTok dance number and they had the audience turn on the flashlight on their cameras at specific times. It was pretty cool. The girls was SO excited she was there and they even went down and found her during intermission. 

Nora had a soccer tournament in St George and the Ludwigs were so kind (again) to let us stay at their vacation home down there. 

I had heard about a new set of stairs they have outdoors at the Tech Ridge that many people use to exercise, and I was excited to go work out on them one morning. 

I went up and down those 331 stairs 8 times in an 54 minutes! It was fun, and hard. I was sweaty. And I was sore for several days after. 

Here I am after my 7th run. Sweaty and so happy. This is definitely my idea of fun and I had a blast! 

Some friends from the soccer team told us about a donut place they love called Pinkbox...apparently this company is originally from Las Vegas. The donuts were unique for sure with all different shapes and flavors. I had to get the pink poop emoji donut because it was filled with a white cream and we all know that I'm obsessed with white cream donuts (not Bavarian cream...the white cream is more like a white frosting.)

Nora did baptisms at the Red Cliff temple in st George with a couple of her soccer friends while Scott and I did an endowment session there. I love going to the temple, even when traveling. There's a peace that comes when I'm inside and a clarity of thought which I look forward to. 

Their soccer team played very well. They made it to playoffs, tied the game, but lost the shoot out. Nora was subbing as goalie in that game because our normal goalie had to miss the final game because of a family thing. The girls were bummed but they also played SO well! And the team they last to was a year older because another team in our level dropped out last minute so they invited a local team and that team was older. Anyway, the girls (and the coaches) did awesome and were so fun to watch! And the weather was great for soccer playing! It was usually in the 60s during the games. 

I'm still loving my job at the elementary working with the multi-lingual students, teaching them English. I work with students of all ages, so kinder through 6th grade. And I love them all. It really is the best job. And I love that it keeps me connected to my Spanish roots and my dad in general as he never learned to master the English language. 

We had a bridal shower for Elisabeth the Tuesday before thanksgiving since she would be in town for the holiday. I made the cake and I think it turned out great! I made it a week ahead of time and froze it all stacked and frosted to see if that worked out okay, and it did. I just had to move it to the fridge to thaw the night before, and then the morning of let it thaw at room temperature...this way keeps it from getting too much condensation on the cake. I bought a new tool that makes the scalloped edge which was nice and then I decorated it with flowers from Trader joes and a cake topper I bought off Amazon. I love amazon and that I can get whatever it is I need and I don't have to go everywhere searching for it, or looking for the best price. It's all right there and it comes straight to my door! 

My dear friend Sheryl was the mastermind behind the shower. She decorated it beautifully! I came to help so that I can learn from her...just like the old days when we were in the Relief Society presidency together at church and we'd have to put on different large events...I learned so much from her and still do. 

Thanksgiving was great. We had Tayson, Pepa and Angelo over and made tons of food, had tons of leftovers and WAY too much dessert and pies. We had carmelitos, cake, ice cream, pecan pie, caramel apple pie, banana cream pie, chocolate pie and razzleberry pie. We threw quite a bit away. I'm sad I didn't think to take a picture on Thanksgiving! Elisabeth and I got a temple and brunch date in Friday morning which was fun! I loved having her home for a few days. 

Family bowling night! Scott won, as per usual. But unusual was that I got second place!!! I normally come in last. I was excited, but I don't know about proud as I feel like it was more just dumb luck. 

We set up our Christmas trees the week of Thanksgiving. Christmas this year feels a little different than in years past because of the wedding that we're so focused on that's just 5 days later; and we have family flying in and driving in town beginning the day after Christmas...so there's a lot to do and think about and plan during this time. 

Saturday Haley had a bridal shower for Elisabeth at her home in Pocatello, and Elisabeth wanted us to come out for that, so we took her out there Saturday morning (Tayson had to head back home in her car Friday morning because he had work that afternoon). The bridal shower was lovely, and we got to meet more extended family and a few close friends which was nice. 

While we did the shower, the guys took Scott and Nora to play air soft. They played for hours and had a fun time. Charles would be proud (he LOVES air soft and has his own gear and guns). 

October: Charles one-year mark! Halloween

 Charles hit his one-year mark in October! He also became a district leader around this time and has had some companion changes. Elder Gavieta from the Philippines around 9/15, Elder Pahulu from Tonga for a few days during an emergency transfer around 10/15, and then he began training Elder Wardle around 10/22. 

Elder Wardle is his first American companion, and he's from St George Utah! Hopefully they'll get to see each other again sometime once they're both home.  

Jane went to Girls Preference with Adrian and Annabelle went with Matthew.  

Since I work at an elementary, I usually dress up for Halloween, at least when I go to work on Halloween. This year I borrowed Elisa L's scrubs and scrounged through Charles' Tupperwares until I found his stethoscope, and I was a doctor. Nora dressed up like a cheetah or a leopard...I didn't actually see her costume because she got ready at a friends and then went out with the friend, and had her costume off when I picked her up again. No one else dressed up; although the cheer team had a game around 4pm that day and they all had some makeup on their face, kinda like clowns? I'm not sure what they were supposed to be exactly. 

October: Kauai Hawaii!

We didn't really do a summer vacation this year, but instead decided to do a family trip over Fall break since we have a week off. The kids have been asking to go to Hawaii, so when tickets went on sale to Kauai during Fall break, we grabbed some. When we got to the airport, our flight was delayed. It got delayed for several hours which was going to make us miss our connecting flight from Seattle to Hawaii, so we had the airline get us a hotel nearby in Seattle, they shuttled us there and back and got us on a flight to Kauai the next morning which put us in Hawaii around 1pm. Originally we weren't going to get into Hawaii until 10pm the night before, so we really didn't miss much. 

 

Here we are at the hotel in Seattle having our breakfast buffet before we headed back to the airport. Pepa's flight still arrived that night, but since we weren't there to get the rental car, she had to figure out a way to get to the townhouse around 10pm. It was hard to find an uber that late, no one wants to drive an hour that late to Princeville and then back again, and then on top of that, they only get like $20; so a guy ended up messaging her and telling her to cancel it, he'd come pick her up , and she could just pay him cash or Venmo so he could get the full $80 himself. It was pouring when they arrived and they looked for the townhouse for at least half hour before finally finding it...he had just said he'd take her back to the airport, when she refused and then they found it! And then she couldn't get into the room, so he had to get out into the pouring rain and help her open the key lock to get the key out for her. She was scared for a bit, but it all worked out. We were on separate airlines because we had booked our trip a couple of months before she booked hers. 

When we arrived in Kauai we went straight to the Costco and Walmart to stock up on food for the week. Once to the townhouse in Princeville (It was also pouring when we arrived at the townhouse, but it soon stopped) we unloaded and unpacked and then got in our swimsuits and went down to Hanalei Bay where the girls got in the water for a bit. 

The next morning, Saturday, we went on a short hike near turtles cove. We played in the water there for a bit. 

After, we went to Ho'opi Falls. It's about a 2 mile hike. It's beautiful! And there's a rope swing at the end which a few of us went on. 

Sunday we went to church in Lihue; they have a couple of LDS churches at specific times where they like visitors to attend, because they get so many. It's only one hour, actually less. They had the sacrament and then a fast & testimony meeting. It's all visitors minus a member of the stake presidency who presides and a few priests to bless and to pass the sacrament. I would've loved to go to a local ward, and stay for the second hour lesson, but I'm grateful we can still take the sacrament. We went to a couple of beaches in Poipu(had to see the turtles as they came onto the shore) and shaved ice on the way home at Wailua Shave Ice. 

Monday morning we had a shuttle reservation to a hike in NaPali coast. This was what I was most excited for as it's a hike Scott and I wanted to do when we were here a couple of years ago, but it got rained out so we couldn't go. 

Pepa, Jane and Annabelle decided to stay at the beach that was near the trailhead so Nora, Elisabeth, Scott and I took off for our journey. Elisabeth already had some scrapes on her feet from our previous hike, and she didn't pack any tennis shoes, so she had to hike in her Teva's again which meant more cuts and blisters. By the time we hiked to the next beach at NaPali coast, which was about half way, we'd already changed her bandages a couple of times and so we decided she should probably not continue. Nora also felt like the beach was a long enough hike, so the two of them turned around and headed back to beach one to meet the girls. Although Jane and them weren't expecting them, so by the time Elisabeth and Nora got back to that beach number 1, the others were gone. They had taken the shuttle back to Hanalei. After a couple of miscommunications because of spotty service, Nora and Elisabeth eventually met up with them in Hanalei, where they hung out until Scott and I got back. 

This hike was beautiful! It was steeper towards the beginning, going up and then down to the beach; from the beach it's slightly up but not as steep. About a half mile away from the falls it becomes more of a scramble. I was kinda glad the others didn't come because I would've worried someone might get hurt. 

This was their turnaround point, the beach on NaPali coast. It's beautiful but not swimmable. The tides/current are too strong. 

Scott and I swam to the falls. It was gorgeous. There were a lot of people there which I don't love crowds but at the same time, when you're navigating a new area, it's comforting to know you're on the right path when you see others. 

After our hike we went into Hanalei (we did this often at night), and we rented snorkel gear so we'd have it for the next morning. Tuesday morning after we woke up, we went over to Tunnel's beach which is in between Hanalei and NaPali coast. It's also the beach where years ago, Bethany Hamilton's arm was bit off by a shark while she was surfing. We rewatched that movie this week since it took place in Hanalei and it was fun to see lots of familiar places. 

This was my first time snorkeling and I had a surprisingly good time. I was thinking I wouldn't like it, that I would have a hard time breathing without choking on water, and that I might be scared of what I saw, but it was actually pretty fun and I loved seeing the schools of fish swim by in all varieties. 

I made sure we stopped off at Kalalea Juice Hale to get Acai Bowls since that's my favorite Acai location on the island. It did not disappoint. Mine had dried rose petals and yummy nut butters on top. 

We also made sure to stop off at Island Craves to get their malasada donuts that are filled with coconut cream! So yummy! I forgot to take a picture of our donuts before we ate them. 

Our flight was taking off for home around 10pm on Wednesday night, it was an overnight flight, but before we left we had scheduled Senior Photos for Annabelle and we got a couple of family shots in as well. 

And here's some pictures of the place we stayed in Princeville. Mauna Kai.  We loved it! I can't say enough good things about it. It was in a beautiful location, it was spacious and clean had a big kitchen