More pictures - seeing santa at City Creek, Logan's birthday

Fun 10/8 - 11/25

A lot has been going on the last month and a half.  Our basement flooded after a sewer backup and it took a full 2.5 weeks before things were more or less back to normal, so that was pretty awful.  We also have spent a lot of time buying winter stuff, new bikes, new shoes, and all that stuff.  I hate spending time shopping, but sometimes it proves necessary.

• More soccer games
• Noah went to a birthday party for our neighbor at a cute little boutique / children's play place.
• Andrew went on a date with Katsu to see the play "Beauty and the Beast" and had a great time.  They even figured out where Chinatown is.
• We had a house warming party with all our friends from Boston.  It was great fun and so glad it was BEFORE the house flooding.
• Karen and I went to see the Red Butte Gardens and had a lovely time.
• Katsu and I gave a talk at church - I was pretty uninspired about the topic since it was based on a lesson manual - but the best part of a talk is over.  We were lucky that Grandma and Grandpa came to see it.
• We had another birthday celebration at Grandma's house.
• Katsu left to Japan for a very very long weekend :-(
• We went to the Halloween night at the Natural History museum - the boys had a super fun time though they kept running away from me and it was fun to have costumes on.  Arm wrestling with a Viking was pretty fun.
• We went to This is the Place for the Lil' Haunts.  The boys dressed up and trick or treated at all the historic buildings, took the train, went on pony rides, did the costume parade (well, some of them).  Their favorite part was the candy cannon - it shot out taffy.  We stayed and did it twice  Can't wait to do it next year.
• Visited Gardner Village to find all the witches.  It was okay, but the boys weren't too impressed.  They did get a free cookie for their efforts.  Not sure if we will do it again.
• Then, finally picked Katsu up from the airport.
• Seth had his last day of soccer and got a trophy.  We need to get him a better soccer team - this team was way way way too easy for him.
• Basement flooded ....
• Halloween carnival at Uintah.  Katsu took the boys while I watched the basement repair.  They boys had a great time, played lots of games, ate pizza, did bouncy houses, the whole works.
• Katsu took the kids to Boo at the Zoo while I again babysat the basement repair.  They had a great time and Katsu finally got to see the zoo.
• We went to the Officer's building on campus for trick or treating.  The students went all out decorating the different buildings - it was very impressive and lots of fun.  We'll definitely have to go again next year.  
• We also went to the neighborhood carnival, which was also a blast.  The boys spent forever on the bouncy houses and were sad we had to leave early to go on a date.
• Katsu and I saw the play Love's Labour Lost.  It was great and we really enjoyed it - small theater, very close up, set in a World War II kind of setting. 
• Katsu finally got in to see the dentist, got his teeth fixed for significantly cheaper than it was supposed to cost in North Carolina, and had a great experience.  Yay!
• Trick or treating - we went out with Andrew's friend from school and had a great time.  We went around our block and it basically took 3 hours.  Yale / Military Dr has this huge houses with long stairs, but they gave out king size candy bars almost everywhere and we also ran into the hot dog / hot cocoa party in the street right when were were losing energy.  Noah lasted almost the whole time, which was pretty impressive.
• Logan's birthday - he got great presents that he loved (dominos for his never-ending domino runs, Rubix cube, magnifying glass, bow and arrows) and had his own special monster cupcake.  He gave out presents to his classmates at school and had a yummy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs (his favorite) before going to his last soccer game and getting a trophy.  We are still working on a birthday party for him due to basement.
• Another day at the zoo.
• Logan, Andrew, and Seth started ice skating lessons.  They were both super nervous, but they have been doing great and loving it.  We also have been going to free skate a couple times for practice.  Seth has gotten super fast, but they are all doing great.
• I started a new book club.  It seems like its going to be pretty fun.  A small group but they all like to read, so we'll have to see how it goes.
• Clean the church.
• We went to see Santa's arrival at City Creek Mall.  All the boys got little light sticks to shine so Santa would know where to come.  It was pretty fancy with lots of fireworks.  I think it was worth it.  We also got to see the candy windows at Macy's which were pretty impressive.
• Andrew has his "maturation talk" at school.  Only in Utah would they recommend you should go on a mission (in addition to traveling, college, etc.) before having babies.  Ha ha.  
• I won tickets to Contra Dance night - so, Katsu and I went.  It was an adventure.  We really didn't know what it was, but it's basically Jane Austen-style dancing.  Katsu wasn't so sure about sharing partners, but it was fun, more or less.  But super dizzy from all the spinning.
• We all went to Melissa Whitehad's house for her baby blessing and then went afterwards to her house for a while to talk to friends and families.
• Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Grandpa.  We got there a tad late (whoops) and still had to heat something up so I felt like we didn't make much contribution, food-wise.  But it was delightful to have dinner with family (and not to have to make it all ourselves!)
• Friday, Seth, Logan and I went jogging to the zoo.  We helped set up the tree and ornaments - Logan had been "organizing" them all week, so I was excited to finally have them off the floor.  I took Logan shopping for the family.  And then, we all went ice-skating.  Noah was not very interested in ice skating - he said he was too tired.  But we had a great time.
• Quilting at Aunt Karen's house while Katsu cooked the turkey and then we had our own little Thanksgiving dinner (we just have to get a turkey, no matter what!).