I know, I know, we’re well into December but November passed by in such a blur that I was barely able to document any of it. Here are a few our happenings.
Hadley turned 12 in May and that marks a major milestone when she enters the “Young Women” organization at church. And since May, my wonderful mother-in-law has been trying to organize a special afternoon tea at the Grand America in her honor. We finally made it happen several months later and what a wonderful afternoon it was!
Minus the fact that I dropped a macaron in Hadley’s tea. You can’t take me anywhere.
Speaking of Macarons, Tammy organized a cooking lesson for us to learn how to make them. I’m not a huge fan of macarons (I find they rather tastless and dry) and never had even one when I lived in France. But I’m tellin you, it’s homemade or bust because our creations were amazing. But the three hours to make them were not.
Fall in the Heber Valley was so incredibly mild and beautiful! It’s not very often we find an outdoorsy family of four with kids our same ages and genders. When the Frisbys took us on what they deemed the “flat” trail along Deer Creek and it was mostly uphill, I knew they were our kind of friends. 
I tagged along on Bode’s cub scout hike to Dutch Hollow and somehow managed to lead them on the wrong trail adding a couple of miles to an already long hike (disclaimer: I’d only explored the area once before).
It’s important to teach them survival skills while they’re still young.
We likely won’t be able to afford a greenhouse next season but Jamie has still been prepping the pumpkin patch. This was possibly the scariest moment of my life watching him operate heavy machinery. He only ran into the fence once…or twice.
We’re still getting acclimated to our house. In most ways, our former two-story, five-bedroom house in Colorado was a much better fit and I often regret downsizing to a ranch…but I know it will all be much better when we finally finish our basement. Our current biggest headaches: The tiny laundry room/mudroom and Hadley waking us up at 5:30 a.m. as she bangs around in the bathroom. Top priority: Scrape together enough funds to build her a bathroom in the basement.
The one thing that makes me happy (in addition to our amazing view) is our kitchen nook. I searched long and hard for the perfect farm table and found one at a luxury consignment store in Park City. We bought a black bench and puke-brown chairs from the same store that needed to be repainted and restored. We fretted over the colors and ultimately decided to take a chance and paint them white. I LOVE how everything turned out (thanks to Jamie’s awesome mom who reupholstered them).
Thanksgiving was low-key. We woke up to a Thanksgiving miracle: Our first snow (and visitors) at our new house!
Not-so miraculous: sick kids.
We drove to Salt Lake City to spend Thanksgiving and Black Friday with Jamie’s family where we ate Jamie’s famous bacon-wrapped smoked turkey, overindulged on Tammy’s pies and went to see “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
I slipped out on Friday morning to meet my friend Lori and her daughter for a hike to the Living Room. We never made it. I’ve hiked the trail several times before but the previous day’s snow had turned to ice due to the sheer volume of gut-busting hikers trying to burn a few calories.
Our freshman year during Natural Science Field Expedition, we backpacked hundreds of miles through Yellowstone, the Tetons, Zion and the Grand Canyon. What started as a casual hike that day turned into ice chutes, snowy bushwhacking and steep muddy slopes.
I guess some of us don’t know how to do casual.
Later that weekend, I invited a few families over for dinner before we headed over to Midway’s charming tree lighting complete with hot chocolate, cookies, skating, entertainment, Santa (who got the name of our town wrong) and Bode who, whenever his candle blew out, he’d ask “anyone got a light?”
And wouldn’t you know it, Bode, Eli and Charlie landed on the front page of our community newspaper.
So, for anyone keeping track: Since we moved to Utah, Bode was on KUTV with the pumpkins at Thanksgiving Point, BYU’s Jumbotron, The Broadmoor’s holiday campaign…
And now, the Wasatch Wave. If he keeps it up, he’ll be more famous than even The Pumpkin Man. And that’s really saying something.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 