November to Remember

November was a pretty idyllic fall.  There were leaves, some early snow, delicious Thanksgiving, and Pam's DCMT show.  That was the order of events in real life, but the pictures below are all out of order and I cannot be bothered to rearrange them in this rather restrictive publishing format.  

Highlights of November included a make-it-up-as-you-go-along family competition, reading by the fire, making food together taking advantage of the fall produce, and having a child prodigy take some family pictures (included herein are the outtakes, taken by me).

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in CA and Hush joined us on Wednesday and eventually drove us all back home.  So that's the context for the disordered pictures.

Seward Street Slides adventure in SF.  They are fast!

When we arrived in CA Jude was sick and very contagious so he had to be fully covered in order to play with cousins.  He's better now.  The md said it was "not strep" but gave him antibiotics anyway and they worked.  Who knows.

7+ months pregnant and wearing my most comfy clothes.  Shirt says "Rizzo's Got a Bun in the Oven."  Hair is a pale purple tinted color achieved by bleach and then a purple toner.  

Betty Lou is in her storage phase which is one of my favorites.  14 month olds like to see how many things they can carry in their arms.  It's funny.

Jude, 7, is a reading machine.  We reserve his favorite books in the library and he reads them in a night.  If I don't go down there and turn off his light he will read all night long.

In SF on the Mosaic stairs.  Beautiful installation, amazing views.  Add it to your must visit SF activities.

Rock Challenge

I mentioned the Family Competition.  Some times in Utah it's too cold to play at the park or go on a hike but it's not raining and you want to be outside somehow or another on a Sunday afternoon.  This Sunday I invented a Competition wherein the three big kids did challenges that Hush and I made up.  The challenges included singing the most lyrics to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, being the fastest through an obstacle course, answering trivia, shotgunning a Root beer, sticking your face/hands in the snow for the longest time possible, and building a rock tower using the most rocks.  The winner was rewarded with a UnBirthday cake and allowed to boss everybody around for the rest of the night.  Mimi and Si tied.

Freezing hands challenge

Snowface challenge

Mimi won for duration and artistic rendering of her own face.

Mimi made this whole Blue Apron meal by herself because I was too tired to stand up.  I love cooking with her!

This is my new uniform.  All the info you need, right there.  All pregnant women need one.

Lou is the fall queen.

Babies in sweaters kill me.  She looks like a tiny baby elf!

Sometimes I get bored planning meals so I just use all the produce in the fridge to serve to my omnivores.  The best way I've found to get them to eat anything is by closed eyes taste tests where they guess what color tomato it is or what type of vegetable.  

On the Friday after Thanksgiving I very unwisely planned a family car trip to the great Sequoias over in Marin.  It took us over an hour to get there and then there was absolutely no parking.  I had to let Hush out with the kids to do a run through of the trees for 20 minutes while I circled.  Then we piled back in the car, drove through Sausalito, drove over the GG bridge and finally unloaded again at Ocean Beach.  Jude met with tragedy at Ocean beach so we called Cam and Alex to meet us in the Haight to give Jude some dry clothing.  He refused it and we marched up and down Haight Street looking for replacement clothes and finding nothing.  We were then assaulted by the local color: a naked dude wearing a Santa hat covering his unmentionables kept sauntering by.  I normally have no problem with nudity but nudity for shock purposes bugs me.  Mimi was sure alarmed.
Remember next time: don't spend the whole day in the car the day before a roadtrip back to Utah.  Dumb me.  Bad planning.

Family activity that landed us at Ocean Beach.  You can imagine how this ended.

With Jude wiping out and getting drenched by freezing ocean water.  Hilarious!  He didn't think so.

Bowling on Thanksgiving, as per tradition.

BL sitting in the big red chair at Grandpa's house.  I use this chair to gauge my children's growth.

Silas has been having a hard time learning how to smile on command. 

One of Si's practice smiles.  He rolls his top lip under.  Still cute.

Three soon to be middle children on the Mosaic stairs.