November 2025

On the 1st was Beckham's birthday, so Thomas and James spent a couple of hours at his birthday party. The rest of the day was just hanging around waiting for Evan to get home from his work weekend in Pinedale. Sunday, Renee was sick again!

3rd-9th Summary: On Monday, the Nissan got some new studded tires, and the boys had music class. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Evan was hunting over in Dubois with Garrett. They both drew a white tail tag for over there, and spent the weekend trying to find and figure out the ways of this particular hunt. Thomas and James both went to Liam's birthday party on the gorgeous, sunny fall day of November 8th. On Sunday, we watched the stake conference broadcast and had a family dinner at BethAnn's.

10th-16th Summary: On Monday, the Tundra got new studded tires, and the boys had music class. On Tuesday, Liam and Beckham (with football cards in tow) came over after school until 5:30. I took them home after we ate, and was running a little late for PTC, so I sent Evan (who'd already met with Mrs. Hunsaker anyway) down to Mrs. Burton's room to get updates on James. Both boys are thriving! Evan had PTC after school on Wednesday, and we all got to see the Northern Lights showing north of our house. It was really neat! On Thursday, the boys got off the bus at Tessa's house and played with Layne for about an hour. Bethann came over after work and watched the boys while Evan and I went on a fun date! We started with dinner at the fish place, then went to watch Becky (et all) perform in the opening night of the musical at the Ford Theatre called "Those Damn Yankees." It was lots of fun! On Friday, there was no school, and Evan had a DOT physical at Prater View as well as insulating from 4-8. On Saturday, he went back over to Pinedale to finish the Onkes job and was gone from 7-4. It feels good to have that job done!

17th-23rd Summary: Music class on Monday, following a day of wet snow. After music class, we all went outside to play in the snow, and we ended up building a super sweet snowman, snow chair, and snow bale. The kids had a blast, and so did Evan and I. Evan had to go get his audiometer and check Jenna's ears, and the kids and I walked down to the mailbox with headlamps before getting ready for bed. It was fun evening for sure. On Tuesday, Evan insulated from 4-9. On Wednesday, Evan took the kids to Bedford to pick his buck up from the beetles, then came back home to get some Domino's pizza and took it up to Mark's for dinner. I went to Gay's for a RS Activity Committee meeting from 6:30-8:30. On Friday, I picked James up from school because he was "sick," He was so sick that he scarfed an entire Butterfinger as soon as he got home. HA! Evan left for another weekend in Dubois at 12:30 on Friday. This time, Shane Bame went with them, and they ended up getting Garrett's buck on Sunday morning. 

24th-27th Summary: Let's Play Music (parent class) on Monday... Evan insulated on Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon. On the half day (Wednesday), Cache Long rode the bus home with the boys, and they played for a few hours before I took him home. After he went home, we took the boys over to BethAnn's to help make pies. When Renee woke up, we went to get them and nailed down the details for food the next day. On Thanksgiving morning, Ethan came up to Grover Park with us and ended up picking out our Christmas tree. We set it in a bucket of water in the garage to melt off and wait for us to return from our trip north. We joined Dale, BethAnn, Ethan, Justin, Tessa, Ben, Elise, and the kids for Thanksgiving dinner at 2 pm, and kept up the tradition by eating too much. 

27th-30th Summary: Originally, we weren't going to go up north for Thanksgiving, hence why we ate with the Call's on Thursday, because my parents' basement flooded and is still under construction, and Bethany had Jensen and Dean on Wednesday, so I wanted my mom to be able to be 100% available to her, not distracted by us. Not knowing when I would be able to get up there to meet the babies, I decided we'd better head up there after all. We left first thing on Friday and drove straight to Cody, where Evan dropped me off at the hospital. My mom, dad, Kolten's mom, and Maggie (the only child allowed in the hospital at Bethany and Kolten's request) were all there. Evan took the kids to the park across town that we went to this summer, and they froze until they couldn't stand it, then came and parked in the Buffalo Bill parking lot and told me to come down. I put in my last snuggles, hugged Bethany, and promised to return the next morning. My parents came out with me so they could say hi to my kids before we all parted ways. We grabbed some Jersey Mike's, checked into The Cody hotel, and ate in our room before heading to the pool, where the kids and Evan swam while I played lifeguard for Renee, who was in and out of the water. The kids were all fast asleep shortly after 7. The next morning, we woke up, went down to breakfast (super yummy), and then Evan took the kids to the pool while I got ready and packed up the room. Next, we drove back over to the hospital, where I held babies while Evan took the kids to the Buffalo Bill Museum. Once they were done at the hotel, Evan fed the kids some food we packed for the trip, then came in to see the babies. We got out of town an hour later than we'd hoped, but the reason was worthwhile. We drove like the wind and made it to Evan's hunting ground in Dubois in time to scope out a shooter buck. He put the moves on it, but the truck lights where the kids and I bided our time scared him back into the trees. We drove into town, got a room at the Super 8, and warmed up some gyros for dinner. We put the kids to bed in one room of the suite and swiftly fell asleep in the other. Evan was up super early to go find the buck, and I couldn't fall back asleep after he left. I read a book on my phone until the kids got up, then took them downstairs for breakfast (which was a wild experience, and half the food was expired). We watched tv in the room until Evan got back.  Shortly after we arrived, Renee discovered that she could easily open the mini fridge, so guarding it and the milk inside was a full-time job! Evan came back empty-handed again, but determined! We loaded into the truck and drove around the hunting area for several hours until Evan was satisfied. We drove up another area and saw a herd of big horn sheep and found the Indian petroglyphs that Evan and Garrett found on their first trip to Dubois. Finally, we went to the Cantina at the military museum for lunch before touring the museum again. When the time arrived, we dropped Evan off at the hunting spot, and I drove the kids up to an open area with parking where we bundled up and played until it got dark. We picked up a disappointed Evan (some other hunters, coincidentally from county 12, shot at the same buck too soon and spooked him off), and went to fuel up while eating the sandwiches I made before darkness fell. The kids fell asleep as we drove, and we got home around 9:30, feeling very much like true adventurers for the jam-packed 3 days we enjoyed.