November

The month of November started off with Stephen switching off of night shifts (thank goodness!) and onto his research block (hooray!) Stanford was playing Oregon State and we figured we couldn't not go...! We were a little disappointed with the lost, Uriah most of all, but it was a fun afternoon spent in the sunshine! The last Oregon State football game we went to was when we were living in Seattle in 2012 and they came up to play the huskies. Uriah was just a bean in my belly and this time around he was a grown kid sitting on my lap...! It was a bit of a full circle moment for me :)

I was serious in my last post when I mentioned that walking to the library turns these kiddos of my into the very best of friends...

Around the house shenanigans...

And Stephen bumping into Tom Delong (from Blink 182. Don't worry, I had no idea who he was either) Stephen passed him on his way home from work one day and couldn't shake the familiarity of him. When 'Tom Delong' finally came to his mind, he looked up his Instagram account and saw that he was in fact at Stanford for the day! Stephen turned around and found him waiting for an Uber by our favorite coffee cart, walked right up and said, "Hey Tom!" So very unlike Stephen, but the reward for his courage payed off - he got to talk to him for several uninterrupted, casual minutes and he came home floating on cloud nine! Dancing, actually! Oh, and of course, "Can we take a selfie?"

That weekend, because Stephen had them off for the whole month, I took off (solo!) to Portland to meet Miss Norah Ann and spend the weekend spoiling her and her parents best I could.

Stephen had never had a weekend alone with the kids (I don't know that he'd ever been alone with either or both of them for more than... 5 hours...? His schedule just never allows it!) and he was really excited about it! And it's no wonder they love dad more than they love mom...! He took them to the beach, out to eat, made a seriously impressive fort... Dad is the best! And I missed them all like crazy, but it was so nice to sneak away for a bit!

More shenanigans...

Another weekend off lead us to Deer Hallow Farm where, because of the rain, we had the place to ourselves! It's about a mile walk from the parking lot to the farm, where a lot of our fun for the morning came from, climbing into trees, spotting deer and wile turkey. The farm itself was small and quaint and the kids got to watch the livestock, play under the barn and learn about local wild life.

And then we were struck down with the plague... Or, the common cold. It started with Ezra on a Saturday night, claimed Uriah by Sunday morning and took me down by Sunday afternoon. Stephen managed to avoid it for a couple days, but it came and went between all of us for the next t w o  w e e k s... It was the cold that never ends!

I put Ezra to bed early one night while Stephen was at a bible study so I could spend an hour with just this handsome kid. He requested that we play "the train game", aka, laying all the trains out on our Ticket to Ride game board. He's as stubborn as I am with the attitude of a 16 year old and boy does he push my buttons. But he is tank is filled with quality time and he turns into the sweetest, most patient and kind boy when he's given the right fuel.

I told you, the library...! Our colds had been keeping us inside for too long, so before we left town for Thanksgiving (in a post to come!) we made a quick stop at the library and then walked the neighborhood for some fresh air (and about as much exercise as my tired body could handle!) We had just finished up reading all about nature in our science book, so we spent our time collecting our own little nature findings.