Thanksgiving Weekend

I drove to SLC right after work on Wed. Thursday morning me, Jon & Sarah met Justin, Nolan and Ezra at the state Capitol so me, Jon, Nolan and hundreds of other crazies  could do the "Cold Turkey 6k race." (What I will do for a free t-shirt!) Sarah has been nursing a leg muscle injury so didn't run.  Justin and Ezra were there to support and take pictures. It was a cold but very crisp and beautiful morning. This was my 2nd annual race. Last year felt just the same except my dad was dying in a Montpelier hospital.  dragged me to the start line so he could be first out the gate. He was so serious about it and was dressed in a little jogging suit and running shoes. My goal was to stay up with him. He started off really fast and quickly slowed to a more realistic pace. I had thought if he wanted to walk or rest awhile it would be fine and I would just stay with him, but when it became apparent to me that he really did have the ability to win his division I encouraged, prodded, dragged and played mind games with him to keep him going. He was such a trooper and we had a blast. Three times he asked if he could ride on my shoulders. On the last mile he would frequently stop to stretch his legs and do a pushup then we would count down and take off like a rocket ship with me running as fast as I could and dragging him like a booster rocket. It was so much fun. We crossed the finish line together at about 45 minutes. My time last year was 37. I was so

proud of him. Jon and Sarah left to get the smoothies started but I hung around with Justin to hear them announce the winners. Jon earned 3rd place in his division. They only announced 1st place in the 0-8 yr old boys. I spoke with the announcer later and she gave me a 2nd place medal for Nolan. We later learned from the paper that he really had won 2nd place! I hope he will always love running. Afterwards Jon made delicious homemake smoothies.

It is a new and strange feeling having a man helping me in the kitchen. I wasn't sure how to act. We were a real team and it was great. Kenzee and little Lucy arrived just in time. Dinner 
turned out great (especially Kenzee's yams and dressing) and some "beginners luck" on my part. 

All babies should have a Thanksgiving meal before trying baby cereal!

 It was so fun sharing Lucy's first Thanksgiving with her. 


During dessert whoever had a "W" written on the bottom of their plate got the 2nd annual $20 charity challenge. Nolan won it this year. The rule is that during the Christmas season the winner has to give it away or spend it on anybody except himself. He was pretty pleased. Afterwards we took the boys for a walk to the rental. They were pretty excited that Jon let them climb on the garage roof.Nolan carried a stick the entire way.

Black Friday-I tried to keep myself from looking at any of the ads today. Jon, Sarah & I headed to the forest about 1 hr 20 min away near the town of Hanna to cut down a Christmas tree. It was a beautiful day just like yesterday.
We had everything ready except Jon forgot to bring the permit. I was excited to see if we could get away with it knowing that if we were cited we could probably just show proof of the permit. Jon wanted to be able to enjoy the experience without being nervous about it and it was worth the extra $10 to him, so we drove into Hanna to buy another permit. Now, I was determined to get 2 trees! We found a really nice tree then when Jon went to get the car I quickly cut down a small one for Campbells (with his permission) and hid it inside the big one. We sat by a frozen river and had a picnic a cocoa. It was so much fun.

Later we spent some time cleaning the rental so the Carters can move in this weekend. I really like the rental house and would gladly live in it. It is brand new inside and even smells that way. It's kind of hard to put renters in there. They have six year old twin boys. But they will pay $1850 month (a year in advance) and do the yard work. Next we went and bought groceries and rented the latest "Star Trek" movie to watch. I had a difficult time staying awake but the Hagen Das ice cream bars saved the night.

Saturday Jon and I drove to Logan to watch the Ag's beat Wyoming in Football at the last home game. It was so awesome as we trounced them. It was another crisp beautiful day. We've been lucky this season with the weather. I have had a tradition of visiting dad during half-time. After the game we had about an hour before we were to carpool with Wayne, Karen, Mardyne and Craig to the BYU/USU game at Energy Solutions arena in SLC for the basketball game. Mom had given us her tickets. Before we left Jon offered to kick start by dead motorcycle. I offered to push it down the street to get it started. I ran holding onto the read taillights. On the 3rd or 4th try it started and Jon gunned it. It happened so fast and I was so dumb to not let go sooner. I shot forward and down. I didn't dare move because I could tell there was blood and I didn't want to get any on my brand new white coat or my favorite Aggie scarf. So I held my position while Jon ran in to get some paper towels. I could feel with my tongue that my front tooth (cap) had been pushed backward. I was scared to look in the mirror. I just hoped my other teeth were okay. My lips were swollen and bloody but the pad on my left hand had taken the worst of it. We decided to get to the urgent care as fast as possible in hopes of getting fixed before we missed our ride to the game. They said I had come at a good time as earlier there had been an hour wait. I told them they had 30 minutes to get me fixed and out of there. We made it into a room pretty quick but it seemed to take forever for the Doctor to come in. I told him he had 15 minutes to get me fixed and out. I think I reached a new level of pain when he gave me 3 shots of lidocane into my hand injury then didn't wait for it to take affect before the nurse started scrubbing it clean. I guess that's what I get for pressuring them to hurry. They lifted up a flap of cut skin, washed it out and picked out embedded gravel with tweezers then stitched it up. I also got a tetanus shot and RX for an antibiotic. The doctor called an oral surgeon who told him to pull my tooth back into place then follow up with my dentist. He tried but couldn't. I told him I would work on it in the car on the ride to the game. I asked for some ibuprofen then we hurried out. I didn't even get any instructions. We had missed our ride so Jon drove us to the game separately. 

We're going to make it to the game!

I really didn't want be seen in public but had been so excited for this game. It was a disappointment though. We lost by 10 points and really sort of humiliated ourselves. But it was fun being with family and friends. 

Not much to cheer about and why is one of my eyes higher than the other?

 Jonny went on home and Wayne and Karen drove my car home. I tried flossing my teeth and part of my good front tooth broke off. Dang. Well at least I have another good scar to add to my collection!

Aside from my accident it was sure a great weekend. Plus Jon got a call from Amanda's mission president that she made it and is in the furthest outpost of her mission in Moldova. What an adventure! I'm a little jealous.