November: Trees, Turkeys, Guns, Sisters

November started off with Justin going on his big hunting trip. I was grateful that my dad was able to go up and also his Grandpa so that he wasn't hunting up there alone. Luckily he got an elk on his last day! After he got home I headed off for a sisters weekend before he had to go back to work. We all met up in Provo and it was a blast. These two babies are the only kids that got to come along. We had them in the double stroller together and people kept asking if they were twins...never mind that Camden is twice the size of Lincoln.

 We didn't have an agenda, which was nice. Saturday we headed to a fun outdoor shopping outlet where we mostly just browsed, ate lunch, and had a good time visiting and being together. 

 The place we decided to go for dinner ended up not being what we thought it was, but we were hungry so it didn't matter. We got to meet Tim, Lindy's brand new boyfriend, which was fun. We all liked him.

 They had a bunch of fancy lemonades that we had fun with.

 Sunday we went to church with Lindy...and were late...and had crying babies in her silent student ward with no kids. Then we went over and hung out at her apartment and went to see Chris and Kenzie for a bit before driving back home. Low key, but a perfect get away. 

 Koyle decided to build his football field out of blankets one morning. This kid and his passion for sports never wanes.

 Election Day!! No, I didn't vote for Donal Trump; but I was SUPER excited that he beat Hilary Clinton. We'll see how the next four years turn out. The whole nation is anxiously awaiting to see what he will do. 

 The boys had a couple days off school so Kimi and the boys came down. It was so fun to have them visit. The weather was still unseasonably warm and Koyle was thrilled to have someone to play football with in the backyard. 

 Below is a picture of our friends, Jack and Will who came over to play one day. I told them to go out and play football for a bit. The other two boys didn't know how to play so I told my boys to teach them. Instead of giving them the basics like you throw or run the ball and try to make a touchdown at the end of the field, they started off with "If you grab the face mask that's a 15 yard penalty!"

 Travis graduated from his online college program and to celebrate we all went shooting together and had a dinner at his parent's house. It was fun for the boys to get to go shooting. I thought they would be a little skittish of the noise and the kickback from the guns, but it didn't phase them a bit. Even Landon was eating it up.

The gun above is my favorite gun of Justin's to shoot.

 The boys had fun shooting the air rifle with Jacque.

 Just an oldie but goodie that my dad sent us and I wanted to throw it in. That's me, Jacque and Lindy. 

 The boys were certain Lincoln wanted to play with the sword.

 One night Brittany surprised me by texting me and saying she was headed to Pocatello! I can't tell you how good it was to spend time with an old friend. They came and had dinner with us and played for a bit before leaving. I love that you can pick right up with old friends like you haven't been apart. Maizy was so big and grown up.

 I broke my own rule of not setting up Christmas before Thanksgiving this year. Justin only had one weekend off and so we used it to go cut down our own tree. We didn't have a lot of time cause Justin had to work that morning so we tried to go somewhere close. Ended up being a bit of a fail because the roads were closed and there were NO pine trees. Finally we found one that was bare the first 15 feet and then had a decent looking tree at the top. So we may have broken the rules and cut it down and just used the top part. It wasn't the worlds best Christmas tree but we had fun as a family hiking around anyways.

 Thanksgiving was crazy this year. Justin had to work all week so we sadly left him home and went up to Boise without him. It's always fun at the Jones house. This year Tami had a ton of crafts and activities planned. It was a little much but parts were very fun. My craft was to make turkey shirts for all the kids and they turned out so cute! They all wore them for Thanksgiving dinner.

 I believe BSU lost the football game and Koyle was devastated. He almost missed Thanksgiving dinner because he was throwing a fit.

 We ate in the garage which actually worked out really nice. 

 One night we got babysitters for the kids and had an adult date night. I was the single tag along without my husband there. We went to festival of trees and then dinner at P.F. Changs. Our dinner reservation was at 8:30 and I thought I was going to eat my left leg I was so hungry.