Another driver in the house!

Daniel got his learner's permit today!  He passed the test online on Thanksgiving day but had to wait to go into the motor vehicle division office to get the permit.  Here we go again!

November 29

November 30

He was excited for his first lesson!

Daniel's National Honor Society Induction

We are so proud of Daniel for being accepted into the National Honor Society!  We attended his induction ceremony tonight.

Great job, Daniel!

Thanksgiving Weekend

It was so great to have Emily here for Thanksgiving!  We wish Nathaniel and Audrey could have been here as well, but we are excited to have them visit for Christmas.  

Emily flew in on Tuesday.  The boys were so excited to have her home!  That night, Emily, Michael, Andrew, and Daniel watched 50 First Dates.  

On Wednesday, the boys had early release.  I spent the morning making a few dishes for Thanksgiving.  Emily wasn't feeling great, so she rested a bit.  Once everyone was home, we went out to eat at IHOP.  Emily started feeling better once we started jamming out to some Taylor Swift on the way home.  She spent the afternoon and evening with her friends.  They went out to eat and explored and did an escape room in San Tan Village.  Daniel also went out with his friends to see Black Panther 2 at the theater.  

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  I got up early and started the stuffing and rolls and green beans.  Michael and the kids were a big help, as always.  Emily set the table beautifully.

Everyone showed up between 1pm and 1:30pm.  The Akers brought the turkey and the others brought some wonderful veggies and pies.  Everything was delicious!  Everyone helped clean up and then we played 5 Second Rule.  Then we had a family picture and ate dessert.

Everyone left around 6pm and we had a relaxing evening.  It was nice to not have to comb through all of the Black Friday ads, since the sales had already started and I didn't plan to go shopping on Friday. We watched two episodes of Wednesday on Netflix.  Then Daniel remembered he needed to take his permit test.  The site was pretty glitchy, but he got it done and passed his test!  We made an appointment for Tuesday to go to the MVD for his permit.  On Friday, we decorated for Christmas in the morning, both inside and out.  Everyone helped.  That afternoon, Michael, Emily, Daniel, and I all went to see Glass Onion at the theater.  Andrew and Jonathan didn't want to go.  We spent the evening going to the gym, watching Netflix, and relaxing.

Saturday was so fun!  We all went to lunch at Culinary Dropout.  I've been wanting to go back there for a while.  The restaurant is huge and fun and they even had live music.  The only problem was that it was so loud in there so it was hard to have a conversation, but the food was delicious!

Downtown Gilbert

After our meal, we went to Sam's Club so we could get some names from the Angel Tree.  Then we went to Batch Cookie shop so Michael could pick up my cake.  Then we went home and Michael and the kids sang to me and I opened presents.  

Then everyone rested and later they finished the Wednesday series while I did some online shopping.  The BYU game didn't start until 9pm.  Michael and Andrew watched it while Emily, Jonathan, and I all watched Disenchanted and Daniel played his video game.  We stayed up way too late!

On Sunday, we went to church for the first hour, and then we came home and Emily finished packing and we took her to the airport.  It was hard to say goodbye, but we'll see her in three weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Daniel's Swim Banquet

We were so glad to be able to attend Daniel's swim banquet tonight and celebrate his first year on the varsity team. We are so proud of you, Daniel!  

Phoenix NASCAR Championship Race Weekend

We had a wonderful time at the Phoenix Raceway NASCAR Championship race this weekend!  Dad says this was on his bucket list, and I’m so glad he was able to join us!  He flew into Phoenix on Friday morning. We drove to the NASCAR credentials office first, which is 5 miles north of the track. We sat in the parking lot and did all the questions for Daniel's pass. We had been told that the minor had to be present to get the VIP pass, but it turned out that wasn’t true so we were able to get the VIP pass for Dad and Daniel quite easily. Then we drove over to the track. I thought maybe we could go check out the booth, but the parking was so far and we didn't have a parking pass so we just left and headed to the office. I wanted to show Dad what the office looks like with a new paint and carpet. Michael was too busy to go to lunch but Dad and I went to lunch at Charleston's. We stopped at Target on the way home so I could buy some turkey-shaped butter for Thanksgiving. Then we went home. Dad had fun playing Spades with Andrew and Daniel. Andrew went to do his service hours at the robotics competition at the middle school. Jonathan really wanted Papa to play Fortnite with him, and Papa obliged. 

We had beef stroganoff for dinner, cleaned up, and watched Young Sheldon. Once Michael got home, we read scriptures and read the lesson. Then we watched Elvis. That was a really weird movie.

I was pretty excited that Dad brought me some chocolate chip cookies from Publix!  They are as delicious as I remembered.

Saturday

We sure did a lot in one day. We slept in. Andrew and Dad went to go get Bosa donuts. Andrew went to go do his service hours at the middle school again for the robotics competition from 10 AM to 3 PM. Once he left, Papa and Daniel and Jonathan got ready and went to the Ted's Shooting Range. 

I got ready for the day while they were gone. Daniel had some schoolwork to do and so did Jonathan. We bought Dad's plane tickets for when he comes at Christmas time. I also helped him connect his AirPods to his Kindle. Later, after Andrew got home, we got ready to go to the Fry's in Avondale so the boys could meet Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. Right as we walked up to the store, Ricky got there and stopped to talk to us for quite a while. It was really nice. He answered a bunch of Dad's questions. He shook hands with the boys and we got pictures with him. 

Then we went in the store and made a little video with him about SweetLeaf products. The marketing team had the boys and I walk down the aisle so we could walk through the video. The boys were all wearing their Monk fruit shirts. Then Ricky went to talk to the Fry's employees.  Andrew reminded me that we needed to get Ricky’s autograph so we stood in line once he came back out and had him sign some cards and got a few more pictures. 

Then we drove over to Gecko Grill. Michael met us there. Dinner was great! When we got home, Michael and Andrew and Dad watched the end of the BYU football game.

 

November 6, Sunday

I got up early to get ready. We left the house a little bit after 8 AM. There was basically no traffic and we made it there quite easily. Liz texted me when we were almost to the track and about to turn to go south that they had two extra passes if we wanted them. It turns out they were actually hospitality passes and not VIP passes, but Andrew wanted one and Jonathan finally agreed to take the other one. Getting to our parking lot was pretty confusing. We got bad information from three people. Then the third person finally told us where we needed to go, but at the end of the day we realized it was possible he told us to go the long way and it could've been a lot easier. Anyway, we found our Foothills parking lot and went through security to get into the raceway. First, we had to stop and let Andrew do some pull ups. He did 10 pull ups and got a free water bottle. Then we finally found a bathroom. Then I realized Kinsley had texted me a few minutes ago and told us where to meet her. Since Michael and I didn't have any passes and we didn't want to go through the security line again, we said goodbye to everybody as they exited the raceway and headed toward where Kinsley was. They actually got a golf cart ride over to the trailer. Jonathan and Andrew seemed pretty happy with their lunch and being able to watch the race from the trailer. They had a whole bunch of tables set up outside and it was easy to watch the race from the sitting area. 

Michael and I walked over to the SweetLeaf booth after they left us. We talked to a few people and helped hand out a few things and then we started walking around again. Michael got a hotdog and I got some barbecue from Rudy's. Michael and I headed to our seats. We watched the opening festivities and Michael was excited to see the flyover but apparently it was an F-15 and not an F-36, which I knew nothing about. It was kind of cool watching the paratroopers come down. It was fun to watch from the grandstands and see a different point of view. 

There was a crash and Ricky's bumper got messed up. He was still in the race, but it seems like that slowed him down for the rest of the time. He got lapped pretty easily. We sat and watched for quite a while and texted back-and-forth with Dad and the boys. Dad and Daniel were able to go to the pit box for a little while. 

Dad thought he would bring the boys to me but I told him they could stay because the grandstands were so loud. After the second stage, Michael and I left again. We decided to head over to where the trailer was. The race was about half over at that point, I think and people stop checking passes after a certain point. Plus, Daniel said he needed some Excedrin. We told Dad we were coming and he got one of the Kroger ladies to pick us up on the golf cart so that was nice. Andrew seemed to be enjoying the race more than the other boys but Daniel liked walking around with Dad. Jonny seemed pretty bored but he was being a good sport. I made sure to get a good picture of everybody. 

Ricky was in 33rd place for most of the time. By the time they hit 250 laps, it seemed like a good time to go. I did not want to get stuck in traffic. I asked Dad what he thought and he agreed that it was smart to go home because Ricky clearly didn't have a chance to win and it would be smart to beat the crowds. Kinsley drove us to our car so that was nice. I don't remember what time it was when we left. We didn't get caught in any traffic. We went out the easy way to the east side of the track. It might've been closed up to us in the morning, but that was a much easier route. There wasn't any traffic getting out of there and we went straight home and made it home by about 5:15 PM. We set out the bulk pickup and took out the trash and ate some dinner. We read scriptures. We played Aggravation. Jonathan was being his normal self and didn’t care if he won, and then at the end he had a couple of good rolls and won the whole thing. By then it was only 7:45 PM, even though it felt super late, so we decided to play some Phase 10.

It was a fantastic weekend!