Winter Fun

 This week started out so busy! We fed so many people on Tuesday -- four missionaries and all the young women, rolls and chicken noodle soup. I think the boys are so funny when we have the missionaries over. This time they played the game where you both say a word out loud at the same time, and then try that over and over until you say the same word. It's so funny to try to follow other people's train of thought.

On Friday we went to a walking nativity in Windsor with the Allemans, Baileys, and Schmidts. Our favorite moment was when a man asked us what we were standing in line for and I said, "Baby Jesus." You had to be there. It was just a chaotic place and it wasn't too clear where the nativity route ended up so it was just a funny moment. I really loved seeing Asher pet little lambs. Also, pigs are really cute?

On Saturday we went to Riverbend Ponds for a nice winter walk (there has been next to no snow this year) and Luna came along. We had fun throwing rocks onto the ice and listening to the crazy sounds that makes. But then Luna ran out onto the ice, and then it broke through -- luckily she wasn't very far off shore, but she could not figure out how to get back onto the ice to come back to us. The kids were so stressed out, and finally I had to walk through the water and break the ice and pull her front paws toward me to get her out. That dog... She needs doggy swimming lessons. And some doggy street smarts. But we love her. The boys were cheering and Camden said, "Thank you for saving Luna's life!" Michael called it premature heroism -- he wasn't too worried about her yet :) She tried to go right back out after we rescued her, so it was back on the leash for crazy Luna. I went shopping for Poinsettias with my friend Carrie after.

Westin LOVED going to Boulder with his friend Quinn and Quinn's dad this weekend. That was Quinn's birthday celebration and Westin is lucky to have such a good buddy in our ward. The rest of us went to a holiday party at a bank we've been going to each year and it was totally weird this year... like we kind of just crashed an employee party or something haha. Scratch that off our festivities list. But we went and got tacos after so all was well.

Puzzle guys. I love seeing them work on one.

My sourdough pics I send to Michael at work when I have to babysit his dough...
I like that sourdough is his thing.

Dining in the Dark night for Young Women's. These girls are fun.

Petting zoo at a little walkable Nativity with friends.

This was before Luna ran out on that ice and fell through...
I am still cut and bruised from rescuing her. What a crazy dog.

Westin totally loved going to Boulder with Quinn for Quinn's birthday and going to the CSU game.

Done!
With a missing piece!
Nooooooooo

I stayed up Sunday night and livestreamed the entire last Eras Tour concert.
What a fun tour this was... I really loved following it.

Taylor Swift!

 This week was a great week! This weekend though.... this was a really great weekend :)

Westin did an acting camp this week put on by some young women in our church group, and he loved being the narrator of Wizard of Oz. He was super cute and it was fun to see him try and love something new. He also did a swim meet Saturday, his last one. He said he is so excited for swim team next year and I just will forever remember the journey that was Westin's first summer of swim team. Riding lots of highs and lows with that boy through life.

The boys wanted to celebrate 7/11 at 7-11 since last year I thought it felt too impossible. I was thinking on the drive home with my slurpee how much difference a year can make. Taking all four boys to get a slurpee was no big thing this year where last year I just didn't want to even think about unloading them all and doing that by myself. Don't get me wrong, they're still crazy! But we're managing a little better :)

We did some more Luna classes this week, took the younger three to an outdoor library story time while Westin was at camp, did a ton of resettling into our basement now that it's done, and I went to the temple Thursday night while Michael took the boys to swimming lessons.

On Friday my roommate Jaclyn came into town with her husband! I haven't seen her in close to 10 years. We had so much fun catching up and I loved meeting her new husband. She brought bubbles for the boys (and Luna, haha) and we made bracelets for our concert weekend together. I just love her so much.

Then, TAYLOR SWIFT weekend! This weekend has been making me happy for months, just knowing it was on my calendar. I tried for hours to get tickets the day they released but Ticketmaster kicked me out of the purchase screen every time I tried. I tried seats all over the stadium, all day, and just never was successful. I was so bummed that week. Then a few days later, they emailed and said I could get 2 tickets still if I wanted, I just needed to respond to the email. YES, please. Then they emailed back a receipt for FOURTH row tickets and I was shocked. We paid a few hundred each, which I understand is pretty crazy for a concert, but our same seats are currently selling for over $18,000 each at her LA shows. We were so, so lucky to have such a fun experience right by her center stage! We snagged stadium parking a while back, so the day was pretty smooth. We stood in a merch line for an hour this time because in Dallas I had given up on it. I actually really love my sweatshirt souvenir now haha... this tour has just become such an iconic pop culture experience. We met up with Jaclyn for a few minutes to take a picture, grabbed some tacos, and then found our seats. Holy moly, those seats! Michael unfortunately sat next to a real life version of The Man from Taylor Swift's music video (not a funny, humorous costume version -- but those were there too) and I sat next to the cutest new mom who has been to every Taylor Swift show with her mom. She was from Dallas but had her first baby the same week as that show so they'd gotten tickets to Denver instead, and we had so much fun sitting by each other. That night!

I put up a YouTube video of a little snippet of each of her songs that night and my kids were loving it. It got close to four thousand views in a couple days and then got taken down for copyright issues with the music, whoops! But here's a Google photos link to it because I need to relive that once in a while. AND I need to delete all those videos off my phone. :) Best night. Our surprise songs were Starlight and Back to December, which was so happy. Do I look at LA ticket prices every day? I do. Is that crazy? It is. It was so fun to go with Michael. Top 5 date nights ever hands down :)

No one likes a messy baby food picture BUT I have next to none of these, because he does not like anything. For some reason he loved this dinner. It was the same dinner we had the night before, which he also hated then. We've had the same dinner since and he was meh about it. We'll get there :)

Not my picture but how I wish it was! Ali sent this to me and said, "This is what happens when you tell dad you kind of want a cookie." Haha I love him so much.

Asher loves a brother holding his hand for a walk.

Lighten Print warehouse reorganized!

I love a good recycling trip. I consolidated so much into our new built ins and emptied a lot of storage space.

Temple night. I love how close we are.

Sunday night walk with Westin and Luna. We walked for over an hour and I loved hearing him chat about lots of things.