Hallie had her first ballet recital on December 13. She was very excited to dance on stage for the first time. Her dad, however, was not too excited to spend two hours watching other children dance and about a minute and a half watching Hallie. Nevertheless, she looked super cute and actually did a pretty good job dancing (I was worried she might just get on stage and twirl)! I'm sure this is just the first of many years of recitals!
Every year we take a trip to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. This year we decided to take Trax instead of driving. The kids had a lot of fun riding the train. It had snowed right before we got there and it was just enough to put a light layer of snow on the trees and bushes. It made everything look extra beautiful. We had such a fun time, and it is a tradition that the whole family looks forward to every year.
We drove to Gig Harbor, Washington to visit Andy's Aunt Kristi and the rest of the Lundquist family. After two days, about fourteen hours, of driving we were all very excited to get to their house. We had such a fun week there. We went to lots of movies, visited, and played games all week long. On the day before Thanksgiving we drove into Seattle and visited the Space Needle. Andy and I had been there before but we thought it might be fun for the kids to see. It was a cold and windy day but it was still fun to be up so high and see the beautiful city.
After months and months of ear infections that would not go away Dylan finally had tubes put in his ears last week. We had to be at Primary Children's Hospital at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 11. That meant my day started at 4:45. I woke Dylan up at 5:15 and we headed to the hospital. Dylan was pretty happy considering how early he woke up and that he wasn't able to have anything to eat or drink. He looked so cute in his little hospital outfit that I couldn't resist taking a picture. He was only away from me for about 20 minutes. He was very happy in his "before" picture and I am sad I didn't get an "after" picture because it was a whole different story. He cried (the out of control kind of cry) for about 40 minutes. They said that it was normal and that he was just confused from the medication they used to put him to sleep, but it was still really hard to see him that sad. By the time we got back home he was as happy again. Hopefully we will have a great winter with less sickness!
We are big fans of the Utah Jazz. Each member of the family has a jersey, which is usually worn while watching games on TV (it is bad luck if we don't). We have season tickets (two seats) to all the home games. It is such a fun date night for Andy and me. Every now and then, usually when we can't get a baby sitter or we are tired of paying for one, Andy will take one of the kids with him. They love to go too, but for them it is more about the snacks and the Jazz Bear than the actual game. Because we have season tickets we got to go to a "meet the players" night. Andy and I went by ourselves last year, but this year we decided to take Ethan with us. Ethan's favorite player is Kyle Korver. We are not sure why but ever since Kyle got traded to the Jazz last year Ethan has liked him the best. He was very excited when he got to meet Korver and have him sign a basketball. We got autographs from everyone but Boozer, who left early, and Kirilenko, who was sick. It was a fun night.
Happy Halloween. This year Ethan decided to be a jedi for the second year in a row. Hallie, after going back and forth many times between Cinderella, Minnie Mouse, and Alice in Wonderland, finally decided to be a chef. Dylan was forced to wear a silly Yoda costume which he actually tolerated quite well. We met up with a bunch of neighbor friends and set out around the neighborhood. Andy and Dylan went home early to hand out candy but Ethan and Hallie weren't quite ready yet. So we trick or treated from house to house, through the rain, until they complained that their bags were too heavy. I can't believe how much candy they collected! After finding random candy wrappers strewn about the house I finally had to hide it high on the top shelf.
