Trunk-or-Treat

 On Saturday, my mom's ward had their annual trunk-or-treat and chili cook-off.  The primary is so small in my ward (we are talking six kids including Zuri in the whole primary) that we don't have a trunk-or-treat, so for the second time we crashed my mom's ward.

Since we have to plan our respite hours before the 15th of the month prior, we don't always know exactly what our plans are going to be (or what pops up).   Therefore, we try to be flexible, but we have to plan things in advance.  Well, we planned to have respite hours Saturday evening for a date night, but it happened to be on the weekend of the deer hunt (which we hadn't planned on).  When I found out about the trunk-or-treat, I figured it would be perfect--except the trunk-or-treat started at four and our respite hours started at five. 

My plan was to take Kai for the first half hour, take him home, then go back.  My mom and sister were still at the trunk-or-treat, so they would be able to watch Zuri and she wouldn't miss anything.  Well, I got to talking and left the trunk-or-treat later than I planned, which put me in a frantic hurry to make it home before the nurse.  I made it home with one minute to spare, and was relieved when I discovered the nurse hadn't arrived yet.

Then I waited...and waited.  The nurse was over fifteen minutes late.  I was calling our nursing agency (to make sure a nurse was coming, or find out what was going on) when she arrived without so much as an apology or explanation.  I quickly gave her the rundown on things with Kai, but it had been quite a while since she had last taken care of him, so she had several questions.  By the time I made it back to the trunk-or-treat, I had missed the winner of the chili cook-off, the parade of costumes, and the magic show, Zuri was almost done with trunk-or-treating. 


After the trunk-or-treat we went to pick up my sister, Breanna, from work, then we went over to my mom's house and we chatted and played scrabble (Shin, Heather, and Dad bought me a really nice Scrabble board last week while Dad was here).  I was safely in the lead until Breanna used all her letters on a triple word score and trounced Mom and I.  We had fun and it reminded me of old times.



* Side Note:  We were originally going to have a pirate theme for the kids, but when we were looking at costumes, Zuri saw the Cinderella costume and just had to have it.  She would not be persuaded toward anything else, and she had to carry the costume around the store herself.  She would not let it out of her grasp.  It was too funny.

October Conference and Dad's Visit

For General Conference this October, we had unusually perfect weather both Saturday and Sunday.  My dad came out Thursday from Tahoe and ended up staying over a week--leaving the following Sunday; he stayed in Orem with Shin and Heather all but the last two nights.  We spent a lot of time with my dad, Shin and Heather throughout the week, which was a lot of fun.  I miss doing things with family.

I didn't take many pictures for this Conference.  Zuri, of course, was running around in between sessions.  She found some friends to play with at one point, and played tag with Heather, Dad and J at another.  She did really well this time; we didn't have to take her out during any of the four sessions. 

Saturday afternoon, as Heather and I were talking on our way home (the guys all stayed for the Priesthood session), Heather made a comment about how she really loves Conference.  From the backseat, Zuri pipes up: "I love Conference too!"  It was so cute.

The youth from the Tahoe ward also made it out, and we met up with them briefly on Saturday, and we all had lunch together on Sunday.  It is cute to watch the young women get excited to see Heather.  J made a joke that I am long forgotten when Heather is around.  I reminded him that when I left Tahoe, the young women were just babies (wow, I feel old) and so they didn't grow up knowing me as they do Heather (who just moved out here last year).

It is hard to believe that it has been over ten years since I moved out here.  Over ten years that my dad and I have been attending General Conference in Salt Lake--and we haven't missed a Conference all that time.  Crazy (in a good way).  :-)

Dad was originally going to leave Tuesday, but Monday evening we got a phone call from Heather saying that Shin was in the emergency room.  He had flipped over his bike and hit his head.  He was all right except for a few scrapes and some bruising, but he couldn't drive for a few days, and he needed to be woken up every few hours during the night the first night.

Dad, who had planned on staying with us that night and leaving in the morning, got the rest of the week off work and went up to Orem to help Shin.  It gave us a few extra days with Dad, and we also got to see Shin and Heather more, so although it was an unfortunate accident, it had its silver lining. 


Thursday, we all went out to dinner together.  It was our second restaurant excursion with Kai, and just like the first (for my birthday a few weeks prior) it went well!  Kai just sat munching on his hands and being cute while we ate.  We had two tables and placed Kai in between the tables, so we were split up a little but it worked really well. 

I love the curious expression on Kai's face in the photo above.

Zuri had her first experience with cotton candy.  She got all excited about it, hugging it, and liked the cotton candy up to the point when it dissolved into the small, chewy candy in her mouth.  She would spit it out then and no matter of coaxing could get her to eat that part.   Funny kid.


We were sad to see Dad leave on Sunday, and he didn't want to go either.  Shin kept trying convincing him to sell his house and move out here.  Who knows, it may happen! ;-)