November News

November was a fun and busy month for our family too. At the beginning of the month Joseph's good friend Ben came all the way from Virginia to run the Grand Canyon Marathon with Joseph. The 4 of us traveled up to the Grand Canyon the night before and the boys left the hotel room early in the morning to start the race. It was super cold outside, and since Austin and I were the only traveling fans this time around, we opted not to stop at points along the route to cheer our boys on. We just made sure we were at the finish line when they got there. It was a really hard run especially with the combination of high altitude and extreme elevation changes. They finished about an hour apart, but that gave Joseph a chance to run to the hotel and shower and ask for an extension on our already "late check out" so Ben could shower too. Fortunately the staff was very accommodating and everyone was clean and comfortable for the ride home.

Austin hanging out on the hotel bed during the race. It was cold outside but we were quite cozy in our room as you can see.

Austin & me waiting for our boys to cross the finish line. This lucky boy got to nap through much of the wait. :)

Joseph running to the finish line after what were probably the longest
5 hours of his life.

Ben just seconds after crossing the finish. It's my fault that we don't have a good picture of him crossing, but he did kind of trick me. I didn't anticipate that he would be crossing the finish with someone, but after he let Joseph run ahead he met a guy on the trail that he ran the rest of the way with. By the time I realized it was Ben he was crossing before I got my camera up for the picture. Sorry, Ben.

Joseph and Ben rocking their marathon metals -- so happy the race is finally over.

Later in the month we went to California to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. The road trip was fairly easy, but Austin was happy to be out of the car when it was over. We loved spending time with family and eating delicious food. Austin even got to enjoy a feast of Turkey & sweet potatoes courtesy of Beach Nut. (The picture of Austin in his cute Thanksgiving outfit is not on this computer, so I'll have to post it later. Just picture his happy little face smiling as he sports the cutest little turkey shirt you've ever seen.)

While we were in CA we got together with my friend Rebecca from my days at CSUSB. This year we finally made it to the tree festival we seem to try to get to every year but it never works out... we even went one year only to find it had ended the day before. This year was much more successful. Not only did we get to see the tress, but we also went to the lighting for the Mission Inn. I love walking around the Mission Inn during the holidays because they deck so much more than just the halls... they deck the whole block! It's so Christmas-y and it makes me happy so when we heard we could go to the lighting we jumped on the chance. Rebecca just so happens to have a couple of friends involved with this lighting ceremony so they told us where we could go for the best view... and it was indeed a perfect spot. There was a firework show at the lighting and we had a perfect view of everything. There were live reindeer at the grounds. We even had hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies while we waited for it to start. It was the perfect start to the holiday season! :) Thanks Rebecca for setting it all up for us. We had a blast with you! Austin handled all of the excitement and the chill in the weather extremely well as he snuggled up to Daddy in the Bjorn.



We were also fortunate enough to get together with my old roommate from BYU, Annie, and her husband. Thank goodness she married a Southern California boy so I actually have a chance of seeing her sometimes. It was so great to catch up with such a dear friend. Thanks for coming to breakfast with us Annie & Ian. It was so great to see you.

(I think Joseph was so enthralled in trying to keep Austin comfortable and happy for the picture that he missed looking up for it himself. Oh well, 4 out of 5 isn't bad.)

After breakfast we stopped to have Austin take pictures with Santa. We got there early but Santa wasn't there yet. We should have known that meant we should jump in line (but we were so earlythere wasn't even a line yet). So we browsed the store until the time they said Santa would be there. Then there was a long line and Austin was ready for a nap. Not the best combination when prepping for a picture. We tried to keep him happy as best as we could until it was finally our turn. At first, Austin wasn't quite sure what to think of the Jolly old man in the red suit, but he warmed up enough to get a decent picture.


That afternoon we met up with Ryan and Kate to watch the BYU - Utah football game. Aren't our little fans the cutest? (PS- We missed you Sarah!)