Aquarium, surgery, etc

I got free library passes to the aquarium and made my kids' dreams come true last week when I pulled them out of school early to go. Spencer has wanted to go since we moved here but there's no way I'm paying $30 a ticket for adults/$20 for kids. It's not that awesome. But it is awesome when it's free. Hahaha! We had a great time. 

 Spencer earned his bear in Cub Scouts last month and got to receive it at a trip to the fire station. What a fun activity.

 We're finally teaching our kids kitchen chores and I'm basically thrilled to watch them clean. They like it, which kind of shocks me. Obviously I should have done this years ago.

 I got my carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand done this last Thursday and I'm so stinking happy to be done with this awful thing. I hate carpal tunnel. And I'm probably going to have to wait six flipping months or more to be all the way healed, but at least the surgery is past. I can baby my left hand way more than my right three months ago, so hopefully the recovery will go faster.

I somehow got hooked into doing reviews for a couple Chinese companies on Amazon and this is my latest item. I LOVE it. But now I want an Apple Watch. Hahahahahah!

 We did a tiny photo session with Chloe and these are a few outtakes. I love her cute little personality.

Not so cautiously excited

I'm trying to restrain myself and give it some time to see if I'm really seeing improvement, but for the first time in close to 18 months I am seeing relief to my nearly perpetual headaches/migraines. It is pretty much the best thing that has happened of late. I even caught a head cold this week and I still feel less headachy with that than I've dealt with daily this whole year. Turns out I have had sinus infections turn into a fungal variety that normal sinus remedies don't fix. Not shocking after living in two very humid places. So I'm really hoping this is my doctor finally finding the root cause and fixing it and it seems like that might actually be true. It's been quite the journey getting here. I will never underestimate the effects chronic pain has on a person again. It is life changing.

And for this week, here's a bunch of random pictures. We went to the park with friends that were in town last Monday and of course I didn't get any pictures with them. Too busy chatting. But Aaron wanted a shot of him climbing this rock.

 Chloe and I swung by the LEGO store in the mall and made this little Christmas decoration thingie for their drive to get Legos to low income kids. I can support that!

 Just a little fun in the park with friends. Chloe loves to swing.

 Everyone loves dad, whether he wants them on him or not. :)

 Spencer made this whole meal pretty much on his own for a Webelos requirement. I'm super proud of him!

 I took Chloe to the aquarium with friends this week with a free library pass and had a lovely time. The red octopus was the biggest hit as well as some teeny tiny fish she loved.

Veteran's Day weekend

The elementary school put on a fantastic Veteran's Day assembly with singing and a ceremony for local veterans and there wasn't a dry eye in the house by the end. Chloe is a squirmy wormy these days when I take her places, but she's also very cute. I asked her to smile and this is what I got. 

Better. Also the coat zipped up backwards was her request. She's so funny. 

 Spencer sings in the school choir.  He's front row right in the middle. Shortest kid there. Also one of the youngest, but my kids aren't tall.

A friend gave us this cheerleader costume back when we first moved here and Chloe is wearing it a bunch lately. It's so cute. 

Chloe and one of her best friends, reading books/playing together, wearing matchy stripes completely by accident. This friends dressing the same way thing starts young it turns out. Haha!

Saturday  morning I went to a craft extraveganza at church for Relief Society and Bill took the kids to Snoqualmie Falls. We've lived here 11 months and only just got there. Now  need to go. Such a pretty place.

I snagged this picture in church yesterday on the sly. We bought a bunch of these drawing tablets earlier this year plus got a free one and they're a big hit. My kids and one of my friend's family, which has five boys, shared a long row yesterday and at one point this is what it looked like, every single kid drawing on a tablet. It got progressively more chaotic as the hour went by, but hey, we love these guys and it's so fun to have such great friends. 

October Photo Dump

October this year was awesome. We had a church trunk or treat, went downtown to trick or treat at businesses, and Genevieve went out with Bill in our neighborhood a third time and scored big on full sized candy bars. Costumes were exactly what the kids wanted and we had a lovely Halloween all around. 

 One day Chloe and I headed out with some friends to a local farm and I snagged this adorable shot of her.

 Pumpking carving/painting. I only thought Aaron and Spencer were going to cut their fingers off a few times, lol.

 Downtown trick or treating with a friend.

 My and my two besties after a temple date.

 Soccer! This has been a huge learning season for Spencer. He'd never played soccer before this year and his team was all learning. I couldn't believe how fast their skills developed. They learned so many important lessons this season as they were building their skills. They lost all season and that was really hard. But they came back week after week and at all the practices and worked and learned and finally on Saturday their hard work came to fruition and they won their last game 5-1. There was so much happiness from all of them! It was thrilling. I wouldn't trade all the really important lessons. It's super nice to win all your games, but losing teaches you valuable lessons it's hard to get elsewhere. I particularly love how much Spencer loves to play now. Genevieve too. It's really awesome to watch them love a sport. 

 Class Halloween Party.