The high school gals got together for Time Out for Women in Phoenix the first weekend in November. We started Friday afternoon with shopping at TJMaxx, dinner in downtown Phoenix, then the night portion of TOFW.
The moment that will forever be known as "The Unwanted Comeback" (The actual song title is The Comeback)... or more simply, the time I violated LaRee. We laughed about it all weekend.
Got to see Brinn King!! Such a treat. She is one of my favorite humans on earth.
Then we walked a country mile in search of frozen yogurt. I think I was the only one in reasonable shoes. We should also all learn how to read maps. Just saying.
The next day we spent the entire time listening to talks and musical numbers centered around the theme: "He made thee to hear His voice" Deuteronomy 4:16
So it was all about personal revelation and the Holy Ghost.
Sooo excited to meet Emily Belle Freeman! I've got one of her books and have spent the year listening to her Come Follow Me podcast called Don't Miss This. She's a scriptorian rockstar and I love her enthusiasm for the scriptures..
This one is hard to read so I'll type it out..
Our life's purpose to obtain experience and to develop faith would be frustrated if our Heavenly Father enlightened us immediately on every question or directed us in every act. - Dallin H. Oaks
Because the Lord knows we need growth, he generally does not point and say the clear direction. But it a decision is wrong, he will let us know- we will feel it for sure. I am positive of that. Rather than saying, "I will not move until I have the burning in my heart, let us turn it around and say, I will move unless I feel it is wrong.- John Groberg
This one is SO powerful... What were you born to do?
The Bonner Family.
Only three of the guys from their group were there, but man, they've got pipes. And I think, Jenni's heart. Her comments made me giggle every time they got up to sing. We also got to hear Brad Wilcox, Anthony Sweat, Brooke Romney and the Ortons... who sailed for a year with their family and wrote a book about it. Oh and Jane Clayson Johnson talking about her book, Silent Souls Weeping, which I had just read. It's all about depression and a pretty good baseline book to help people understand more about it and the different situations it can present itself... i.e. missionaries who come home early, LGBTQ community, postpartum, etc.
We ordered lunch online to pick up from PotBelly. Little did we know we were walking into utter chaos, run by four teenagers and fueled my a hundred, hangry women. We stood in line over an hour. Next time, we should just order nachos from the venue.
Grabbing our bags at the hotel, Jessica dropped her water bottle. Or Shelley was about to give birth... I forget the real story. We ended our day with shopping at Target because, hey, we care about cliches. Then Shelley and I drove over to our cousin, Bromley's, wedding reception! Which was so fun to be at sans kids. The ice cream station was all ours! We even squeezed in a Git Up dance!
Cohen's blessing day!
The Shaheens came to town! They stayed at Hyatt Regency at Gainy Ranch. Ka-ching! My number one advice to my children is going to be: make rich friends. Hahaha. But seriously. We loved our day swimming with them. I miss Megan!
When you ask your husband to take your picture:
We terrorized Cafe Rio and Chick-fil-a for dinner and dessert. How do we have 9 crazy hoodlums between us?! It's always hard to say good-bye.
Olive got to come with me to a boutique one Saturday!
I think she's perfect.
I die!! Don't forget the coconut oil.
Sunday hair!
The lesson happened to be about one of Elder Bednar's talks where he compares the adversary to when they watched a leopard in the wild. Sheree and I were dressed for the part.
Aubrey's face painting skills are well appreciated!
The three musketeers!
The only way to spend a Monday holiday is at the park with cousins!
We had an office party with Dr. Cook and Dr. Gardner's staff so everyone could get to know each other. Dr. Cook hosted it upstairs in his house where they've made it into an ice cream parlor. There were a lot of women in that room! The doctors each gave a little speech and what they said was perfect. They all really love their practices and care so much about their staff. I don't know if these women know how good they have it. Actually, they do. And it was apparent when they each were given an opportunity to introduce themselves. They love their jobs and that has so much to do with who they work for.
Tanner's favorite song at Storytime... the bear song.
He's so darn stinkin' cute doing the actions!!
Been going to LD12 Precinct meetings once a month with Leah. She is so knowledgeable about all this politics stuff! I'm inspired.
Abbey's birthday lunch at Merchant Square. The American Way Market Cafe has such yummy sandwiches and cookies. And Highland Yark was open for their holiday boutique in back!
A new place called Rusty Taco opened up nearby so we had to go try it out! It's not quite Torchys status, but it's good! Then we went to see JoJo Rabbit in the theater. It's a satire about WWII and this young boy who is in the Hitler youth. It's laugh out loud funny while also a tear jerker.
Our first ward party! (I think) A fall festival at the park. There was a great turn out and the kids had a ball at all the booths and playing with their friends.
I love when they play together.
We joined up with the Porters and Aris Foundation to feed the homeless a taco salad dinner. It was a cold, rainy night, but we had the biggest crowd I've seen yet.
Helping out at Kids for Kindness! Camilla started this organization to get younger kids a chance to do service since so many non-profit companies don't allow kids to help.
This month they made hygiene kits for homeless people.
My entire adult life I've never had a "pretty" Christmas tree. And I've been 100% ok with that! I've loved my homemade looking trees with all the kids' ornaments and mismatched cheer. But for some reason, this year I got the itch. I decided to go with a blush and rose gold palate and I really love it! We bought a second tree to go in the front room to still display all of the kids' ornaments and have all the Christmas books beneath it and I love that tree just as much as this "fancy" one.
Della dancing without a care in the world until Tanner comes up with a broom ready to treat her like a pinata!
I was digging through my "for memories" bin in the garage and came across a jewelry box. Puzzled, I opened it to find a gold necklace my dad had given me for my 16th birthday. I remember receiving it politely but thinking, "uhhh, I would never wear this. It's gold." See, back in that day, only silver was in style. Gold was for Grandmas. But I was too sentimental to get rid of it and now I'm busting out that baby with pride! It's beautiful and good quality...probably the most nice piece of jewelry I own besides my wedding ring. I and I love that it's from my dad.
Uncle Craig opened his mission call! He's going to the Honduras Comayaguela Mission!
Leaving January 28.
Everyone's jaws dropped! I think Honduras was the last place we were thinking! We just know David barely made it out of there alive, ha. In fact, David's initial face is CLASSIC. Like he just swallowed a toad.
When you're trying to make 5 pies, homemade rolls and cranberry sauce the night before Thanksgiving and realize you forgot the sugar in the chocolate custard. Son of a biscuit! I was donating the rolls, sauce and 2 pies to Leah who was organizing a Thanksgiving dinner for a boys group home. A couple of the boys she teaches at high school live in a group home and didn't have anything for Thanksgiving. The crust wasn't even salvageable. It all went in the garbage.
Headed to the Gilbert Turkey Trot! I say it every year, but I love this tradition so much. Our own little family making memories together. For Weston, they may not be fond memories, but at least he gets a donut to start! And he did the best he's done yet! He didn't have to hop in the stroller at all this time!
A band serenaded us on the side of the road! That was a first!
Everyone except the Goodmans came to our house this year around 11am for lunch!
Isn't my grandma beautiful?!
I really wanted to create a fancy schmancy tablescape and spent weeks shopping and putting this together. The hardest part were those peachy colored pumpkins and just days before, Marcie found some at the dollar spot at Target! I had literally looked EVERYWHERE! She saved Thanksgiving!
While we were eating I randomly handed out questions for everyone to go around the table and answer. My dad happened to get "What was your proudest moment of this past year."
I thought this would be a no brainer for him.
A little background about my dad. He has worked himself to the bone as long as I've known him. But he went through a few career changes this past decade after being swindled from a business partner, then stepping away from a lucrative oil company that he felt he would have to compromise his integrity to stay with. He then took over two separate oil companies, merging them and spending 7 years restructuring and managing them as the president and CEO. Even though I only understand about 1% of what he does, I know he is a skilled and talented business man, respected and looked up to not only in his field, but by anyone who knows him. Well, this past year he was able to sell the company at a hard earned and considerable profit. He would never share this, but my mom told us he was honored at a dinner and then led out back where the owners had a brand new Tesla sitting there with a big, red ribbon on it.
For him.
I got tears in my eyes as my mom told us how he reacted when he realized it was for him. He deserves it and a hundred more Teslas. I literally know of no man who works harder than he does. From before the sun rises until after it's set and he's teetering at dinner, narcoleptic-ally falling asleep. Especially after being cheated from 15+ years building up one company, I couldn't imagine how satisfying it must have been for him to sell this last company. The culmination of his career in the oil business. He's set. He is going to continue to work for them for a few more years, but out of choice, not because he needs to. I'm so proud of him. He's more than earned it.
So, naturally, I thought he'd share a moment from this past year having to do with this.
Instead.
He talked about how he was able to get our family pictures from the beach printed on large canvases and hung up in both his offices. Since he also uses his offices as board meeting rooms, many people come in and out. He said without fail, when someone new comes into the room they immediately and almost wordlessly walk over to the pictures and just gaze at them, commenting on how beautiful and stunning his family is. Those have been his proudest moments.
Us.
I get choked up thinking about it. And just the very fact that this was what he shared speaks so much to who my dad is. He truly doesn't value any worldly thing. He's tirelessly worked his whole life to provide a living for us. Not so he could buy x,y,z. And he's done so with honesty and integrity treating everyone along the way as a valuable person, not an object in his way or means to get him where he wanted. It's such an honor and privilege to be his daughter.
This part of Thanksgiving absolutely took the cake for me.
Or pie, as it was. ;)
We played 9 square, Shoot the Turkey, football and visited until late. When everyone left, we headed to the Grandma and Grandpa Evans' house for the night. It was a perfect day. One I'll look back on and treasure for years to come.
The next day, us sisters took our girls to see the much anticipated Frozen 2!
Olive sporting an Elsa braid!
Then on to Gecko Grill for din din! Love my sisters!! Elsa and Anna got nothin' on us! ;)
