Huntsville Thanksgiving

Somehow I talked Sharon into going camping over Thanksgiving, both Thursday and Friday night. Lucky for me, it went near perfectly, and everyone had a great time. When we camped in April at Galveston, there were 25 MPH winds the whole time. When we camped in July, we were camping in July. It was hot and buggy. If this trip didn't go well, it might have been the final strike for Sharon's tolerance of camping.

It was one of those trips that went so well that it brings a smile to my face when I think about it. It actually made me fall in love with this part of Texas. It's only an hour and a half north of our house, but it's beautiful country. The boys loved it, and everyone had fun. One of my friends from BYU also drove out to camp with us for one of the days, which was really fun. It would have been perfect if I actually caught a fish, but you can't ask for too much. At least I got a bite. We did see lots of wildlife, though, like alligators, herrings, frogs, turtles, and wild pigs.

I love camping. I needed the break really badly, since school is heating up right now. I'm studying more than I ever have in my life. We had exams right before thanksgiving, I have my last week of class next week, then I have some really big exams that I have to pass before I start rotations in January.

Pictures and captions:

Our campsite was great! I couldn't believe we got a spot right next to the water. It even had  nice water access for the canoe. Huntsville state park is the best.

What a great place

This is actually dinner at home from Sunday before Thanksgiving. Sharon made a Thanksgiving dinner and we brought Turkey and stuffing for tinfoil dinners on Thanksgiving day. I also made sweet potato casserole in the dutch oven.

Thanksgiving dinner. My friend Rob drover 6 hours to come camp with us on Thursday.  He's a friend from BYU I  haven't seen in 3 years. It was a lot of fun to see him.

Didn't edit this photo at all

Ducks

The boys were in heaven rolling around. They play/fight really well together.

This picture is a lie; they never sat still like this.

I love this picture. The boys actually did really well in the canoe and seemed to like it, but  they always have their moments.

The water was always super reflective and actually very clear.

The sun had just come out after a light sprinkle

Bacon on the grill!

Fruit cups and playing outside make happy boys

Random picture in front of our house. Sharon and the boys look great. I love Michael's grin

Beatuful Houston

I have decided that Houston is generally a pretty ugly city, but there's still lots of beauty to be found. From a night to the lake last week:

 

 

Grateful to have such beauty in the world a wonderful family to share it with.

Happy thanksgiving!

Katniss, Peeta, and 2 tigers

Thought I'd post a few Halloween photos. Sharon went all out and made tiger costumes for the boys. I think she did a great job. She's also been pretty excited about being able to braid her hair like Katniss, and she felt pretty cool borrowing our friend's bow and arrow. My costume was decidedly less cool. But I did have a district 12 patch that Sharon made.

Michael is really intense here. I love his hair.

Rarrrr

You can probably tell I made these, since if you look carefully you can see bloody bone fragments on the severed end of the finger cookies. It's the little things that make all the difference. I thought Enoch might be scared of these, but he actually loved them.

Sharon took the kids to something called the Oil Ranch with people from the ward while I was taking exams.  It's basically a fancy pumpkin patch with trains and tractors and farm fun. The boys got to ride a horse, but I don't think either of them enjoyed it.

Michael's favorite trick is to put his fingers in his mouth when he's upset.

The ordinary

Most of what we've done recently hasn't been too unusual. Just life around the house, trips to the zoo, children's museum, studying, tests, and such. But it's a good life and we're trying to enjoy the ordinary.

Recent photos

Every night for the past month, Enoch has read Goodnight Moon to Michael. He loves routines, so it's to the point where he gets very upset if he doesn't get to read it to him. It's very endearing.

Enoch and mommy singing a song. Enoch loves to sing.

Showcasing Michael's new waling skills -- he just turned a switch and decided to start walking -- and Enoch's  proof-of-potty training underwear

More walking skills

Favorite way to read a book

Enoch loves doing puzzles

If he doesn't get 20 seconds to brush his own teeth before I take over, he gets very upset.

A place you can stay

Enoch and Michael, this post is for you. I usually secretly make fun of people that express their emotions through popular music, but that's exactly what I'm going to do here. You can laugh if you want, that's fine. But when you're both old enough to start going out in the world and making decisions, I hope you take the lyrics of the following song to heart.

Catch you, darling
I'll be waiting
I am on your side

This offer would be standing
All you've got to do is call
Don't be afraid to knock on the door

If you should fall upon hard times
If you should lose your way
There is a place
Here in this house
That you can stay

This song (called Deadlines and Commitments) is by Brandon Flowers from The Killers, and he's also Mormon. Being a Mormon rock star probably has given him a lot of perspective about the poor decisions people make, and I imagine that he was reflecting on this and wrote this song for his daughter.

Your mother and I hope that we can be the best parents possible and help you both grow up into stalwart young men that make good decisions. But if either of you should ever lose your way, there will be a place in our house that you can stay. Our door will always open to you.

We love you both.

Chase comes to town (again)!

For the second time in the past few months, we were privileged to have Chase stay with us during a trip to Houston. The boys loved playing with him, and Enoch was sad this morning when he realized he was gone. I wonder how long he will refer to the futon as "Uncle Chase's bed". On Saturday, we all had free time, so we went to the Armand Bayou to go canoeing and have a picnic. We then stopped by Battleship Texas on the way home. It was a really fun day and a nice break from studying. Living so far away from family has made me appreciate time together a lot more. Hopefully we get to be with family more often in the future.

Enoch is starting to like being in the canoe. Fish were jumping like crazy, so much so that Enoch even saw one.

Michael laughing at Uncle Chase

Try as we might, we didn't see any alligators while in the canoe.  But we did see  a baby one while we were on the boardwalk

These guns are a lot of fun. One person rotates it and the other moves it up and down

Buffalo Bayou

After tests on Monday and Wednesday, I had Thursday and Friday off (plus Labor Day!). We got someone to watch the kids and did a short canoe trip down the Buffalo Bayou. It's fun because it's right in the heart of the city and you end up downtown. The water isn't amazing and there's definitely some trash, but overall it feels like a river. It was a fun 8 miles of paddling and there were even a few tiny bumps. The route is actually part of an official Texas paddletrail, and so far this has been one of the cooler things about Houston. The put-in and take-out are actually pretty inconvenient, but it was still lots of fun.

We parked our car here and had a local shuttle service take us and the canoe upriver

The put-in

Excited! Our $6 walmart drybag

Wildlife