Thanksgiving 2024

It started when Viv and I had the whole week off and decided to go to Sequoia National Park. But then we thought, "the Rees family likes Sequoia," so we invited them. But then there were three of us getting together just an hour from home, and wouldn't it be fun to have Beth and Sarah stop in? And if we're all at the Airbnb when Mom and Rachel fly in, well, they should obviously come up. Just like that, we had 20 people in the little cabin and it was clear that Thanksgiving was going to be a party.

Other notable moments:

- touring the Greek Orthodox monastery. When we drove up to the imposing iron gates, Gordon bravely pushed the call button and asked, "Are you open to the public?" A pause, and then a voice came from on high:

Who are you?

Another pause, while Gordon examined his soul for the answer, finally replying:

I'm Gordon Rees.

And the gates slowly opened for us.

- at the same monastery, we were all on our best behavior until Eric gave Beth a heart attack when he reached up and grabbed the gigantic golden chandelier and gave it a big swing. Her whole assessment of his character and her success as a parent was momentarily in question until the tiny nun stepped out from behind him, and Beth realized that Eric had only been following instructions.

- it was rainy, so Sydney led a round of DND, lots of FIFA was played, and hot sauce taste testing was a success. We did brave a couple of misty, drippy hikes among the grandeur of those amazing trees.

- we played hot potato dares

- we had 'easy favorite things' dinner

- Chris hiked from barn road to the bridge formerly known as Squaw Leap. It really didn't take him that long

- Sarah fixed an age-old problem by just going to the store and buying more measuring cups

- we made 22 pies. New ones included spumoni, persimmon, and rhubarb custard. 

- Beth took a lot of the boys back to her house and made all of Theo's dreams come true at a fruit stand

- All of a sudden we have enough good volleyball players to play 6 v 6.

- We painted half bananas, because Beth is good at woodworking and Vivian is funny

- Basically, everyone got enough to eat and nobody cried (much). Happy times 

2019-2024 Wrap UP

Well, I'm trying to publish the Woodpile book for this season and suddenly there's too much to include. Like Thanksgiving 2023, where the Thomases didn't come and we didn't know what to do with ourselves. Or when we made this painting recreation, or started Slytherins for Jesus. And when Theo dislocated his elbow. And we all went to see Dad for his birthday and ate a lot of cheese, and snuck Rachel into an Airbnb. And then Mom moved to Utah with Rachel to go on a mission for the church. And, and...

Well, I've done what I could.

Bad Idea vs. Good Idea

Playing the game Wavelengths, we decide to match categories to family members

- 85% smooth (rough vs smooth): Preston

- Nice animal vs. Scary Animal: Vivian. "The only time I've ever screamed in my own home was when Vivian appeared outside my window in a squirrel suit" -Gordon

- Replaceable vs Irreplaceable: Carrie

        - "well they tried to replace her 5 times" -Vivian

        - "but who would have married Chris?" -Beth

        - "Carrie is mostly irreplaceable" - Claire. "That should go on her tombstone."

War-like vs Peaceful: Jackson

        Gwen: "I pick fights all the time because I'm snarky" 
        Preston: "I haven't seen it"

Bad influence vs Good Influence: Carrie

        Rachel to Lucy: "How many times have you had to confess to your bishop something that your mom made you do?"

        Theo and Lucy: "In our family she's the voice of reason" 
        Everyone: "WHAT?" 
        Carrie: "It's true and I hate it so much!"

Flavorful vs Flavorless: Christopher, being tactful, chooses himself

Easy to Use vs Not Easy to Use:  Colin. His siblings say easy to use,  but others disagree. Later, they ask him to get an otter pop and he says no

Plain vs Fancy

        "I don't know, I'm seeing a lot of graphic tees" - Preston. "I wear them too but I buy mine new.”

Funny Ha Ha

What are the funniest things ever said in our family? Taken in context, meaning no one else needs to think they are stand-alone funny. Here are my nominations:

- "Soft bread was good enough for Jesus" - Vivian, circa 1997

- "You know about Gordon, right?" - Theo

- "None of these is a chocolate croissant!"  - Carrie

- "I frew tumbody's keys" - Hugo

"I would say Evan, but then everyone would know I was lying." - GORDON

"Well, at least I have my bread..." - Sydney

"You're talking about spherical dimensions!" - Jerry

"He's wild, and he smells like blue cheese." - Lucy

"What do you call a satisfactory buffalo?... Enoughalo!"  - Rachel

"You look like a walking intestine." -Hal

Thoughts from Beth

Lemon bars aren’t as good when I make them.  They are so much better in my head.  It says “Lemon Bars of Disappointment” at the top of my recipe card.  I keep making them.  I think that’s a testament to how good they are in my head.

I read the Queen's Thief series again.  Dang that is entertaining writing.  As I read, I made myself forget the exciting parts coming up.  But like me showing a friend a movie I love, I failed to remain impartial and unwillingly gave it away.

My enthusiastic YW leader just sent out a text asking if anyone would like to meet at her house at 9am (on a Sat) to make a Chinese dragon.  Like, for real size.  Two Beths are warring (one r or two?) in opposition in my head.  I’m going, I’m bringing paper plates, wire, and spray paint, but I did sigh about it.

Since around age 45, I can’t remember how to take my pants off while standing up.  Balance seems fine, but those feet just don’t want to hover quite as high for quite as long so I can work the pant leg around my foot before I fall over..with my legs shackled by said pant leg. This might be my major motivation for embracing the wide pant leg trend. Socks are right out.

If a friend leaves unopened snacks in your car after a hike (where they were sharing snacks with you), do you eat them or give them back?   What if they are GOOD snacks, liiiike, hypothetically, freeze dried strawberries from Trader Joes?

Speaking of the hike, the high water mark at big pools is beyond epic. I have been kicking myself for not driving up there when everything was flooding. HIGH, you guys. The water is now FIVE (5!) feet lower. I know some of you think I'm exaggerating, but I have already adjusted myself for inflation (I wrote 10 originally). The downstream side of the swim hole is like an infinity pool.. just pouring out flat, not in a stream. SO. Much. Water. The tree you climb around (between it and the cliff face) to get to the rope is gone. I also saw a HUGE salamander. So glad to see my callow attempts to personally wipe out their species failed.

There is some paperwork that I need to fill out and assemble copies of documents and submit before a certain deadline and I CANT MAKE MYSELF DO IT. Like a bureaucracy force field. All other bills and adulting are proceeding normally.   I even take the folder with me to work and give it sidelong glances while I eat my lunch.  It’s not happening.

I totally had a “Put me in Coach!” moment when, at the PTA meeting, they were talking about how hard it was to find people to dunk in the dunk tank for the big Carnival in April.  For obvious reasons (and it’s on my bucket list), I said I would do it.  The board all looked at each other and the president got a nudge from someone, pointed at me, and mouthed “Ask her now!”.  She smiled shyly, said they had something else in mind for me… and asked if I wouldn’t mind making some money for the library by DJING THE WHOLE CARNIVALL!!  They would pay the library $200 and save quite a bit of money from not hiring the same ‘ol DJ from the other years.  The freakin Webster Elementary Spring carnival!  I sat in the parking lot right after the meeting and started a play list.  I vote this is a musicfest theme (Carnival groove music).. sometime before April..

Today I had a little kid ask me if I had a book “about wabbits…with waffles?”. 

I just said no.

Noted

There's a nice couple in my ward that do sacred harp singing, and when I mentioned I was connected to the Rees family (who are practically royalty in the shape note singing world) I got an invitation. I've been meaning to go for months but always had something come up. This Tuesday I was finally able to go, and it was so fun. I planned to tell Claire about the next time I talked to her, but I needn't have bothered - the next morning I got this text from Claire:

"I see from the minutes of the Tuesday singing that you were there. :)"

Chloe knows all.

Summer 2022

                       

The beach house did us all a favor by being unavailable, so we went to the Thomas's instead. 

Non-dairy milk taste-testing turned out to be the most controversial and memorable one we've ever had. ALL the milks were bad, some of them even literally expired. The decibel level in the Thomas kitchen was off the charts as most people had definite opinions to express. Loudly.

Jerry, Levi, and Theo rode almost 200 miles in 4 days, from Santa Cruz to San Luis Obispo. Jerry reported that the biking/whining ratio from our boys made him proud.

We went on a doughnut walk that ended in doughnut happiness.

 Colin went to visit Utah and flew home by himself, narrowly making it back after some flight cancellation shenanigans.

We had an excellent time playing in the waves at the beach. At one point all the Ashby sisters were in a line playing "Hold Your Ground" against the waves and having a pretty great time. Jackson took the pink bunny suit surfing.

A tour of the USS Midway was a big success.

Multiple games of Quiplash were highly entertaining. The kids are getting funnier.

Darcy bravely took the boys to play pool, while Sydney, Lucy, Carrie, Gwen, and Mae got pedicures. "This is the best day of my life" said Mae. Now that I think about it, I really owe Darcy a pedicure.

Gregorys went on two river trips: an all-drug Olympics run of the Smith river in Montana, and a more family friendly one on the Lower Salmon in Idaho. We got to watch a rattlesnake settle in under our tent, and were really glad when it left again.

Thomases made an epic 70+ hr journey to get to Copenhagen, and I think they decided it was worth it.

We had a book club with Jen and Adrienne where we discussed The Book Thief. Raise your hands if you like Jen and Adrienne (all hands go up).