Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday - the best part of ours of course was that the boys are home! Monday and Tuesday were busy days getting ready for the boys. I had some major grocery shopping to do - a trip to Trader Joes, Costco and Winco were needed! I also had a meeting with the Stake Relief Society to help plan their big RS meeting for February- guess I have been drafted to help with the dinner again! Tuesday was my Shade Open House and some cleaning and the boys arrived home 10:30 p.m Tuesday night - yeah!!

The girls had school on Wednesday so I got to hang out with the boys. We did a little Christmas shopping and errand running and Wednesday night Grant Monson joined us for dinner and then the 4 boys had a great time at a Blazer's game. I spent the evening preping food and getting ready for Turkey day. Tried a few new recipes that I will share. I started feeling a little queasy that evening but kept on cooking.

With all my kitchen helpers (see photos) we prepared a wonderful, yummy dinner but by the time the food was ready my stomach was feeling worse and so a few bits of jello and a roll were all I enjoyed of Thanksgiving dinner this year! After an excellent kitchen clean up job the boys spent the rest of the day watching football (surprise,surprise) and I spent it on the couch! By 3:00 a.m. Thursday night or Friday morning I had a full fledge attack of intestional flu - yuck!!

So on Friday I spent the entire day in bed! Thank goodness for a What Not to Wear Marathon and the Food Network. The rest of the gang worked hard - the kids did their favorite pre-holiday job - getting all the Christmas boxes down from the attic. Since there are 35-40 of them it is a bit of a job. This year Logan lost and had to be the one that crawled up into the attic and handed the boxes down. Since it was a beautiful sunny day the boys and Jim also got the holiday lights hung on the house. The tree is half way set up waiting for me to feel better to "fluff" it!

Clark went to play in an alumni football game at Westview and the rest of them went to the movies to see "August Rush" and they highly recommend it - I of course was in bed with Clinton Kelly and Stacy London of "What Not to Wear"!

Friday night was the quarter finals for the high school football playoffs so the gang went to the game while - guess where I was - in bed! Unfortunately Westview lost so they are now out of the play offs. Everyone (but me) went to our friend's the Jensens for a "tailgate" party before the game.

Saturday I felt a bit better so ventured out with the kid for a quick trip to the mall(I know where all the bathrooms are!) to pick up a few Christmas presents and we were late getting back to watch the BYU game because the girls spent over 2 hours in Forever 21(o.k. this is not what I wrote but Clark got in and made a few changes to my post - it was not TWO hours!!) - go BYU! The boys were in heaven that day as they also got to watch the BYU Basketball game that night!

Thought I would be well enough for church today but after a bit of a set back Saturday night I stayed home. Four days without food now - Gatorade is getting old!

The boys fly out at 6:00 a.m. Monday morning - I'm glad Jim is in town to take them to the airport!! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Two days and counting.....

We can hardly stand it - only 2 more days and the boys will be home! Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. to be exact!! We are excited and getting ready. Clark has already emailed me his list of "requested foods" per my request. This will be the first time in 5 years that we have all been together for Thanksgiving!!

It was a busy week - I felt like I was running full speed all week. With the holiday on Monday, the week really started on Tuesday so we were already one day behind! Tuesday was Book Club - this month we read "Driving over Lemons" - an OK book about a man and his wife's adventures as they moved to rural Spain. That evening was genealogy class and then Wednesday I taught an appetizer class for Relief Society. It was a fun, food packed class. I showed lots of different ways to create different appetizers using tarts made from pie crust, phyllo dough and puff pastry. They ate everything so I guess they enjoyed it!



For Young Women's this week we had a joint activity with two other wards and had an "Amazing Race" activity. We divided up in cars and drove all over the area following clues. I drove a group of kids but had to make them promise not to tell their parents how crazy Sis. Wilkes drove!

What we didn't realize as we were on the race was that there were service opportunities at each stop - the trick was to see if we would notice them and do something about them. Our car didn't do too well - we were so focused on the race that we only noticed one of the service opportunities (a lady lying on the ground under her car) We did ask her if she needed help but we didn't see the others (someone with a spilled bag of groceries at the grocery store, a lady dropping her books outside the library, a lady with her hood of her car open) or I am sure we would have helped! It was a good lesson for us all -most of us would ask to help if we saw someone in need, the problem is many times we are all so focused on our own agenda that we just don't see them! Cali loved the activity because she got stuck in a car full of deacons!



Jim flew to Salt Lake on Wednesday and has business there and in Idaho Falls so he got to spend the night with his parents. He returned to Salt Lake on Friday and was able to have dinner with Logan and Shayla before his flight left for home - he got home late Friday night.

Thursday, Cali and Tessa went to a concert for a local alternative band - "Stars". I decided there was safety in numbers and they went with a large group of kids from school. It was a late night though - getting home at 12:30 so I let them sleep in the next morning and miss their first period class (I"m getting soft in my old age - I'm sure the boys would tell you I NEVER would have let them do that!!) I had a unit meeting that night with a computer webinar so I got to run the meeting in my pajamas!

Tessa's big news of the week is - she got her hair cut. She looks darling! We're including a picture so you can all check it out! It was a big dance week for Tessa - she had class/rehearsal on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and all day Saturday. They had a New York choreographer in town to work with the kids Her feet were very sore by the time she got home Saturday night!

Friday night Cali and I went to the play at Westview - they did the drama "Anatomy of Gray" They did a great job and it was a thoughtful play.

Saturday - was house cleaning day - it had been sorely neglected with the busyness of the week! Cali left for a weekend birthday party. They were going to stay at the Skamania Lodge - a beautiful resort in the Columbia Gorge for her friend's 18th birthday - what a life!

Jim and I went to the high school auction Saturday night. I was the food chair for the committee so figured I better show up to make sure the food was o.k. - it was delicious. A prime rib and salmon dinner. We had great restraint though and didn't end up with any purchases although Jim was tempted by the courtside Blazer tickets!!

At church today it was our Children's Primary Sacrament program - a little different than the one we saw last week at the branch at the beach. The kids did a great job but the program ran 35 minutes past the time Sacrament usually gets out!! We kept thinking they should have had an intermission! The kids did an amazing job though sitting still that long - I was having a hard time though!!

Cali had her Ecclesiastical interview today for her BYU application so she has the process rolling - her goal over the Thanksgiving break is to get her essay written!

Boy Update:
Logan and Clark had a double date this week - Saturday they both took dates (Logan and Shayla of course) to lunch at Los Hermanos. The boys then went and played a round of golf together. And of course they are both very excited to come home!!

Back from the Beach!

We are a little late with our blog post this week as it was another 3 day weekend and we escaped to the beach for a few days. We enjoyed beautiful weather on Saturday and Sunday but woke up in the m iddle of the night last night to loud winds and rain - the power even went out in the middle of the night!

Saturday we enjoyed a walk on the beach - walking all the way into town where we did a bit of window shopping. We enjoyed dinner at our favorite pizza place - Marzanas and then watched a movie and did some reading. Sunday we attended church at the Neahkahnie Branch - the girls were excited because it was the Primary program which is their favorite meeting of the year. There were only about 8 kids in the Primary. Seven of them were under the age of 7 so the adults did a lot of the talking and the singing wasn't very loud but it was cute to see.

After dinner on Sunday we drove Cali to Camp McGruder where the Concert Choir was having their retreat for the next 3 days. (just south of Manzanita in Rockaway)

This morning, Monday, we woke up to high winds and rains and got the house cleaned and headed home. It was a good day to leave the beach!

We didn't get down to the beach until mid day on Saturday because we went to the playoff football game Friday night. Westview won big time against North Salem so they are into the next playoff game. I sat in the rain most of the evening at the Krispy Kreme table while the kids sold the doughnuts in the stands.

This week was a busy one for Cali. Her Children's Theater class put on their production of Franklin at the local elementary school. Cali played Franklin the turtle and then she was inducted into the National Honor Society that evening. It was the same night as Standard's Night so Tessa went to that and Cali and I showed up late. They had a great speaker from Idaho who is an EFY speaker.

We had Grandma and Grandpa Best over for dinner Tuesday night to celebrate Grandpa's Birthday that was Thursday but they would be in Texas so we celebrated early. I made him a butterscotch pie - his favorite. After dinner Grandma and I headed to the genealogy class we have been taking.

Jim went to Seattle Thursday and Friday for business and I attended a funeral and helped with the food for a former home teacher of ours -second funeral in two weeks:(

Boy Update:

Clark had a quiet week of work, school, flag football game on Saturday - it was a "no date' weekend for him.

Logan and the Young Ambassadors had a 3 day tour to somewhere in Montana, Idaho Falls and Pocatello. The highlight of course was getting to stay at Grandma and Grandpa Wilkes along with 3 of his buddies and be spoiled with all of grandma's home cooking. He also was able to attend a session in the Idaho Falls Temple with Grandpa. He said the shows went great.