Malachi came into my room one day last month and informed me that he was going to walk 50 miles in a day, from Saratoga Springs to Centerville, with his friend Jonas. I asked (as everyone who's heard about it since has asked), WHY he wanted to do such a thing! How about 20 miles?, I countered. Or even 26.2? But he was set on 50. At the risk of not doing justice to his complex and personal reasons, I think it had to do with him wanting to do something hard, truly hard, before his mission—just so he would know he could. I actually relate to that. It's the same reason I wanted to run 16 miles on my 16th birthday. Just to know I could, just to say I had, I don't know. Our souls feel the need. :)
At any rate, he figured out a route that would take him by our house to get some food partway through, and he and Jonas dropped off a car at the finish and then went to sleep at Jonas' house so they could start early in the morning. Then, right on schedule (ahead of schedule, really, because they ran most of that first 20 miles), they showed up at our house, ready to eat some chicken salad croissants! (Luke came by for moral support.) They gulped them down, changed shoes, and then went off again on their journey!
I called Malachi a couple hours later and he sadly informed me that Jonas had gotten bad blisters and stopped at mile 30, but Ky was still feeling good and was pressing on. I felt so bad for him doing this all alone, but I also knew he really wanted to finish and would give it everything he had. I went and met him with a banana and another change of shoes around mile 40, and then we drove to the end of the route to cheer him on. Sam and Teddy walked toward him to meet him and do the last mile or so together, and even that felt long! We couldn't believe the grit and persistence it must have taken to do all 50. In fact, it turned out to be 55 miles—and he did it in 15 hours. Amazing. He looked tired, but not completely exhausted, when he reached the end.
I got him the biggest hamburger we could find, and then he collapsed into bed for a well-earned rest!
I also liked this picture of Ky at a debate tournament. I don't even know what award he's receiving, but he seems to be stepping forward for it with grace and good humor.
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The Search and Rescue man brought an injured victim to our house. Sadly, he could not be saved.
Playing "family"
Ziggy reinvented music notation—he came to me with this paper saying "This is 'Good King Wenceslas'" and as I looked at it I could see that, indeed it was. Looks like Gregorian Chant notation.
Clementine with a brown gnome (at a garden store we went to)
Clementine has also been writing lots of unintelligible words…
drawing really cute Caws…
…and of course, continuing to draw Dancing Gnomes. This one is extra noodley and exuberant even by Clementine's standards (with a crown on top of the ball on his hat)! Here is Junie re-creating how these gnomes dance:
Poinsettias!
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These little monkeys are Christmas ornaments, and I used to always find them moved around to different places on the Christmas tree by an unknown hand. Now their antics have taken on a life of their own. I have nothing to do with this, do not even know who is responsible, in fact (though I have my suspicions), but this month "Red Monkey" has been appearing in different guises every day and bringing little notes and treats to Gus. It is so adorable and Gus loves it so much. One day Red Monkey dressed as a pirate (as shown above) and brought a bunch of gold coins and a few chocolate jewels.
Another day he was a peanut butter sandwich…
…which inspired Gus and Clementine to get out the sandwich Halloween costume from the costume box.
I haven't gotten pictures of all the days (as I said, I am not involved in this and often don't even know it's happening), but Red Monkey has also been a Caw, an M&M, a pencil, a Christmas tree, a robber, a birthday cake…It's so fun!
Gus is awed and delighted with Red Monkey's appearances, and was moved to write a little thank-you note for him:
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Another blanket! Daisy made this one for Junie (early Christmas present). We love the purple color. Now we need someone to order a green one and a blue one so we can see what they look like!
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After we finished up our previous school unit, the kids were begging to have a read-a-thon, so we found a free day for it. We made blanket nests in the library and around the house, and just read ALL DAY (till naptime, anyway). It was heavenly. I haven't read any books for fun in ages, but I read TWO the girls had been trying to get me to read (Mara, Daughter of the Nile [about Ancient Egypt] and Five for Victory [takes place during World War II], if you're interested) and they were both good. And it was so quiet all day! And so peaceful! The littlest ones didn't read the whole time but they at least played quietly!
Teddy and Gus braved the cold to make a nest out on the porch swing. And what is that mass of pillows beneath them?
Ah! Clementine!
It was a fun day.
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We haven't made a meal at the Ronald McDonald House for several years now, but it's been one of our favorite things to do. The Ronald McDonald House is a place to stay for families of sick children at Primary Children's Hospital, and basically you just use their kitchen to cook a meal for the families staying there. (You can't bring any already-prepared food because of food safety issues.) Then you serve it and clean up. Easy and fun. At the Salt Lake house, you have to make enough for 60-70 people, which is a little more daunting, but they just opened up another location at the Lehi hospital, and there you only have to serve 20-30 people for a meal. That's practically the amount I already cook for every day!
We made breakfast for dinner—hash brown casserole, bacon, scrambled eggs, and orange julius. The older kids are fully capable of stirring the casserole up themselves, so I left them to it and mostly kept track of many, many pans of bacon coming in and out of the oven. (Goodness, people eat a lot of bacon! It is practically impossible to ever make enough! It is delicious, so I'm not criticizing.) (Sam had class that night, so he couldn't come.)
Ziggy took his dish-drying duties very seriously
There is a pretty view out the window!
Clementine and Gus were pleased about their "glubs"
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A few more fun and festive things. Homemade donuts, which we really only make once a year.
A tiny TINY bit of snow…the only snow we've seen at all yet this year!
A little Christmas tree I got for the girl's room
Junie has done it for enough years now that she is an expert at decorating the big tree!
Gummy bears lined up for a special game of Hallmark Bingo…usually we just use pens to cross off our squares, but occasionally we mark them with gummy bears, which means you can mark one square multiple times, if it happens multiple times. You can sometimes really clean up on "Surprise Canadian accent" or "Precocious child, wise beyond her years" that way.
Teddy saw these beautiful green leather scriptures at Deseret Book earlier this year and made up his mind to buy them. I told him they were very expensive…$80…but he was determined! He actually had to earn twice that amount since we have the kids put half of their money in mission/college savings, and pay tithing of course, but he weeded the yard all spring, summer, and fall, and ended up with enough money! I was happy to take him to the store so he could finally buy his scriptures. They are soft and very nice! He loves them!
And lastly, some pretty skies.
