November

November is the beginning of "The Holidays"

for the Olsen family.

***

Jason and his Veteran co-workers

had Veteran's Day off of work.

So what do a bunch of men-boys

do on their celebrated day off?

1.  They met at the gas station that was giving away

free doughnuts and soda.

2.  They went to the hills of Saratoga Springs

and shot things with guns (old pumpkins and such)

3.  They went to Applebees for free lunch.

4.  They played 9 holes of golf.

5.  They went out for a free dinner.

A full day of war-vets bonding time.

I wish I had a picture of their group.

But all I got was a picture of the aftermath

of the truck 4-wheelin through the muddy hills.

We got our first big snow.

I really don't like the cold,

luckily I'm married to Jason who

loves playing in the snow with the kids.

Lyla loved being in the snow,

but had a hard time walking from one place to the next.

Jason has his very own tradition

that on the first big snow of the season

he has to build the biggest snowman he can.

Lyla kept on patting the snowman,

she thought he was great.

Another one of Jason's "first snow" traditions

is that he has to build a big ramp for sledding down.

***

Jason ended up having the Wednesday

before Thanksgiving off.

I found out that the Disney "Tangled" movie

came out that day.  Jason said that I could

take the boys and he would be more than happy

to stay home with Lyla.

I loved the movie, it was adorable.

***

Our Thanksgiving weekend

was busier than normal.

It was my siblings turn to be with the in-laws.

So we had a quiet dinner at my mom's without any cousins.

I went Black Friday shopping with my sisters,

which is a Thanksgiving tradition

and Jason took Carter tree hunting which is another tradition.

This year we had the truck, so they went up farther

onto the mountain than previous years.

They hiked until they found the perfect tree

It was GREAT to be able to throw the tree

into the back of the truck

instead

of wrapping a tarp around it and

tying it to the top of the pilot.

After finding the tree,

Jason came and picked me up in Orem

so that we could get back up to Aunt Michelle's

for Thanksgiving with his Mom's side of the family.

Jason's sister was suppose to come in from Washington,

but because of all the crazy blizzards

they decided to post-pone their trip for another time.

She had tickets to the Utah vs. BYU game on Saturday.

She was kind enough to give them to Jason.

It was really cold this Thanksgiving weekend.

I really didn't want to find a babysitter to go and

sit in the cold for 3 hours,

so I suggested Jason take Carter to the game.

Carter got to ride Front Runner for the first time.  

At the game

They had great seats, on the 4th row

This was Jason's first game,

they had a great time and want to go back.