ISU Civic Concert

We started our Christmas holidays tonight when we went to the Stephen's Performing Arts Center to watch Jeffrey play with the ISU Civic Concert Band.  He chose to participate with the Civic Band this year instead of the Marching Band.  There were a good number of people in the Jensen Grand Concert Hall, but it wasn't full.  We had good seats in the front row of the upper section.  Jeffrey played the French Horn.  He had accidentally signed up to work the show before realizing he was also playing in the show, so he helped behind stage up until the concert started.  They performed "Sleigh Ride", "The Child and the Kings", "Auld Lang Syne", "Winter Dreams", and "In Dulce Jubilo".  It was a nice performance.  The ISU Symphonic Band performed after the Civic Band, and we stayed to watch them.  We liked the musical numbers from the Civic Band better.  The Center was all decked out in Christmas decorations and the Festival of Trees was all set up in the lobby area.  It's amazing to see the work put into decorating those trees.

Murphy's Birthday Celebration

On Saturday, Wendy and I drove down to Utah.  During the day we had picked up our beef from Del Monte Meat and Wendy had separated the packages.  We packed a couple of coolers into a minivan along with our overnight bags.  We stopped at Ashley and Caz's home to deliver their meat and share a meal.  They made Philly Steak sandwiches.  Then we drove to Tyler and Jaylen's home and delivered the rest of the meat.  We stayed the night in their new guest bedroom in their recently finished basement.  All of the rooms turned out really well.  We relaxed on their new sofa and watched T.V. for a little bit with the surround sound speaker system that Tyler installed.  

We slept in Sunday morning for a little bit, and then played with the kids for a little while.  Jaylen and her sister decorated the upstairs and soon everyone was arriving for the birthday party.  Murphy had turned 2 years old on November 7th, but we were all able to be together to celebrate today.  We had pizza, pasta salad, and Jell-o salad for lunch, and cookies for dessert.  Murphy opened several gifts, and he really seemed to enjoy the remote controlled bus that he was given.  Wendy and I left shortly after lunch and drove to Ikea where we purchased a new dishwasher.  The weather had turned very wet and rain was pouring down.  We stopped at Caz and Ashley's again to pick up a desk that Wendy wanted, and then we drove home.  We set up the desk in Wendy's downstairs office.

Hockey Weekend in Virginia

We drove to the SLC airport on Thursday, November 6th, to catch a flight.  We took Delta nonstop to Dulles Airport.  Our flight left at 5:30 pm and we landed in Dulles at 11:00 pm.  It was a smooth flight except the pilot came into the landing pretty hot.  He really had to hit the brakes.  We rented a Chevy Malibu from Alamo and drove to Ryan and Megan's home.  We got there about 1:00 a.m. and Ryan was waiting up for us.  We visited with him for about half an hour before going to bed.  

We were up a little after 7:00 a.m. to get dressed and out the door.  Ryan drove us to Haymarket and we grabbed a McDonald's breakfast before heading over to the Haymarket IcePlex to watch Beckham play his morning hockey game.  We watched from the balcony above and Megan came up to say hello and visit.  She is the team "mom" and was also in charge of playing music whenever the game play stopped.  She controlled the music from her phone.  It was fun to watch even though the arena was pretty cold.  Ryan and Megan have these electric hand warmers that we could use, and those helped a lot.  We returned home after the game and took a nap.  In the afternoon we drove to Leesburg, Virginia to the Ion Ice Rink to watch Beckham play his second hockey game of the tournament.  It is a nice venue with a Bar and Cafe and lots of stadium seating to watch the game.  After the game we drove back to Bristow, and we all had dinner at the Firebirds Restaurant.  The food was excellent, and we had plenty of leftovers.  We were ready for bed when we got home.

Saturday was very similar to Friday.  Beckham's morning hockey game started at 7:00 a.m. so we were up a little after 6:00 a.m. to get ready to go.  That was at the Haymarket IcePlex.  We rested during the day although I did play some Ping Pong with Cooper.  Megan made a delicious soup for lunch with some sourdough bread.  In the afternoon we returned to the Ion Ice Rink in Leesburg.  After the game we bought a professional picture of Beckham playing.   We stopped at the Shake Shack on the way home to buy dinner, and we played Quirkle and Yahtzee before going to bed.

We slept in for a little bit on Sunday morning, and we relaxed at home.  Then we all drove together to Hagerstown, Maryland.  Wendy was experiencing some pain in her ear and jaw, so we dopped her off at an Urgent Care clinic.  After arriving at the Ice and Sports Complex I took the vehicle back to the clinic to get Wendy, and then we all watched Cooper play his hockey game.  The arena was very cold.  I bought us a hot chocolate and popcorn to snack on.  After the game we stopped at a pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Wendy before returning to Bristow.  We decided to eat at BJ's Restaurant.  Wendy and I split a Prime Rib dinner that came with a Pizookie dessert.  This is two scoops of ice cream on top of a large warm cookie, and it was very good.  We went home and played Quirkle with another Hockey mom who had come over to visit with Ryan and Megan.  We went to bed early after saying good-bye and good night to everyone.

On Monday morning we were up at 3:00 a.m. to get dressed and finish packing.  We left the house a little before 4:00 a.m.  We drove to the car return at the Dulles Airport and then took a shuttle to the terminal.  We went through security and then the underground rail to the B concourse.  We arrived at our gate a little before 6:00 a.m.  That's when we got the first message that our flight would be delayed from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.  We were getting hit by the flight disruptions caused by the government shutdown.  We decided that we would probably wait it out, but at 6:30 a.m. we got another text message indicating that our flight was now delayed until 3:00 p.m.  Our standby instincts kicked in and we ran to a different gate where they were almost done boarding a flight to Seattle.  The gate agent rebooked us and got us on the flight.  We flew from Dulles to Seattle without any problems, but when we arrived in Seattle we were informed that the connection from Seattle to Sale Lake City had been cancelled.  We were rebooked on a flight to San Francisco which left immediately.  After arriving in San Francisco we approached the gate agent boarding a flight to Salt Lake, but he told us it was full.  We ended up staying in San Francisco for more than four hours.  We ate lunch and took a nap on some convenient lounge chairs.  We took our final flight and arrived in Salt Lake City about 8:00 p.m.  We were too tired to drive all the way home so we stopped at Caz and Ashley's home to spend the night.  That was quite the day.  

Camden's Birthday

We left this morning to drive down to Utah.  We went to Fat Cats to meet up with Caz, Ashley, Camden, Tyler, Jaylen, Baylor, Murphy, Rob and LaDonna.  We were the last to arrive, so we picked up our bowling shoes and joined the others who had two lanes all set to go.  We had pizza, fries, drinks, and cupcakes while we bowled.  We stayed for a little after bowling to watch the kids play a few of the arcade games, and then we all drove to Caz and Ashley's home.  We watched Camden open his gifts, and he seemed to enjoy everything.  Caz started a fire in their outdoor fire pit, and we all went outside to roast marshmallows and make S'mores.  It was a little cold today, but the fire was nice.  We returned home in the late afternoon.

Kevin and Kay's Wedding

This weekend we participated in celebrating Kevin and Kay's marriage.  On Wednesday, September 17th, Caz, Ashley, and Camden drove to Ontario, Oregon.  Along the way they met up with Tyler, Jaylen, Baylor, and Murphy and had lunch at Twin Falls.  They all stayed the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Ontario.  On Thursday, September 18th, Wendy, Jeffrey, and I drove to Boise after packing up a large SUV with a wedding cake, cupcakes, several bags of chips and bottles of salsa, along with our luggage.  We arrived in Boise about 2:00 p.m. at the Avis/Budget store.  I stayed to run the store while Kevin, Wendy, and Jeffrey left to go to the wedding rehearsal and dinner.  They arrived in Ontario and checked into the hotel, and then everyone went to the venue at Sunnyside Farm near Weiser, Idaho.  They did the rehearsal, and then the wedding party went to eat dinner at Wingers.  They had about 30 people in the group, so they ended up waiting quite a while for their meal to be served.  I worked at the store until 5:30 p.m. and then went to Kaleb's football game at Capital High School.  I ended up sitting on the track that surrounds their football field because they have only one small bleacher.  I found Kaleb and said hello.  I took him home after the game and we waited for Kevin to return home.  I took off and drove to Ontario to stay at the hotel.  

On Friday, September 19th, we ate breakfast at the hotel and then drove to Sunnyside Farm.  They had a nice venue with a wedding area surrounded by tall trees and a large barn for the reception.  We helped set up chairs and decorations for a couple of hours.  We returned to the hotel for a quick lunch and rest before returning to the venue around 2:30 p.m.  I found the groomsmen in a small building that was set up for them.  Kevin, Jastin, Caz, Kaleb, Jeffrey, and a step-brother to Kay were there.  They were all dressed and looked sharp.  The room was air conditioned which was important because the outside temperature was now above 80 degrees.  I left them to go mingle with guests who were now arriving.  Wendy was with the bridal party where Kay was getting ready.  It was nice to see so many guests who had taken the time to drive all the way from Pocatello.  I was definitely concerned about the afternoon heat.  The wedding took place a little after 4:00 p.m. and it turned out nice.  We had photos taken after the wedding, and then we all went to the barn where the tables had been set up.  We had chips and salsa and drinks before getting our taco dinner from a food truck parked outside.  Kay stood to thank the guests, and then some family, including Ashley, Tyler, Wendy, and Kay's dad, mom and sister stood to congratulate the couple.  They cut the wedding cake and served cupcakes with music and dancing.  We stayed to help take down the decorations and clean up.  Then we left around 9:30 p.m. to return to the hotel.

On Saturday we ate a late breakfast at the hotel.  Jeffrey drove Kevin's car while I drove the SUV from Ontario to Boise.  Kevin and Kay had left their home about 7:00 a.m. to go to the airport, and we picked up Kaleb about 10:00 a.m.  Kevin and Kay flew to Italy to take a Mediterranean Cruise.  After getting Kaleb we all drove back to Pocatello.