Thanksgiving Crane Cousin Fun 2013

Jared and Amanda, Lisa and Jesus, and Shell and Darin came first. We took the crew ice skating... except Michelle and Darin. I think Lily threw a fit in the car and either fell asleep or Rowan fell asleep. In any case, they turned back around.

 Jake had a pajama/reading day at school and came in pi's... totally unfazed.

 Brookie did so much better this year! She could do the walker all by herself and saved my poor back! 

 Can't you tell we're sisters?! Ha! We look nothing alike. Scott and I really enjoyed our time with Li and Jesus. It was so much fun to play cards and visit with them!

 Addie lasted only a short time, so they took turns sitting out with her. Little cutie!

So, this year's game of choice: Telestrations! 

This is pretty much all of dad's drawings. We thought they were hilarious! I think this was "nail salon" or something. Freaky.

 The best is reading through at the end and seeing everyone's interpretation. Ha!

Ice skating round 2 with the Scott Family!

 Poor Ethan was so frustrated, but I don't think he'd skated in a year, and Jake had a few days earlier. It ended up being a little bit of a counseling session for Jacqui and Jeff! Tears were shed, but in the end I think he had fun!

 Afterwords, Alisa and Eliza had a photo shoot with their beanie babies. I had about 20 pictures of this: 

We were so happy everyone could come to Flaggie for Thanksgiving. We played and played. The best was Jesus recruiting for cards, walking around the house asking who wanted to be dealt in! It was a blast! I love my siblings so much. It is a rare treat to be all together. It is chaos, and we love it!

Starting the Blog Again: 2013 Thanksgiving with the Crazy Crane Clan!

November 2013

Brooke got to take home their class pet monkey. She took lots of pictures with him, including doing Let's Play Music, at the gym, at dad's office, and at church! We also had a hilarious round of Telestrations. I tell you, that game makes us laugh like no other! 

Jake's class had an assembly honoring military. It was fun but i misunderstood and we missed the entire patriotic singing part. It was basically a total mom fail, because I didn't understand that he could, and was supposed to, introduce and publicly honor any visiting veteran. Everyone else was prepared with a paper, but he wasn't and his teacher wouldn't let him do it last minute. Mom fail. Some days, weeks, and months are just like that (even in Australia). At least that's what I tell myself. I was humiliated. My dad took it well. 

I started running with Sara Clouse, Sara Maier, and Micheala Wixom in the early morning hours on Saturday. It's nice to run with a group of girls again, but let me tell you! California weather is a lot more pleasant to run in!  Micheala and I ran the Snow Canyon Half Marathon early November. It was hard and fun and tiring! I saw Megan Hoybjerg as I was coming in to finish (then, I couldn't find her for the life of me!). I think I finished just under 2 hours. I felt good. Then I felt sore. We hopped in the car and drove back home so we could be in time for Jake's special date and "the talk." He chose Outback Steak House and had a giant burger. 

Halloween 2013

Every Halloween my mom has all the grandkids over to carve pumpkins. Mostly, it's the parents that scrape out, carve, and try to please all the kids jack-o-lantern whims and visions, while the kids eat caramel apples and run around playing. Then we light them, sing "oooh this is halloween" and call it a night. It'll be fun when they start pulling their own weight for this activity! Ha, ha. 

Alisha wanted to be Mavis from Hotel Transylvania. We did our best. Jake was a ninja and Brooklyn was too tired to stay in her costume. I'm pretty sure she was a princess. Scott and I were Edward and Bella from the Twilight series. 

Visit from Presidente Y Hermana Anderton

For journaling purposes: My mission was amazing. I mean, amazing on many levels. It was like 17 months of camping in church clothes. Honduras is very third world. Most people where I was live in dirt shacks or little shanties made of corrugated metal. Some have a crude stucco house. All have outhouses. Water comes in a "pila" or font in the backyard once a week, usually. This is what people use to bathe, to drink, to wash dishes, etc. The missionaries always lived in a place with a toilet (you pour water down it to flush) and electricity, which is a rare commodity. Yet, for all of it's roughness and poverty, it was the best year and a half FOR my life. It has prepared me for life. Through it all, my mission president and especially Hermana Anderton were my rocks and leaders. I look up to them and admire them so much. 

I was thrilled when Hna. Anderton messaged me saying they wanted to meet for dinner. I feel really privileged since I am the only missionary living in Flagstaff. 

We went to Oreganos and had a fun time seeing a slideshow (of course) of a Guatemalan reunion and the dedication of the Tegucigalpa temple. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my mission presidents and was so happy to spend a few hours with them. 

Kauai - October 2013

We planned and planned for our trip to Kauai. Such. A. Blast. Really, we hiked and hiked over slippery terrain. We hiked to Queen's Bath and probably three other waterfalls. We hiked in to the beach on the Napali Coast after flash floods the day before. We bummed kayaks off Greg and Joanne Allen, kayaked on the Wailua River (in their backyard), and hiked in to a gorgeous waterfall. Then, we kayaked back, bummed their paddle boards off them, and paddle boarded around for awhile. We ate some of the best sushi I've ever had, and brought them back a roll. We visited for a few hours and talked about Bishop Brown and all he did to help Greg get on a mission. It was a great time. We went to church, and were welcomed with homemade yarn leis. We ate shave ice until we were about to pop (I even had to edit out my tummy in one of the pictures!). We ate at Kauai Pasta. We took red-eye flights and rented a Jeep and rolled the top down for the gorgeous drive. It was the trip of a lifetime with my love. :)

And bless Grandma Crane for taking all our hoodlums in the meantime, and showing them what awesome really is. My parents are amazing!