Yikes! I've Lost a Month

Where did this last month go?  It's that busy time of year again, and I have fallen behind in my posts.  Here's the recap.

November was a busy month, mostly because, in addition to gearing up for my concert, we decided to trek home for Thanksgiving--something only attempted one other time during all our married years away.  It was going to be great.  We would take the kids out of school early so we could have a full week at home.  We would see family members we haven't seen in over a year.  We would enjoy the blessings of spending the Thanksgiving holiday with loved ones and lots of yummy food.

BUT...

the weather had other ideas.  We have had such a mild fall here in the midwest that I really wasn't too concerned about the drive home across Wyoming.  Kris, on the other hand, kept my enthusiasm in check with little reminders that we would go IF the weather was good.

We watched the forecast like a hawk the week before our trip.  Things weren't looking good.  But we were going!  We continued with our plans as the forecast got worse and worse.

Friday night came.  We delivered the fish to some friends to fishsit for us.  We  packed all our duffle bags (prep day is my least favorite day of any trip) into the car.  All our stuff + Christmas gifts = sitting room only.  But we were ready.

Then I walked in the house (about 9:30 pm) to see Kris sitting on the couch looking very concerned.  He had just checked the weather one last time and things didn't look good.

After some discussion and some heartfelt prayer between the two of us, we decided it was wise to not travel--at least on Saturday.  So we brought the excited kids down to break the news that at least for Saturday the trip was off.  We still held out hope that the storm might break and we could make it on Sunday.  Of course they were sad, but we all tried to exercise faith that it would work out.

Over the next day and a half the weather reports got worse and worse.  During one prayer Kris and I both felt very distinctly that we should just stay home for this Thanksgiving and not risk our family's safety for a quick trip home.  We talked to the kids at length about following impressions from the Holy Ghost, especially when it's not what we were hoping for.  After a good discussion, they felt OK about staying here and enjoying some good family time with just our little family.  I was really proud of them for their attitude.

And in the end, we were so glad we followed the promptings we received.  The weather out west was TERRIBLE all week.  My mom called every day to tell us how glad she was we decided not to come.  And we ended up having a great week together {we kept the kids out of school anyway}.  Here are the highlights.

**Kris, Jack, and Josh went "modeling"--Jack's way of describing their trip to Hobby Lobby to pick out some models to work on together.

**The girls and I went to a pottery place so they could paint.

**We went bowling during school hours.

**Some kind friends took pity on us and invited us to Thanksgiving at their home so I didn't have to cook the whole meal.

**We saw Tangled as a family and loved it.

**Kris got to spend Saturday {rather than driving us back to Iowa} watching Ohio State beat Michigan and BYU come oh-so-close against Utah.

We were sad at first, but it was the right call in the end.  We had great weather all week and we were safe and warm!