Thanksgiving

It was our turn to host Thanksgiving this year. The Leflers drove in from San Antonio and we had a fun time hanging out and eating a delicious meal.

Earlier this year we purchased our own Pillo Polo set, so after our meal we headed over to the church building and battled for a few games.

Once we had worked off some of the turkey, we came back home for pie.

After the Leflers left, we decorated for Christmas. I got some new lights this year that can do patterns!

Olivia got her braces off

Olivia and Carmen got their braces on at the same time, but Olivia was supposed to have hers on for less time. She always makes things difficult, however, and ended up having them on for about 4 months longer than Carmen.

This week, she finally got them removed, just in time for Thanksgiving.

"Work Out With a Vet" at AHS

On Saturday, the AHS JROTC put on a Veterans Day activity called "Work Out With a Vet". It sounded cool, so I took Miles with me (everyone else was busy with other activities).

Before the workout, we got to climb around in a Coast Guard boat and a Blackhawk helicopter.

They had some speeches, the school dance team performed, and then we were led in a workout by the JROTC, followed by some training drills.

The headliner vet was our favorite eye-patched congressman Dan Crenshaw. After the workout, he also ran the ninja warrior course without much trouble.

I was able to grab a quick selfie with him as the event wrapped up.

Galleria staycation II

Almost three years to the day from our last Galleria staycation, we once again found ourselves with a free hotel stay that was expiring. We considered other locations, but decided to go back to the Galleria.

We drove there Friday afternoon and parked our car at the Williams Tower garage, since it allows overnight parking for much cheaper than the hotel. Since we were there, we checked out the tower and the Waterwall. They inner falls were shut down for repair, but the outer falls were still running.

We walked to the hotel, got ourselves checked in, then went to the Galleria mall to explore.

It's mainly overpriced clothing shops, but we did find some interesting stores to browse. We spent a lot of time in the Lego store making minifigures.

Later in the evening we went to the Museum of Illusions. It had a bunch of really fun illusions. Several of them really broke our brains, like a tunnel that spins and makes you feel like you're spinning instead. Lots of them were designed to be cool photos, too.

Afterwards we went to the same burger place across the street from the hotel for dinner. The service took forever, but the burgers were still good.

The next day we had breakfast at IHOP before heading back home just in time to see Damon and Miles at their Academic UIL competition awards ceremony.

Halloween

It was a busy week of Halloween activities. On Monday night we carved pumpkins (before going to see Newsies at AHS)

On Wednesday night we had our ward Trunk-or-Treat. Amber had finished Olivia's rubber chicken costume by then, and we tag-teamed to get Miles's Lego minifigure costume mostly done. Carmen turned herself into a pirate, and Damon dressed as a king.

By Halloween night on Thursday, the Houston weather had already ruined our pumpkins.

Olivia and Carmen invited some friends over for Halloween-themed food and trick-or-treating.

Amber and I collaborated on Damon's Rubik's cube costume, finishing it at the last minute. We never did get around to making Miles some Lego hands.

The various groups had a successful haul of candy when they came back.

We had so many activities we didn't get around to our spooky Oreo castle until Friday, and even then, we did it with just the boys because the girls were busy.