All the fall things

What a week!  We did so much this week. Heads up, this is going to be a LONG post full of pictures. But it was all great so lets get cracking. 

I ended my last post talking about how Brandon and the twins went to Utah to get our new-to-us stove from his parents house. They got home around 10:30 and went right to bed. On Monday evening Brandon and Derrick moved the stove into the kitchen. I didn't get a picture of it then, but later that evening I took this picture of Veronica's dragon and happened to get a picture of the stove. So yay! we have a stove again. 

Monday was a holiday so there was no mail and the banks were closed. And since my job depends a lot on the mail and the bank I decided to just take the day off. So I stayed home and did a lot of cleaning. I got a lot of laundry done, cleaned my bathroom, went through my clothes, and mopped all the floor upstairs. It was a very productive day. 

Brandon was home on Monday night for the first time in months. We watched Wednesday. That's been a fun show to watch as a family. 

On Tuesday I went to work in the morning because I hadn't been there on Monday. I had my first round of training some people to be my billing back ups. We had a huge stack of mail to go through so there was a lot to show them. 

That evening Brandon was home AGAIN. After the hecticness of Tech Week the free time in the second week of a show feels like a beautiful gift. 

The weather was perfect so we planned to go to Tubbs Berry Farm. Our first stop was the pumpkin patch. 

Charlotte and Lydia were on the weed crew here. They worked here on Wednesday mornings from 7:00-10:00. They weeded a lot of different parts of the farm, but they spent a lot of time hoeing weeds in the pumpkin patch. 

All the plants had died and so we could just walk through the fields. Lydia was like, "It feels wrong to step on the plants after a whole summer being careful around them."

The pumpkin patch was so much bigger than I realized. It went really far. We didn't even leave the first section. 

It took the kids a while to find their perfect pumpkins. 

Here's Veronica with hers. 

Here I am. 

And me and Brandon. 

The kids kept trying to get really big pumpkins. We told them they had to be able to carry them. Then Brandon joked they had to carry them with one hand. 

We got a wheel barrow and the girls helped pull it to the store. They said they moved hay bales in these barrows.

We paid for the pumpkins. They were like $60 - ouch!  But I was okay paying that because I wanted to support this local business that helped our girls get their first job this summer. 

We took the pumpkins to the car and then came back and paid for entrance to the fall activities side of the farm. It was $12 per person so $72. Again it was worth it. Also under normal circumstances we wouldn't have done both things in the same day. If Brandon hadn't been busy with the play we probably would have come picked out pumpkins earlier in October. And then we would have come around this time for the fall activities. 

This was my first time at Tubbs Berry Farm for the fall stuff. Our ward usually comes here for a youth activity every October. So Brandon has been here with Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick. But this was the first time for me and Veronica. I was really impressed by how fun everything was. 

Our first stop was the goats for Charlotte to love on.

All the kids loved them.

Then the kids played on the big slides. 

After that we decided to go through the straw maze. This is what it looks like from above.

But inside it was really hard to know where we were. They made it more fun by having little things to find in the maze. We all had punch cards that had shapes on them. As we went through the maze we'd find punch that matched the shapes on our cards. For example there would be a circle on the card and then we'd find the circle punch. 

So even after we found our way out of the maze we still went back into it to find all the hole punches. That made it more fun than just wandering around. Here's Veronica showing off her card with all the punches. 

After we were done with the maze the kids played in these big rolling things for a while. Someone would sit in the tube while the other kids pushed them around. 

Someone came over and told us the last hay ride was leaving in about 5 minutes so we got in line for that. Here are the kids in the wagon. 

And me and Brandon. 

The hay ride went through the pumpkin patch. 

Here's the pretty sun set. 

This is the garlic field. New garlic just got planted. Charlotte and Lydia had helped harvest it back in July. And Charlotte had worked many extra shifts trimming garlic. 

I've never seen a pumpkin patch this big before. 

The pumpkins they don't sell they feed to their animals so they are fine growing this many. 

When the hay ride was over the kids went back to playing on the slides. 

Then Brandon climbed up a big hay bale tower and everyone followed him.

Here they all are at the top. 

Then we went over to a little barrel train. I though this was just for the kids, but it was adult sized. So Brandon and I climbed in too. 

This was so much fun. We went around and around for a long time. 

We went over to a big bouncy pad, but I didn't take any pictures there because it was getting really dark. Then we walked over to the food truck and turned in our completed maze cards for small bags of popcorn. 

The kids played around on everything for a long time. I was getting tired and cold so I just kind of sat on a bench and through about how nice this was. Here's Veronica on the slide again.

Then Derrick was ready to go so he and I went to the car and got it warmed up for everyone else. They joined us about 10 minutes later. 

On Wednesday I stopped by Castle Therapy to pick up the mail. Now that Eastland is open they are redoing the parking lot for that office. They lost some of the parking lot space to the road expansion so they are adding some parking spots in an area next to the office. That means the current parking lot is mostly blocked off. So I just got the mail and left. 

At 10:00 my scripture study group met for the first time in a few weeks. We had A LOT to process. It was pretty inspired of me to pick the book Faith After Doubt to read right now. We all needed it. 

Then I went to work. I'd taken Monday off so that meant I needed to work on Wednesday to stay on top of everything. 

After work I went to pick up Charlotte and Lydia. I realized the odometer was about to go over 295500 miles. So I took a picture when it hit that mark. This was Wednesday October 15th. It had only been Thursday October 9th when I'd taken the picture of the odometer at 295000. So in less than a week we'd added 500 miles to the car. Most of that was the trip to Utah. 

No one was interested in the Youth Activity that week so everyone stayed home. Brandon had the pick up rehearsal for Sweeny so he was gone. 

Thursday was a pretty normal day. Work, School, Blah Blah Blah. After school Derrick was talking to me about dinosaurs (as usual). He loved to read dinosaur facts with me. The website he reads lists their height and length in meters. So he likes to get out his tape measure and see how big everything would be. It's been a good way for him to learn how to measure. I think this is a picture of him showing off how tall a Velociraptor is. (By the way, velociraptor is his favorite dinosaur.)

That evening I took the girls to see Sweeny Todd. Derrick just stayed home and watched movies on his own. But everyone else wanted to see the show. 

Here are me and Veronica together. 

Here we are trying to do a twin picture. 

And here are the real twins. They were in the seats in front of me. 

It's funny because I didn't take Veronica to see Hadestown because I knew she couldn't handle how sad that play was. She would have seen Eurydice shivering and just been a mess. But the gruesome tale of Sweeny Todd wasn't something I was worried about her seeing. This is the girl who had skulls on her birthday cake when she was 7. She LOVES macabre stuff.  

I'm trying to figure out how to describe Sweeny Todd. It's kind of like the Count of Monte Cristo, but if Edmund Dantes became a serial killer after coming back from prison. And there is cannibalism. All of Sweeny's victims get ground up into meat for Mrs Lovett's pies. That people unknowingly buy and eat. 

This meme makes a lot of sense right?

Honestly, I wouldn't have been as cool with Brandon being in this play if it wasn't for a GLOWING endorsement of Sweeny Todd from the hosts of Baconsale. Even "Family Friendly" Joel loves Sweeny Todd. 

And the reason is the music. The music is incredible. It elevates the plot which feels like it could be an episode of Criminal Minds and makes the show into an amazing theatre experience. Everyone in this play did an excellent job singing the complicated music. The two leads were especially good. The version of the sound track that I listen to on Spotify has Josh Groban as the lead. Well Magic Valley's Preston Edwards sounded just like him. 

Another good thing about this play was that it didn't drag. Sometimes the second act of plays can feel a little long. (I'm looking at you Lida Rose in The Music Man.) But this play is nearly 3 hours long and we were on the edges of our seats during most of the second act. 

Here are a few pictures of Brandon in the play. Here he is with Brenden (it doesn't get confusing at all), and Rylie. 

Here he is with Kenny Sparks and Connor. 

And here he is getting a shave from Pirelli played by my Cinderella dance partner Paul. 

Oh and I need to tell you about the second show that was happening during Act 1. There was a drunk couple sitting a few rows ahead of us. At first the woman was just clapping at odd times so it wasn't too disruptive. But then she dropped one of her liquor bottles and we could hear it rolling on the floor.  Then she and her husband TURNED ON THEIR PHONE FLASHLIGHTS and were looking for what they'd dropped. They were muttering really loudly and swearing. 

I was able to go into the lobby and find someone to ask them to leave but someone in front of the twins got up and went to the lobby. A few minutes later my friend Heather came in and asked them to quiet down. As soon as she left the lady got really loud and was swearing even more. 

So I went to the lobby and said, "they haven't quieted down yet."  So Jake, who is a big guy, went to go talk to them. On my way back in I saw my friend Brent and asked him to come along to back up Jake. So Brent stood a few rows back and was ready to step in if Jake needed him. Jake asked the couple to either quiet down or leave. Then he hung around a minute. The lady ended up walking out in a huff. The man followed a little later. EVERYONE breathed a sigh of relief after they were gone. 

After the show we went out to the lobby to see Brandon and all the other actors. I was so proud of everyone. This was Brandon's 5th show with Magic Valley Repertory Theatre. I think it was his most challenging because it required a lot of singing. But he loved it. And everyone loved working with Brandon. He has a reputation for being really easy to work with. 

We got home after 10:00 and it was immediately bed time for everyone. 

On Friday the kids all had an early out. On Sunday when I'd made the schedule for the week I'd figured out what time I needed to pick everyone up. I took a picture of that so I could remember. 

At work I got a lot done because I would be gone on Monday and Tuesday. My bosses wife Jessica was in the office covering reception. I LOVE when Jessica is around because she is really fun to talk to. But I was so busy that I couldn't talk to her. I had to get something off the printer and I told her, "I really want to talk to you forever, but I have so much to get done."  But I finished all my stuff at 12:15 and had about 15 minutes to talk with her before I had to leave to get the twins. That was fun. 

I got the twins and dropped them off at home. About 20 minutes later I went to get Derrick. I was hoping to go grocery shopping after getting him, but I was so tired. I yawned so much on the way back home. So when I got home I just took a nap. (Veronica just walks home so I didn't nee to get her.)

That nap was wonderful. I knew I'd make it through the rest of the evening after that nap. We were going to the Wilson Wizarding Experience - or as my family calls it, "The Harry Potter Thing."  Brandon couldn't go because he had Sweeny Todd. So I was taking the kids. Charlotte started getting into a costume and soon Lydia and Veronica joined in. Brandon was home and he helped tie the girls' ties. 

We said goodbye to Brandon around 4:30 and drove out to Rupert. We got there a little after 5:00. Here are the girls heading toward the Wilson Theatre. 

The event didn't start until 6:00, but we wanted to get into the building as close to 6:00 as possible. So we were willing to wait in line outside the building for an hour if that meant we'd have shorter lines inside the building. We were the second group in line. The third group was actually our friends Avery and Mathieu from theatre. Avery took this picture of me with the kids. 

I took this picture of the kids. Lydia is wearing the robes I bought her when she was Hermione years ago.  They still fit. She's also wearing one of Derrick's shirts and a tie she got at this event last year.  Charlotte is wearing one of my sweaters. She has on a scarf she bought at the gift shop tent. Veronica is wearing my bathrobe and one of Brandon's white shirts. Her tie is from last year. Derrick didn't dress up, but he could have. The girls looked so good someone asked them if they were cast members. 

The kids spent time going to the gift shop and walking around the nearby park. I was happy to hold the space in line and talk to Avery and Mathieu. Avery is hoping to be in Anastasia as well so we were commiserating about how hopeless we felt about our chances to be in that play. 

Some characters came and entertained us while we were in line. Hagrid and Helga Hufflepuff had a whole bit where he tried to light a tree on fire to keep us all warm, but he ended up lighting her book on fire. It was cool to see real flames coming from her book. 

Voldemort also came by. He asked about the "strange symbol" on a little boy's shoes. It was the spider man logo. Veronica was in line with me and she thought it was really funny. 

At 5:30 the people who had paid for VIP tickets were let into the building. They paid extra for a bag and the chance to go through the building before it was more crowded. 

A little before 6:00 they started letting us regular ticket holders through the line. Soon we were walking into the building. There were lots of people dressed up like Harry Potter characters waiting to greet us. And everything was decorated so well as usual. 

I found myself smiling so big. Every year I'm just so impressed by how well done this event is. It really brings out the kid in me. 

We'd all agreed that our first stop would be the line for wands. So we skipped the line for getting sorted into houses and went to wands. That was a really good plan. They had us sit in seats while we waited for our turn to go back. 

We could see the people being sorted into houses. (They do it with a tree here instead of a hat.)

Professor Sprout was showing us her mandrakes. Professor Umbridge was making sure she wasn't breaking any rules. 

Here's the mandrake. 

Soon it was our turn and we were taken to Diagon Ally. 

And then into the wand shop. We watched a demo and then the kids picked their wands. Derrick was very set on having number 14. I'm not sure why. 

Here's Veronica with hers.

Derrick with his. 

Charlotte and Lydia with theirs. 

Then we went outside into an ally way. The train went by while we were out there. 

Here are the kids with their wands. 

And the wands again. 

Throughout the night Derrick kept having conversations with the Malfoy Family. He talked to Lucius the most. Later, after it was dark, Lucius put on his death eater mask. Derrick asked, "Who is that guy?"  I was like, "That's the guy you've been talking to all night. I hate to tell you, but he's one of the bad guys."

Here's the badges the kids had this year. They were really high quality and on lanyards this time. That was nice because half the time we almost loose them when they are just cards. 

We were waiting in line to go into the forbidden forest. Usually this line is super long. But since we'd got to wands so fast there wasn't much of a line in front of us. 

I took this video of the kids using their wands to ward off Dementors in the forbidden forest. It's not great, but it's really funny when I scream at the end. A giant spider had jumped out at me. 

We went back into the building to see how the line for sorting was looking. We also stopped in the bathroom. Veronica posed with the mirror that said, "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware."

The line for sorting was too long so we got in line for "Study Hall."  That was another line where we waited while sitting in the seats. It was nice to just look around and kind of rest. I really liked the banners that were hanging from the ceiling. 

Study Hall was taught by Arthur Weasley again. He is always so good. I always feel like I'm actually learning. Derrick was really into it and thought it was so funny when he got sprayed with some water from a wand. At another point Arthur Weasley lit his glove on fire, but didn't get burned that was really cool. 

Then we went into Honeydukes. The girls all bought candy with money they had been saving. Derrick is still saving up for his computer tower and didn't want to waste any money on candy, but I knew he really wanted a jaw breaker. So I told the kids I'd buy them all jaw breakers. So I did. Honestly, it's really hard to find jaw breakers at the store and buying them online is expensive unless you buy them in big quantities, so this is actually a pretty affordable place to buy them. 

Here's Derrick with his big $6 jaw breaker. It was labeled a "Bludger."

And here he is posing with his wand. 

Here's Lydia with her candy and Veronica buying hers in the background. 

And Charlotte smiling about something. 

We went back downstairs and the line to be sorted was very short. So the kids got in line. 

They put their hands on the tree and then the branches change color to reflect what house they get sorted into. Here's Derrick. The tree is cycling through green, but he ended up in red for "Fire House."  This isn't an official Harry Potter Experience so they can't actually call it Gryffindor. So it's Fire House. But it's totally Gryffindor. Even the scarf he got said Gryffindor.

Charlotte and Veronica got Sytherine and Lydia got Ravenclaw. It's not random. There is actually a worker who casually asks them what house they want and then enters it onto an I-pad before they go up. But the little kids (and Derrick I think) totally buy it as the tree choosing it for them. In all the other years they got ties, but this year it was scarves. 

After getting sorted the kids wanted to go back outside. So we went out there. It's always fun when the fires are on out there. 

Then we went to a potions hut where the kids got glittery potions. 

Then we rode the train. 

Here's Charlotte. 

And Derrick. 

And me and Veronica. 

Here's the Wilson from the train. 

It's such a cool building. 

The girls went to the gift shop tent and bought some things. Charlotte got a charm bracelet. Lydia and Veronica bought music boxes.  We went back into the building so we could check out a few more things. 

There are always so many fun displays. 

I could fill this post with pictures like this. 

Around 8:00 we realized we had seen and done pretty much everything. So even though the event lasted until 9:00 we decided to leave. 

When we got home the kids showed me their wand collections. This is Lydia's. 

And Charlotte's. 

And Veronica's. 

And a few days later I took a picture of Derrick's. 

This is such a fun tradition and I love that the kids still enjoy it. When we'd made our Fall Bucket List the "Harry Potter Thing" had been the first thing each of the kids talked about. 

I went to bed around 10:00, but the kids were still up. They stayed up talking in Charlotte and Lydia's room for a while. But they were in bed long before Brandon came home. He'd gone to dinner with the cast at Applebee's. (He did text me to see if I wanted to go. He sent the text at 10:30. I'd been asleep for 20 minutes.) He didn't come home until 1:30. He LOVES hanging out with all his cast friends. 

On Saturday I got up around 8:30 and Veronica and I went grocery shopping at Winco. Brandon went to Spirit Halloween to get a top hat. He's wanted one for a while and I told him he should get one for 4th Wall Night that evening. 

He got back a little after me and Veronica did. He had the top had and had also gone to Hobby Lobby to buy some other accessories. 

I wasn't really paying much attention though because I was heading out the door to my next thing. Jori's kids had been asking, "When are we going to have a chance to protest Donald Trump?"  So I invited Jori to go to the No Kings Day Protest with me. We met up at the City Park. Her kids had so much fun making signs at a sign making station and then standing on the side walk and waving their signs at passing cars. 

We were there from about 11:00 to 12:00. At 12:00 they had speakers start talking to the crowd, but we knew Jori's girls would be bored by that part. And I had a lot of other plans for the day. So I helped Jori get her girls to her car and then went home myself. 

My plans for the afternoon were to do things like rake the leaves in the backyard, take Derrick to some sort of Halloween thing with buses at the High School, and maybe make Habanero pepper jelly with Habenero's I grew this year. I also wanted to somehow motivate Lydia to finish the mural in the backyard. 

But all that got a little derailed when I came home. Brandon and Lydia had just added a bow to Brandon's top hat. Brandon had gone through Lydia's fabric stash and found fabric to make a vest. I was like, "Um how do you plan to make that vest?"  Brandon was like, "I don't know, I'll just kind of figure it out."  I said, "I have a pattern and have made vests before. I'll make the vest."

The pattern was from when I made Derrick's vest for his baptism. It had adult sizes on it. So I found the pattern. Brandon brought the sewing machine upstairs. I laid out the fabric and showed Lydia things like the grainline and how to mark darts with tracing paper. 

Later she went outside and finished the mural. (I'd told Brandon to PLEASE convince her to finish it.) Brandon also got all the kids to rake the leaves. And he took all of them to the bus thing at the high school. I never did get the full story about it. The busses were decorated? I don't know. But the kids got candy. And they were out of the house while I did the stressful darts and the little fake pockets. 

The vest actually went together pretty fast. I didn't even think to take a picture of the process. 

I did take pictures of the mural when Lydia was done with it. 

It still needs flowers and the picture of our family added, but it's done enough for winter. 

I love this train so much. 

I had the vest done in time for Brandon to take it with him when he went to the theatre. Then I worked on a matching sash for me. 

I was done with that around 6:00. Then I just kind of relaxed for a few hours so that I could stay up late that night. Eventually I took a shower and put hot curlers in my hair. 

At 9:15 I really started getting ready for the night. The theme was Victorian Gothic so I wore a black dress and put my hair up in kind of an old fashioned updo. 

Here's my collection of bathroom selfies. 

At 10:30 I met Brandon at the Redhawk. His outfit was so perfect. People thought it was cool that we matched. But Brandon was the one turning heads. 

Here's his full outfit. He'd made lacy cuffs to wear under his sleeves and he also had a lacy cravat. He'd also made a cane. But that vest is what really caught everyone's eyes. 

Sarah Manning who puts these events together took this picture of me and Brandon. I love it!

Brandon had been hoping he'd win Best Dressed Guy. He was really happy when his name was announced as the winner. Our friend Sara Wood won for Best Dressed Girl. Her dress was one that she'd worn in Cinderella. I'm not sure how she got it again for this event. We'd all called it her "Croissant dress" because the details look like croissants. 

The best dressed winners always get special pins. Here's Brandon's. 



We ate our food with our friend Makeesa and her husband. Then later in the evening I spent a long time talking to a new friend named Andrea. Her husband had been Derrick's speech therapist years ago. Then she was in Godspell and I talked to her and her husband at the Godspell 4th Wall night 3 weeks ago. She sent me a friend request on Facebook a few days earlier and then we talked and talked at 4th Wall night. 

Brandon ended up at a long table with a bunch of his night owl friends. When I was done talking with Andrea I was like, "What time is it anyway?"  I was SHOCKED to see that it was 12:30!  I don't think we've ever stayed at 4th Wall that long before. And we weren't done yet. I sat at the long table and joined in the conversation. We were there another 20 minutes until the staff was done cleaning and resetting all the other tables. 

Then we left. I knew Brandon would probably keep talking in front of the restaurant, but I was like, "You will see all these people again in less than 12 hours. Let's go home."

So we went home and went to bed around 1:15. 

On Sunday morning we slept in. I'd been on the fence about going to church on Sunday. Brandon had to be at the theatre at 12:30 so that meant he couldn't make it to church. Also the family that was speaking in church weren't my favorite speakers. But the clincher was that at 10:30 I just didn't have energy to make sure the kids took showers before church. 

So we stayed home and watched church on zoom. That's probably good because as soon as sacrament meeting was over I went back to bed for another nap. I would not have done well at church. 

When I woke up I told the kids that my goals for the day were for us to get the dishes done enough that I could make pizza and for all of us to put our laundry away. We accomplished both of those things. 

Brandon had his last performance of Sweeny Todd and then they took down the set. That's always really sad. It's like "Here's this home you've loved for two weeks. And now it's GONE."  He stayed for a little bit of the cast party so he could get his cast award. Kenny got the Bob the Builder Award and Brandon got the Handy Mandy award.

And then everyone was playing JackBox Games and Brandon wasn't into that. So he came home. He was already feeling the post play blues. But he was also happy to be DONE.

And that gets us caught up again. 

Thanks for reading.