November is Livermore's best fall moment. I have been gawking at leaves everywhere I go around town, taking detours and stopping for pictures. Honestly, I ought to bring a book and a blanket and spend some serious time under a good view. I can't get enough.
In preparation for the Taylor Swift concert, we commissioned Isaac to make customized t-shirts for us. Jack and I spent a couple afternoons going through song lyrics, trying to find a good match for everyone. Gemma wanted her shirt to simply say, "Fearless." Mine says, "He's so obsessed with me and boy I understand." Hazel's says, "I'd ben a fearless leader, I'd be an alpha type." Todd's reads, "I'm so gorgeous, you can't say anything to my face, cause look at my face." And Jack's says, "Younger than her exes but I acts like such a man so..."
My game group had a fall dinner night. Karrie made dinner in a pumpkin, Kirstan made focaccia, I made butternut pomegranate salad, and Katie made pumpkin bars. Joleen hosted and rocked the decorations. Katie brought a game where you pull ingredients from a bag to make potions. It was a fun night!
Todd hosted our young men and Vineyard Hills up at the cabin the weekend after Halloween when school was out for Friday. They went biking and rock climbing and had a polar plunge in the lake. It sounds like it was a successful gathering.
Speaking of Todd, he was asked to be our ward's bishop. He was sustained on November 3rd. He and I were invited in and extended the calling two weeks earlier. We spent the intervening time counseling together and praying over our ward list, trying to discern who to call for his counselors, reviewing the handbook (overwhelming!), and discussing so many more ideas, from artwork for his office to how to acknowledge youth birthdays to what seems to work and not work to make ward council effective, and on and on.
We missed the next week with our ward, because we traveled out for our Big Trip. We flew into Washington DC and arrived just as the sun went down. That was very disorienting, since it was only 2:00 in the afternoon in California, With plenty of energy but no open museums, we walked the National Mall and looked at the majority of the monuments, as well as the White House (which was hard to access due to construction). I think everyone enjoyed the Lincoln Memorial the most.
The next morning was rough, since church was at 9am, meaning we were waking up at what our bodies knew was really 5:15 for a 6am church. But it was worth it. The talks were super inclusive, the ward all said, "good morning," and "amen" interactively, and we sang one of our new hymns, "My Shepherd Will Supply My Need," which I could barely get through because it made me cry.
My Shepherd will supply my need; Jehovah is His name.
In pastures fresh He makes me feed Beside the living stream.
He brings my wand'ring spirit back When I forsake His ways
And leads me for His mercy's sake In paths of truth and grace.
When I walk through the shades of death, Thy presence is my stay;
One word of Thy supporting breath Drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes, Doth still my table spread.
My cup with blessings overflows; Thine oil anoints my head.
The sure provisions of my God Attend me all my days.
O may Thy house be mine abode And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest While others go and come -
No more a stranger nor a guest, But like a child at home.
We rented electric scooters to buzz around the National Mall. We scootered past the White House again, past the Capitol Building, and past several of the monuments. It was so much fun!
Because it was Veteran's Day weekend, there was a parade we got to enjoy, as well as just an overall elevated mood of patriotism.
We spent a couple of hours in the National Gallery of Art. Hazel and I voted for this stop because they have Monets. We just happened to visit while there was also a temporary exhibit on Impressionism. How lucky could we get? I think I could have spent three days inside this museum! There was so much we didn't see.
We also made sure to visit the National Museum of Natural History. There was much more than we had time to see, but we enjoyed the dinosaur bones, mummies, and gemstones the best.
We went to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. It was cool to see all those original documents, but impossible to take good pictures.
We couldn't help ourselves and went back to the art museum for the last 45 minutes before everything closed for the night.
DC, at least right around the National Mall where we stayed, had zero nightlife. We had a hard time even finding a place to grab a hot chocolate after the sun went down.
Monday morning, we thought about heading straight to New York, but Todd felt compelled to take the kids to Arlington - particularly because it was Veteran's Day. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we showed up and were rushed onto seats for "the last shuttle bus" heading up for a program. Quite unbeknownst to us, we were seated in an outdoor amphitheater and ended up listening to President Biden give a speech, with Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance as well. What a surprise!
We drove four hours to New York City and explored a good chunk of the city on foot in the dark. We never did quite adjust to the time difference; we stayed up late every night. We saw Times Square and immediately got both cannolis (disappointing) and gelato (amazing). We walked past the New York Public Library (bucket list for Gemma), St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center (no big tree yet, sadly), the Empire State Building, and Grand Central Station.
Tuesday morning we rode the subway over to see the Statue of LIberty. We definitely rode the subway less on the trip than we assumed we would - so much was within walking distance of our hotel! We totally scored staying in the theater district.
After the subway, we rode a ferry. Gemma turned full-on Cinderella pulling bread crumbs (a squirreled away pastry from breakfast) out of her pocket. Birds were literally landing on her hand to feast, and hopping from her hand to Jack's and back. It was cool!
We purchased tickets to go up to Lady Liberty's crown. We had to walk up over 150 steep and narrow steps - imagine a spiral staircase inside a closet. It was somewhat claustrophobic, but it definitely gave us a good perspective on the actual build of the statue since we were inside it!
After reading the history of the Statue of Liberty in the museum on-side, we rode the ferry back and got bagel sandwiches for lunch.
Then we headed over to the 9/11 Memorial, where the twin towers used to be before the terrorist attacks in 2001. We toured the One World Observatory, which took us on a swift elevator ride up 102 floors and gave us panoramic views of the entire city.
My entire family played in the revolving doors on the way out until a guard politely asked them to stop.
We went to a thrift shop for Hazel, Strands book store, and Harry Potter New York.
We saw a ramen shop near Times Square that had a line out the door. We decided to try them out for dinner. We were asked how many people were in our party, and the employees seemed super put out that there were five of us and that we wanted to sit together. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. After waiting 20 minutes and letting several smaller groups go ahead of us, we caved and said we could break up into groups of two and three. It was only when we were seated that it all started to make sense. Each customer is seated at a numbered booth at a counter You have a divider between yourself and the people on either side of you that you can fold back if you want. The waiters work on the other side of the wall. There's a bamboo partition they roll up to slide your ramen bowl onto your table. It was completely different from anything we had ever experienced before.
Aaaaand the ramen was easily the most delicious thing we ate on the trip. It was ridiculously tasty. The noodles were super fresh, the broth was intensely flavorful, the meat melted in your mouth, and there was a spice mix that mixed in as you ate and created a complex range of flavor. Yum!
Hazel was sick on the trip. She actually missed two days of school the week before we left because she was home with a fever. She was low energy and coughing a ton. On Wednesday, we kept quiet and let her sleep as long as possible (10:30) and then took her to urgent care because - as we guessed - she needed antibiotics. She was prescribed with bronchitis.
We found the Original Soup Man restaurant (Soup Nazi from Seinfeld!) and grabbed lunch. That was our most economical meal of the trip. Everyone got a bowl of soup, a piece of bread, a banana, and an Andes mint and I think the grand total came to $35. Everyone followed protocol and stepped up to give their order, then side-stepped down the counter to make room for the person behind them. Jack was seriously tempted to order jambalaya just so he could imitate Newman and go running down the sidewalk with his bag, but went for the lobster bisque to be more like Jerry instead.
We rented bikes and spent a couple hours hunting for the best fall leaf demonstrations in Central Park. We were a little late in the season to catch the most vibrant colors, but it was still quite lovely. It was super weird to be inside a park that had actual stoplights, and you could never quite escape the views of the skyscrapers or the sounds of the city traffic.
We hunted down this concrete slide for the kids to try out, but didn't anticipate that we would get bullied by a gang of four-year-olds. Three of them stood in a line blocking the top of the slide, and the ringleader even told the others to "bite them!" and then to "fight them!" Kinda scary. Hazel distracted the gang while Gemma sneaked and rode the slide three or four times.
We felt a little guilty not getting pizza while we were in New York, but we couldn't resist and went back to Ichiran for ramen a second night in a row! It was just so good!
Then we went to the Gershwin Theater on Broadway and saw Wicked. It was incredible! Elphaba belted out the songs with a stunning singing voice, and Glinda was a ball of kinetic energy - every choice she made with how to move her body on stage was captivating.
We lucked out after the show and walked past the doorway the actors exit out of. There was a small line of people waiting to get their playbills signed, and we joined the queue. We got crazy lucky and got signatures from every single main character except for the actress who played Elphaba. The one in the picture with my kids here played Glinda.
Then we went out for more gelato! I think we got gelato every single day in New York - but the first shop was the best.
The kids loved breakfast at The Pearl becuase they had chocolate filled croissants and glazed donuts.
We let Hazel prove her true driving prowess by driving us out of the city. It was a little scary, I'm not gonna lie, but she did a great job.
We spent an hour in Seneca Falls giving tribute to the women and men who did so much to fight for women's suffrage.
This is the Wesleyen Chapel, site of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton read the Declaration of Sentiments, which states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal."
I feel so much gratitude for Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Ida B. Wells and so many others who pushed against social norms to widen the opportunities for women. They made a difference in my life, and I've been devouring anything I can find to learn more about them.
Then we drove another 30 minutes to Palmyra to tour the Smith family farm and see the Sacred Grove. It was late in the afternoon, so we were totally squeezing out every ounce of sunlight left in the day, but I'm so glad we had time to be there. Afterward, Todd took Hazel and Jack to the Palmyra Temple to do baptisms. The next morning, we checked out the Hill Cumorah before leaving town.
We crossed the border into Canada and stopped to see Niagra Falls. Honestly, I was kind of disappointed. There were construction cranes and other signs of industrial areas, and it just didn't feel wide open and breathtaking. Kind of sad!
The kids did a lot of butt-touching on this trip. Jack cupped Hazel right as I took this picture. Day in the life.
And then ... our grand finale. We made it to Toronto and discovered that the entire city was having a Taylor Swift party. Shops everywhere were blasting her music, billboards made puns from her song lyrics to advertise a variety of products, and street signs were even adapted to welcome her and her fans to town. And her fans were everywhere - I've never seen so many people in sequins!
Erika and her friend Lindsay joined us. There was some drama about whether or not our Stubhub tickets would activate, but gratefully, all seven of us made it to the concert Friday night!
The concert was at the Rogers Center, the dome-shaped building in this picture. The roof would glow in a rotating array of colors. It was very exciting!
We sported our lyric t-shirts. Thanks again, Isaac!
And we wore a plethora of friendship bracelets! Also, everyone was given a light-up bracelet when we entered the stadium, and they were honestly one of the best parts of the experience. They lit up all through the night to different colors and patterns that matched the music, and with 70,000 people all wearing lights, it created this magical sparkle that we were all a part of. It was super cool.
Gracie Abrams opened, and then there was about a 30 minute break. At 7:58, this two minute timer came on the big screen so we could count down to the exact second the show would begin. The anticipation was gigantic - like waiting for Santa to come!
We couldn't get five seats all together, so Jack, Gemma, and I were together in the bowl - we were in a great spot! - and Todd and Hazel were on floor - close enough to watch Taylor and the dancers for reals and not just on the big screen, but they had to battle to see over the heads and hands of everyone in front of them.
The show was magnificent. The energy was palpable. Taylor sang for three straight hours, sampling from all her albums, with costume changes in between sets. The floor lit up, the screen changed to create backdrops, it was all super visual. During the song Bad Blood, fire burst out of these stands all around the stadium, creating a heat we could all feel.
We all sang along and danced and smiled and loved it. What an ordeal - we bought tickets over a year ago and have just felt so much anticipation getting ready for this event. Taylor did not disappoint. It was magical.
I mean, there were even fireworks during the last song. It was just amazing!
We flew home the next day, and the kids scrambled to complete the schoolwork they had missed.
Todd and I "celebrated" our 20th anniversary on the 19th. Todd was incredibly sick and went to bed early. Good thing we partied hard at Taylor Swift the week before! Seriously, though, we really did justify the trip by attaching it mentally to an anniversary celebration, so it was okay that the actual day was mega low-key. I'm still on a Taylor Glow weeks later.
Todd is coaching Gemma's 6th grade girl's basketball team. They practice after school for an hour three days a week and have games on Wednesdays. I'm totally sad that I'll never be able to watch a full game because the timing overlaps with when I take Jack to Pleasanton for piano lessons, but I plan to watch as much as I can. I've caught the first half of one game so far. It's cute to see them all run around and try to pass the ball to their own teammates.
I found some more excellent fall pockets. It's possible I've been sidetracked on walks a few times...
We spent a Saturday night watching Spencer Dix in a community performance of Little Women. Gemma, Jack, Daniel, and Josh sat on the front row and whispered, "Spencer! Spencer!" every time the lights went down after a scene he was in as Mr. Brooks. The confidence built up and they got sillier as time went on; by the end of the show, they were shouting for Spencer instead of whispering! The rest of the cast loved it and teased Spencer mercilessly. We loved being referred to as "Spencer's family" and went out for frozen yogurt afterward so everyone could chat.
The weather's been perfect for long outdoor walks.
The kids worked hard to get caught up on their schoolwork, and then had a week off for Thanksgiving. Everyone enjoyed the relaxed pace. Given the ages of my kids, it will surprise no one that kids slept late and hung out with friends a lot.
We hosted Thanksgiving since Vlad and Luna are back in California. We invited Erika, and Ellen and Larry drove out from Utah to join us. We had our feast at our house on Wednesday and then went up to the cabin on Thursday to play in the snow for a few days. We have just a foot of snow in Bear Valley so far. so the roads were plowed and we couldn't use the snowmobiles, but the kids made a great sledding hill in the yard that was just right for this trip's crowd. We had nice sunny days in the upper 40's, so it was fun to be outside. No one OD'd on hot chocolate, there was lots of ice on the edges of the road to crunch underfoot, and we even had an epic game of 4-Square out on the road. But ... I never did get a group shot of the crowd. My bad.
On our drive home, we stopped at the Christmas tree farm in Murpheys and picked out a beaut'. She smells amazing. We decorated the house when we got home and the kids already have half their shopping done. We are ready to move onto Christmas, baby!
