Yesterday was November 29th. It was a gorgeous day- blue sky and over 60 degrees! Miles wanted to play outside! He went out in the back and decided he was going swimming. That didn't last long though. Miles quickly learned that 60 degrees and cold water aren't too comfortable when you're naked.
Yes, the Christmas decorating is almost done. Last night I hauled all the empty boxes downstairs. This year I hauled out and decorated all 8 trees (1-1 foot, 4-4 foot, 1- 7.5 foot, and 2-9 foot). I did both mantles and created a pretty cool centerpiece. I put out 30 nativities. I'm tired, but the house is "ready," almost. I still have 2 wreathes to make for the front door. Later today. Maybe. Now, if I could just convince Miles that the Hallmark ornaments are not toys... he's loving that tree and it will probably be stripped of all its ornaments by 4 p.m. today...
The Christmas shopping is done, I think (until I find the next amazing deal that I can't pass up). I finished the shopping on Cyber Monday. I love shopping online because it's so convenient. I sit in front of my computer looking scary with unbrushed hair while wearing my bathrobe; I click a few links, fill out a form or two, then sit back and in a few days, stuff magically appears at my front door. So on Monday, I placed several orders from various sites; however, I placed 3 orders at 3 different times of the day from the same company. The first order shipped on Tuesday morning and won't be here until a week from Friday. The other two orders met up in the company's system and were merged into one. It was shipped late last night (which really means it doesn't actually get shipped until today). That order will be here tomorrow. For real. Orders #2 & 3 (which morphed into one) shipped 2 days after the first order and will be in my hands a week earlier. Strange. I guess the second shipment must be coming from a much closer distribution center. Too bad, because I'm really excited about the stuff in order #1. The UPS man and I are going to be BBFs in the coming week.
Monday night, Miles went to visit Santa. He'd been practicing what he wanted to tell Santa. "I like toys. I like candy. I like Smarties." The line to visit with Santa wasn't very long and soon we were in the room where Miles could see Santa. He was definitely interested. He watched a dozen or so kids climb up on Santa's lap, pose for a picture, chat for a few seconds, get candy, then climb down and go on their way. Miles seemed excited. Then it was his turn. He happily climbed onto the stage and walked over to Santa. Then he was done. He had no interest in sitting on Santa's lap; he just wanted his bag of candy from the "lady has a crown." Well, we coerced him onto Santa's lap, and while he didn't scream or cry, Miles was not happy about it.
After nearly 6 weeks of living in the Pre-1975 era, I've returned to modern day. Back in October, the microwave died. I finally replaced it yesterday.
Evidently stores are not the only things that advertise for Black Friday. This ad from a local hospital was in our paper...
Yes, it's over; and yes, we survived; and yes, it was enjoyable. As I was getting things ready for yesterday's dinner, I had several hours of quiet solitude in the kitchen and time to think about the meaning behind Thanksgiving. For the past few weeks I've been seeing people's daily Facebook posts of what they are feeling gratitude for. Most were thankful for the standard items that we all should hopefully be thankful for- family, friends, health, pets (although I can be excluded from that one), etc. I'm grateful for (most) of those things as well, but my thoughts went to atypical ways of being grateful for everyday things. I thought of the following:
Scene- The kitchen; Dan is making a smoothie. There is an E.L. Fudge partially eaten cookie on the counter.
Dan- "Miles, is this your man-cookie?"
Miles- (enthusiastically) "You Betcha!"
First I was perplexed, then I laughed and laughed. "You Betcha!" Never heard that from Miles before and I have no idea where he learned it.
Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Miles. Miles loved movies. He loved the Toy Story series. He loved Finding Nemo. He loved Monsters, Inc., and The Aristocats; but then something happened and Miles hated movies. He became terrified of movies. It was an overnight phenomenon. One day I was hiding movies from him because I wanted him to go play instead of vegging out in front of the TV all day, and the next day, he was terrified of any DVD. Admittedly, it's been nice not having him in front of the TV all day, but his fear was completely irrational and this past weekend, I took his fear head-on. On Friday night, I forced Miles to watch a movie. Seriously, I forced him. I held him on my lap as he kicked and screamed and arched and shook for nearly an hour as I made him watch the movie Tangled. Towards the end of the movie, he relaxed and watched the end calmly. On Saturday, I decided to continue my movie reintroduction program. Once again, I watched Tangled with Miles. This time he only screamed and kicked, and shook, and arched for about 15 minutes before he stopped and snuggled into me and watched the movie. Improvement. On Sunday, I told him we were going to watch the "lady movie" again. He told me that he was "all done movie", but I prevailed and forced him to watch Tangled again. This time, Miles didn't cry at all, and when some scenes were too intense for him, he got up and left the room until the scene was over. Today I told Miles that, once again, we were going to watch Tangled (and yes, I am sick of the movie) and he told me that we were "all done", but a while later, he came up and asked me for "lady movie". He sat through the movie happily. Success! Next up? The Polar Express. Why? Because Polar Express day is coming up at Pre-school and we don't want him to freak out when they show it.
and we're hosting this year. That means I have/get to cook the turkey and face my cooking nemesis... gravy. I don't like gravy so I've never learned to make it. While shopping for the non-perishables last week, I bought 3 powdered envelopes of gravy mix and figured it was good enough for those who will want gravy. But it's been bugging me as I view mixes as cheating. I've tried making gravy before. I thought it was going fine. I used the drippings, skimmed the fat, added flour to the pan-scum, added the fluid, and brought it to a boil. It was a lovely, smooth roux of brown. But then something happened. Just as I was about to celebrate my gravy success, it curdled; it lumped; it was deemed inedible and was thrown out. The gravy lovers that year were saved by foresight as I had bought "back-up" gravy packets. I had not attempted to make gravy since, until today. Yesterday I decided that I needed to face my gravy phobia and try again. Since Thanksgiving day is not a good day for cooking experiments, today I decided to buy a couple of whole chickens, roast them, and try to figure out how to make gravy. I roasted the chickens, and as before, I saved the drippings, removed the fat, added flour to the pan scum, added the liquid (and more and more and more liquid), brought it to a boil, added salt and pepper, and magically I had gravy! I don't know what happened differently this time, but it was successful. For gravy, it tasted pretty good. So I'm going to try making gravy again on Thursday and am hoping for another positive outcome.
No, I haven't seen it, nor do I plan on seeing it. I have seen a total of ZERO Twilight moves and I intend on keeping it that way. But, I did listen in on the funniest conversation at church today between two men...
Man #1- So, _______________, did you see the new Twilight yet?
Man #2- You mean Breaking Dawn, part 2? Yeah, I did and it was pretty good. Did you?
Man #1- No, I didn't go see it. My ex-wife liked it though.
Man #2- Yeah, ____________ (his wife) liked it too.
Man #1- So, which team are you on?
Man #2- Huh?
Man #1- You know, Edward or Jacob?
Man #2- (looks puzzled)
Man #1- My ex-wife is team Edward. She says that he's every woman's ideal man.
At that point I had to interrupt the "manversation" and thank them for the entertainment and for the material for today's blog post.
Today I got to interact with 4 customer service representatives from 4 different companies. I want to hug 3 of the 4 ladies I talked with today. The fourth lady? Not so much. She did eventually get me the information I needed, but it wasn't the most pleasant phone conversation. I'll tell you about her first...
In a nut shell, Blendtec sued VitaMix over a patent infringement and won millions and million of dollars (like 24 million). Blendtec is taking some of the settlement money and "giving away" free Wild Side jars to people who already own a Blendtec and request a "free" jar. While the jar is "free", it costs $13 for shipping. Still a great deal as the jars retail for $99. I was filling out my "free jar request form" and it said to enter your blender's serial number. Well, I looked all over the base and couldn't find the serial number. I looked through all my Blendtec paperwork and couldn't find anything with the serial number on it. I called Blendtec to see if they could help me find my blender's SSN. I was on hold for an eon or so and when it was my turn to talk to a CSR, I got the grumpy lady. I explained to her what I needed and she told me to look on the bottom of the blender base for the series of numbers and letters that started with a "T". I told her there weren't any numbers on the base, just a blank, white rectangular sticker on the flat part of the black bottom of the base. She said, "There's nothing I can do for you then." Really? How is it that I got a blender that magically didn't have a serial number and somehow the manufacturer isn't responsible for that? I'm sure she thought I was lying about owning a Blendtec and was trying to get around the serial number requirement for the "free" jar offer. I was going to ask her if she'd like me to text her a picture of the bottom of the base to prove that I wasn't crazy or lying, but then she asked me where I bought the blender and I told her it bought it from Blendtec itself. She grumpily said she could try to look up my original order. She typed in my name and my order history magically appeared and the blender's SSN was listed on the order. She gave me the serial number, and our call ended. Yes, the lady provided me with the information I sought, but it wasn't a pleasant experience as I felt I had to harass her to find information in the company database that belonged to me. Oh, and my blender's SSN doesn't start with a "T", it starts with an "R".
Customer service calls numbers 2, 3, and 4 were good experiences, although I was not excited to make those calls. My dad's wallet was stolen today. He's on the other side of the Atlantic (but relax potential burglars, buy the time I publish this post, my parents will be home from their trip so the house will be occupied). He sent us kids an email this morning saying they were off the ship, back in Rome, wallet containing cash, cards, and ID was stolen, and they depart for home the next day. I emailed him back and asked if there was anything I could do to help from this side of the Atlantic. A short while later, I got an email back saying that while he had already emailed credit card issuers and the bank, could I contact the bank and credit card issuers and let them know what happened. Dad provided me with information for each account and phone numbers and I started making calls. I was expecting each company to say "Sorry, can't help you; have your Dad call when he can and we'll help him." Instead, each company provided excellent customer service and helped my dad (via me) out as best as they could. Once I provided the required information, each company cancelled the cards as I requested. Each assured me that new cards would be reissued shortly. One went out of her way and looked up the phone number for Equifax and suggested that they be contacted for credit monitoring. Each was sympathetic. No one made me feel like I was a bother; each seemed to want to help. The three calls I didn't want to make went smoothly and professionally. I was shocked at their willingness to help as these accounts didn't have anything to do with me. Each made sure I had all the information I desired and any questions I had answered. It was actually a pleasant hour on the phone with these good customer service reps.
Thanksgiving is on Thursday. I thought it was only fitting to listen to Adam Sandler's Thanksgiving song so I pulled it up on YouTube. That lead to listening to his Hanukkah song which lead to me tormenting everyone by listening to Orrin Hatch's horrible Hanukkah song. Miles was in front of the computer when Hatch's song came on. He got very excited and started crazy-wild dancing and trying to sing along with the song. It was hilarious. He's quite a dancer, however there's room for improvement in his music taste.
And sorry about the hands-and-pants thing... what can I say, he's a boy!
Yesterday I cleared my schedule and declared the school hours of the day to be a "Miles Party". We made big plans. Thanksgiving Point, Happy Star, and Walmart were Miles' requests. I told him we could go to Thanksgiving Point and to Happy Star, but I wasn't going to commit to a Walmart-Miles-Style trip. We started our adventure at Thanksgiving Point. First, Miles wanted to go to see "animals". We went to the farm (which is still smelly when it's cold outside). He greeted the goats, the little ponies, the turkeys, and the chickens before wanting to go on a "horsey ride." He was adamant that he wanted to ride the biggest horsey; so he did. Then we visited the duck pond. By then we were freezing and he wanted to go to the dinosaur museum. We walked over to the museum and warmed up. Miles checked out the "Science of Sound display" before heading in to see the dinosaurs. Honestly, he doesn't care much for the dinosaurs. He likes to see what he likes and then leave. Yesterday he wandered into a new-to-him section of the museum and noticed that there were skeletons to see. He's on a big skeleton kick right now and he found the dinosaur skeletons to be fascinating. He noticed that the dinosaurs had femurs. So, he went through one big dinosaur display before deciding he was done for the day. We left and I suggested a trip to Winco (which I hate going to almost as much as I hate the Walmart runs with Miles). Miles happily agreed. We got to Winco and Miles decided that he would not ride in the cart; instead, he would push the cart which was taller than he is. That didn't go so well. He was happy to see a large display of "Dole Pineapple Juice" and he insisted on putting 2 cans of crushed pineapple in the cart (which I promptly replaced with chunks and slices as I HATE crushed pineapple). Miles loved checking out EVERYTHING in the mammoth sized grocery store and only managed to sneak 2 items into the cart. His favorite thing at Winco is the grocery conveyor belt. Since you have to bag your own groceries, there's a conveyor belt advance button near the grocery bags. Miles loves to push that button and feel powerful as the belt moves the groceries closer. Grocery store completion meant that there was one thing left to do on the Miles' list... Happy Star! He loves going to Carl's Junior, not for the food, but because they have the best playplace. He loves to climb, crawl, and slide from high up near the ceiling. He plays and plays, then runs over and grabs a french fry, then heads off again to play some more. I stayed as long as I could stand it, then told Miles we had to go. Without any objections, he came. We had about an hour at home before the "Miles Party" was over and we had to pick up the junior high carpool. Miles filled that hour happily playing games on my phone. He loved his day.
Funny moment of the day... It's no secret that Miles loves marching bands. He has his own shako; he loves to conduct his imaginary marching band (it wears blue uniforms); he even has his own salute that he does for the imaginary judges (and we were told the child has no imagination...). As we were leaving the dinosaur museum, Miles saw a dinosaur display. The dinosaur skeleton was dressed up as a pilgrim/turkey. Miles took one look at it and got really excited and exclaimed, "Look! Dinosaur has shako!" I looked over and started laughing. Here's what he saw.
Jonathan is drowning in life right now. He's got a ton of schoolwork that takes a ton of time, and he's finding calculus challenging (thank goodness). On top of his beastly homework, he is in the pit for the school musical and has rehearsals every afternoon. Tonight is the dress rehearsal; it started at 5 p.m. and is supposed to wrap up at 10 p.m. Then he's got calculus homework and a chemistry test to prep for. He took homework with him to stare at when he's not playing, but I don't know how successful he'll be at being able to concentrate. The show runs Thursday, Friday, Saturday (with 2 shows), and Monday. Then, life returns to "normal" and he has a short week of school! Jonathan's been going to be bed late (like 1 a.m.) and has to be up early (like 5:30 a.m.) for his before school classes. Poor guy. His Thanksgiving Break will be sub-relaxing as well as he will have homework and a science fair project to work on, a room to clean, and college applications to finish up.
Nolan was supposed to have a percussion lesson today, but his teacher forgot and wasn't "there" when we showed up. Oh well, more time for him to read. Nolan is reading a challenging book, Les Miserables. And since he chose to read the abridged version, he's enjoying it. Why Les Mis? The Oak Canyon Band he's in is playing a medley of Les Mis songs as part of their upcoming winter concert. Did I mention that Nolan would love to own a marimba? Those things as expensive! He's going to have to wait awhile and come up with some funds to help with the purchase of one of those "toys".
Miles hasn't been excited to go to school this week. He's refused to put on a jacket or his backpack because without those things, he knows he can't go to school. He hasn't wanted to go outside and wait for the bus (not that I'm complaining about that; it's been so cold in the mornings!). He's wanted to be carried to the bus when it arrives. Once he's on the bus, he seems fine, and comes home from school happy and excited to show me what's in his backpack. Today he excitedly pulled out a painted pink pig with silver glitter sprinkled all over it. He was so proud. I was groaning as I watched the shower of glitter fall onto the entryway floor. Miles is on a Dr. Seuss kick. Every night he just want's Dr. Seuss/P.D. Eastman books read to him- The Cat in the Hat, Put Me in the Zoo, The King, the Mice, and the Cheese, etc. At least he's letting us read to him.
I ended up in Hobby Lobby today. That store in an anxiety inducer for me. It has too much stuff and I get easily overwhelmed in there. I went in looking for something to repair shakos, but left with other stuff. Last month when I was in Hobby Lobby, I saw they had out their Christmas "stuff". They had clear glass Christmas balls. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Lots. I couldn't stand the thought of buying the glass balls in October, so I made a mental note to pick some up at some point closer to Christmas. I decided to look for them today. There weren't any of them with the Christmas stuff. I couldn't believe that it appeared they were gone. It's still November, and still before Thanksgiving. Crazy crafters must have stormed in and bought dozens and gazillions of them right after I was there in October. While wandering the store trying to find what I was there for, I found 8 boxes of the glass balls on a endcap and maybe another 20 boxes of them on the aisle with jars and glassware. And that was all they had left. I bought what I wanted, but not what I went to buy in the first place. After Hobby Lobby, I checked Joann's for what I needed. They didn't have it. Then I went over to Michael's hoping they would have it, but no luck. I did see something unbelievable though. Black Friday is still 9 days away. Look what is already happening outside of Best Buy...
Yesterday I had a good long talk with a child who is struggling with pessimism. It's the theme of his life right now and he's not feeling happy or optimistic about many things. Well, quite frankly, neither am I. My last post featured 3 people/situations that annoyed me, and I could easily continue that post and list many others. Instead, in the name of science and experimentation, I issued I challenge to my son. Each night for a week, we both will list one thing that went less than ideal (the negative), 3 things that went well (seeking out the positive), and anything we can think of that someone did that was kind to me/him (looking for good in others). At the end of this week, we'll sit down and talk about our lists and what we discovered and if we feel any better about ourselves or the people in the world and in our lives. Should be an interesting experiment. Often it's easier to complain and blame the world when we really need to just step back and take a good look at the reality of what is going on around us.
Yesterday's list
The Bad-
Okay, so I'm on one...
It seems that may people are already in Black Friday mentality. Rudeness is rampant. Maybe I'm noticing it because I've been going out of my way to try to be pleasant to 99% of the population and especially to those who have jobs that directly benefit me and that I would hate to have. Maybe it's because I've been horrifically rude and seeing rudeness in others is like looking in a mirror. Maybe it's a bit of both. Maybe I'm just ornery.
Today I went grocery shopping, which is something I avoid doing on a Saturday. I took Miles because he adores the grocery store. I wasn't in a Tour de Grocery Store mood so the trip was a bit arduous. It was crowded; I had a lot of stuff to buy. Miles had lots of things he wanted to see (celery, mushrooms, avocados, big cans of Spam, little cans of Spam, "man cookies", toys, the inflatable snowman, etc). I accommodated his requests as we came to each aisle that appealed to him. I even bought him "man cookies." We went to checkout. I had a cart loaded with stuff and, although my checkout was very organized, I had the eye-rollers in line behind me. Seriously, the lady behind me was buying about 20 12-packs of Pepsi and 97 other items, but had a problem with me buying 25 cans of broth, 10 bottles of laundry detergents, and a whole lot of other stuff. I wasn't in the express lane, and she had her choice of several other checkout lanes, but she chose to be in line behind me. Whatever. I did a good job ignoring her. I was polite to my checker; I thanked the bagger, and headed out to my car. I unloaded my groceries, walked the cart back to the corral, carried Miles to the car, buckled him in his carseat, got in the driver's seat, started my car, then noticed that the car next to me was being loaded up and their cart was very, very close to my car. I carefully started backing out and the 5 adults loading the car next to me just stood there and watched and refused to move the cart. Then I noticed that the car opposite me was being loaded as well and that person had the car sticking the long way out into the lot. That person, too, chose to watch me instead of moving her cart. I couldn't crank the wheel and make a tight turn to get out or I would hit cart of the car next to me; I couldn't back out quite a way and make a gradual turn or I'd hit the cart behind me. No one was willing to be polite and reposition his/her/their cart, so I pulled back into my space and decided to wait until they were finished. Luckily, the owner of the car facing me appeared. He backed out quickly and I could pull through his space to get out. Yes, I know, this sounds picky, but it's just the latest in the "it's all about me" prevalence that I've been observing lately.
All election season I've been witnessing disrespect and rudeness on Facebook towards anyone with differing political view. A friend of a friend of a friend of a friend posted something about how disappointed she was in certain election outcomes. A few comments to her post had been left before her mom jumped on board and joined in the bemoaning before disagreeing with a post on the thread. A small spat between some poster and the mother ensued. The Facebook page owner intervened and directly and rudely addressed her mother, and condescendingly put her mother "in place", where ever she decided that was. I'm sure the Facebook page owner thought she was being clever, cute, and coy (because that's how all her posts are), but to the general and uneducated-in-her-behavior population, the comment made from daughter to mother was harsh and probably caused the mother to feel humiliated.
Tonight I was trying to figure out how to splice various excerpts from a Concerto together to make a nice and concise 5 minute reduction. I had some questions for the performer who I will be accompanying, and evidently, the performer didn't have the patience to deal with my stupid questions. Instead of listening and aiding my with my questions, I was tuned out while the performer decided to watch a trailer of an old Transformer movie on YouTube. I called the performer out on the rude behavior and I rewarded with the response of, "You think I'm being rude?" Yes. Yes, I did. Yes, I do.
Now, I am far from a model of politeness. One of my biggest cringes is an odd relationship I have with a person. It seems to be centered around rudeness, both to each other and in general conversation. How I wish I could go back to the moment we met, when I said, "Hi, I'm Laura" and redefine the terms of the relationship. Currently, I deal with this dysfunctional relationship by having minimal contact, but the damage has been done.
So, there. Rudeness is everywhere. I can't do anything about other people's bad behavior; but I can choose to be better. I can greet people with genuineness. I can be polite- "please" and "thank you" truly are miracle words. I can keep snippy comments to myself and replace them with kind thoughts. I can forgive. I can exercise patience. I can empathize. I can be better.
Fall transitioned into Winter overnight. Yesterday it was 70+ degrees and today we got 5" of heavy, wet snow. First "real" snowfall of the "winter". There was enough snow that my "Get it shoveled" OCD kicked in, and out I went to deal with the heavy soup. I hate an unshoveled driveway, sidewalk, and walkway on my property. I also knew that we'd have an awesome ice rink on the driveway if I let it sit there. By the way, no one else has to shovel, just my property must be done. I'm sure glad I got the 6 black garbage bags filled with leaves yesterday or else the shoveling mess would have been even worse. Miles happily ate and ate and ate snow today. Nolan told Miles to never eat yellow snow and was promptly kicked in the shin for offering unsolicited advice.
I made the first pot of soup of the season today. The sudden onset of cold meant soup was needed. Baked Potato Soup! Nolan came home from school and smelled potatoes. He initially thought I was making Oven Fries, but was stoked to find out I'd made "that soup." He and I ate soup for a snack and soup for dinner. We both think it's pretty much the best. Black Bean soup soon though.
For the first time in my history, I broke one of my cardinal rules and put up the "First Christmas Tree of the Season" before Thanksgiving. I bought a new tree on clearance last February or March and needed to see if I liked it so that if I hated it, there was time to do something about it. The new tree is a 9 ft. slim tree with berries and pinecones. I hoped I'd like it; it had great reviews. It turns out that I love it. It's the right amount of fullness for where I'd envisioned it going. My only complaint is that it isn't an auto-fluff/shape tree. Oh well. So it goes in the living room and the other 9 footer has been permanently assigned to the dining room, and the 7.5 footer will go in the family room and replace that ugly old 7 footer that I sent to DI months ago.
Miles had his 4-year old check-up on Tuesday. It's always fun to see how the boys compare size-wise. Bearing in mind that Miles wears a size 3T and his jeans still fall off his bum, I was expecting him to be my smallest boy at age 4. Well, here's what I found out. Miles is 40" tall and weighs 36 pounds, fully dressed but without shoes. Nolan was my chunkiest toddler, so I was expecting him to win in the weight category. Nolan, at age 4, was 40" tall (same as Miles) and weighed 35 pounds. Miles weighs one pound more than Nolan did. Now, when Jonathan was about 4, Aly called him "spider" because he was tall and thin. I was expecting him to be much taller than Miles, but weigh about the same. At age 4, Jonathan was 40.25" tall (so only a quarter of an inch taller) and weighed 34.5 pounds. Miles wins the weight war while Jonathan squeaked by with a win in height.
Miles was pronounced "great", but the doctor still wants him to get an apigmented striation on his side biopsied (I didn't get it done last year). He got a flu shot which was quite traumatic for him. "All done needle!" with lots of tears and kicking.
I spent last weekend in St. George with Nolan and Miles. Jonathan was there as well, but he was busy with the marching band. All three years that Jonathan has been in marching band, we've gone down to St. George to support the band. This year was no different. We left Thursday evening (and the band left at 4:07 a.m. Friday morning). Miles was awesome on the way down... give him an iPod and he's content for hours. We stopped at Wendy's in Beaver and I was starving and ordered a hamburger. Yes, me, a burger. It was gross, but I wasn't hungry anymore, just bloated and nauseated. Nolan ate 3 burgers... 2 Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers and Miles' cheeseburger. We got to St. George, checked in at the condo and went to sleep. Okay, Miles and I went to sleep while Nolan did whatever he did.
Friday we got up and went to the Red Rocks Marching Band Competition. The THS band had some issues. It wasn't their strongest performance, but they managed to place Second overall (and the color guard took first). We hydrated the band, then took off to go have fun. Miles, Nolan, and I went to Snow Canyon. The boys had so much fun there that we decided to go back. Jenny's Canyon is a fun place to climb.
