Dress Shopping

 She looks good in everything- it was hard to choose! Now she's set for winter formal!

Continental League

 Audra made continental league! This is a big deal, and we are so happy for her.

They played at Boettcher Hall which is so cool. They played awesome!

She was especially glad to make it because that meant she got to hang out with her "friend" Austin quite a bit. He goes to Castle View, and lives about 20 minutes away. They met at the CSU Honor Band that Audra attended last month. She was so incredibly scared to go, but now she is quite glad she went. Austin is a super nice kid. Claire doesn't like that he doesn't play sports, but other than that we all think he is great. He and Audra compliment each other really well- and I haven't seen Audra this happy and ages, so it's a win all around.

Anniversary

For our 19th anniversary, Ben planned a little getaway for us. We went downtown and went to a murder mystery and stayed the night at the Embassy Suites. It was really nice. This was a different Murder Mystery troupe than we have gone to before, so it was fun to try something a little different.

We took the light rail down, which ended up being fine but it was FREEZING. Literally negative temps, so that part wasn't great. But we made it and had a fantastic time.

Here's what I wrote on FB about our anniversary:

19 years with this guy and we are still blissfully happy.

I have thought a lot about why. A happy marriage is no guarantee. My first thought was because we both are really good about wanting to be better for the other person. If one of us lovingly (sometimes not so lovingly) says, "XYZ is bothering me," we are both really good at not being offended, but rather trying to be better for each other in that area.

But then I thought about it more and realized that in reality, the secret to our happy marriage is that Ben does all the dishes. #ocdforthewin

Our code names were Hitman and Nancy Clue. We almost solved the crime!

Spelling Bee

                                         We are so incredibly proud of Camille. She qualified for the school spelling bee! This is no small feat, and considering she used to be an absolutely terrible speller, this is a huge accomplishment. She competed in the bee and did awesome. She didn't do as well as she had hoped, but we are so proud of her for getting in front of the school and being so brave. This kid is a superstar- she is going places!

                                     

I took her to Kneader's to celebrate her awesomeness. Because, this girl really is AWESOME!

Claire Basketball

Claire is having a great time playing basketball for ThunderRidge, and her skills are greatly improving. Ben and I are enjoying going to all of her games, even if she tells us we can never say her name.

 

Camille's First Temple Trip!

 It was our first family temple day, but it won't be our last! Camille was excited to finally go do baptisms for the dead. I scheduled us to go for the first day she could- which was today.

Everything went great, except an older gentleman offered to take our picture and he could not figure out how to hold my phone so you could actually see the temple. But the temple is there behind us, I promise, though the pictures are disappointing. Oh, well.

Ice-Skating

We went on our annual ice-skating family activity! We tried out a new rink which was fun. It was a long line to get on the ice, but once on it wasn't crowded which was really nice. We had a great time!

 

2024 Predictions

 Here's my predictions for 2024:

1. Neither Biden nor the traitor/tyrant will win the election. A dark horse will come in and win the day

2. Both Audra and Claire will have their first boyfriends- though we don't call it that because For Strength of Youth explicitly says no dating exclusively, and that's pretty much the only specific dating guideline

3. Audra will know she's in at BYU Idaho and 1-2 other colleges, still waiting to hear back from BYU Provo

4. Claire and me will be booked to a humanitarian trip to Africa (pending Ben's approval...which I'm not sure I'll get)

5. Reunion with my family in Tennessee

6. Broncos have another losing season

7. Home renovations: We'll be starting on the kitchen OR moved to another house

8. Claire will make the TRHS soccer team

9. Camille will be playing RVMS basketball

10. Audra will make all-state band