Hunting With Nick and Wenatchee Hockey in Spokane

I took a few days off to try and fill my cow tag. Cow is a female elk, but my staff actually thought that I was out in a farmer's field trying to shoot Bessie. As you can see from the pictures, the weather did not really cooperate.

I was told that this is a beautiful draw.

This orchard looks over a hillside where there are always elk.

Nick did help me spot a majestic chicken fried steak on Saturday morning.

The kids loved playing in the snow.

I don't know what's wrong with Luca, but I assume that someone told him no.

Ryker 3D printed the Medford Temple and DeA helped him put a light in it. It was pretty awesome.

Nick gave me the idea to do a hot wings challenge with the young men. It was pretty fun and the boys seemed to like it.

Some of the wings got spicy.

On Thursday night, I noticed in the SportsEngine app that the two hockey games that I thought were in Wenatchee were listed as being in Spokane. I had just looked silly in front of the coach for arguing with the app, and was told that the app was accurate, so we mentally prepared to spend Saturday in Spokane. DeA and the kids met me after work on Friday to go to dinner, but when Rock started driving the wrong way they told me that we were going to Spokane. We stopped at Doxie's for dinner.

I booked the hotel at dinner, and we got back on the road. Somewhere between Reardon and Davenport I saw a text that the games were actually in Wenatchee like I had thought. It was too late to go back, and the hotel was already booked, so we just stayed in Spokane. The next morning we did get Chick-Fil-A breakfast, so the trip wasn't a total waste.

The drive from Spokane to Wenatchee was pretty chill and relaxing.

The Spokane team was an U18 group, and they had a few guys that were literally a foot taller than Rock, but he battled harder as the games went on. He had a great shot from the blue line that hit the crossbar, and did a good job trying to play defense for the first time.

He must think that he is his Uncle Nick or something.

 

A Stuffed Thanksgiving

The kids were pretty excited to have their cousins show up from Arizona. Lakai was a little nervous about being the little guy, so he prepared himself for the mayhem. 

Now he's ready for the bigger cousins.

We took everybody (yeah, we like chaos) to La Brisa the night before Thanksgiving. It was 21ish adults, kids, and babies.

Luca tried to figure out how to blow bubbles in his chocolate milk like his cousins and brothers.

We kind of overwhelmed the poor La Brisa staff, but it was fun

The kids were getting antsy while the parents finished eating, so walked a bunch of them outside. DeA took them into the Mexican store next door and told them to pick out a treat. Guess who didn't come with the first group and saw all the treats when he finally left La Brisa.

Since it was Grandpa Leo's birthday, we had to make chocolate milkshakes for everyone.

Luca started out very careful with his cup.

Someone told him he couldn't climb on the organ with his cup, so he dumped it on the floor.

Whit is always willing to clean up the container.

She tried to make a turkey out of her sourdough, it tasted good even if it didn't look exactly like a turkey.

The kids loved the cats, but the cats didn't necessarily love them back. Horchata was the better sport of the two, and let the kids carry her around.

The most important part of any Thanksgiving is the Turkey Bowl. Jens was ready to ball out.

We had around 30, it was a good group and a fun game.

We forgot to take the before picture, but here is the after.

We had about 40-45 people for dinner and everything went pretty smooth. Rissa checked out before everyone left.

There were quite a few kids running around and Leo Dog did not understand why no one told them to stop yelling and making noises.

Ryker printed KC a little R2D2 to for Whit to take down. It was a very thoughtful idea, and I think it was the only way that Ryker knew to how to help.

There was a crew present to make sure Whit and Stewie left.

Right after Stewhit took off, we loaded up and headed into the mountains to find our Christmas tree.

DeA saw this tree from the road and thought it would be perfect. It was only 40 feet too tall.

We finally found a more size-appropriate tree.

I joked and told the kids that they had to chop it down with an axe. I was surprised that they absolutely loved it.

Even Schnoogies got into the action.

Leo tried to help, but he mostly got in the way.

DeA definitely got into the lumberjack spirit.

My tiny little lumberjacks.

It was a perfect day to hunt a tree.

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly trying to do nothing but watch football.

Luca was pretty mad that the helicopter would not take off for him.

We hung out, watched football and movies, and tried to make a dent in the leftovers.

DeA even let Jens decorate the tree without correcting the placement of her ornaments. It was a big step for her.

Christmas lights, a fire, and football. Not a bad way to end Thanksgiving weekend.

Nick and his girls left early Saturday. Harlow was glad to get away from us wackos.

Ryker printed them a St George Temple, where Emily and Nick were married.