Let's start with the rest of September if I can even remember.
So, at this point, school would have just been going on for about month or so. I can't really remember anything significant. I think the biggest thing I can remember is that we finally got the iPads and stuff all set up for management and we got it all ready for the first round of MAPS testing. Then literally like the week of, they decided to not use MAPS and switch to another testing software. Of course, it was a difficult one to configure and set up. I had to scour instructions that were written by other universities and stuff and I finally found a piece of document that explained most of it. In the end, I was able to figure out how to set up the school's profile on the testing system's database and then use the info from that to input it into the app. I was sort of happy that other schools were having trouble figuring this all out but we were able to figure it out. The testing went great, but the presentation was horrible and the kids didn't like it.
October was the start of academic bowl. This year, I decided for some reason that I'll coach the 3rd grade team as well as the 5th/6th team. Well, the 5th/6th team is quite the bunch. They're getting worse in terms of being quiet during practices. At one practice, I almost called it because I had enough of them and they weren't listening at all. I remember that was the practice after I had a bad cold for a few days, too. I much rather enjoy the 3rd grade team, honestly.
I believe it was around this time that the IT guys installed new access points in the entire school side. They're so bad to work with. We're still having issues from time to time and they're no help. I'm spending more time on the church side, now, too...hopefully, once this last round of updates to the wires and stuff go through, we don't have to rely on them.
We actually decided to do a trunk or treat because they needed trunks, but then in the end, there were a lot of them so we really didn't need to. Anyway, we did a Super Mario themed one and it was awesome. We were definitely the best, but the "tourists" themed trunk won it...not sure why, but whatever. The kids loved it. I made an interactive one where the kids needed to punch bricks from underneath while we put candy up on top and the candy would "come out" of the blocks. They really need the kids to vote, because it's basically an adult vote fest.
Then November came around and we prepped for our trip to Estes Park. This year, we did decided on one, large reunion cabin, which I sort of pushed last year after seeing they had something like this and how 2 cabins was sort of annoying when people had to go back and forth, babies sleeping, and overall couldn't just hang out as easily or longer in the evenings. I think it worked out well. We probably could have worked out the room arrangement a little better in hindsight, but we can always tweak in the future. So, we left on Saturday and we decided to do the entire drive in one day this time. Got to Firestone in the evening and we had dinner with the Bonds. We stayed at a hotel and hung out the next day as well, which is when the Lemons came in. Monday we left for Estes Park and we were actually able to check-in and go into the lodge early this time, unlike last year when we had to wait until 6pm or something like that. We gathered and ate at Penelope's and shopped around until about 3pm and headed for the YMCA. After settling in and choosing room, we relaxed a bit. Through the week, we did some hikes, some went on a cold, morning hike to a mountain, and then on Thanksgiving, we had dinner at the Stanley again. It wasn't as good I don't think because it wasn't a buffet, but it was still pretty good entrees. It snowed once a good amount and I think that was perfect. The first couple of days it was pretty warm, then a cold, snowy day, and then warmed up again. It was nice to be able to hang out all together in one place. I didn't see many animals, but one time Emmeline and I headed out to town to get some gifts and on the way back, we saw a huge elk, so I drive by it and stopped even and she took some pictures.
Now, the horrible day was the day we were leaving. We opted to do it all in one day which, even though it was from Estes Park this time, wouldn't have been so bad if the weather didn't get crappy mid-day through the drive. It was slated to be bad weather about halfway into Kansas and was it bad...it wasn't just snow, it was icy rain. We all pretty much caravanned back, but Laura's parents were a couple of hours ahead of us since they had to leave earlier to drop Uncle Kenny off at the airport. So about halfway, maybe around 2pm or so, we were in the middle of Kansas and the bad weather started to roll in. It wasn't too bad for the first hour, but then it got to the point where we were going under 50-60 most of the time. By the time we were taking a south to head to Salina and OKC, we were right in the middle of the bad storm and we were literally going 30-40 the entire way. We stopped in Salina because there was a break in the weather. The Lemons stopped as well. We got dinner and decided to just drive all the way back (mostly because I wasn't wanting to stay in Salina overnight, but I don't think staying would have done anything for the next morning - it would have been worse, I think, and we wouldn't have been home until in the afternoon, probably). It was 30-40 all the way to the OK border, pretty much. The roads and visibility was so bad. I was in front for a bit, but the Lemons went first because we had to take a detour through a small town because they closed parts of the highway.
We finally were going normal speed the last hour or hour and a half of the trip...it was a LONG day. We left around 8 or 9am in Estes Park, I can't remember exactly, but we ended up getting back home a bit past midnight. I don't think it was 1am or later, but it could have been. I was just glad to have stopped driving. My legs were SORE because it was 15 or so hours of driving mostly WITHOUT cruise control due to the icy roads. I didn't realize how much that would affect my legs keeping the gas at a steady 40mph. The next day we all just rested, pretty much. We had to go get Libby, but that was about it.
Then in December, we had our usual Tulsa trip over the break. This year, I've been watching this guy help the homeless on YouTube and decided I wanted to make bags for homeless that had different kinds of things in them. The kids got into it and they've been the ones giving them out whenever they see someone at a light. It cost a few hundred bucks to make 18 bags, but it does feel good when they are thankful for them. Hopefully, they can put it to some use.
We're in the middle of a cold snap right now...slowly getting better finally. For about a week, the HIGH was in the single digits and teens. It's been cold. I'm sure it's just gonna be super hot with no transition to Spring or anything like usual.
We've been throwing the idea around of England, Scotland, and Ireland as our next big trip, possibly for Summer of 2025. We'll see. Flights are going to be much harder to plan and buy...I don't think business class is happening this time and we'll be lucky if we even get premium economy.
This Summer, I guess we are headed to Yellowstone with everyone. I can't remember if I've been there, I feel like I have, but it'll be fun hopefully.
I'm about all caught up now in terms of news. Nothing else I can think of!