First November in Utah

 November… just thinking about writing this post gives me conflicting feelings. So I’m going to cover the good highlights first. 

Adeline’s 6th Birthday: she left her theme up to me this year and I was so glad. She went for an ice cream cake this year. We celebrated multiple days, including nachos shaped like a “6” and lots of crazy dancing. She was also able to celebrate with each of her grandparents. My mom took her to eat. My dad and Wendy took her for a full day of fun, and then we celebrated with the Johnson’s where April made her a cake as well. And they celebrated in her class, which I think she liked the best. 

The weather: the location of where we live is spectacular for viewing the changing of the seasons. We have an up close view of the changing mountains, as well as the orchards as they change colors. 

Thanksgiving: we started with a Turkey Bowl, had 1st dinner at the Johnson’s, and 2nd dinner at my Dad’s. 

Our days: consisted of play dates, dance, playing at the park after school, Relief Society meetings, family get togethers, … and spending as much time with Nala as possible. 

Post Thanksgiving: it snowed! The kids literally sat outside and Thanked the Heavens and then the next day they built a snowman. We made our way to a lot and bought a tree, only to experience the expensive sticker shock! Needless to say, we won’t be going back to a lot next year! Hand cutting a tree will be the way to go. 

Nala: well I couldn’t put it off forever. Nala had been getting weaker and more wobbly. She was staring odd into space and not really with it. She fell in our window well and off our back porch. And she began starving and losing lots of weight. I came back from the store one day and when she got up to greet me she just collapsed. It happened again and again to the point where I took her to the vet. His gut told him she had developed a tumor that was eating into her muscles. The hard decision was made that it was her time to go. I’m going to do a separate post devoted to just Nala and her final days, so for now I’ll just say how hard the whole experience was and continues to be. 

But one thing I will say is the number one thing our family was grateful for this Thanksgiving was all the wonderful time we were gifted with our Nala.