End of the Year Survey

Nathan: 16

Elizabeth: 13

1. What is your favorite color:
N: Blue
E: Pastel lime

2. What is your favorite toy?
N:  Legos
E:  squishmellows

3. What is your favorite fruit?
N: Apple
E: Pineapple

4. What is your favorite TV show/movie?

N: Asoka
E:  Monty Python

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
N: Leftovers
E: Pasta

6. What are you looking forward to next year?

N: Being halfway done with high school

E: High school

7. What is your favorite game?
N: Don't have one
E: Minecraft

8. What is your favorite snack?
N: Apple and bread
E:  Goldfish

9. What is your favorite animal?
N: Crab
E: Brontosaurs

10. What is your favorite book?
N: Jack Ryan
E: Secrets of the Tally

11. What is your favorite subject at school?
N: Likes them all
E: Orchestra and French and science

12. What is your favorite sport?
N: Running
E:  Cross Country

13. What is your favorite thing to have for breakfast?
N: Pancakes and bacon
E: Egg and cheese sandwich

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
N: Run

E: Go on a nice walk

15. What is your favorite drink?

N: Water
E:  Sprite

16. What is your favorite holiday?
N: Halloween
E: Christmas

17. What is your favorite thing to have for dinner?

N: Burritos
E: Chicken and Yellow Rice 

18. What do you want to be when you grow up?
N: Electrical Engineer
E: Don't know

Christmas in Yakima

We went to Yakima on Christmas. We had yummy food and opened presents! The little cousins were very cute entertainment. 

Elizabeth doing some nose booping. 

Helping open new presents. 

 

Christmas in Royal City

We drove up to Royal City a few days before Christmas to visit. 

We took a small slow walk. 

We took a small field trip to see the nearby sheep! 

We also checked out the local hotel. It was quite nice! We were very impressed. 

Laura could see her place of work from the window. 

A pre Christmas dinner. 

Elizabeth got a very shiny jacket from Auntie Laura! 

Nathan got four pairs of running pants. It was funny. Earlier that day, it was quite nice out and he wished he could go take a run. He hadn't brought any sweatpants though. We didn't know there were 4 pairs under the tree! 

 

Thanksgiving

Jeremy worked Thanksgiving day this year. He was supposed to be home at 6:00 so I planned to have dinner done then. He came home at 6:00! Some other family came down too. 

Jeremy showing off his drone skills. 

Auntie Laura and Elizabeth doing some Black Friday earring shopping! 

 

Bonfire in Ellensburg

 

Jeremy and the kids went up to Ellensburg to have a bonfire. Here are the pictures he took! 

Cross Country Awards

 

The cross country team had their awards night. Nathan got a letter this year! To letter, you needed to run a 3 mile in less than 18 minutes. He did that by running a 17:36. Here is his letter and certificate. 

Individual Photo

Letter close up

Team photo. Nathan is in the back row on the far left. 

The Great Fridge Death 2023

Our fridge died. 

I noticed that the frozen berries I pulled out of the freezer were soft. We thought maybe someone had left the freezer open or something. 

Nope, the next day, I noticed the ice wasn't frozen in the freezer so I threw everything in our chest freezer in the garage. 

Then, later that day, the fridge did not feel as cold as it should be. We pulled out all our coolers and bought ice and put everything in there. 

Jeremy and I bought a fridge online at Lowes that night. They said it would be here in a week.

For 8 days, we lived out of coolers in the front driveway. Luckily, it was during a very cold week so we didn't have to buy too much ice. It lasted. We kept a cooler for dairy so Nathan's stuff didn't go in there. We kept a cooler for condiments. 

We got a GE fridge this time for $1600. It's 27 cu ft.  They didn't have the kind we wanted with a freezer on the bottom and one door on the top. We had to get French doors. Also, we wanted a white fridge, but they wanted us to pay $800 more for that. Very strange. The standard was stainless so that is what we got. 

Our old fridge was a Kenmore bought in May 2013 for $943 plus tax. It was a Kenmore 22.4 cu ft bottom freezer from Sears. 

Here is the new fridge. Everyone is telling us it will only last 5-6 years as that is how long fridges last nowadays. We bought the old one with the house 10 years ago. 

The new fridge has ice cubes that fall into the freezer and it has a water thing inside where we can get filtered cold water! This is all new to us and very exciting. However, we also know this is what breaks first and that's why we've avoided it before. This time, it was hard to avoid in getting the size of fridge we wanted and the style. Maybe we will get lucky and it won't break! 

The neat part is that it was delivered on Jeremy's birthday! It was the most expensive present he's ever gotten!

Jeremy birthday

 Jeremy had another birthday!

We did not have two 4 candles so the kids made due.  They have 11x4. It works! 

Orchestra Concert

Elizabeth had an orchestra concert. 

She had quite the fan section. You can see Papa Norm and Gram and the next 3 girls are all some of her good friends who came to watch. 

The cheering squad! 2 of them are in orchestra and the rest applauded and clapped for them. 

 

Halloween

Elizabeth and her two friends dressed as matching unicorns and went trick r treating. 

Nathan wore random things and stayed home to pass out candy. 

 

Pretty Sunset

 

Pretty Fall Colors

It's been a really nice fall so far. The colors are pretty, the sun has been out, and it's warm out in the afternoons. I took this pretty picture on Friday. You'll notice a big spider that Nathan welded in metals class! He used pumpkins for the body. 

 

High School League Championship Meet

It was a beautiful day for Nathan's last meet of the year. It was about 76 degrees out with no wind and lots of sun! 

Nathan had some fans come! Papa Ray and Peaches came along with Papa Norm and Gram. I failed at getting pictures with them but they were there. 

Nathan had a rough race. There were 201 JV boy at the start line (they did not split them up like last week). He fell not long after the start of the race due to the huge amount of boys. They got tangled up. He had a spike cut on his leg and had to scramble back up and try to make up time despite his leg stinging and hurting. Then, he fell AGAIN down near the volleyball courts.  

Despite these hardships, he still finished 16 out of the 201 JV boys. He finished 4 out of 38 JV Hanford boys.  His time was 19:23 which wasn't his best BUT that was ok. This wasn't a PR course anyway as it's slow. If he hadn't fallen, he probably would have gotten somewhere between 10th and 15th place, but in the end it doesn't matter for him as he wasn't moving on to districts anyway. 

He had a great season and had some huge PR's so that's all that mattered! He worked hard and made it to Portland. He made some new friends. He had some great bus trips and some races where he felt so proud of how much he had improved. 

JV warmups! 

Waiting for the start. 

Trying to make up time after his falls. 

Finish line sprint! 

JV team picture. Nathan is right in the middle with the sunglasses. 

Another amazing parent took pictures so here is another start pictures. I guess their shoes were interesting. 

Nathan yawning. He didn't have a great night's sleep. Also, that other boy is jumping. He's not really that tall. He is tall though! 

I thought it was funny how Nathan looks to be smiling in the picture. 

I like this picture right next to the river. 

Spike injury. 

Another beautiful day!