Hunt Family Adventures : November 2022

On November 2nd Comcast informed us we'd experience a multi hour internet outage for some routine maintenance. Since Oscar couldn't do any work that morning, we decided to attend the temple. After getting our spiritual feast we feasted our bellies at the Cafe Rio in Castle Rock where I had a steak burrito, took home a pint of their delicious tomatillo dressing, and had a tasty pumpkin spice horchata (yum!). There was a relief society group from the Broadmoor/Cheyenne mountain area in our temple session, and they walked into Cafe Rio just a couple minutes after we did! Oscar had a 1:00pm work meeting he didn't want to miss, but our home cameras still showed offline as we left Cafe Rio, so we knew the internet was still down. However when we got back home at 12:55pm the internet was back up working normally. It all worked out perfectly!

At stake conference the previous Saturday the temple matron gave a talk and said something that really resonated with me - "The Lord likes to do His own teaching in His holy house. He would be pleased if you asked Him to teach you." I'm happy to say I accepted her challenge and gained some really valuable insights and impressions during my time there. From here on out, rather than coming with a question I'm hoping to get an answer to, I'm going to say "Heavenly Father, please open my heart and mind so you can teach me whatever it is you'd have me learn today."

Cute kitties! Nibbler figured out how to get to the top of our kitchen cupboards and decided to be our first Christmas present after we got our Christmas tree up.

Since November 5th was a gorgeous day in the low 60's and sunny, we took a trip to the zoo. It was hot when we arrived, so I didn't bring my coat in, but I regretted it later when the clouds rolled in. Here we are feeding the giraffes.

We also got to meet the new baby Wednesday and her mom Bailey. I kept thinking Bailey was the baby's name, but I've since learned from the zoo's Facebook page that her name is Wednesday.

We got to get really close to the penguins when they came into their outdoor space. They let you get close to them, but they don't allow petting since the penguins don't like it.

And we finally got to see the primates. We missed them on our first two visits. Here's a golden lion tamarin and a couple orangutans.

We saw several gorillas and a white cheeked and yellow cheeked gibbon. I didn't get a picture of it, but the yellow gibbon was swinging around a bunch while the black one just stayed in its little shelter. I like that the primates have indoor and outdoor habitats that are both fairly spacious.

The hippos weren't visible when we first came through, but we could see the lemurs. We wandered around the play area and across the bridge and then got a great view of the mama and baby hippos kissing. It was so cute!

We then saw the zebras and let the kids play on the turf hills and alligator play area. This is a great picture of Tyler pretending he's being eaten by an alligator.

The kids wanted a few pictures playing on the deer statues before we headed home.

While we were gone the missionaries helped Oscar paint the basement.

A few days later I successfully made my own hot and sour soup .

The kids had their first snow day the day before their week-long Thanksgiving break. Even though it only got up to 19 degrees that day, it was so sunny my driveway and sidewalks completely melted. I've never seen snow melt when it's below freezing. There's just something different about the sun here.

Before things started melting, Tyler made snow angels on the trampoline and the concrete since the weeds are too spiky to lay down on in most of the yard. We also went down to his friend's house where Tyler tried to make a snowman, but the snow was too powdery.

A few days later I got my brand new piano. It's a Yamaha CLP 795GP. It's about as nice a digital piano as you can get, but without all the fancy bangs and whistles for people who do synthesizing.

We got the tree decorated, put some stuffed animals under it, and the kitty cats checked it out.

The kids did a Thanksgiving break mini camp at the YMCA for 3 days. On the 2nd day Oscar took some time off from work so he and I could take a hike on the Pulpit Rock trail.

Oscar kept working on finishing our basement, and Tyler helped him put linoleum in the cat space. It also has vinyl tile underneath it, but we wanted to add an extra, peal-off layer to make it as water proof as possible.

On Thanksgiving day we did our traditional cornucopia hunt with fruits and vegetables inside waffle cones. Here were the clues

1) It's not inside since that would be gross, but this special robot is what Leela likes most (in the bathroom where the litter robot is)
2) All the red and green notes could fill a novel, this is where we play piano ___________ (marvel. In the bench of the upstairs piano)
3) Allison loves to splash and swim. She'll need this to do it? Which drawer is it in? (swimsuit in her swimsuit drawer)
4) Mommy lies here and so do the cats. It's their favorite place to take a ___________ (nap. On our bed)
5) We sure don't want this to get broken. It makes a huge sound when it is open. (new piano in the bench)
6) Tyler loves his sweet, sweet mommy. He also likes folding ____________ (origami in his origami bin)
7) Trick or Treat was so much fun. Look where you'd find the bubblegum (small kitchen drawer)
8) Dinosaurs spend lots of time here and it's also where the kids clean their rears (bathtub)
9) Yummy chocolate can't be beat. Retrieving it, though, may be a tough feat (up above the cupboards)
10) Upstairs in a special room I spy, the place where our clothes get _____________ (dry. Dryer)
11) Mold it, shape it, go go go, this drawer contains all of our _____________ (playdoh)
12) Allison has food all over her face, she'll find a towel to wash it in this place (linen closet where wash cloths are)
13) In our last house this was a bit broken and small. Here we don't have that complaint at all (the couch)
14) Daddy really shouldn't twerk. He's much better at going to _____________ (work in his office)
15) If you break it hard it sounds like a rocket, but you want the balls to go in a _____________ (pocket in the pool table)
16) Mommy has cracks in her heels and feet, these special socks give her relief (drawer on my nightstand)
17) It's cold out, but we gotta catch the bus, better put on your hat and ___________ (gloves in the gloves bin)
18) This is where the cats will be in the future when they need to pee (newly built cat area under the basement stairs)

Here are the kids finding their cornucopia at the end - a turned over cylindrical garbage can filled with toys. It was mostly cheap dollar tree stuff but I did pick up a make your own volcano kit for Tyler and a small Lego set for Allison during one of the afternoons the kids were at camp.

We went to Macaroni Grill for our Thanksgiving meal. The original plan was to see Oscar's sister and the kids' cousins in Missouri, but they came down with Covid a few days before we'd planned on leaving. Then we were invited to Thanksgiving by a family in our Ward and they called us the day before to let us know that they had also tested positive for Covid. There was still a 1:30pm reservation available at Macaroni Grill, and you can order off the Thanksgiving menu or the regular menu, so we opted for that. I'm the only one in the family that likes traditional Thanksgiving Fare, so it worked out perfectly for us. I ordered their Thanksgiving meal while the kids got pasta and Oscar got steak, and we didn't have to cook or clean up.

After our plans changed with Emily's family, I saw there were cheap flights from Utah the day after Thanksgiving and asked mom and dad if they wanted to come visit us for a few days. Oscar put up the extra queen bed for grandma to sleep on in Allison's room. Unfortunately Allison locked Fry in her room that night during dinner time, and he peed on her bed. Oscar didn't want to risk Fry peeing on there again, so he took her bed out and replaced it with a recliner. He'd assumed the mattress had gotten damaged, but later examination revealed that the mattress protector had in fact protected the mattress. We kept it in the garage for about a week to let it air out any lingering cat pee smell then were able to put it back in her room.

Mom and dad's flight was delayed at take off, which gave me about an hour to kill in the Denver area. Someone on my neighborhood Facebook page had mentioned there were lights on main street in Littleton, so I went down to check them out. Turns out they don't light them until after the Christmas parade. I was very confused seeing tons of crowds and no lights when I arrived, then talked to a few people and found out the parade was starting in 10 minutes. I stuck around to watch near the start of the parade route then booked it back to my car ASAP as soon as I saw Santa. It's definitely the first time I've accidentally gone to a parade!

After picking up mom and dad we went out to dinner at a diner in Castle Rock where there were also some lovely Christmas lights and decorations. The next day we took them to the Garden of the Gods.

We just went to the visitor center and drove around the park since dad's mobility isn't the greatest these days. There's a great view of the kissing camels from the visitors' center.

On Monday we went down to the Magic of Lights down in Fountain, CO. They had some fun themes to several of their displays. Here are some pictures of the 12 days of Christmas, the nativity, a menorah and Jewish star, and some non Christmas things like Barbie, a monster truck, and Santa doing the limbo.

Fairy tales and fairy tale creatures.

And our favorite part - Prehistoric Christmas. Allison's delight made the long drive worth it for this alone. We really liked the display of Santa sliding down the dinosaur's back and landing on a raptor.

I told my friend Amy about these lights, and she ended up going to the exact same "Magic of Lights" in Mississippi. We hadn't realized they were the same until she told me she'd seen the same sorts of displays.

It was a great drive-thru, and coming on a Monday was a good choice since there were no crowds whatsoever. I was also happy they had a gingerbread smelling port a potty at the entrance since I really had to go and there was not a gas station or grocery store or anything else with a bathroom nearby.