Travel

This Fall has been full of travel. First I went to Canada at the beginning of October, then we went to San Diego at the beginning of November, now Larisa is in Utah for the weekend visiting Alla (and doing something important that I can't disclose yet), and finally Larisa and I will go to Hawaii next week. And in the middle of that, Matthew, Summer and the family came here for Thanksgiving.

We dropped Larisa off at the airport this afternoon, and on the way home I decided to stop by at the mall to get some stocking-stuffers. I have Lydia with me for the weekend, so I decided to get some food before shopping, that way she might behave. She said she wanted cheese for lunch, so I got her a baked potato covered with cheese, bacon, and sour cream. Those are all things she should like, but she's been refusing the eat potato lately. Anyway, she wouldn't even try the food. I spent 20 minutes negotiating with her ("Just eat two bites and we'll get some juice. Do you want juice?"). After I practically gave up I finally managed to get her to try a bite. Of course she liked it and the rest was history. Sometimes Tyler does that same thing with formula; he resists until I give up, then with one last try it works.

Summer, Matthew, Russell, and Natalie were here for almost a week during our Thanksgiving vacation. It was a blast. We did some golfing, shopping, a Google tour, and dance-dance-revolution (and the ever exiting Thanksgiving-day football). Unfortunately, Matthew got quite sick and spent a couple of days under the weather, so that dampered our plans a little. We had a great time anyway, but when they go to all the effort to travel across the country we just wish everything could be perfect. On top of that, a speeding ticket and missed flight (on separate days) were unpleasant for them.

Larisa and Lydia set up the Christmas decorations this week. They look beautiful. We got a new building (a church) from Mom and Dad for our Christmas village.