November

November started off slowly as we recovered from all the Halloween activities. The turkeys are growing and multiplying, but Anthony doesn't think they are big enough to butcher for Thanksgiving...maybe Christmas!

After Halloween we had some pumpkins that we never got around to decorating, so James got to smash them for the tortoises. They didn't even want to wait for them to be smashed, they came out immediately and started trying to eat them.

James's cub scout pack participated in their yearly Thanksgiving food donation service project. Usually we do the pickup portion where we drive around the neighborhoods looking for bags of food on doorsteps to collect. This year we did the flyer drop off where the boys go up and down the streets putting flyers on every. single. door. It was exhausting!! By the end I think we covered over 3 miles of streets and we were all wiped out.

James's teachers hold student-led parent teacher conferences where the kids grade themselves on different areas and put their strengths and what they want to improve on. It was sooo stinkin' cute!! I just sat there while James read from his paper. When he got to suggestions for the teacher, he would kind of glance up at the teacher he was talking about and quietly say, "Ummm, so maybe you could go a little slower?". It was like he was scared to give them any critique, even though they tell them to do that! The teachers were so sweet too, they would just instantly agree, "Of course, that is a great idea. I can do that!". I loved it! James's critique of himself was that he could pay more attention and try to stay more focused.

I had a Saturday morning appointment in Deland and since James was out with Anthony fishing, Rett got to have a little Mommy time with me. We got to my appointment only to find that there was a computer glitch and they rescheduled me for 3 hours later... Since I was an hour away from home I didn't want to go home to wait, so Rett and I went to the store, grabbed a picnic lunch and found a nearby spring to explore.

Green springs! So full of sulfur and minerals that the water is always a murky green.

While we were walking through a path we heard this loud rushing sound and had to go investigate. We found a fast flowing little waterfall of spring water. It was so brown and tanin-stained that Rett said it looked like a river of Diet Coke!

Anthony was having fun hanging out with James. They spent some time in the hammock:

While they were out fishing James caught a redfish!

Usually I filet all the fish, but James wanted to learn how to do it himself. I showed him how to do it and then he cooked the fish all on his own. He was very proud of himself.

Anthony put up his deer skulls. Both of these deer are ones he killed in our own yard! The big skull is from the deer he shot on his birthday in September. We just finished eating the rest of the deer meat from it, so it was kind of strange to be sitting at dinner and look up to see the skull of the animal you are currently eating.

Church has finally started back in person, just for sacrament meeting. Rett always gives me the best snuggles during church.

We went for a walk on the beach and found this awesome piece of driftwood. You never know what you are going to find at this beach. We always end up discovering something new or interesting.

Our big Thanksgiving break adventure was a trip to a cabin on a lake in South Carolina. On our drive there, we stopped at the smallest church in America. It was so cute! It had a little bell and a few pews inside it.

Anthony and James giving a sermon:

Our cabin had a large dock on the lake, so we tried fishing from it as soon as we got there. We tried to catch something from the dock the entire trip, but never got a single thing!

One morning I went running and came across this adorable historic church. I love finding little gems like this!

We tried to go exploring every day and find some good hiking. This state park was interesting, it had a big Indian mound and a few historic markers about important civil war battles in that area.

Ready to get lost in the woods!

There were so many cotton fields in the town we stayed in! It was seriously so exciting to see them on the side of the road. One day we pulled over just so we could get a picture. I bet the people who live there think that is so weird, but I'm sure it is how we feel about orange trees. They are nothing special to us, but so exciting to other people.

The view of the backyard of the cabin:

We decided to rent a pontoon boat to try to improve our luck with fishing. Anthony did a bunch of research and thought that we could get some big catfish if we found the right area. It was soooo cold and windy! Rett did not make this trip easy. He complained pretty much nonstop for the first four of the five total hours we were out there.

Daniel caught an itty bitty.

Anthony caught a bigger one:

We started playing some word games and Rett got into it. Finally not complaining!

I was trying not to ruin everyone else's fun by complaining but I was pretty cold, uncomfortable, and bored myself. I just hunkered down, read my book, and waited for it to be over. Sometimes I held a fishing pole.

In our last hour, we finally found the big catfish!! It was so exciting to haul in those huge fish!

Daniel caught the first one. We figured it was at least 50 pounds.

Then James hooked into one!

Victorious! He could barely hold it up! We decided to keep this one to filet back at the cabin. We ended up with a cooler full of fish to bring home.

Anthony trying to figure out how heavy James's fish was. This one was smaller than Daniel's (we let that one go)

After we came home from South Carolina, Anthony spent the rest of the Thanksgiving break working on his next big project: putting in irrigation sprinklers. Our friend Nick had a bobcat that he rented for putting in a palm tree in his yard and had extra time on it, so he came over to do some work in our yard. For fun. Boys and their toys!

Clearing out the garden area:

Letting James have a turn:

Thanksgiving morning I participated in a virtual 5k turkey trot and got my best 5k time ever! Woohoo!

Here is the video of James reeling in his mega fish: