2023 Recap

• Kimball was ordained a Deacon by his Dad and did a baptism session at the Spokane temple for the first time
• Sadly, Jason Koyle passed away unexpectedly, and I was able to travel to UT for the funeral
• CORA GRATUATED SPEECH THERAPY AFTER 9.5 YEARS!!!
• Ezra and I flew to AZ for a short Lynn Pettingill reunion and got to pal around with Grandma Julie and Grandpa Goofy
• We went to Twin Falls and surprised Grandma Cox for her 70's birthday with a surprise family reunion at the cabin in Elba. We helped hide Kempton's family until the big reveal. Attended the temple with Isom for his first temple trip. We also had Pettingill cousin fun swimming, playing catch with Grandpa Goofy, sleepover at Grandma's, easter egg hunt, family pictures, and attended the temple where Charity received her endowment.
• I fixed up and staged the bnb so it's all ready to rent out - it took me 5 months
• Ezra lost his first tooth
• Lance got his Kharmen Ghia up and running and entered into a few car shows
• Kimball had a fun baseball season
• Biked around Gonzaga campus, hiked Pitcher and Bowl, lots of swimming and hiking at Bear Lake, Liberty Lake, Spokane River, and everywhere in between
• Went to Twin for our annual summer vacation-lots of cousin fun, little and big kids' camps (Kimball's first time white water rafting), swimming in Brad's canal, and the BEST girls trip to Boise for a night
• Kimball got his braces off!
• Went to Silverwood and the Moses Lake Temple open house
• Cora had a sleep study
• Had a GREAT glamping trip to Copper Falls, ID
• Kimball started middle school
• Charity came to live with us
• Saw Martina McBride in concert with Charity
• Cut down a few huge Ponderosa Pines
• Found out Cora has mild sleep apnea which I'm choosing not to treat right now since it is mild. Also found out she has some sort of auto-immune-something where her body doesn't make enough antibodies to fight off upper and lower respiratory illnesses. Still on the road to figuring out answers for that.
• Had an AMAZING trip back to Charleston with Dad's siblings
• Savannah came for a week to visit Charity
• Lance and I saw Dear Evan Hansen, Riverdance, Puddles, the comedian Ryan Hamilton, and Les Miserables

Christmas Break Activities

During the two weeks off of school, we mostly chilled around the house. The kids were super excited for their new Nintendo Switch so we had a lot of screen time and junk food. Two things we did do was go ice skating downtown at the skate ribbon and attend our first hockey game. (Lance won the hockey tickets as a prize for best decorated vehicle at the middle school trunk or treat). The kids loved ice skating! Poor Ezra had bloody blisters on the side of his legs from his skates, he had to stop skating early. Next time we'll wear long socks and athletic pants to tuck into the skates. By the time we finished skating it was dark so we headed inside to warm up and ate at the little restaurant inside. It was a great way to end winter break for the kids!

Our first hockey game watching the Chiefs was a win! It was a family feast night so drinks and hot dogs were $2 a piece instead of $9 and everybody loved watching the game. We even got to see one fight which really stressed-out Cora. I feel bad that was her reaction to it because it kind of ruined the night for her, she wasn't expecting that but next time we can prepare her better. I think we'll end up going a few more times before the season is over.