November 2024

I stopped in after work to say Happy Birthday to McKinley. Nora didn’t care about the birthday singing, but look at her eyeing that cake and candle. 

Before we left for Columbus I stood outside in the cold for an hour waiting in line before the polls opened. I wanted to make sure that I did my civic duty and placed my vote. I knew that I had to work on Tuesday and it wouldn’t be likely that I could get away to vote. In my opinion if you don’t vote then you can’t complain about the government. 

We weren’t able to go up to Columbus for Olivia’s birthday so all of us siblings decided to pick a weekend to get together. The first weekend in November we all went up and met at the zoo to start off the weekend. The kids had fun seeing the animals and they even fed the giraffes. This was Nora’s first zoo experience in her life. 

Everyone even got to ride the carousel, well everyone that wanted to ride it. Nora’s first carousel ride with all the little kids riding. 

Landon came to Uncle McKinley’s house so that we could leave from his house to go to the UK game after I got off work. He had some time to play in the leaves with Nora while he waited for me to get off work. 

On the way home from Columbus weekend we stopped at Kings Island to ride a roller coaster. Yes, we stopped to just ride one roller coaster, Diamondback. Landon did a few trick or treat stations and then we got in the car and drove the rest of the way home. 

On Election Day apparently Landon wanted to do nothing more than play Monopoly. He got it set up and after I got home from work Jennifer and I played with him. I got the early lead because I got all the cheap properties and then bought a bunch of hotels on them. After about an hour and a half I was ready to call it quits so I gave Landon all of my properties. Also Jennifer looks terrified in this picture. 

I had a day off from work so I took advantage and spent some time smoking some meat. I did a pork shoulder and a rack of ribs. They were both delicious. The only bad part was that my smoker charger over heated and started to burn the plug. So I guess that I did it up right for my last time with this smoker. 

The kids had youth group so Jennifer and I took advantage and got in an alphabet date. This one was V. We first started by volunteering at church for meal pack. Then we headed across the street to Five (V) Below and we found some good finds. One being a Villians puzzle and the not so good Violet Crumble bar which was not good at all. Then we stopped at DQ for some vanilla ice cream with toppings, which some people call blizzards. 

The kids attend an after-school club called Wyldlife. It is a Christian based group where they have snacks and a devotion. They spent the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge. They had a good time at the water park and with all the activities they had planned. I was a nervous wreck sending my little kids off with some college kids that I had never met. 

The kids were gone on their weekend to Great Wolf Lodge so Jennifer and I went to the UK game together. Kentucky handled Bucknell pretty easily. I had a co-worker text me that she had an extra seat behind the bench. I decided to stay up top with Jennifer because I didn’t think she would appreciate being abandoned up top. 

Both the kids said they had a good time, but none of Brinley's friends actually signed up to go on the trip so she had to make some new friends for the weekend. Just like a Where's Waldo - see if you can find Brinley in the top picture. 

After the game we had our Y alphabet date. We went to Gumbo Ya Ya and I got something called a Yatwich and Jennifer got gumbo. Then we went out for some frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf. 

Jennifer and I were able to get another date in while the kids were gone on their overnight adventure to Great Wolf Lodge. This was our N date. We had North Lime Donuts, gNocchi and noodles for lunch at Pasta Garage, and Nothing Bundt Cakes. The fried lasagna was one of the most delicious things I have ever had here in Lexington. 

Nine weeks post op and I officially graduated from physical therapy. These guys really helped me get myself back to the closest I am going to get for now. I have run in the neighborhood, but it is going to be a while before I run any races. 

Landon randomly asked me about making oobleck. We had the ingredients, cornstarch and water, so we made it. He played with it for over an hour. Then later in the night got it out and played with it again. 

As I got to McKinley’s house after work one day I couldn’t go in to say hello and catch up. So, my consolation prize was these two waving hello to me. 

Landon and I went to catch a UK game together. We went down to see the players and give them a high five when they leave the court. There are a lot of really nice players on this team and they are really great ball players. They run a really fast paced kind of basketball, which was a spark of excitement we had been missing the past few years. 

I tried to catch a picture of Landon as he was leaving lacrosse practice. He was carrying two backpacks, one on the front and one on the back. He quickly took the front one off when he saw me with my camera. 

Landon was eating a tootsie roll that his teacher had given him at school and while he was chewing he felt something hard. Turns out that it was his tooth that had fallen out. He told me why the teacher had given him the tootsie rolls. He was playing a game in social studies where it puts one kid against the entire class to see who can answer the most questions. Landon defeated the class and the teacher was impressed and gave him a handful of tootsie rolls for his achievement. 

These two love a good nap. Both like to curl up too. 

Not often does Brinley go to the basketball games, but I told her that I wanted her to go with me. We had a good time. We grabbed Goodfellas on the way into the stadium and then we stopped for blizzards on the way home. People in the arena are crazy for paying $7 for a regular ice cream cone. I took a picture of the number of 3’s the boys hit on this night - 17 of them. This is a really fun team to watch. 

Since we were going to be gone for Thanksgiving we decided to fix a big meal the weekend before. We invited the other Lexington Heflin's over to eat with us too. 

We celebrated a little early for Thanksgiving because we were leaving town on actual Thanksgiving day. The night before I asked McKinley if they didn’t have anything then they could come over and enjoy some food. Nora came and tried a couple of firsts with food. She loved sweet potatoes (maybe due to the marshmallows) but not a big fan of mashed potatoes. 

We took the kids to see the movie Wicked as a last-minute decision.  Brinley and Jennifer had seen the play over the summer when we went to NYC, but it was all new to Landon. Everyone enjoyed it even though we had to sit in the front row. Brinley had to keep telling me to quit singing along. Great movie, but very sad that we have to wait for part 2 to come out. 

One morning I made the kids some muffins for before school. Landon was the first to get up and he thought that someone left them out. He put them in tupperware and put them in the fridge. A very nice job, but then nobody else knew that they were there to be eaten. The next day I made some chocolate chip banana bread for them. I made sure to leave them a note telling them that they were for them. 

Dad and I had planned to go see our alma maters play against each other. It is the only time I have taken someone that is cheering for the opposing team, but I figured little Western wouldn't be that big of a problem. We made it to the game but not before Dad fell on the steps heading up to our seats. Just so happened that a man I had met a few weeks earlier at my bible study was there to catch and help him up. After we got up to our seats and dad caught his breath from all the events we had an awesome time. I told Dad about the over under game that I have started playing with the kids at the games. We both predicted what the other's team would score and then we had to decide if they would go over or under that score. Turns out I was spot on for the night. I picked that WKU would score 33 in the first half and 68 for a final score. I nailed both of them. It was really great to get some time with my dad. We laughed and talked the whole night. 

Over the summer when I was looking at times for us to go to Disney for the Christmas party I found some great tickets for Thanksgiving break. So we loaded up the car on Thanksgiving morning and headed to the airport. We were unsure what would be open so we packed a lunch for the airport, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Goes down as the weirdest Thanksgiving lunch I have ever had. 

Our first stop of the day was Epcot. In the morning at home I had booked a virtual queue for us to ride Guardians of the Galaxy. Our call back time was scheduled for around 11 am. When we arrived at 4 pm we decided to give it a shot and see if they would let us ride. In pure Disney fashion they let us ride without even questioning anything. We also started this trip off differently than all the others because I told the kids we were going to meet some characters. We met Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie. The kids enjoyed it, with the exception of the characters all wanted to give them a hug. I am not a big hugger myself so I get it. One thing that Brinley said for sure she wanted to see was the show Fantasmic so we headed over to Hollywood Studios to make sure we could catch that show. We ended the night with Thanksgiving Giordano's pizza - which just so happens to be my favorite pizza on the planet. 

Some of the pictures that the photopass people captured of my kids hugging Minnie. 

The next morning we started the day off at the Magic Kingdom. I got a virtual queue for Tiana's Bayou. Of course it called us back at 9 am and it was still a little cold outside. It was ok, but I think Jennifer and I both wish they had just kept the old Splash Mountain. After riding that we decided to try some beignets, which they put both honey and powdered sugar on them. I thought they were just ok. I prefer the ones that I make at home. Next we went and rode the Jingle Cruise which told holiday themed jokes. The kids both wanted some Dole Whip after we got off that ride. 

A big thing at Epcot is drinking around the world. Well, since we don't drink we decided to do something different and eat around the world. We stopped at every country around the world showcase and tried a food at every stop. Then we all put them in order of how we liked them. The above collage is how I ranked them according to my taste. The only think all of us agreed upon is that Canadian poutine is disgusting. Here are all the foods that we tried in my order: German - caramel butter cookie, Mexico - cheese empanadas, German - pretzel bread pudding, England - fish and chips, Japan - shaved ice with sweet cream, French - baguette, Italy - pizza, Norway - school bread and strawberry rice pudding, Canada - maple popcorn, China - potstickers, Morocco - cookies, and finally the poutine from Canada. 

Epcot celebrates Christmas through all the different countries. They also have an event called the candlelight processional. They sing and tell the story of Jesus by reading from the Bible. I had told Jennifer and the kids that I would like to see it. Well, it just so happened to be the very first showing of the year and it was jammed packed with people trying to see it. They have a guest reader and the opening act was Josh Gad, aka the voice of Olaf. We didn't make the seating for the show, but we watched from the back of the audience in the standing room only. We made it through about half of the show before the kids started complaining about their feet hurting. 

Some of our shots from the rides at Magic Kingdom. 

The kids fight non stop some days, but other times they are best friends. They were walking with their arms around one another and walking in step with one another. They were actually walking like the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus. 

Some more of our ride photos and a few photopass shots. My favorite picture is the Hollywood Tower of Terror picture. We talked Jennifer into riding with us and the picture was amazing. She hates this ride, but her picture brought the kids and I so much joy. She screamed like a little baby during the entire ride. 

I had read so many reviews that this little French ice cream shop had the best treat in Epcot. It is called a croque glace and it was a scoop of ice cream and chocolate sauce inside a brioche bun. I was super excited to try it, but was severely disappointed. It also didn't help that I was listening to the UK vs Louisville football game and we were getting smoked. However, the kids and Jennifer weren't impressed either. 

On the night of the 30th we had been to three of the parks for the day, but Jennifer and Brinley didn't want to keep going for the night with Landon and I. We dropped them off at the hotel and then the boys headed to the Magic Kingdom to complete our fourth park of the day. We rode Tron and a few other rides while the wait times were really low. I had a good time spending some one on one time with my boy. I let him pick anything that he wanted to do and we did it. 

Landon was pretty hungry and he wanted to eat a pretzel. Everything taste better when it is Mickey shaped.