Ok, So I'm only a month behind

I'm behind, which seems to be the story of my life. We've had a busy Fall. Its sad when your 7 year old tells you in the car " you and dad are the only parents in my class that travel a lot, well, except for Hayden's dad- he goes to Arizona- but you guys travel a lot, I mean you go for longer". Before you report us, let me atleast explain our side- This Fall has been really busy for us, its usually a busy time of year- it seems its a good time to have Speech and Hearing conferences.
In early October, I headed the Oregon Speech Language Hearing Association Conference in Salem for 3 days. I came home in time to see Ryan head out for Italy for a week, then mid week I left for Washington DC for a National Licensing conference. We were finally together at the end of October for a few weeks. The American Speech and Hearing Conference is always the weekend before Thanksgiving - which is possibly the worst possible time to have it, but they must get some kind of great rate because the date never changes. The conference was in Chicago, so I was out there for about 5 days. IT was freezing cold there! The high was 9-12degrees with a windchill on top of that of 10-15 degrees! In Chicago, no one makes fun of you for wearing big scarves, hats and earmuffs. Initially I looked at people kind of oddly, but after walking around freezing to death, I bought some gear and bundled myself. Fashionistas are just idiots in Chicago if they don't bundle up. Then it was back home for about 2 days, and we just got back from a roadtrip to Boise to see Grandma, Grandpa and my crazy family for Thanksgiving. All went well- considering no one got seriously hurt and there were not weapons brought out. I'm half kidding about this.
We did have to partake of some wild game while we were there- and I'm not referring to the turkey at Thanksgiving.
We started a tiny white lie- when the kids asked if we were eating "steak" we said yes, then as they persisted, this lie morphed into "eating steer". This was acceptable until someone blew it and then my dad didn't realize the phonics skills that 7 year olds have- he said " if you take away "st" and add a "d"- almost immediately Grace put it together and shouted "We're eating deer!". I wanted to throw up. My dad said he didn't know what happened to me, I used to eat wild game all the time (my response: I really didn't have a choice growing up").
The other highlights-( as the kids recounted tonight)
Grant: getting bucked off the horse with Charlie his cousin- then he said, " Why didn't Charlie's dad catch him when the horse bucked Dad?" - ( Charlie may need therapy for that)- luckily no one was hurt- I wasn't there, I was out shopping on Black Friday. Ryan did catch Grant and tried to break Charlie's fall.

Grace: I really liked it when I got to pull that thing on the tow truck... I also like swimming.

Tow Truck- no, we luckily did not have problems on the trip- however, here is a brief summary of how we got involved with a tow truck.

On the way to Boise, a neighbor and I discovered that we were heading out to the same location for Thanksgiving. Her husband was working until Wednesday midday, we were heading out on Tuesday, so she and her 2 boys rode over with us. The trip was uneventful and went well.

On the way back to Portland- We got a call from this same friend, they were stuck on the side of the road 25 miles ahead. We eventually caught up to them, their van was broken down, we called AAA on our membership, waited an hour for the tow truck, waited another half hour for her brother to pick her up and take her back to his house ( where she still remains while the van is fixed) - and packed her husband ( whom we had not met prior to shaking hands on the side of the road) in our van with all of our stuff and 2 kids.
You know how when you travel with your kids, you might say things when you're alone in the car for 7 hours that you really can't say in front of strangers- well, that was how things went. It was a long trip- the husband slept most of the time or pretended to- and of course there was a long back up in the Gorge- which added another hour and half to the trip.
WE ARE SO GLAD TO BE HOME ALONE IN OUR OWN HOUSE!

* For 2 hours today we thought Ryan was going to Israel next week, but luckily, we've avoided that for now. The Italians have to cover that trip. ( really, they live in Italy)