Thanksgiving with the Novaks

We spent Thanksgiving with our dear friends the Novaks. I have no idea what I am going to do without Barbara when we move. They are our adopted family and we are going to miss them all so very much.

Peter and Benji having fun with the Pound Puppies set. I'm sure this will be blackmail-worthy in a few years.

We usually spend Christmas Eve with the Novaks and Barbara always brings Christmas crackers -- but since we'll be gone by then (sniff, sniff), she had some for us to open with our dinner. 

Delish food and the best company. My absolute favorite things in this world.

Goodbye to Edwards

Of the many goodbyes we've had to make the past month, saying goodbye to all of Travis' co-workers has made us very sad. As a proper send-off, we had an adults-only trip to Six Flags one day. It turns out that screaming your lungs out on roller coasters is a great stress reliever.

I took the kids up to the base for Travis' fini-flight. Basically, Travis flew around for 1.5 hrs in a F-16 while the pilot did all sorts of crazy maneuvers. Upon landing, their entire team was waiting on the tarmac. The tradition is, the 'honoree' is pulled out of the jet and restrained (tackled and bound up with duck tape) and then sprayed down with cheap champagne and fire extinguishers.

It's quite the production and it didn't help that it was freezing outside and poor Travis got drenched after having pulled 6 or 7 G's consistently and was feeling a bit queasy.

But it was great to be there to celebrate with him -- it was an awesome perk. Notice his personalized flight helmet behind us.

Horse Crazy

Ever since school started back, I've been taking horseback riding lessons at a ranch near our house. I've loved being able to be outside in the sun and my buns and thighs have been getting quite the workout. 

This has been my view every Tuesday morning and I couldn't love it more. 

Meet Noah.

He's teaching me to run the poles and ride barrels. 

And of course, I needed the proper footwear.

We've read several cowboy books with Benji lately and he kept asking and asking to take riding lessons with me. We finally were able to schedule a day with my teacher and he had a ball. 

He was fearless and followed directions like a champ and talked out riding non-stop for days afterwards. He still asks me every couple of days when he's gonna get to go again. I guess he comes by it honestly.

Christmas is coming!

 Knowing that we would be moving in December, Travis' co-workers planned a gingerbread house party for us so we wouldn't miss out this year. As you can tell, our kids love sugar.

And then in the midst of all the crazy packing and moving and boxing... we made and decorated gingerbread cookies. And they were delicious and made me incredibly happy.

Silicon Valley

Big changes ahead for the Millet family. Over Veteran's Day weekend, we traveled up to Silicon Valley to go house hunting. That's right, the Millets are moving!

Travis accepted a job with Kitty Hawk and we plan to relocate the beginning of December. 

Yes we are excited. And yes, we are crazy.

Nora loves being in a hotel 

Everybody was extremely excited when Travis first told them, quickly followed by tears all around. But they were loving wandering around the Bay near Travis' work.

Nora at one point asked us: "What's all this wet stuff?"

Travis: "Uh. It's rain."

Nora: "Yeah, but why does it keep falling from the sky?"

Poor desert-raised kids.

It was a pretty crazy 3-day weekend. We looked at 16 houses in two days (with three kids in tow, mind) and I think we've got one we like.

Finding a good house definitely called for ice cream.

 Wish us luck!