Pre-Thanksgiving Activities

Since Tosha and Austen were in town for a week because of the funeral, we moved our Thanksgiving dinner up from the Sunday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday before that  (November 17th).  We did the whole thing with the turkey, etc. but no pictures of any of that.  My dad and Karla came, but Mom Hall was not feeling well and Jessica's crew had a number of sick little people as well as Elessia.  We had been planning on Thanksgiving on Sunday as we were heading to Tucson for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Ava's birthday is on November 24 so we celebrated a bit early and had a party and little smash cake for her.

As you could see, she got into it after a few minutes and covered herself in cake.  This was right before her bath.  Austen said that in the middle of the night, she woke up and while he was getting her back to sleep, all he could smell was birthday cake like a perfume. 

Niki with some help from Grandpa Hall completed this floor puzzle and posed for a picture.

They headed back to Seattle a couple of days later.

On Thursday, November 21st, Gary and I headed down to Provo to watch Jena perform with the BYU Adaptive Show Choir.  We got there early enough that we stopped in downtown Provo for a dinner at Station 22.  They had changed their menu and didn't have the same yummy thing that I had eaten when I had come before, but it was still a fun place to eat.

Painting on a building near where we parked--

A local business was having a conference--

The show choir program was held at the De Jong Concert Hall, which in BYU student terms, is quite an achievement.  It made for a special setting for these individuals and their students partners to perform together.  Because of the lightening, my pictures on stage didn't turn out well--

This is Emily, Megan, Jena, and Nicole (I think)--we didn't know but they were performing together a song from the Greatest Showman.  Each of the girls had mentioned that they were singing a solo at the concert.  No one realized that they were singing together and Emily's mom didn't know anything about it until the concert.

They have about 60 adults with disabilities and the same number of volunteers who are all BYU students. They sang a variety of songs and some special musical numbers.  It was quite fun and again, I know I say this every time, but I am so struck by the BYU students who give up their time to do this.  What a gift to Jena and all of the others who are touched by it.

Jena with her partner and some of her friends

Jena, Emily, and a volunteer

Friends taking a selfie  (Sara, Jena, Emily, and Tina)

A special evening with some special people.