Round Rock Honey Factory

We went on a tour of this honey factory, only about 6 miles north of our house. We learned a lot of interesting facts about bees, watched the conveyor belt crank out several bottles of fresh honey, and bought a couple bottles for our food storage. :)

Being there today reminded me of this talk from Elder Ballard, four years ago:

Nutritionists tell us [honey] is one of the foods that includes all the substances—enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water—necessary to sustain life. . . . 

Honeybees are driven to pollinate, gather nectar, and condense the nectar into honey. It is their magnificent obsession imprinted into their genetic makeup by our Creator. It is estimated that to produce just one pound (0.45 kg) of honey, the average hive of 20,000 to 60,000 bees must collectively visit millions of flowers and travel the equivalent of two times around the world. Over its short lifetime of just a few weeks to four months, a single honeybee’s contribution of honey to its hive is a mere one-twelfth of one teaspoon. 

Though seemingly insignificant when compared to the total, each bee’s one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey is vital to the life of the hive. The bees depend on each other. Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees to do becomes lighter because all of the bees faithfully do their part.

Thanksgiving

We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving this year:

We started with breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

William loved the grits and fried apples. He was ravenous.

Then we went to the movies and watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

And instead of turkey and stuffing, we had homemade pizza and pie.

Oh, and we made a Thankful Tree!

Berry Springs Park

For Day 1 of Thanksgiving Break, we drove 20 minutes north to Berry Springs Park. They have camping, fishing, hiking, picnicking, etc. 

We took a picnic lunch

Played on the playground

Went on a short hike

And visited the donkeys

Heidi's Birthday

Little Miss Heids had a great sixth birthday. Mom and the boys met her for lunch at school and brought some yummy donut holes:

 Then later in the day we brought treats to her kindergarten class:

 After that we went to Crafternoon at the library, played at Mt Playmore, ate cake and ice cream, and opened presents:

Random Pics

Here are a bunch of random pictures from the last week or two:

Here we are visiting Lila the other week. (Notice the cool Thanksgiving tree in the background. I really need to get on the ball and steal that idea!)

We go to Home Depot a lot, or as Owen calls it, the "Carrot Store." He loves to drive the car. (Although here I appear to have captured both boys yawning at the same time.)

Picking up the girls from school. Gotta love the glasses.

Celebrating good report cards with some froyo! (Lizzie's is made from almond milk.)

This kid is all kinds of mobile now. Here comes trouble.

We visited the Traveling Wall exhibit over Veterans Day Weekend. We actually got to see this same exhibit right after Owen was born when we were living in Toledo. (Owen looks pretty thrilled, right?)

It Has Begun...

This kid is crawling, pulling himself up, and putting things in his mouth left and right. He is growing up way too fast!

This kid is generally unhappy if I put him in his high chair, pack 'n play, or crib. He wants to be out and about! He usually pulls himself up in a standing position to let me know that he is displeased. (Although he looks pretty happy in this picture.)

This kid also discovered the stairs this week. He hasn't quite figured out how to climb them yet, but give him a few days and I'm sure we'll have a climber.