Election Day

 I've kind of been avoiding blogging about this day for a while now.  But like ripping off a bandaid, I just need to get it over with.  The day started out great!  I wore my Hilary shirt proudly and excitedly.  We dropped of Erik's ballot at a polling place (In Utah you get your ballot in the mail, but Erik just hadn't mailed it in yet).  I was definitely thinking that Clinton would win, but I was also thinking that Utah could possibly go independent with Evan McMullin (who Erik voted for), and I was really happy with the prospect.  Anything to prove that our country (and "my people" here in Utah) were above supporting such a vile man in Donald Trump.

 We also filled our day up with an Aquarium visit!  We decided to get a pass again, so now I'm looking forward to lots of soothing ocean life time :) 

I was starting to feel nervous, so we decided to get food from Kneaders that would be fun and comfort inducing for the stressful evening of election watching (though my stress was more mixed with excitement than anything else).

 We started putting up the numbers on our electoral map, and shockingly it was looking like it was going in a different direction than I thought it would.  I became more and more worried, and then I realized it was going downhill fast.  I put a movie on for the kids, and continued to watch coverage until the bitter end (about 1 am), but the results were clear:  Donald Trump had just won the presidency.

 And so that's where we are today:  Where every morning I wake up and remember what has happened and then a pit in my stomach forms.  Luckily, the pit isn't quite as big as it was on November 8th, but I really cannot believe what has happened  At first, after being impressed with Trump's acceptance speech, I thought maybe we were going to get a mature Trump (one that didn't show himself during the election).  And while I still think Trump can at times act mature and do good things, I am so so so unimpressed with him as a person and honestly have very little respect for him.  If you look back on all of this tweets since election day, you see the same type of person that acted the role of the bully for the past couple of years (I mean going after a local union organizer who obviously has way less power than he does is just stupid and demeaning). Since I'm on a roll now I'll list my top concerns about Trump and hopefully these concerns will be proved wrong!

1) He is extremely petty and thin skinned and puts more stock in belittling those he perceives as his enemies than doing what is good for others.

2) He is extremely egoistical.

3) He has a crazy amount of potential conflicts of interests that could be disastrous for America.  I don't see how his business ties in other countries will not sway how he deals with those countries.  As of now, he says his kids will run the business and he will be out of it, but that does not disentangle him at all.  Since he will be going back to his business after the presidency how successful it remains will be very important to him.  Also, since his kids are going to play such an active role in the White House, the conflicts of interests remain.

4) He was awaked and legitimized a white nationalism and xenophobia that is horrifying.  It is crazy we have to make a point of condemning these kinds of people. They obviously have no business in the White House, but the fact that Steve Bannon is Trump's White House Chief Strategist does nothing to dissuade this notion.

So anyway, that's enough Trump talk for now.  At this point, I will keep praying for our country and speak up when I see things that aren't right.

 So on November 9th, to make us feel better we went and saw Trolls!  It was a cute movie.  Also, my Mom bought me a Thanksgiving herb plant that smells delicious :) We visited Hannah at her apartment that evening too.  And then my Mom left the next day.

 Wyatt doing one of his favorite activities: playing Madden.

 We took Luna in her for her grooming appointment and she came home looking naked!

 Anna was really into putting this cute jigsaw puzzle together that I got for my birthday!

 I tried taking a sneaky picture of Chase and Anna watching a movie :)

 I want a West Wing Podcast Sweatshirt!

I let Jackson go to his first sleepover!  The Coles were watching Noah Campbell and asked if Jackson could join them.  The Coles feel like family to us, so I felt OK with it even though we normally have the rule of no sleepovers.  Jackson was very excited about it!