First Week of October

 The first week of October, Sam and Audrey went on a trip to England with Sam's mom. Our "duty" was to spend each evening and night at their house and then get the boys to school each morning. Evie was there during the day and did most of the afternoon school pickups and gymnastics drop offs. That schedule kind of threw the cats for a loop- lol... but they survived. Since we are not used to getting up with an alarm clock, by Wednesday, we were beginning to feel like we were living the "Ground Hog Day" movie- lol 😀Each morning I got Luke up, he had breakfast, and then I walked to school with him. (Which was fine for me... round trip was about 1 mile. Which is a little less than half of what I normally walk each day.) While I was gone, Noah and Eli would get up, have breakfast, and we would drop them off at school about 8:30 and then come home. The first couple of days, I sent Audrey and Sam a text message saying... "Everyone is at school with clothes on". haha.  The third day, I said, "We are on a roll, three days in a row". And gave an update on a gymnastics schedule change. On Thursday, I said, "We are living ground hog day". And I said, "Luke has been happy to know that I can do the gate code and get back to the house by myself". (He even tested me on the gate code.) Saturday and Sunday was General Conference weekend. I made sure that I had a few fun things and bribes for that 😉😋 We went to What a Burger for lunch on Saturday and then we spent some time at our house for dinner. That let me get some things fixed for Sunday dinner at the Petes. My text that day was... The phrase "leaving children to their own devices" takes on new meaning in this day and age". The boys got way more device time than they were supposed to. On Sunday we watched the Sunday morning session of conference and then went to the Petes in time for the second session and dinner. Sam and Audrey got home about 7:30 pm. (The first picture is Dallin and Bethanie watching conference. The last picture is of a note that Evie put in the bathroom asking Noah to hang up his towel, his robe, and put his underwear in the hamper... The underwear is on the floor, right under the note and I usually picked up the wet towels from the bedroom carpet- lol 😂)

Time for Halloween Decor

By the end of September, I had my Halloween stuff out. It has been a work in progress this year though, with getting a few new things and rearranging the other things. I think these are the current pics. 

Nathan Ordained a High Priest

 There was a weekend in September when Annie and Alex flew to Utah, because Nathan was getting a calling that required him to be ordained a high priest. Here is what Annie wrote on a Facebook post. Then pictures to follow. I love the picture from Alex's baptism, in 1995. 

I wanted to share from a couple weekends ago our experience going to UT for a day! Nathan got called to the high council within his BYU stake, so Alex and I flew in so Alex could ordain Nathan to a high priest. Nathan was then also set apart for his new calling by the stake presidency. It was a great experience to be there for that! I know Nathan will do great in this leadership role. We also got to sit in on their stake conference, presided by Nathan’s former mission president in Ecuador!  Elder Roman got called as a 70 in April and is now over the Provo area. So we got to hear him speak and then meet him after the meeting. Nathan also got to be part of a panel during another meeting for stake conference, in which Nathan was the student representative, along with Elder Roman and the stake president. I didn’t get to be there for that but apparently Nathan did well answering questions. 

Later on Sunday evening, Alex, Nathan, and I had the privilege of having dinner with one of the missionaries who baptized Alex back in 1995. It was great to meet Brook Langston and his family and chat about the teaching experience 29 years ago. We are so grateful to Brother Langston and Brother Moore who sacrificed 2 years of their time to be there for Alex and set him on a path that has led to so much happiness for our family! And it carries on, in us sending out our boys on missions to help others. The power of one helping another is amazing, because it has a ripple effect that changes many lives.

Annie's Birthday

Here are a few pictures that Annie shared from her birthday. Savannah made the cake. It was her first time to make a cake and she had a couple of problems 😉🍰 We talked to Annie for quite awhile on Sunday evening... she was waiting for everyone to get home from a church activity. When everyone sang happy birthday to her... Weston also played his trombone... it was pretty funny. 

Mom's Birthday

 Mom would have been 90 on September 19th this year. To celebrate that we went on a little trip to St. George to see Gary and Quin. We did a little sightseeing with Gary. We went to the Red Cliffs temple. (The St. George temple was closed for cleaning.) We had some relaxing mornings at the motel.  (Gary works at the visitor's center at the St. George temple, each morning from 6-10. Which meant he was ready to do something with us about 11 each day.) We ate at some good restaurants, saw their new house, and I went to both church bookstores. Downtown Santa Clara was getting ready for the Swiss festival... with all of the painted cows. Some of these pictures are "pictures of pictures", at the visitor's center. The only stressful thing was flying into Las Vegas and renting a car to drive to St. George and then doing the reverse of that to come home. One of mom's favorite colors was purple. When we were at the Red Cliffs temple, I had several "hints" that we were at the right place on the right day. Happy Birthday, mom. I hope it was a special day for you.