Fall Break

 I took most of fall break off. I had some budget work to do, but the rest of the week I was able to be off, which was really lovely. We mostly stayed home, but we did get our one day with Grandpa Doug to go on a hike on Antelope Island. For all the years I’ve lived in Utah, I’ve never gone to Antelope Island, which seems pretty ridiculous. We had a great time. We summited one of the mountains there. It was steep and fast, but fun. 

Bill and I have been working on a couple home projects. One, our storage room turned exercise room. Two, built in shelves in our under the stairs Harry Potter closet. I got a ton of progress done on the shelves. This was an amusing trip to Lowe’s for some trim. I could have driven the van, but I took my car instead and ended up getting 12-foot long trim. I made it work. Hahahaha!

The detail work is all that is left for this section. 

Yesterday was another band competition. I helped out moving props and ended up on the field holding one of them to make sure it didn’t blow away. This competition was at American Fork HS. It had quite the beautiful view from the stands! 

A few shots from behind the prop. 

Spencer is in the middle tower. I love their show so much. They haven’t gotten as high of scores as they feel they deserve, but they’re putting such good work in and it’s incredible to watch. They bumped up this year into the highest, most competitive division, so the competition is intense. It’s so cool that we have this opportunity by virtue of the high school we attend. 

September and October

It’s been a bit since I posted any pictures. Last week I wound down the tennis season. This is one of Aaron’s matches.

Spencer has been hard at work with marching band. He’s had some wild experiences. The his is a competition at Utah State. It was good and raining the whole time. 

The costumes this year are kind of wild. Definitely not classic marching band uniforms, but they go really well with their program. 

They look so good on the field. 

I headed out to Dover at the end of September for my nephew’s baptism. Mom and Grandma came with me. I just stayed for the weekend, but they stayed for ten days. It was a great time. We went canoeing. 

The baptism was lovely. I played piano for it, which was nice. 

I took Chloe and Aaron to a Classic Skating night this last week. Always a good time. 

Bill and I took advantage of having the day off this Monday while the kids had school, huzzah! We hiked to Lake Blanche. It was gorgeous. 

Bill and Spencer went hunting yesterday. No luck, but they hiked a lot! 

Chloe and I went to a Daybreak Pumpkin celebration. It included giant pumpkin racing, a farmers market, cardboard canoe racing, portapotty racing, haha! We found some fun stuff to buy and laughed a lot at the races. 

I kind of love our Halloween decorations this year. Genevieve had opinions about what we should have done I think it turned out well. 

 

Lots of fun activities

 Red, white, and blue day for band at the football game. 

Latest paint by number done. Maybe I should have taken the picture on a less vibrant background, haha! 

Bill and I went to the Queen Tribute concert in Daybreak this week. It was fun. And more fun than the concert was running into my old roommate from get this, 22 years ago! She recognized me faster than I recognized her, but it clicked after chatting for a few minutes. We lived together just for one summer. Such a fun blast from the past. 

We got to go to a Bees game this week too. Actually two! This one we had great seats some friends shared with us since they couldn’t go. The tickets are a little pricier than I’d like, so we actually haven’t gone to one yet. This was super fun. 

My sister in law had some friends cancel going to a concert with her, so she invited me and Genevieve instead and we had a great time Saturday night at Genevieve’s first concert! 

Marina put on a fantastic show. 

This was amusing. We came across some ducks walking down the road towards us instead of crossing. Bill actually hopped out and herded them across so us and the white car could drive through. The ducks were pretty cute! 

We sat on the grass with a bunch of friends at this baseball game. Didn’t see as much of the game, but we had a great time with all our friends! 

Happy birthday, Genevieve!

Bill ran a dusk to dawn team relay out on the Salt Flats. The pictures from it are so cool. It looks like another world out there. 

Happy birthday, Genevieve! 13! 

Braces are off! He looks SO old without them. 

Comfy reading on the upstairs porch. Chloe looks SO much like Bill in this photo. 

 

Mt. Timpanogas

I haven’t done much hiking this summer. I’ve run, but not as much as normal. I’ve been doing physical therapy for an injury but haven’t really seen it heal yet. So when my friends in run club said should we hike Timpanogas this weekend, I of course said yes! 😁😁😁

It was absolutely worth it. 14.6 miles? Sure, no problem. Actually the whole second half was kind of torturous, but whatever, totally fine. It was so much fun. 

Goats! We saw some triplet baby goats in the way. Adorable! 

I woke up at 3am, met up with 16 friends, and headed up. We got on the trail at 5:16am. We got done at 1:30pm. I was pleasantly surprised how fast we got to the top. 7.5 miles went shockingly fast. And then it sort of slowed down, ha! The hike back I was so sore. It was so incredibly beautiful. There were still so many wildflowers. The weather was perfect. Unseasonably cool for an August day. I almost forgot to grab a jacket, but went back for it before I left and I’m so glad I did. It was cold at the start! And then cold from the saddle up to the summit. But the rest was just a super pleasant temperature. Clouds rolled in the second half, so it didn’t get hot. 

Go us!

And done! It felt so good! I may or may not have walked around hazily crippled the rest of the day, but all worth it. 🤣 I’d do it again.