So here’s the latest “blue & tan dress.” So do you see gray & mint, or pink & white?
Derek's tennis season ended, and they took team pics.
Haha! It's almost like being Mike Wazowski-ed, but not quite. I think it was amazing that a mom came and took these pictures and captioned them for them. Thank you thank you. But here's Derek's individual picture. Oh my gosh!!
Tuesday, Morgan had his choir concert. How handsome is that kid? They sounded so beautiful.
Wednesday, we went to Jeff Goodsell's art exhibit opening at the Springville Art Museum. He created this assemblage piece that is super super cool. I'll try to get a closer view of it off Insta.
It's a Spiritual/ Religious exhibit, and his is about his spiritual journey.
Also, next to his, was this amazing piece. I really liked the concept and principle:
The labeling says, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD/ THE HOUSE OF THE LORD." And this caption by the artist:
Then, since it was your HumpDay, we went to a really really cool mexican restaurant for part of our Fall Break; I went to eat there at lunch with Jeff Goodsell one time and finally found an excuse to bring everyone. El Tapatio, on OLD Main St. in Payson. It looks like a hole in the ground, but super duper awesome inside. =)
And just so you can be just as grossed out as the kids:
Our fajitas came in these grilled half pineapples, and they had cut out the pineapple, grilled it with the meat & veggies, and put it back into the charred pineapple, and smothered it with cheese. Oh my MexiHappiness.
Happy Half-Way Mark, Miranda!
So Fall Break started, and we decided to do a staycation to save money. Tons of chilling, and eating out for dinner, but being home together. On Thursday, Dad took the kids to a hotel for a day so I could get a million things done. I cleared our room, FILED, and cleaned the craft room. It was amazing. Here are their highlights. The hotel pool:
Golden Corral:
Bringing the Apple TV and watching Holes at the hotel; Connor had read it in class and had been begging to watch it. And watching VOLTRON, of course.
Here’s our beautiful weather. A storm moved and and blew Fall back into Utah, since it had started getting warm:
We went to Texas Roadhouse:
Then stopped by Cole Abbott's wedding reception afterward, while the kids waited in the van watching a movie. Cute idea at the entry table:
And the married boy/man... yikes. The first of our close friends' kids to take the plunge... are we getting old or what?!?!?!
T
We tried to make it as Fall Break-ish as we could. We kept a puzzle out on the table; the kids had an all-nighter video game/ treats marathon.
On Saturday, Morgan went on a Mom date with me. Is like to start taking the kids and finding service together. First we picked up a leaf rake and snow shovel to bring to G&G Levies new house before they got there:
Then before we left them the housewarming gift that including heated blankets & hit chocolate, we raked their yard. I loved it so much.
That night, Grandpa Levie drove into town with the last load of shop tools, so Derek & I picked up Carlie & her friend Sydney from her house and we went down to help. Some of it was part of his gun stash. :)
Dad’s up to his tricks:
And during sacrament meeting, Connor was making math equations for people to solve. :)
The Elders spoke, and it was so sweet; Bishop Galloway stood up and got really choked up about how he can imagine that all the missionaries from our ward across the world have speaking assignments, and he hopes we’ll give them the attention we want ours to have, and that somewhere, ours will touch people’s hearts the way these elders are touching ours. He’s such a good man.
G&G Levie came with us to G&G Madsens for dinner and we celebrated Kate’s bday.
It was so cool in the new addition!!!
Ok the memes. :)
I’ve been crawling my way through the Conference talks, and I’m almost done with the priesthood session; it is so amazing. I think as a family we need to have each of us take turns preparing one of the talks for FHE, so I’ve been writing just a 1-2 sentence summary of them so the kids can see the gist of them when they’re deciding. The messages are so needed... I can’t wait to go over them & over them and somehow stick them into our lives!
Speaking of, they changed the VT program a little, to emphasize helping your VT sisters. Doing, instead of talking about caring for them. I’ve felt this for a while; like we should rake leaves in their yard while we visit; play with their kids, not just hope their kids calm down so we can hear ourselves talk. We did do that for one; she was talking about how stressed she was that she had all this Christmas stuff to do last year, so we just started wrapping the jars and packing them for her; washing the gooey sticker residue off a whole bunch of bottles she was going to use, etc. it was one of the best VT I’ve ever been on. Like Bonnie Oscarson’s talk The Needs Before Us, where she quoted elder Christofferson: “This religion is not concerned only with self; rather, we are all called to serve. We are the eyes, hands, head, feet, and other members of the body of Christ.” And then at the end she gave the famous VT quote by pres kimball: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs.” That’s us!
Love you so much! I’m so happy that your full time job right now is to be the eyes, hands, head, and feet of the Lord. What a blessed calling!!! Xoxoxoxox, Mom
