Halloween

 Lehi High School Orchestra Concert.  Their director gave them the option of dressing in a costume.  Tyler and Harrison decided dress in disco.

 Tyler (right), Federica (front), and Melanie (left) carved pumpkins

 Part of the email team at doTERRA.  I found this idea on Pinterest.

  

 Saturday was packing day for Tyler and Jessica's DR trip.  We helped sort 10,000 pairs of eye glasses and packed them.  Sara Djurich is home from her mission and came to help do service. They had fun trying on some of the glasses.

Jessica had some friends over for a Halloween party.  

Sara, Joseph, Josh, Jennifer, and Kaitlyn

A Celebration of Youth (Latin American Style)

One highlight of the week for me was attending Luz de las Naciones: Juventud de la promesa, a Latin Cultural Event in the LDS Conference Center.  Jessica was part of the Flash Cast and the Returned Missionary Choir. She got us tickets to see the dress rehearsal on Thursday Evening.  We took my parents and the girls with us.  The show was almost 100% in Spanish.  The music and the dancing was great.  They had some amazing costumes for the dancers.  David Archuletta was their guest performer and he was amazing as always. You could tell he was excited to be doing a show in Spanish.  They let him do a song in tribute to Chile, where he served his mission.

The girls were excited to be there at first but by the end they were both fast asleep. 

UEA Staycation Day 3 Snowbird

It was a great weekend to use our hotel nights in the Lodge at Snowbird.  The rooms were very comfortable.  We had some dinner and went swimming.  The kids enjoyed the cable TV.  Jessica and I took a hike in the evening and saw a porcupine.  In all my years of hanging out at Snowbird, I have never seen a porcupine.  We also saw a deer on the nature trail. 

Jessica and I left early so she could attend her rehearsal and visit the InstaCare to get the infected cyst on her back lanced and drained.  The doctor said it was the biggest cyst she had ever seen.

Tyler, Melanie, Federica and Warren walked along the nature trail the next morning before coming home.  It was threatening to rain and so they didn't want to do a longer hike and they were not running the tram.  Tyler and Federica did pick up their season passes for the ski season.

UEA Staycation Cornbelly's Corn Maze

It was such a beautiful day, I got off early so that I could take the kids to Cornbelly's.  I told Melanie's friend, Hailee, that I would pay for her to get in if she would watch over our dogs while we were at Snowbird.

 We went right to the corn maze.  We used the hints and got through pretty quickly.  

 Jessica, Federica, Tyler, Hailee, and Melanie

The Pumpkin Princess' carriage

Jessica and Tyler played a game of checkers.  (White won) 

 One of our favorite parts of the day was watching the flying dog show.  It was fun to hear how they train the dogs to catch frisbees and do doggie long jumps into a 40-foot pool. All of the kids were excited to come home and play with Milo.  We all felt like he could be trained to do those tricks and he would love it.

Hailee and Melanie with their friend, Penelope the Pumpkin Princess.

UEA Staycation Day 1 Cascade Springs

It was a beautiful day to drive up the canyon and walk around the paths and boardwalks at Cascade Springs.

We took Melanie's very talkative friend Taylor with us.

I love these beautiful girls and their selfies. 

Scout Falls

It was a BEAUTIFUL fall day in Utah yesterday.  I woke up knowing I was going to get up into the mountains if I had to go with just Milo for a companion.  Luckily, Warren and Federica joined me.  We decided to hike to Scout Falls.  The weather was perfect and the colors in the mountains were amazing.  It was peaceful.

The falls are pretty small this time of year.

It was fun to see this mama moose hanging out in the brush.  She had a baby with her who she was keeping close with all of the people around.  I was glad Milo was on a leash because he really wanted to go meet the moose up close.  He was good and didn't bark at her.

Retirement, A Mission Reunion, Girl's night, and grateful

The Chemistry Department honored my dad on Thursday with a small reception.  When asked what he plans to do now, my Dad says he is going to "rest".  The Department Chair commented that means he will go on a 20 mile bike ride.

Warren got a message at the last minute about a mission reunion for missionaries of his first mission president.  He began his mission in Columbia with President Pratt.  Warren did not know any of the other missionaries at the reunion.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go because I knew I wouldn't know anyone.  It turned out to be a spiritually uplifting evening.  They had all of the missionaries introduce themselves and tell a few things about themselves.  All who spoke bore there testimony about how their missionary service had affected their life for good for the past 30 years.  The man who had organized the reunion had recently traveled to Columbia.  He said everywhere he went, members of the church came up to him and wanted to know what he knew about the missionary who had helped bring them into the church.  He told about the strength of the church now in Columbia and what he felt we could learn from them.

Jessica, Federica, and Melanie decided to go out to dinner together on Friday night.  They went to the Tai House and ate big dinners.  After, they went and saw "Frightmares" in Draper and then went for ice cream.  

I challenged my family to send me pictures of things they were grateful for this week.  Here are some things I was grateful for this week:

The view out my window at work.

My Personal Trainer

A beautiful morning sky full of stars and the moon to walk beneath.