September 2010

September was gorgeous around here – it felt more like a continuation of summer than an entry into fall. We took advantage with plenty of outdoor activities and enjoying the beautiful fall colors in the mountains. This is definitely the time of year we love being close to the mountains the most!

Besides all the normal things – dance, karate (Devin’s last month – he has officially moved on to other things), piano and guitar lessons, scouts and young women activites and lots of homework, we also had a few things unique to September.

We started the month with our Young Women’s 5k. We challenged the girls this year to “do hard things” and then worked throughout the summer to be ready to run our 5k together. It ended up being a really fun event. We planned our course through the ward boundaries and ward members came out to cheer the girls on along the way. Megan set a goal to run the whole thing and she and I ran the whole thing together, which was really fun.

We spent Labor Day at This is the Place State Park and had fun exploring our pioneer heritage. The kids liked playing pioneer games, panning for gold, seeing dad get in trouble at school, riding the train, seeing all the animals, and enjoying some unique pioneer treats as well as making a leather craft and an Indian arrowhead necklace. It was a fun day!

We took the kids to a Jon Schmidt piano concert at the outdoor Waterfall Ampitheater at Thanksgiving Point which served as a great inspiration to all of them to keep up with practicing the piano. He is a very fun entertainer and we all had a wonderful time!

Autumn decided to add a tumbling class at the Recreation Center on Saturday mornings with a couple of her friends. She loves tumbling and is CONSTANTLY doing cartwheels through the house or wherever she goes and is now loving doing round-offs, front and back handsprings (on the tramp) and front flips in class. She loves to move, that’s for sure!

Seth and Autumn both participated in their Elementary school’s annual walk-a-thon to raise money for the school and both did a great job. Seth ran for nearly his entire time (one hour) and logged just under 5 miles and Autumn walked/ran just under 4 miles. It’s a fun fund raiser and the kids look forward to it each year.

Seth started back up with flag football and has been having a great season so far. His first game was on Bryce’s birthday and Bryce told him he wanted a touchdown for his birthday present. Seth had a few really good runs (he is playing running back this year, which he loves), but he didn’t score a touchdown until his game on the following night, but I think Bryce will take it just the same. Seth’s coach this year is really intense, but Seth is learning a lot and his team plays well together – overall it has been a good experience. Bryce is helping out as an assistant coach and has been having fun having more time to spend with Seth.

Megan went to her first school "date" dance and had a really fun time. The dance had a costume theme, so her group went as pirates. All of the couples in her group seemed to have fun and she came home excited to tell us all about it. :)

Bryce and I took a late anniversary trip up to Park City at the end of the month and got to enjoy some gorgeous fall weather and colors. It was nice to get away from the craziness of life for a couple of days anyway.

That’s it for September – see you next month!