November 2017

November was lots of fun around here - take a look:

Devin continues to grow and love serving as a missionary in Arizona.  He became a trainer and is loving serving with his greenie, Elder Ludiker.  He also got permission to have lunch with Rob and Kim and really enjoyed spending time with his aunt and uncle.  We are grateful they took some time to spend with Devin and were happy to get pictures and reports that he is happy, healthy and doing well from Rob and Kim.





My sister Kristi hosted a Christmas craft day one Saturday and Autumn and I met up with Megan and Crystal there along with a few more of my sisters and some cousins for Megan and Autumn.  We had a fun time creating new Christmas decorations and spending time together.



We had a lot of fun over Thanksgiving break this year, especially enjoying a much needed break from school! We also were thrilled to have visits from Megan and from Grandma and Grandpa Ririe.  On the day before Thanksgiving, one of Megan's best friends, Johnny, got married and Megan was gone most of the day to the sealing and other wedding festivities. We got to meet her new boyfriend, Chase, at the wedding reception and think he is a pretty nice guy.  Megan would agree. :)


Chase, Autumn and Megan at the reception


Johnny and his new wife, Emily, dancing at the reception



Thanksgiving was a fun, though quiet affair at our house this year. One of Megan's roommates, Lisa, joined us as well as Grandma and Grandpa Ririe.  We had a good time preparing the food together, Bryce smoked the most delicious turkey I have ever eaten, Autumn did an amazing job with place cards and decorating the table, and we all ate too much delicious food, so that's a pretty successful Thanksgiving in my book. ;)











The day after Thanksgiving, we decorated for Christmas because Autumn couldn't be stopped - I'm actually amazed we made it to after Thanksgiving before the decorations went up.  Bryce and Seth thought it was funny to recreate Dad helping the kids put the angel on the top of the tree:



We also had a great time decorating the gingerbread houses Grandma made for us! Autumn invited a couple of her friends to join us and it was fun to see what everyone created.


Megan and her log cabin


Seth and his gingerbread house of terror - it was pretty much filled with sour patch kids - the one on the front walkway escaped, but is about to step on a landmine outside the house.


Autumn and her friends Jacee and Anna and their connected cottages


Bryce with his candy cottage and me with my Christmas Tahitian bungalow

Thanks for the fun Grandma!!  That's about it for November.  December will be jam packed with dance and choir concerts and performances as well as Christmas celebrations galore. Tune in next month for the report. :)

October 2017

October was pretty crazy around here, but here's a look at some of the highlights:

Devin finished his first transfer in Paradise Valley, continued to love serving as a missionary, joined Facebook as a missionary and became a trainer.  We're excited to hear how the training is going in his email next week.








Pic proving his love language is still food ;)

We enjoyed Conference weekend with Megan's roommates Lisa and Crystal and my nephew Sam and his girlfriend Shelby joining us for the inspiration, food and fun.


(break time in between sessions)

I met up with two of Devin's best friends for lunch in Provo and we had so much fun and 2 more young adults have now been adopted into the family.  Welcome to Jake and Lauren! :)



Seth went to Homecoming with Grace and in a group of their good friends.  They had an awesome night and then came to our house for waffles after the dance - so fun!






I love the awkward hand placements in this picture - it makes me laugh. ;)

Autumn turned the ripe old age of 15, was bummed that she had 2 tests and a major assignment on her birthday, hours of dance and then a Stake activity that we couldn't miss.  But she did get kidnapped for breakfast by her friends, received some pretty awesome presents and we celebrated with a sushi dinner a few days later.







In conjunction with her 15th birthday, I took Autumn to the DMV where she passed the written test to earn her driver's permit, so our baby will be learning how to drive! Yikes!!



Autumn and Seth both had choir concerts...



and in addition to their regular Fall concert, Seth's choir, Chamber Singers, put on their annual Disney Concert to earn money for their trip to New York in the spring.  This concert is always one of my favorites and this year did not disappoint.  The entire choir did some really fun numbers, there were some amazing solo numbers and then Seth also sang bass in a quartet of "Life Could be a Dream", which was featured in the Disney movie "Cars'.  It was awesome!


"God Help the Outcasts"


Autumn giving her brother (very much in character) a congratulatory hug after the concert

In between the Saturday matinee performance and evening performance of the Disney concert, the choir kids put on a Mad Hatter's Tea Party where people could come, eat fanciful foods and mingle with the choir kids dressed as Disney characters.  I put together more than 75 grape caterpillars for the tea party:



Megan stayed super busy at USU, and on her one day of Fall break (which always falls on the Friday of our other kids Fall Break), she and Crystal (filling in for Devin) met Seth and Autumn at Lagoon for their 3rd annual Siblings Lagoon Day and had a great time riding all the rides despite the cold windy weather.





While they were at Lagoon, Bryce and I had our 3rd annual Couples Day while Kids are at Lagoon day.  We enjoyed a morning hike through the beautiful Fall mountains in Little Cottonwood canyon, had some lunch and caught a matinee movie.  Win-Win day for sure!





Halloween snuck up on us this year and we never had a chance to carve pumpkins, though Bryce and I did create this tribute to "Stranger Things" pumpkin:  And if you don't get the reference, you really should watch it on Netflix



Autumn dressed as a unicorn for school and then changed into a less sweltering hot black cat costume for an evening party with her friends.  Seth dressed as "Jim" from "The Office" - a few of his friends dressed as other characters from "The Office", but I don't have a picture of them together. :('









That's all from here for October! :)

September 2017

Here is a look at the adventures for our family in September:

Megan is doing great at Utah State! She loves almost all of her classes, really loves her jobs and working with her professors, and is managing to find time to be with her friends and meet new people, too.




As an aside and for those of you who know one of Megan's best friends Johnny, he got engaged this month to a girl he met while doing an internship at Purdue this summer and will be getting married in December. :)

Devin continues to do well serving as a missionary in Phoenix.  He told me recently that the weather is finally starting to cool and he can finally see why people might choose to live in Phoenix. :) He had his first transfer from and is working in the Spanish speaking areas around Paradise Valley, also in northern Phoenix.  He now has a car, but still spends a few days a week on his bike and he is working only with Spanish speakers in his area.




Devin and his current companion, Elder Wright.

My sister Kim and her husband Tim were in town for a few days when they moved their youngest son, Sam, to BYU.  While they were in town, they wanted to hike to the summit of Mt Timp, so we arose in the wee dark hours on Saturday morning and by the time the sun came up, we were pretty close to the summit.  Bryce and I had dropped a car off on the Aspen Grove side the night before, so we hiked up the Timpanookee trail side, made it to the summit and then hiked down the Aspen Grove side (about 18 miles total).  It was cool to see the whole trail, but Bryce and I decided that if we ever hike Timp again, we will just stick to the Timpanookee side since it's prettier and not as steep.


Resting at the saddle before climbing the summit


We saw dozens of mountain goats near the saddle this time


The four of us at the summit


Hiking across the ice field - there was a lot of slipping and falling along this part of the hike



Seth was asked by Grace to go to Sadie's with her (luckily the kitten was just a loaner and went home with Grace a few hours later):



They had a lot of fun later in the month at the dance.  The theme was "Around the world" and their group chose to represent the great old USA:





The highlight of the month (at least for me :)) was a trip to France with my sister Kim, brother Bill and my dad.  We planned this trip nearly a year ago - my dad has dreamed about going to the d-day sights in France for as long as he can remember and so it was really a fulfillment of that dream for him.  But before we headed to the Normandy region, we spent a couple of days in Paris seeing the sites there:


Notre Dame cathedral


We spent hours at the Louvre, but you could really be there for days


The view from the top of the Arc d'Triumph


Walking through Paris



After our time in Paris, we rented a car and drove to the northern French countryside, which is so lovely - green fields dotted with small towns built out of stone:




We even stayed in an Airbnb house that was hundreds of years old, so that was a lot of fun.

We spent a few days in this region, first visiting several sites and museums to commemorate the D-day invasions and the sacrifices that were made to liberate France and to stop Hitler.  It was such a powerful experience to go there and see these sites first hand, especially with my dad.


My dad overlooking Omaha Beach


Part of what the allied forces used to create an artificial harbor in the Arromanches area, where the British and Canadian forces landed




Part of what's left of German fortifications at Point du Hoc

Outside one of the museums at Omaha Beach


The American cemetery above Omaha Beach. It's impossible to put into the words the power and magnitude of this sacred place - you really just need to go see it in person.

We also went to Bayeux, which is a really quaint town that has it's own Notre Dame cathedral (as do many French towns):



Bayeux is also home to the Bayeux tapestry, which is MASSIVE and tells the story of William the Conqueror.  It was also one of Seth's 250 works of art that he learned about for AP Art History and he was super jealous that I got to see it when he didn't. :)




William the Conqueror's fortress in Caen.

On the way back to Paris, we stopped in Giverny to see Monet's estate and gardens:




We also stopped briefly at the palace of Versailles and the Paris LDS temple.




Model of the LDS temple that's in the visitors center - it was POURING rain, so we didn't venture onto the tiny grounds.

After a night in a hotel close to the airport where our shower was literally in our bedroom,



we headed back to the airport and flew back home.  It was a trip of a lifetime for me - thanks to Bryce for holding down the fort at home so I could go. :)

Speaking of Bryce, he hit the big 5-0 on his birthday this month, and if that's old, he makes old age look good! He celebrated with getting his own set of golf clubs to play in Ancestry.com's company golf tournament that was on his birthday, and then we watched BYU loose pathetically to Utah State - it's a rough year to be a BYU football fan. :(



Hope you are all having a good October - blog you next month!