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!
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