November 2019

Here's what happened in our family in November:

I failed to mention in our October blog post that we lost our beloved dad and Grandpa at the very end of October when Bryce's dad passed away.  We miss him terribly, but we are happy to know that he is happy, healthy and whole and that we will see him again.













Seth is still serving in Kingman, Arizona and really loves it there. We are so happy that he is loving life as a missionary and working so hard. We love him!





I went with a group of my quilting friends to Springdale, Utah (the cute little town right outside of Zion National park) to my friend Michelle's house there for a week of sewing, visiting, enjoying spectacular weather and the amazing scenery of that area.  It was such a great week for me and just what I needed to reset.











Megan, Autumn, Grandma Ririe and I all went to my sister Kristi's annual crafting day with all of the girls in our extended family and had a great time creating, laughing and catching up with each other.  Here's a look at the projects we created:



Autumn stayed busy doing school, working, socializing and dancing.  She sure makes life at home fun!





Frankie has been getting in little scuffles when he goes outside with a neighbor cat over territory and this month one of those scuffles escalated to a fight and Frankie ended up having one of his back claws "forcibly amputated" as our vet put it, and his paw was in bad enough shape that he had to have a little surgery to have it fixed and cleaned up.  He has since recovered, but he is now on house arrest, which he doesn't like at all and very vocally lets us know he isn't appreciative of not being able to defend his turf.  He's annoying so it's a good thing we love him.


Passed out post surgery


Back to his spunky self the next day.  He is now bandage free and his paw has healed, though he is missing a toe now.

In big family news, Mitch asked Megan to marry him and they are officially engaged!  They have set a date for May 13, 2020 and we are excited to add Mitch to our family.  He's a good fit for Megan and they are pretty happy. :)










































We had an AWESOME thanksgiving weekend!  Megan, Mitch and Devin all came home for the long weekend and we enjoyed a really good Thanksgiving dinner with our family, my sister Kim and all of her family and my sister Becki and her family.  We had 21 people in all and had so much fun!  Of course, I didn't take any pictures of our Thanksgiving feast except this one of all of the place cards:



I did get a few pics of our other festivities that weekend. First, we enjoyed an awesome video chat with our favorite missionary:





We decorated a little for Christmas, though we didn't put all of our decorations up because we aren't actually going to be home for Christmas this year.


Devin was super excited to have his turn putting the angel on the tree since he hasn't been home for the decorating for the past 2 Christmases



Devin and Autumn enjoyed a snowball fight in the backyard...









We celebrated Crystal's birthday with pizza, games and carrot cake





And we went to visit the Luminaria light display at Thanksgiving Point, one of our most favorite traditions.  This year was especially cold, but the freshly fallen snow was stunning and it was so fun to share with our Holloway cousins.  It was an awesome night!







Tune in next month for our December report...

October 2019

Here is a look at October at our house:

Seth continues to tear it up as a missionary in Kingman, AZ.  He is working hard and loves the work he is doing. We love getting to talk to him each week and to hear about his adventures.





We enjoyed some of the spectacular fall weather and colors that surround us in November in Utah. We love being in the mountains this time of year or just crunching through the leaves around our neighborhood. ;)







Autumn was in Cedar City with her dance company for Shakespeare festival when we took our first drive through the canyon.  They had a great time taking classes and competing their amazing dance piece about Cleopatra - it was awesome!





So we took another drive up the canyon with her once she got home...





Autumn celebrated her 17th birthday with early morning dance practice and a regular day of school. ;)







...and then later she went to the Sadie's dance with her date Jake and a group of her friends. They dressed as the kids in "Holes" and had a great time together.





A few days after Autumn's birthday, Bryce and I left for a 2 week European adventure and we had a great time! We traveled with my sister Kim, her husband Tim and Tim's brother and his wife, Mike and Cori. We started our journey in London where we spent 3 days exploring the sites there.  We loved London! The people are super friendly and we loved seeing so many cool places. The weather was cool, but not rainy, so we lucked out there.

Bryce and I took a train to the Warner Bros studios in London so I could check out all of the sets and memorabilia from the Harry Potter movies.  I may have totally geeked out, but it was too cool not to.









After our adventures with Harry Potter, Bryce and I met up with the rest of our traveling party in downtown London. Some of the fun things we saw...

Buckingham palace


Hyde park


Tower of London


Tower bridge


Kensington Palace

We also visited Kensington Park, Westminster Abbey, Kings Cross, the Shard at night and London Bridge, along with just a lot of wandering around London and eating fish and chips in pubs.

Next we flew to Barcelona for 2 days where we explored the city and toured the Sagrada Familia, a basilica that has been under construction for more than 100 years and is unlike anything I have ever seen. Truly spectacular!





After attending church in Barcelona on Sunday morning...



we boarded our cruise ship for a weeklong cruise in the Mediterranean.

First stop - Nice, France.  We loved the charm of this city where we explored art museums, a monastery and it's beautiful gardens and then took a segway tour of the city.  Nice is beautiful and the people were friendly and helpful.





Our next stop was Portofino, Italy.  We explored Portofino on foot enjoying a tour of a castle, checking out several churches, some shopping, gelato, pizza overlooking the sea and exploring a cemetery built like an apartment complex.  Portofino is charming and we enjoyed a relaxing day there.





Our next stop was a train ride away from Florence, Italy where we explored all around the magnificent Duomo, even climbing to the top of the Duomo and overlooking all of Florence before exploring a few art museums, including the Ufizzi gallery.  Florence is beautiful and exciting!







Next stop was a train ride away from Rome where we speed toured as much as we could in one day.  We hit St. Peter's square and the Vatican museum, including the Sistine Chapel before heading to downtown Rome where we toured the Colosseum and the Forum and also made our way to Trevi fountain and the Pantheon.  Rome is amazing!













Our last stop was Sorrento, Italy where we traveled to both Pompeii (so amazing and so huge - we could have explored here for hours if we had had more time)





And then we also drove along the Amalfi coast, which is gorgeous and unlike anything we have ever seen.  Just breathtakingly beautiful.









We finished our trip with a relaxing day at sea and then a very long day and a half traveling home.

While we are gone, Autumn, Devin and Megan continued their tradition of Fall siblings day at Lagoon, adding Beth this year as a fourth sibling. :)



We ended October with Halloween, where Autumn joined 3 of her friends and dressed as the Cheetah girls and recreated this picture:





Funny girl!! :)