October and November 2023

 I have been slacking in my blogging duties. Here is a look at the past couple of months:

We did a bunch of hiking through the beautiful mountains. October in the Utah mountains is the best! We also took a couple of drives in the jeep - loving it!!

I took a quick trip to Idaho for a few days with Megan, Mitch and Evan and loved spending time with them, as usual.

Bryce and I were invited to join a group of YSAs from our old ward for a Hearts cards tournament and after 4 hours of play and various rounds, I finished as the ultimate winner!! It was a ton of fun to hang out with some of the YSAs we have grown to love so much and even more fun to be the winner. :):)

I went to Springdale with my quilting friends for a week of sewing and rejuvination and hiking through Zion. I love my quilting friends and being in the beautiful area around Springdale! Plus I finished this super cute quilt top - so fun!!

On November 11, Autumn returned home from her mission to Winnipeg, Canada. The whole family was there to welcome her home and it was such a joyous occasion. And it has been so fun having her home and spending time together as a whole family again. We have played a bunch of games together, laughed a lot and Autumn has loved getting to know her nephew Evan and getting in to her new role as Auntie Autumn.

The week after Autumn got home, all of the kids went to Space Camp together and completed a mission while Bryce and I babysat Evan. They had a great time together and it is so fun to see them bonding and spending time together. Seth (who now prefers to be called Nora) brought her new girlfriend, Cassie, to Space Camp, too. :)

For Thanksgiving, we had all of the kiddos with us this year, plus my brother Bill and his wife Mia and their daughter, Logan (who is currently a student at BYU-Idaho) all came for the weekend. We had such a great time together! We went to Top Golf the day before Thanksgiving and enjoyed all the food and family fun on Thanksgiving Day, plus were happy to have Bryce's mom join us for the day. The day after Thanksgiving, we got a pretty big snowstorm, which our California family was thrilled about, and Evan loved it too!!

Two days after Thanksgiving, Megan, Autumn, Bryce and I drove to Loma Linda, California and spent Saturday night with my sister Kim and her husband, Tim. We went to church with them on Sunday morning before driving to Anaheim where we spent the next couple of days partying it up at Disneyland. We had the best and also most exhausting time riding the rides, eating all the Disney foods and walking miles and miles and miles! Kim and Tim joined us for Disneyland on Monday and then we did California Adventure on Tuesday and then drove back to Kim and Tim's on Tuesday night. 

Unfortunately, Bryce woke up very sick on Wednesday morning and after getting Megan to the airport so she could fly back to Boise, spent most of that day sleeping. Autumn and I drove to Joshua Tree National Park where we spent the day exploring that beautiful area before getting back to Kim and Tim's in time to do an endowment session at the Redlands temple that evening. We headed back to Utah on Thursday morning.

Just 2 days later, I performed with the South Jordan Chorale and Orchestra for their annual Sounds of the Season Christmas concert. My sisters Kristi and Becki were also in the choir and we all loved having the time at rehearsal together and doing our performances together as well. This year was the choir's founder and conductor for the past 17 years, Marlene's, last year as conductor. She is obsessed with the composer Mark Hayes and at least half of our Christmas songs each year are either composed or arranged by him. Our choir president reached out to Mr. Hayes and invited him to our concerts as a special farewell to Marlene and he came! It was a thrill to meet him and perform for him and even have him join our concert by playing a piano solo. It was a super cool experience and he was wonderful and gracious to us as choir and orchestra members and told us we were wonderful even though he has conducted choirs and orchestras in Carnegie hall and the Lincoln center as well as other world renowned venues. It was a really fun experience!

That's it for October and November and even a little bit of December. Merry Christmas season everyone!!