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!! :)

September 2019

Here's a look at what happened at our house in September:

Seth was transferred out of the Las Vegas valley to the small town of Kingman, Arizona where he is serving as a Zone leader. Kingman is the largest of a group of small towns that are in Seth's zone and he loves getting to travel along route 66 to visit the different areas in his zone. He and his companion are working hard together and are experiencing miracles. He is doing awesome!!




Seth was bit by a pit bull mix this month - luckily the bit didn't break the skin...


...maybe that is why he looks a little nervous around this dog. :):)



Devin started his Junior year at BYU and has a pretty intense semester of upper level classes for his microbiology major.  He keeps complaining that O-chem is going to kill him, but he aced the midterm, which could have something to do with the fact that he studies relentlessly for that class. :) He is still working at the MTC which he loves and manages to have fun with his friends in his diminished free time.



Megan is doing great in her second to last semester of grad school.  In addition to her classes, she is working at a middle school doing speech therapy and though she prefers working with small children, she is enjoying her work at the middle school and continues to learn a lot.  She and Mitch came home a few times this month and we always love having our college kids home - the noise and laughter always makes us happy.



One of the people Seth was teaching in Las Vegas, Delaney, moved here to Utah in late August to attend the U of U and Seth asked us to reach out to her.  We did and Delaney has become an adopted part of our family.  She is an amazing person and we love having her join us for family events.  She recently told us that she has decided to be baptized and we are happy and excited for her.


Labor day family and friends photo

We continue to have the worst luck ever with our cars.  After Flo (now rechristened Fuego Flo) started on fire at the end of August, I got a new car that I love - a totally decked out Acura MDX we named Aurora.  Well, Aurora was unfortunately assaulted by a rock kicked up by a semi truck that cracked her totally decked out and technologically advanced windshield, so that is costing a lot of money to replace. Big bummer! And, Autumn was at the front of a 5 car accident and our Ford Focus, Skippy, had his back end smashed in, so he will be in the shop for several weeks getting all of that damage fixed. We are super glad that she wasn't injured as one woman was ambulanced to the hospital and several cars in the accident had their air bags deployed. Even though none of the issues we have been having with cars are our fault, we are still ready to sell all of our cars and to start taking Uber everywhere. Sigh.


Skippy's damaged rear. Sad...


...But happy Autumn wasn't in either of these cars that were also involved in the accident.

My friend Michelle and I attended a 3 day quilting event at Thanksgiving Point.  We took several classes and I learned all sorts of new things. Plus we wandered around the gardens admiring all of the beautiful quilts and just enjoyed a few days together as friends.










Autumn had another busy month. She danced with her awesome dance team at football game halftimes...



Started a job working at Blue Lemon, a cafe across the street from our neighborhood...



Worked hard in all of her classes at school, including Floral design where she made this beautiful floral tiara...



And went to Homecoming with her friend Braeden...





She also hiked to the summit of Timp to watch the sun rise, went boating with friends where she learned how to wake surf, attended dance classes after school and just generally made our home a happier place to be.

My sister Kim spent the last 2 weeks in September with us to be around for her daughter Bethani who had her first baby this month - a darling little boy named Roman.



Kim and I did some hiking while she was in town and enjoyed some great views of the beautiful place we call home.



Bring on October - my favorite month of the year!