September 2023

 Here's what we did in September:

My nephew, Brandon Buttars married Mele Eldridge and we had a fun time riding the frontrunner train with them and the wedding party from American Fork to Salt Lake City and being there for their marriage in front of the fountain at City Creek center. It really was such a fun time spent with family!

I had to have a treatment for an aggressive precancer on my lower lip and it was a pretty brutal week as it healed. Hoping to never have to do that again.

Autumn continues to love serving in the Wildwood ward in Saskatoon. She got to meet with Megan's mission president who is now a General Authority Seventy, Elder Pingree, when he came to the Stake she is serving in as a visiting General Authority. That was a sweet experience.

She began her final transfer of her mission at the end of the month and is serving in the same ward, but is training a new missionary as well as serving with one of her favorite missionaries, Sister Bagley. She is excited to finish her mission strong!

I went to the Garden of Quilts at Thanksgiving Point with my bestie, Michelle, and her daughter Madison. It was amazing and we were all inspired!

Seth and I rescued a salamander that found himself stuck in our window well and released him at the nearby stream. :)

Bryce and I went to the temple, visited with his mom and went on a few fun date nights. It's a bit of a challenge to find time together with Bryce's busy schedule, but we are doing it. :)

I started with another group of students as a BYU pathway missionary. How I love serving with these amazing people in Africa!

Evan learned how to walk and is already running all over the place. Bryce and I took a few days at the end of the month to go visit him and Megan and Mitch in Idaho and had so much fun with our darling grandson!!

Bryce celebrated another birthday and we celebrated by taking a drive through the gorgeous Utah mountains with the top off of the jeep. It was a gorgeous day and we had a great time in the jeep. :)

That's it for September!!

 

August 2023

August was a fun one - take a look:

We traveled to Idaho at the beginning of the month to celebrate Evan's first birthday with an "Evan's first trip around the sun" themed birthday party.  Megan did such a fun job with the decorations which Seth and I helped her put up the day before the party. We also took Seth to see the Freak Alley Gallery in downtown Boise since she had never been there before.

The next day, we had a super fun birthday party for Evan with all of Megan's best college friends along with Devin and Levi making the trip from Utah to be there. A few friends from Boise joined the fun as well and we had a great time celebrating our favorite one year old! Evan had his first taste of cake and though he was a little hesitant at first, he quickly realized how delicious it was and quickly devoured his yummy cupcake. :)

The next day, all of us (except for Mitch, who needed to stay home and work) made the 11 hour drive to the Oregon coast and the beach house in Lincoln City.  We spent the next few days enjoying the beach (Evan loved the tide pools and crawling around in the water!), the sea lion caves and nearby lighthouse, the aquarium and a hike to Drift Creek falls. We were definitely missing Autumn as the coast just doesn't feel the same when someone is missing, but it was a super fun trip to a place we all love.

Speaking of Autumn, she is doing great in the Wildwood ward in Saskatoon.  Two of her best friends, Jonah Heimuli and Hannah Rogers, both came home from their missions this month which has Autumn feeling a little more excited about coming home, but she is still loving missionary life and the fact that she has so many people to teach right now. She loves sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, which makes having her gone a tiny bit easier. :)

Devin's good friend (and our adopted daughter), Beth, got married to Marcus in the Provo City Center temple and we got to celebrate the happy couple. We are so happy for both of them and love having extensions to our family.  

Devin and Levi moved into their new apartment in SLC on the campus of the University of Utah, where Devin has started attending classes for his grad program in Medical Lab Sciences. He is enjoying being back in school (mostly) and is also stressed out. :) Levi started his job at Goldman Sachs and is still trying to figure out what exactly he is supposed to be doing...

Bryce and I celebrated 31 years of marriage and I celebrated another birthday and we both wondered where the time is going. :) 

After literal YEARS of searching and going back and forth, Bryce finally broke down and bought himself a Jeep! He's a pretty happy guy and we look forward to many new adventures in Bruce, his new Jeep Wrangler Sahara 4Xe.  We already took our first adventure driving up American Fork Canyon to the Silver Lake trailhead over some pretty bumpy dirt roads where Bryce got to test the pitch and roll of his new toy. And we got to enjoy a beautiful hike to a gorgeous lake.

I finished another Lego art creation (The Great Wave by Hokusai) that is now mounted on the wall next to my desk in the office and I love it!!

That's it for August!