August 2014

I know it’s long overdue, but here’s our month of August -
Autumn had a crazy busy month at dance with her in-house dance convention, Pointe Break, which is a week long dance intensive with awesome guest teachers – Autumn loved it – and then she also had 2 weeks of choreography where she got to learn all of her new dances that will be competed this coming year of dance.  Good thing she never gets tired of dancing.:) She also had a fun day at Boondocks with her dance team, just to play and have fun.


We had what we decided to call our “Play-a-palooza weekend”.  We took the kids to see “Wicked” at the Capitol Theater in SLC on Friday night, which everyone loved, of course!  Devin had seen it on a trip to Denver when he was in 4th grade, but this was Seth and Autumn’s first time seeing “Wicked” and they both loved it! Autumn is so much like Glinda it’s honestly a little scary (she even does the hair “toss-toss” thing).  It was a super fun night.  The next day, on Saturday, we took them to see “Mary Poppins”, which was playing at Hale Center Theater in West Valley.  It was so awesome and we all had a hard time deciding which play we liked better.  “Wicked” is an amazing story with great music and a fun Broadway style production, while “Mary Poppins” has an amazing story and great music and it was fun to be close to the action in the theater in the round.  Plus the staging at Hale Center is always so cool.  It was a really fun weekend, for sure.

Megan is still loving her life as a missionary! I still think it was super cool that she got to serve with Alex for his last transfer before going home. Stay updated at sisterririe.blogspot.com.

We took a trip to the new Living Planet Aquarium, which is really super impressive, especially for an aquarium located in the middle of a desert.  You should check it out the next time you are in SLC.

Autumn finished her “Faith in God” award in Primary! She is so excited to move up to Young Women soon and to get started on Personal Progress.

My nephew Brandon and his wife, Nicole, welcomed their beautiful daughter, Raeleigh Nicole Buttars into the world on August 11. She is perfect and we love spending time with her.

Devin, Seth and Autumn all returned for another year of school.  Despite my best efforts, I can’t seem to slow down them growing up and we are now in our final year of elementary school with Autumn in 6th grade and Devin is now a Senior in high school and Seth is in 9th grade – what?!?  They are all doing well and have gotten used to being in school and the crazy schedule again.


After trying for several months to figure out what was causing headaches, roaring sounds and fatigue, my dad went in for brain surgery to drain some fluid and do a biopsy on the membranes surrounding his brain. He was recovering well until, 2 days after surgery, an MRI revealed large amounts of fluid building up again around his brain.  He was rushed in for another emergency surgery and drains were installed.  Several days later, the drains were removed and he was sent home from the hospital where he is recovering well.  The good news is his doctors think that the whole thing was caused by a fall he took back in May and he is now expected to make a full recovery. He thinks his Frankenstein style scar (from the second surgery when they had to get in quickly) is pretty cool.

I celebrated another birthday with a family trip to the Thanksgiving Point gardens on a gorgeous summer day.

Bryce and I celebrated 22 years of wedded bliss, but postponed our anniversary trip when my mom’s health took a major turn for the worse towards the end of the month.  After finding out that the brain tumor she has been fighting for more than 10 years was growing despite weeks of radiation that had caused her health to dramatically decline and that there was no hope that things were going to improve for her health-wise, my mom decided to stop taking the medications she had been taking and to go on hospice care.  The doctors thought that she would most likely have 1-6 months or more, so we moved her to a really nice care facility expecting to have several months with her.  She declined very rapidly and was gone within a week, which was actually such a tender mercy for her.  All of her children were able to come to town the weekend she was moved to the care facility while my mom was still alert and lucid and everyone had a chance to visit with her and share their love with her, which was another tender mercy.  She passed away on the afternoon of September 3 and her funeral was held on September 8. She was an amazing woman and I feel so blessed to call her mom.  So grateful for the plan of salvation and the knowledge that we will see her again and she will be healthy and whole, and as she said near the end of her life, “not fat”. :) Love and miss her!!

Bryce and the kids attended the Ririe family reunion over Labor Day weekend and really enjoyed all of the fun activities and getting reacquainted with family members we haven’t seen for a while now.  Because of the timing with my mom’s health decline, I wasn’t able to attend too much of it, and Bryce is not the best at taking pictures, so I don’t have any to share, but you will have to take my word for it that it was a good time. :) I did get this one super cute picture from Tami of four pretty cute girls:

See you all on our September update.

July 2014

We started July with the Ririe family reunion in Sunriver, Oregon.  We had a great 4 days filled with fun activities, food and family time.  A few of our favorite things about the reunion…

Rafting down the Deschutes River, which was great fun and super adventurous.  Bryce figures we spent at least an additional $200 to replace all the stuff I lost in the river, but it was totally worth it! (Thanks for the awesome pictures Rob!!)

The bike scavenger hunt – tons of fun and good exercise too!

Biking and hiking to the falls and taking some family photos

Hanging out, playing games and just having fun!

We also took a weekend camping trip in our old camper for the first time in 4 years.  Even though everything on the camper broke and it pretty much just became a tent with beds, we still had an awesome time hiking, telling stories around the campfire and just being together as a family.  We are lucky to live so close to such a gorgeous canyon – it’s awesome!

Seth was lucky enough to be invited to attend a speed and strength 2 day camp that was done by Olympic track coaches and athletes who are currently training for the Olympics.  He learned a ton and was really inspired, especially by a pair of athletes who currently hold the world record in the 100m for the paralypics (10.4 seconds).  The runner is completely blind and runs tethered to a sighted runner.  They are connected by an 8 inch cord that tethers their hands together and watching them run is quite a sight – from the side they look like one runner as their strides are exactly the same – it’s amazing!!

We continued our fun Fridays with trips to the newly renovated Bean Museum, taking the kids to Cowabunga Bay (a waterslide park), and a hike to Sliding Rock where we all slid down the waterfall rock behind Seth and Autumn in this picture into the pool below – so fun!

We celebrated the 24th of July with a BBQ and fireworks with Brandon and Nicole joining us for the fun.

Devin went to EFY at BYU-Provo with his cousin Trevor and they had an amazing time – both said it was their favorite EFY yet.  One of the highlights was auditioning for the variety show doing a medley of 15 popular songs – they had guys singing, playing the guitar, ukelele, and piano. They were chosen to end the show and brought down the house.  He had a really fun week.

We had a bunch of our Finch family staying with us at the end of the month as everyone came into town for my dad’s 75th birthday celebration.  It was a really fun weekend and so much fun to be with family!!  We had a BBQ, played games, spent a lot of time talking and catching up and had a fun tribute to my dad and shared some of our favorite memories of him.

Megan continues to love life as a missionary in Houston!!  Here she is with the Hernandez family from our ward who moved to Megan’s ward in Houston in June – crazy small world sometimes!

Have a great August!!

June 2014

Our first month of summer was fun and busy.  We are definitely enjoying the break from school!!

Devin is really enjoying working at Firehouse Subs and the library.  We went to Firehouse one evening when he was working and got to see him in action making sandwiches. :)

We had my nephew, Brandon, and his wife, Nicole move in with us for the month of June when they unexpectedly had to move out of their old apartment.  It was fun having them living with us for a few weeks!  After much searching, they found an apartment in Provo that was just right for them and moved out on July 8th.  Autumn especially was sad to see them go.

Autumn spent her one week of summer off of dance doing a hip hop dance intensive called Lovolution.  She danced various styles of hip hop with some very fun and talented instructors for 6 hours each day Monday-Wednesday.  She was exhausted and learned a ton.  Then, on Thursday, the dancers spent the entire day filming a hip hop music video at various locations all over the valley.  They had 4 different dance themes – Asian, Latin, Bollywood and Haitian and they had different locations, costumes, hair and make up for each style.  Autumn had to be in SLC at the Paul Mitchell salon at 7 am to get her Asian hair and make up done, then it was off to the International Peace garden in West Valley for the Asian shoot, then back to Highland for Latin hair and make up and the Latin shoot, up AF Canyon for the Bollywood shoot, then back to Highland to have Haitian hair and make up done and to shoot the finale.  She wasn’t done until 9 pm – exhausted and happy.  We got to see the premiere of the music video on Friday evening and it turned out pretty awesome – Autumn sure loved the experience!

We have been trying to do something fun as a family every Friday that we are in town and have enjoyed visits to the new Natural Curiosity Museum, the Dinosaur Museum and farm country so far.  We also visited a Farmer’s market where we got to sample waffles from the Waffle Love truck – yum!!

Bryce and the boys went to High Adventure for a week in Moab and Glenwood Springs, Colorado.  They had fun biking, hiking, repelling, white water river rafting and visiting an amusement park in Glenwood Springs.  They came home with lots of fun stories to share.  I think they had the most fun repelling, but conquering the slick rock bike trail in Moab is definitely a huge deal for all of them.

While the boys were gone, Autumn and I enjoyed some girl time together.  We decided last minute to have an overnighter in Park City and had a good time riding the Alpine coaster and alpine slide as well as doing some hiking, movie watching and shopping. 

Autumn went with the other Activity day girls to a day camp at Camp Jeremiah on what must be the coldest day in June history ever.  After trying archery, some water activities and having a picnic lunch in freezing rain, they finally gave up once the thunder and lightning started.  Autumn still had a great time despite the freezing weather.

Megan continues to do great as a missionary in Houston.  June started out really rainy and has since turned super, super hot and humid – good thing she is unflaggingly optimistic and cheerful – I’m not sure I could survive being out in the heat and humidity nearly all day every day.  She celebrated her 20th birthday on June 24 and her year mark on July 3. :) :)

Notice the awesome watch tan line in the above picture – Megan has never been tan in her entire life, until now. :)

On June 25, we started our 12 day vacation to the Northwest by driving to visit my dad in Seattle. We toured around the city for the next 3 days and had so much fun visiting the Ballard Locks, the EMP museum, the American Girl doll store, Pikes Place market, and taking a cruise to Tillicum Island where we enjoyed an Indian feast and story-telling and dance program.  It was a really fun few days and so nice to be cool for a change. :)

The picture above was taken at the EMP museum in front of a green screen exhibit.  Devin had no idea that I was attacking him with a hammerhead shark, which just makes his expression that much better.

We drove to Tigard on June 29, where we spent a couple of days with Grandma and Grandpa Ririe before driving to Sunrivier for the Ririe family reunion.  While we were in Tigard, we decided to follow Tami’s example and hike the 4T’s trail, which we really loved!  We were blessed with a crystal clear day and were able to see Mt. Hood, Mt. Ranier, Mt St Helens, and Mt Adams from the highest point on the hike.  Grandma and Grandpa didn’t join us for the hike, but met up with us at OHSU and took the tram, trolley and train rides with us, which was lots of fun.  We also hiked up to Oneonta Falls on a very hot day and enjoyed the gorgeous and bone chilling hike up the river to the falls.  After the hike, we had a picnic lunch up the gorge and really enjoyed the scenery. 

You will have to tune in next month to hear about the Ririe family reunion in Sunrivier since technically that was in July. ;)  Hope you all have a great month!!