Kind email from a teacher at the school

I just wanted to send a quick email and let you know that your kids were so kind to me today! I was right behind them as we came into the school today. Seth said hi to me and Evelyn told me to have the best day ever. It was so sweet! Evelyn was such a sweetheart in my homeroom class in second grade and would randomly raise her hand to say, "I love you, Miss Ray" and it made my day each time. Sometimes sixth graders feel too cool to acknowledge their second grade teachers, and not only did she acknowledge me, but she was also so uplifting and kind! I just wanted to let you know because your kids have been some of the best bucket-fillers I've ever had in my ten years of teaching!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bybee

End of fall?

Hannah made this shirt and my kids gleefully saved it from the DI pile.

Evelyn made origami dragon heads for the daycare kids.  They and she had so much fun.

Today was the last soccer games for the fall season.  Ada and Sam had to miss theirs this morning, but it all worked out.  Ada had a work shift that no one could take and Sam still can't run for another week. Seth was a good little goalie and defender.  It was fun to watch him.  At one point, he got his goalie gloves stuck in the net and had to be untangled.  I love that he's on a team with Stephen, Jack, Dawson and Hyrum.  He's friends with each of them from different parts of his life.... they just all come together here.  Evelyn and Rose were cold and made an umbrella fort to block the rain and wind.

After soccer and chores, we went to the spanish ward's cultural night. It was fun that it was Cristina's family, Mayra came down with her family, Frederico's mom was there along with several sisters.  Evelyn and Seth even found that a couple of their friends from school go to the ward.  The world can be much smaller than we think when we reach out.  I love it!

Last night, Jer and Grandpa took Ada, Sam and Evelyn to Tchaikovsky's 5th at Utah Symphony.  The kids had fun and it's not often that you get a Grandpa-Daddy date.  Seth and I stayed home and got pizza. Then we watched a show, did scriptures and sent Seth to bed.

 

last Sunday

We always take one trip up in the mountains to look at leaves.  Last year was the nebo loop, year before was the alpine loop... but they had closed off Squaw peak earlier in the summer to redo the roads and we wanted to see how they turned out.

There was a couple up there getting their wedding photos done, so we hurried took a few pictures and got out of their way before they started... but the photographer offered to take a couple of our family on my camera.  So we have a family picture unexpectedly.

Ada took pictures of Jer and I.

The repaving was only up to a certain point.  They did add dirt to the rest of the road so there weren't as many deep potholes, but the dirt hasn't been packed down yet and got kicked up really easily.  Our van is still coated it dirt/mud after more than a week and a rainstorm.

Sam got out of his walking boot.  One more week and he might be allowed to run and jump again.

Seth and Evelyn helped get ready for the Primary Program.  Virginia Johnson made sure it was fun and she adores working with the kids.

After that, my Uncle Marty and Aunt Diane finished their mission in Colorado and had an open house at my parents house.  It was fun to see them and some of my other cousins.

 

Margaret's pictures

 

Ada's fall concert

 

Scarecrow Festival

So, for Janelle's birthday we wanted to spend time with her doing something.  Anything.... just time.  She chose to go to the Scarecrow Festival at the Thanksgiving Point gardens. It was fun.  It was Janelle, her boyfriend Robert, my parents, us and Sharon came down for a couple hours which was so nice because she just got back from her trip and would imagine she was really tired.

This was my favorite scarecrow.  Very creative

We were saying that we were chicken nuggets and the kids said that they weren't nuggets... they were fries.

My mom had wanted to rent a golf cart, but they were all out... so my parents rented a couple of these to cruise on.  Since her back surgery, she just can't walk long distances without breaks and my dad fell off his bike and really bruised his ankle.  Our kids loved taking turns with them though.

We had some mixed signals

Monster under the bed.

Venus fly trap eating melon flies.

Grandpa with little Thea.

My personal scarecrows

Forrest Gump.  Sam wanted to steal his chocolates.

So did grandpa.

Evelyn tried to steal Grandpa's ride on the way.

This one was very well done too.

More Scarecrows.

Minions!

Thea is obsessed with Bluey

Sneaky sasquatch with Ada's non sneaky shoes.  Ada's tennis shoes actually squeak quite a lot. She says her sneakers are all out of sneak and now they're just 'ers'. 

This one was creative too.

These guys loved that they even made a snorlax.

This one was one of the best crafted ones that I saw.

My youngest three rolled down the hill a few times.  They kept rolling down and going sideways across the hill instead of down the hill.  It was pretty funny.  They kept running into each other.

I gave Ada my camera.  That means a super close up.

Treat time

Ada got a carmel apple.  She shared it with me.  It was really good.

We took a quick detour to the sculpture garden.  The chicks one is always my favorite, but there's a new one that was installed in the spring.  They had a First Vision one off in the trees a little bit.  It was beautiful and I loved the location and Spirit.

The kids were a little less reverent, but they had some good questions and it was a good time to address them.  They asked how you could tell which one was Heavenly Father and which was Jesus.  I pointed out the nail prints in the hands and showed how Heavenly Father was motioning towards Jesus Christ.

My girls at the secret garden.

It was Sam's first day out of his walking boot.  It was good exercise, but his feet were definitely tired.

I thought it was so funny that the duck walking over the top of the fish instead of swimming through them was my favorite koi fish moment.