It was a pretty quiet Halloween for me this year. Ryan was out of town for a work trip. Allison invited a friend over to hangout. They watched a movie and ate pizza. Emilee went trick or treating with her friend Harriet. They dressed up as skeletons. When they were all done she had 14 pounds of candy.
I snuck a piece of pizza from the girls and then decided to set up my Christmas tree. We have a big tree and it takes a lot of work to get it set up so I wanted to make sure that it was up long enough to enjoy it. So we have had all our Thanksgiving decorations and our Christmas tree this year. It is pretty and makes me happy.
My lovely sisters and I decided it was time for another trip together. It was a little last minute. We started talking about it at the beginning of September and we went mid October. We decided to go for easy travel for all of us to get there. We settled on Breckenridge Colorado. It was a direct short flight for all of us to Denver.
On my way to Denver
We arrived Thursday morning. We got a rental car and headed to Breckenridge, which was about 2 hours away. We stopped and had lunch a little outside Denver on our way. When we got to Breckenridge we walked around and explored the down town/main street area for a few hours until our place was ready for check in. We stayed in a little apartment two streets away from main street. It was a perfect place. It had one bedroom with a king and twin bed in it so we could all sleep in the same room and stay up talking as late as we wanted. We got a few snacks and some breakfast food at the grocery store. The rest of our meals we found cool restaurants in town.
Nestled in the crotch of the troll.
It is officially the off season in Breckenridge in October. There were still a good amount of people around but it was not crowded at all. We did a couple different hikes. Breck’s elevation is 9600. Olathe is 900. The first hike we went on was 10500. My mid 40’s self struggled a bit with the elevation, which has never been an issue before. I also think I was starting to get a cold but I know I am not as out of shape as I felt when we were hiking. It was I can walk, or I can talk, I can’t do both. I bought a hat I thought had bears on it but Sherri pointed out later, and was correct, it wasn’t bears- it was dinosaurs! LOL! On the last hike we decided to cross the river and walk back on the other side instead of the same side. I thought for sure one of us was going to slip and totally fall it (probably me) but we all made it safely and were just wet from the middle of our calves down for the last 30 minutes or so. There was still some orange and red Fall leaves, some ice starting to form in the rivers. It was definitely chilly or just plain cold in the evenings but it was beautiful. Fresh crisp mountain air. We even had a few snowflakes one of the days. DeAnna is usually the one that has a list of activities for us to choose from. We picked several of her hikes, and one of the days we went to a Paint and Fire place to let our creative selves enjoy a few hours of crafting. I painted some pottery, DeAnna did a mosaic, and Sherri painted a canvas.
After our hike THROUGH the river, DeAnna wore this lovely look to pick up dinner one night because her shoes were still wet. She didn’t think anyone would notice…but they sure did.
We tried a local pizza place, breakfast place, and burger place. They were all great food. The vibe is pretty fun. It looks just like a old western mountain village in a film would but it isn’t old. It is new and clean and well kept.
We almost tried out the hot tub but only the outdoor one was open and we weren’t filling walking to and from the hot tub in 40 degree weather. We played games and talked for hours at our place. One card game DeAnna and I fixed Sherri’s hand to finally bring the game to an end while she was in the restroom. We didn’t change any outcomes, just hurried it along. Sherri wasn’t going to win so she switched her strategy to sabotaging whoever was winning and while we were having fun, it was getting a little long. We stayed until Sunday late afternoon. It was awesome. I love my sisters and I love hanging out with them. It makes me sad that we don’t live closer.
We checked out Sunday and DeAnna found us a church to go to. It was in Golden Colorado. When we were younger we lived in Colorado and went to a building in Golden that was just down the road from the Coors beer factory. This building fit that description. It didn’t look familiar to me (it was 5th grade for me) Its hard to be sure what memories I have are from what place because we moved so often but it could have been the building 30ish years ago I was taking a picture of with the primary on the front lawn after the primary program. After church we grabbed lunch and then went to the airport. We waited with Sherri at her gate until she left, then I waited with DeAnna at hers until she left, then I caught my flight. It was a great weekend. I loved every minute of it!
After 6 weeks in the Brazil MTC, Matthew hopped on a plain at 3am and went to Recife Brazil. It was about a three hour flight almost straight north and a little east from Sao Paulo.
His Mission President Brother Martins and his wife picked him and the other missionaries up at the airport. The first thing they did was go to a Brazilian Steak house to eat as much food as they could. Matthew greatly appreciated that. He was very excited to have some good food! The MTC food was pretty bland and not very good. They had some training meetings and went over the rules and guidelines of the Recife South Mission. He was assigned to a new companion, Elder Waite. He is a zone leader and has been on his mission for about 15 months. Matthew also had to get his Visa changed from a one year to a two year Visa while he was in Recife. I believe he stayed just one night in Recife then at the end of his second day he got on a bus and traveled 11 hours almost straight west, overnight to his first area Salgueiro Brazil.
This is a cool kind of overwhelming picture of our home and Matthew’s new location.👀
When you google Salgueiro, it doesn’t have much about it. It is desert. Matthew said Recife was pretty humid. Salgueiro is a dry heat, and Matt arrived on the first day of the start of the hot season. The average temperature from September-December is 99 degrees. Last week when I talked to him he said it was 104 degrees that day. Pretty toasty. It is not humid though and it does cool down to the 60’s at night so they get a little relief. They are working with the mission finance person to get them an air conditioner but currently do not have one. The population is about 60,000 and it is Matthew and three other missionaries for the whole area. The city is surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. It is pretty remote. There is one other area two hours west of them that has missionaries, otherwise they are as far west as their mission goes. Matthew says there are stray cats and dogs everywhere which he wasn’t surprised about…there is also wild horses roaming around everywhere which did surprise. There are paved roads but a lot of dirt or cobblestone roads. They walk everywhere all day. Their preparation day (P-Day) is on Mondays. That is the day we get to talk to him. He usually calls me at 6am our time before I go to work. He talks to Ryan sometime during the day. And often will call right before he goes to bed to talk with his sisters or all of us again. Tuesday through Saturday they wake up and do their morning study, exercise and get ready for the day then they head out and walk around to find people to teach or teach people they have already found. They usually meet the other two missionaries they live with for lunch at a café area, it sounds like what we would call a food court. They get all you can eat rice and beans. Matthew says they have a new seafood restaurant he is excited to try, and he also likes the acai bowls. He says he craves water because they drink juices and coke most of the time when they are out. Sunday they go to church and try and bring new people with them every week. It is a small branch for their area that has about 40 regular members. That is the one day they usually eat dinner at a members home as well. It is tricky getting people to come to church. Most people they meet are catholic and even if they say they will come to church, on Sunday when it is actually time they don’t want to get up that early. Matthew says they have found a few people that seem genuinely interested and he hopes will get baptized.
They walk everywhere. He has some comfy, fashionable but probably won’t last long if you walk in them on cobblestone roads for 10 hours a day shoes he took. He wore them in the MTC. He also took some comfy but not fashionable-looks like my grandpas shoes- but every missionary mom I talked to said their kid loved them or wished they had taken them. They are made to last forever but in Brazil will last most missionaries about 6 months. He switched to those about two weeks after he got to Salgueiro. He saves the fashionable ones for zone conference or the temple. His feet are still pretty sore at the end of most days but are getting tougher. He also has a bunch of insoles he can switch every month or so to help keep his feet happy.
I think he is doing pretty good. Right before his birthday he seemed a little homesick when I talked to him. A few days later on his birthday he was in better spirits. Before he left I had as many friends and family as I could write him a birthday note and put them all in an envelope. Then I put a small picture book together for him of family and friends. I also made a banner that said Happy Birthday Elder Terry in Portuguese. That along with some peach ring candy all went into a little package that I hid in his suitcase for him to open on his birthday.
This is a compilation of the videos we sent back and forth on Matthew’s birthday.
In other areas there will be a lot more missionaries to interact with-especially on P-Days, since it is just the four of them in Salgueiro their P-Days are a little less exciting. It is a nice break and chance to rest. Sometimes they watch a church approved movie. The other three have guitars. Matthew is trying to find a good deal on one. He took a personal credit card for things like that. His card has not been working pretty much since he got to Brazil. It worked for three days in the MTC. I have been trying to get it figured out. The mission gives him a card that they add money to every month for food. Sometimes the money isn’t available on the expected day and takes a few extra days to arrive. Matthew is a big person and is walking in heat 10-12 hours a day so in case he is extra hungry one day or the mission card doesn’t work is another reason I sent him with a personal credit card. Long story short- the week he arrived was a few days before the end of the month. Between Matthew getting a few extra supplies needed from just arriving and the mission card not getting charged right away, and his personal credit card STILL not working after me talking to the bank 2-3 times a week for two months, Matthew had no money for food for about 4 days. By the time he told me about it, his mission card had money again and he was fine for food. That was the last straw for me for the bank though. I did not support Matthew going to Brazil to go hungry. Another long story short- Matthew’s credit card is now working and I have the personal cell numbers of our banks local and regional vice presidents if I have any further issues.
Here are some pictures from Salgueiro. All the missionaries have a cell phone but when they go out for the day, they are only supposed to take one with them. (The main reason I have heard is muggings aren’t uncommon, and then they still have a phone if one gets taken🤷♀️ ) The senior companion (longest time in the mission) is usually the one that takes their phone so Matthew leaves his at home. That is why for now the pictures are all pretty much taken from Elder Waites phone.
This past week Matthew went to his first Zone Conference. Every six weeks, all the missionaries in a big area of his mission get together and do some training, discussions, eat together, get a chance to socialize and see other missionaries from around their mission. Sunday evening they all took an 8 hour overnight bus ride to Caruaru. This one had a fun P-Day attached to it. There were about 100 other missionaries there. They had a blow up volleyball/football court. Not sure exactly what that was but Matthew described it as a giant blow up court that they could tackle each other and get a little crazy with. Each of the groups of missionaries did a little skit/dressed up. Matthew and his three companions did the three witnesses from the Book of Mormon. There were some amazing brownies, and lots of good food. They building they stayed in was pretty tall and they were on the 32 floor. It also had air conditioning so Matthew was super excited to have the best night sleep in weeks probably. They were there Monday and Tuesday and then took an overnight bus back to Salgueiro. Matthew has a hard time with the overnight but trips. The buses are nice and pretty comfortable but he is to big to curl up on his side so he has to lay flat and the seats recline about half way so he says it is really hard to sleep. Here are some pictures from the zone conference. Matthew will have to write the names of people in the margins of this book when he gets home. I am not sure who everyone is.
Matthew has been on his mission for about 2 1/2 months now. It still feels weird to not have him home. We miss him A LOT and think about him and pray for him all the time. We look forward to talking to him every week and hearing about what he has been up to. I am not a morning person but I happily set my alarm for 5:45 Monday mornings so I can be ready for work when he calls about 6:15 and talk to him as long as he can. I don’t know if Mondays will always start and end with a call from Matthew while he is on his mission, but I am grateful for it right now. We are all proud of him and what he is doing. He is setting a great example for all of us. I know sometimes will be harder than other times for him on his mission and right now seems like a good time. I am grateful for that and am glad he seems to be doing so well.
We tried a new softball team for Emilee this Fall. We went to a new team at the club level for Advanced Fast Pitch Academy. She is the youngest girl on the team. She seemed to like it and got along well with the girls. The girls seemed nice. They are not very good. They played in five tournaments. 4-5 games per tournament and one two games total. That is a little frustrating for Ryan and I. She seemed to lose skills she had because they weren’t taught or reinforced…and we are paying club prices now, not rec team. She had a fun season and it takes time for teams to mesh so we will see how winter conditioning and Spring go but I don’t feel like we have found ‘her team’ yet. One of the tournaments they did was the Monster Bash. Here are some cute pictures from after the game.
This year our Halloween ended up looking a little different than it has for the last 10 years. The McDonalds kids and ours all made individual plans with their friends so we didn’t get together like we usually do. We still made pizza and home made root beer for people to eat as they came and went to get ready or stop in on the way to their party. Our houses in our new neighborhood are spread out pretty far so we didn’t have any trick or treaters.
Matthew dress up as Dr Duffensmirch from Phineas and Ferb. Campbell was Harry the platypus. They went to a party with a group of their friends from school. They actually went trick or treating for a little bit too.
Allison and her friends assembled matching outfits and were gangster minions together. They went trick or treating in Grandpa Terry’s neighborhood and then spent the night at our house.
Emilee was a witch this year. She went trick or treating with Reese and a few other girls. They picked a neighborhood that is known for handing out full size candy bars and they were not disappointed. They found a few haunted houses people were doing as they trick or treated too.
Ryan rediscovered his Joe Dirt costume from almost two decades ago and proudly wore it to work. He gave himself a goatee to go with the costume.
The night of Halloween Ryan and I shuttled the girls around were they needed to go and then enjoyed a quite night at home. We did go to a Halloween party with Dani and RJ Halloween weekend. RJ is a pilot so he provided Ryan with an outfit to borrow and Dani and I got First Officer costumes to go with them. I think we were a hit. Ryan LOVED being a pilot too.
As I mentioned in a previous post, this was Matt’s last season with his competitive team. They started playing tournaments on the weekends right after Labor Day in September. He has been on this team since 4th grade. There have been lots of changes over the years but at the end of this season there were three boys, plus Matt, that were on the team when he started. Coach Jimmy was the head coach and there were several others that were awesome coaches. Coach Kent, Coach Uhl, Coach Robby. Ryan helped coach most of those years too. If he wasn’t actively coaching he filled in and was helping in some way. He had a hard time just sitting in the stands and watching. There were some tricky times but overall it was a great experience and I am really glad that Matthew was able to be a part of this team and make good friends. The boys and their families on the team were all good kids, good people. That makes a big difference when you are spending the whole weekend together for months at a time during Spring, Summer and Fall baseball. We traveled a few times and had good times and memories from that as well. We went to Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Gulf Shores. I have posted many pictures from his baseball over the years and that was another blessing from being on this team. There were several parents that great photography skills and they took so many pictures and shared them with everyone. I wouldn’t have very good pictures if it wasn’t for them. Matt had his arm back in top form for this last season. He had the highest batting average on the team most of the time. He hit triples and doubles pretty often and was robbed of a home run or two by inches several times. He had good plays at short stop. Watching the boys play and read each other from playing with each other for years was a lot of fun. I will miss it next Summer when it is time for baseball season to start. We all will.
At the end of the season we had one more get together at a restaurant to say good bye to everyone and give appreciation to the coaches and recognition to the boys for their hard work. It was a fun night. One of the parents made each of the boys a poster of them in their uniform for their rooms. There was a slide show of all the boys, and lots of pictures on the tables to look at while we visited and ate dinner. I am sure we will run into them and keep in touch over the years but it is an end of an era for sure. I have really come to love baseball and appreciate it. I love a quite baseball field in the morning with the sound of the team warming up and the sun shining on the grass.
Here are some pictures from the season.
Coach Jimmy and the original kids he started with. Matt, Aiden, Jake, and CamWe had lots of meals together between games.Lots of gorgeous sunrises and sunsets.Campbell had a tournament at the same place we were and came over when she was done.This is the day Matthew wore the wrong uniform. He called and told me he didn’t look like the other kids.This is the core group that we spent our weekends with.
Here are some cool action shots, thanks to our photography parents.
Turning a double play.
Running the bases, trying to catch Ramey.
Catching the pop fly.
Getting the out.
Making it look good. 🙂
This is getting on the field in position first.
Getting runs in. His speed was top notch this season too.
Beating the runner.
Crushing it.
And…stealing bases.
For one of the games we were so far ahead of the other team, the coach let everyone pick the position they wanted to try for a few innings. Matt went with pitching.
If it doesn’t feel like time is flying by in September, by the time October gets here is really picks up the pace. School, activities, holidays, more birthdays, and all the things that go with those make it hard to stop and enjoy everything that is going on.
Matthew’s last baseball season with his FBC competitive team was in full swing for September and October. They played pretty much every weekend. There was a weekend in October that off and that was it. I have a lot of good pictures from this season. I will share them in another post.
The biggest event for October was our family trip we have been planning for a while. Unless something changes it is our last big family vacation together before Matt graduates and goes on his mission and the family dynamic shifts into a new era. We talked about what we should do and asked Matt for his input a lot because it was also over his 18th birthday so we wanted to celebrate that too. Matt loves beaches, sunshine, warm places, fishing and food. After tossing a few ideas around like Hawaii, Alaska, cruise, and all inclusive beach resorts, we decided that a cruise would check the most boxes on the wish list. When we went on a cruise in 2019 for Christmas with the kids we had a great time but we thought it would be fun if they each had a buddy. Since then we have tossed the idea around with Ross and Lauren to come on a cruise with us. Matt asked if that could happen with this trip so we invited them too. Each pair of people ended up with their own room.
We settled on a cruise in October that was the week of Matthew’s actual birthday. A few weeks before the cruise there was some issues with Ross and Lauren not realizing they had other priorities the same week. I don’t really want to get into all the details but I was pretty upset about it. They were going to send Ethan and Leah home alone half way through the cruise, but luckily the cruise required them to have an adult accompany them. So Ethan, Leah and Lauren left half way through the cruise which was dumb. Allison and Matthew were on their own the last two days but we had a great time still.
A few days before we left all the girls went to the nails salon together and got a manicure for the cruise.
Matthew felt left out so he showed us his nails to take a picture.
To include Matthew’s love of fishing and for part of his birthday present, our family drove down to Galveston Texas a few days before the cruise left. We drove to Dallas and stayed night with Kenny and Sherri. Then next day we drove the rest of the way to Galveston and that afternoon we Ryan booked us a deep sea fishing boat.
Our traditional family picture to start a trip off.
Matthew and Ryan went ocean fishing a few years ago in Florida for Matt’s birthday. They caught probably 40 fish in a few hours. This time…we caught one fish…in five hours. It was a good one though. Matt caught a 4 1/2 foot long black tip shark. Once we got it on the hook Matthew wrestled it until we got it up to our boat. He did a good job, he said it was a little awkward because the pole the shark bit was right handed and he usually fishes left handed. I was the video/picture person. I tried to get fancy and take photos while I was videoing and at the point when he pulled it out of the water the most instead of taking a picture I stopped and started the video. 😢 Total mom fail. I still got some video and pictures though. The captain asked us if we wanted to keep it but we had no where to store it because we were getting on the boat the next day. So we let it go. It was a fun experience to watch him real in the shark. Pretty exciting. The other 4 hours and 50 minutes was a little slow, that is the lot of a fisher. I thought just relaxing and floating on the waves was great. The others had occasional waves of sea sickness but everyone kept everything in their stomachs.
After a day of fishing we went to dinner and checked into our hotel for the night. The next morning we headed to the boat! We didn’t realize it at the time we booked the cruise but the ship we were on was the same one we went on with the kids in 2019. Mariner of The Seas. The kids were all paired up and had their own rooms. Allison and Leah’s room ended up being the hangout spot for cousins when they weren’t doing other things. They mentioned a few times the room was pretty hot. A few days into the cruise we realized their AC wasn’t working. We called maintenance and 30 minutes later it was much cooler in their room. The first day we explored the ship and got settled in our rooms. We discovered the ice cream cone dispensary and snack areas, soda refills, all the important things.🤣 For dinner we ate at the Hibachi grill. It was a fun kick off to the cruise.
It seemed like the kids really enjoyed having a buddy and doing whatever they wanted together. We all got a lot of activities in on the ship. We had two days at sea, plus the embarking day. Some of the favorite things we did were shows, trivia games, dance parties, swimming, the flow rider, water aerobics, mini golf, rock climbing, napkin folding, working out, finding and hiding ducks, napping on the deck, watching movies at the pool, ice skating, board games, a sushi making class and eating lots of yummy food. Our waiters names each night were April and Jozie. They were really nice and took great care of us. They had been on the boat for 7 months and were getting off to go home for the holidays the same day we did. The only picture Matthew asked for the whole time was with them. They always brought him extra food. I have never seen someone eat so much, he was like a food vacuum. He started keeping track of how many ice cream cones he ate but lost track after 34. The girls decorated their doors and I decorated Matthew’s room for his birthday.
We had two days at Ports. The first was Costa Maya. We all went to a beach and the kids played keep away and we did some souvenir shopping. The second was Cozumel. It was raining pretty good in the morning. Our family had an excursion booked. Jovee came with us and everyone else went to the airport to fly most of their family home. We were debating on canceling the excursion due to rain. When we were checking in they told us we needed two drivers with a drivers license. Ryan didn’t have his so Matthew and I were the drivers for our group. They asked us a bunch of health questions and when they asked about asthma I said yes but not who had it. They said Matthew couldn’t drive if he had asthma (how dumb is that btw) so Allison immediately said it was her. We went along with it (not the best example, I know) and I told them it wasn’t bad at all and we weren’t concerned about it. Then they said that Allison could not only not snorkel but she couldn’t go on the boat to snorkel because if she needed medicine they couldn’t help her. I told them it was fine and I had her medicine if she needed it, which she wouldn’t. Then they were really freaking out because I had medicine. It was a disaster. We decided to just cancel the excursion and rented our own car. We drove ourselves to the cenote that was on our excursion and it was closed anyway because of the rain. We drove for a bit until we found a nice beach that it wasn’t raining at. We had an almost empty beach with chairs and a restaurant. We rented some boogie boards for the kids and they enjoyed the pretty big waves for several hours. It was a great afternoon and I was happy that it wasn’t ruined by rain or asthma. It is so fun to see new places and make new memories.
Playing keep away at Costa MayaCozumelI made a sand castle that looked like a Mayan temple.Costa Maya
We got off the boat early in the morning on a Saturday and drove the whole way home. Matthew had a baseball tournament that weekend and we were able to get back so he could play on Sunday and help them win. It is going to be very different and feel weird when Matthew and then the girls start leaving the house. I have enjoyed this phase of our lives. I still am but it is getting alarmingly close to it coming to an end.
School got started and we all got back into the routines of our Fall schedules.
Matt took the girls to the bus stop at Grandpa Terry’s on his way to school and picked them up on his way home. During the school year I work three days a week instead of two so it is very helpful that he can take them because their schools are the opposite direction of my work. Fall is Ryan’s travel time for work and he was gone most week for 2-5 days at different trade shows or to help train new sales people.
We did celebrate Matthew’s 17th birthday this month…I apparently didn’t take any pictures! Matthew’s love language and favorite thing to do is eat good food. For his birthday he wanted to have a weekend of yummy meals. We went to a few restaurants- Chick-fil-a, K-machos, and Sake. We made pancakes and sausage and bacon for breakfast without eggs. Well, some of us had eggs but Matthew hates eggs so we didn’t make him eat any. His birthday was on a Sunday so after church we watched lots of football and Matthew didn’t have to do any chores and hung out with his friends as much as he wanted all weekend. It wasn’t his most exciting birthday but hopefully it was still a good birthday. I can’t believe he will be 18 next year!!
Matthew worked at Twisted Sugar as a cookie froster and cashier a few times a week. For the first time in 8 years he didn’t play Fall Ball because he was recovering from his elbow surgery. They thought it would take 4-6 months and it took every bit of that time and a little more. He did physical therapy at least three times a week. He took Campbell to the Homecoming dance.
Allison did wrestling and gymnastics. She was a teachers aid for her art teacher for one of her classes and really likes it. Spanish was not her favorite but she stuck it out. She continued with Girl Scouts as well and her troop went on a camping trip to Oklahoma and did glass blowing and other fun activities.
I have many more of Allison’s wrestling videos on my you tube channel but I will put a few here. She improved a lot this season. She was a lot more aggressive and won most of her matches. Grandma and Grandpa Jones came to visit and were able to see her in person.
We didn’t have baseball every weekend so we did a few family activities on the weekends. Sometimes it was raking leaves or cleaning the house- kids loved it. Sometimes it was lunch together. One of the weekends we finally made it to the WWI museum in downtown KC. It is the only one in the country and we have been meaning to go for years. We finally made it happen. It was pretty good. After we toured the museum and went up the tower to see the city, we went to lunch and stopped at Matthew’s teams baseball game to cheer them on. We highly recommend the museum.
Allison and Leah went to the Taylor Swift Movie of her Eras Tour. They got all dressed up and danced and sang along with the rest of the theater for a few hours. They had a good time. I loved seeing Allison in a cute dress she picked out too. They looked very cute together.
Ryan took the girls to a Royals game for a daddy daughter date. They got to use his company tickets so it was good seats and some yummy food.
To get ready for Halloween we ate chili and carved pumpkins with our cousins at their house. All of our kids can carve their own pumpkins now and they like to get a lot more detailed than I ever did so it is fun to see what they do with their creativity. It’s also awesome that they can clean up their mess now so I don’t have to touch any pumpkin guts.
Dad and I went to a masquerade party with some friends for Halloween. I’m not going to brag but it seemed kind of dead when we got there. People were shy about dancing and wearing their masks. We definitely kicked up the fun vibe and had a good time! Once we started dancing more people were willing to come out of their shells and have fun with us! RJ and I had masks too but they weren’t on for this picture obviously.
For Halloween day Grandpa Terry hosted us our cousins and the McDonalds. We brought the pizza and the witches brew. Then as a new level, Ethan and his girlfriend took the littler kids trick or treating and the rest grouped up and went on their own. The adults got to stay home and eat hot chocolate, hand out candy and play games. It was a little chillier than some years so everyone picked a warm costume or had to add some layers.
Another Fall tradition that we made sure happened was dad made us some of his cinnamon rolls from his grandma Groom’s recipe. They were delicious as always!
We were hoping our house would be done by the beginning of November but it wasn’t quite done yet so we bottled our excitement and tried to handle our impatience for a little longer.
This is the third year of doing the Primary Program for Sacrament meeting. The first year was COVID and we just did a video. The last two years have been more traditional versions. The kids learn the songs all year and we help them come up with their parts about a month before the program. We practice everyone’s parts and singing together the two weeks before we do it for the whole congregation. We had a Saturday practice the day before this year as well. The kids were doing great and excited to show their parents and the people they invited.
Once it was time to start the kids came up front and found their spots and things were going along great. About 15 minutes in I noticed a rustling of noise starting and kids seemed to be losing their focus a bit. I was trying to figure out what was going on and I saw one of the boys point at something. I look up to where he is pointing and there are two baby mice running along the ledge of the light facet around the room. Once one of them noticed it took about 20 seconds for word to spread to all the kids on the stage. Our music leader was able to get there attention and the teachers up with the kids on the stand helped them refocus. We continued on with their program.
The mice were not done exploring though. They were jumping and skipping along the edge. The audience also started to notice and we lost several of them because they ran out crying. One of the mice got a little to crazy and fell from the ledge right down the wall. He was at the back of the room and started working his way up the pews on the floor. We lost a few more audience members. I was in the very front row and could tell my Sunbeam class teacher was not ok with a mouse getting anywhere near her. She was sitting by her husband and he was trying to help her relax. At one point when the people right behind me gave a little jump indicating the mouse had reached their pew she stood up to exit. Her husband put his arm around her shoulder and helped her stay in her seat. The mouse then moved up past me and was headed towards the ramp to get up on the stand. The poor Sunbeam teacher was at the top of the ramp and I new if it got any closer to her she lose her composure completely and no amount of coaxing from her husband or myself would calm her down. So I stood up and walked over to the baby mouse-his ears were bigger than his body- and kicked him under the door. I was very grateful he went out the door instead of up my leg. By this time a few people had gotten a bucket or two and were waiting for it to come out in the hall to catch it. I am now known as the legendary primary president that saved the primary program by literally booting a mouse out the door. Apparently I did it very calmly and people were impressed. I was just glad it was not a snake.
When we are getting ready to do a program, I try and think of all the different situations that could come up and how to handle them so I am prepared for anything 80 kids from 3-11 might throw at me. I never thought of mice showing up and running around. Once the mouse was out of the room, things settled down a little and the kids finished their program and did a great job. Afterwards when we talked about it they thought it was so great they sang and said their parts so well that even the mice came to watch.
Emilee has been keeping busy with her activities too. She is still doing piano. She wants to be done with it but I told her she had to get through the lesson book she is on first. She has a recital coming up and she is going to play a song from Wicked that she has been learning.
She is still taking riding lessons and loves it. One of the horses she rides is called Marilyn. She is a shorter horse so when she canters she gets moving pretty good.
She played volleyball this Fall and it was hit or miss if she liked it. Once she was there I think she liked it, getting her there was usually a chore. Especially when it was early on a Saturday.
She loves going to Primary Activity Days. They had a daddy-daughter activity a while ago. They both had a lot of fun building this tower together. It was a contest to see who could build the biggest sturdiest tower in a certain amount of time. They were the winners. Dad’s engineering heart was so proud.
