Another happy Autumn week

Jack turned 5 this week.  He choose McDonald's for his birthday dinner with Grandpa and Grandma.  Yum.

This is what he chose for his present:  (it glows and makes Jedi light saber sounds, ha!)

Holly, Ashley and I took lunch in to Mom (and dad) for her birthday on Friday.

Friday night Dave took his 11 year old scouts on their first ever overnighter.  They can only do one a year (yay!) and their dads have to come.  They went to North Fork, which is nice as it is less than 30 minutes away.  Look how amazing the leaves are up there:

They had to do a 5 mile hike to pass off a merit badge.  Dave, ever the true scout, is the only one who wore a scout uniform.  Personally, if I never see another scout uniform in my life I would not complain.

This is the whole group, sans Dave.  How nice is that?!

Last night, in my new calling in the Stake Relief Society, we sponsored a dinner before the General women's broadcast.  We had planned on about 280 women showing up for dinner.  We based that off of last year's attendance at 250.  We had about 340 women show up.  Yikes.  We ran out of food at the very end.  We had ordered Chinese food.  The last people through the line got fried rice and the pumpkin dessert bars. And that was about it.   Better than nothing, I guess.  (pictured left to right:  me- Second Counselor, Ann Dabb - Secretary, Kelley Martin - Stake RS President, and Kathy Fessler - First Counselor.)  This picture was taken three weeks ago when we were set apart in the Stake President's office.  I still haven't been released from my ward calling in the ward Relief Society Presidency as a counselor.  (I am also  the ward choir pianist, so I have 3 callings right now) I think that may happen today, hopefully. 

 I will miss working with Kathy Coleman, Sue Allen and Danelle Hall - all amazing women.  But as we know about service in this Church:  change is always inevitable and there comes a time in every calling that we have to move on to something else.  But I always cherish the friendships I have made over the years in the various callings I have had.

Sue, Danelle, Deanne Parson (Sue's mom), Michael Ballam, me, Kathy.

We had fun making the invitations to a temple trip for the sisters.  For the activity we were going to take the train down to the Salt Lake temple so we thought we would have a picture of us on the train for the invitation.

Love these girlies!

A fun Saturday.

Yesterday morning I went to Lily's soccer game.  Her team is called "The Cheeseballs".

The "throw in".

That afternoon Dave, Alex and I all took a drive in the truck up to Mantua.  From there we drove up a VERY bumpy dirt road  to Willard Peak.  Of course, the leaves are unbelievable right now.

Alex said this scene, with the wooden fence, reminded him of when our family went to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

That evening we went to dinner to celebrate Mom and Nana's brithdays.  Mom chose the Sizzler as the location.

The seats at the table were all filled with family.  But various people were up getting more chow at the salad bar when Dave took these pictures.

The birthday girls - ages 92 and 73 respectively.

Busy with Bicycles, a Blessing and Broadway

We had a lot going on this Saturday.  We started out the morning with a bike ride on the Ogden River Parkway.  We ended up biking over 25 miles.

We took a little four block detour off the parkway and went over to the Farmer's Market.  We had been wanting to go there all summer.  We rationalized our way through a chocolate croissant, a crepe, and a piece of apple strudel. 

Then we had to hustle back and shower so we could head down to North Salt Lake to my new little niece, Gabi's, blessing day.

Later that evening I had to play the piano for our ward.  It was a Stake Broadway evening and our ward performed "Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof. 

Dave and I had a deluxe dinner that night about 9 pm - a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger from Wendy's drive through.

A series of "sleepovers"

Ashley and Jud are in Florida this week.  James and Logan have been going to "sleepovers" at various places.  They started out at Brandon and Emily's for two nights.  Then they came to our house for three nights.  (Holly came over and helped a couple of times when we couldn't be with them)  Now, this morning we are taking them to Jud's parents' house for their last two nights of sleeping over. 

Logan and Liv had fun while eating a snack one day.

For James and Jack it was non-stop Star Wars action.

They even do "the force" while eating their snack:

Another day I took Logan and James to the Children's Treehouse Museum.  I had forgotten what a fun place it is.

From driving the fire truck . . .

to playing with trains . . .

to riding a bronco . . .

milking a cow . . .

and even performing in your own puppet show.  There is so much to do there.

Dave and I took the boys to Brigham City Peach days.  They wanted corn dogs.  Dave and I went a little bit crazy eating funnel cake, peach cobbler and dutch oven ribs, chicken, potatoes and beans.

We let the kids ride the safest thing we could see there.  It was a little merry-go-round type ride with cars and motor cycles.  The ride was almost full and the boys really wanted to go on the motorcycles, which were already taken.  I told the lady we would wait and ride the next time.  The next thing I know, she opens the gate, grabs their hands and puts them on the back of motorcycles that bigger kids were already on.  Logan seemed ok with it, but James was ticked. 

These two little guys are loaded with energy but we sure had a lot of fun together.

Labor Day 2012

Not that I'm a huge fan of Labor Unions but I really am glad they get a government holiday. Because, for me, Labor Day is something I always look forward to.  It's kind of the "last hoorah" of summer.

We had a last minute get-together with the kids that evening.  It turned out to be a blast.

And it's a good thing we enjoyed it.  Because as I glanced over at the mountain I noticed that the leaves are just beginning to change.

Fall will be nice.  I like autumn but I LOVE summer.  This year it went out with a bang.