Quarantine

We had all of last week plus Monday this week for Fall break. Bingham High decided to do online learning Tues, Wed, and Thursday this week to help slow the spread of COVID. Hopefully being closed for two weeks will help.

Monday evening I received a call from the middle school assistant principal to tell me that Mary had sat next to someone with COVID before Fall break so they asked Mary to not return to school until Thursday.

Tuesday morning at 10:30 I noticed my two at-home-learners eating pizza. I forgot how much more food we go through when the kids are home from school :)

Luke's sacrament meeting talk

Moments after Luke was asked to speak in sacrament meeting on a topic from "For the Strength of youth", he selected the topic of repentance and started writing his talk. 

He asked me to read it and I made a couple of minor grammatical corrections but he wrote an amazing talk all by himself.

This was Luke's first talk in sacrament meeting and he did great. This boy continues to amaze me with his gifts, talents and spirituality.

More fun in St. George

 We loved playing pickle ball and swimming at the condo we rented in St. George.

We also loved playing games.

And the kids loved the bunk beds!

We loved hiking Dixie Rock.

And swimming at night.

We stopped at the Mountain Meadows Massacre memorial site on the way home. Very somber and beautiful area.

We woke up the morning after we arrived home to a dusting of snow! In October!

Coldest couple of October days in over 100 years. Ready or not- feels like winter is here!

Ben's state race in St. George

Ben worked hard to qualify for state this year. This was a new venue and longer than most courses- 7.4 miles per lap and Ben's race included 2 laps. The competition was tough because each rider was in the top 25 of their team. They were fast and all of them finished within minutes of each other. Ben did great and we had a lot of fun!

Coach Scott giving the riders instructions before the race.

Luke looking for Ben on the hills.

Nice work Ben!

A visit to grandma

My grandma moved to St. George about 5 months ago. We have missed visiting her! We went to St. George over Fall break for Ben's state mountain biking race. It was really fun to see grandma again!

We took turns going into grandma's apartment because of COVID, but each of the kids was able to get a caramel from Grandma's BYU treat tray.

I remember watching my grandpa and grandma wave good-bye to us from their driveway. It was so sweet to see grandma waving good-bye to us from her patio.

Warm, cozy & pumpkin spicy Halloween

Cement pad

 Todd's friend from work came to help him pour a cement pad for our shed.

Ben was taking the ACT that day so he missed out on the fun but Luke enjoyed helping.

All of us put our hands in the cement (except for Michael of course who is in Washington on his mission). BTW- That's Nana's paw print at the end.

Ben's National Honor Society induction

 Ben was inducted into the National Honor Society. Each student was able to have one parent in attendance with them. The meeting was brief and we all wore masks and sat 6 feet apart, but we appreciate being able to celebrate this accomplishment for Ben.

FIFTEEN

Happy birthday to our sweet Mary! She is energetic, funny, thoughtful, kind, responsible, intelligent, beautiful, nurturing, a talented dancer, a beautiful viola player and an amazing baker. Thank you for 15 years of bringing joy to our lives!

I love to celebrate our children's birthdays.

We started Mary's 15th birthday with a big breakfast of eggs and potatoes, bacon, waffles and blackberries.

Mary was so excited about her AirPods!

We watched church for the first time on TV.

After that, our Priesthood, Relief Society and youth meetings were on zoom.

Later that day when Todd returned home from meetings, we had the sacrament together at home.

Mary and I went for a drive in the suburban.

She is doing great!

Mary LOVES cheesecake- (she has already told us that she wants to serve cheesecake at her wedding reception)- so we had cheesecake for dessert.

Mary was excited to have corn on the cob because she doesn't have braces anymore.

We had chicken burgers and caesar salad with the corn too.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Ben's Richfield race

Six of us piled into the truck and headed to Richfield for Ben's race.

After Ben's pre-ride, we ate a spaghetti dinner (for Ben's carb load).

Later that evening, Todd and I went for a walk around the campground. I had to laugh at the scene when we came back. The dirty laundry basket was outside under a tree because of the smelly socks :)

This was the girls first time sleeping in the new trailer since they weren't in Moab with us. Sara was excited to have her own bed.

My parents joined us. My Dad took this picture of us playing UNO before Ben's race.

Our family getting ready to cheer for Ben.

We were all nervous.

Ben had mechanical issues at his last race in Moab so he started in 52nd place in Richfield.

He wanted to finish in the top 25 so he could qualify for the State race.

He pushed really hard and finished in 18th place!

It was an awesome moment! We were so happy for him!

It was fun to have my parents there with us to share in the excitement!

Shed and Autumn clean-up

 Todd has been working on our shed in any spare time that he can find. Well actually he's working to prep for our shed. He rented a jackhammer to break up the rock, a tiller to soften the dirt and a compressor to pack down the gravel.

We also paid to have a dumpster delivered so we could clean up the yard.

We only had a couple of hours after we returned home from the last mountain biking race to spread gravel before dark.

And now we're ready for concrete. It's going to be great!