We Love Visitors

We were able to have two visitors come last week, which was exciting!  They had fall break down in good ol' Utah, and so we had a few family members decide to spend some of it with us.  Yay!

It was so nice having Grandma Di and Grandpa Scott come see us!  We played a lot, made some yummy food (because let's face it, my meals always have more effort in them when we have company), had FHE, went on the mural tour, took kids around to their activities and watched, visited parks, went on a walk/bike ride and took the kids lunch at their school and ate with them.

Then, later that week, Mark, Mayela and Amber came to stay.  We took them on a tour of Rawlins, stopped off at the Main Street area to visit a few shops, went to the museum, went to the park, soaked in the hot pools, went out to eat, went out to church together, played board games, grilled out for maybe the last time this year.  Even though there was just one cousin to go around, they all play pretty well together and we just had a few squabbles.  It doesn't matter the gender or age, cousins are friends!  They loved their pillow fortress they made and played in that most of the day Sunday.

What a great family we have!  Love ya'll!  Thanks for coming and come back soon!

Fall weekends in OOh-tah and at home!

We've been able to enjoy the beautiful fall season at home and out.  We've gone to Utah quite a few times.  Cov loves saying "I wanna go to Ooh-tah!"  And the other kids concur.  What's better than hanging out with our family when we get the chance!?

One of the main reasons for our travels back home during the fall is for BYU football games.  Dave's enjoyed some great football games...the season tickets are getting better each year and they are pretty close this year!  The White Out game was fun, and there have been some good plays and some awesome hail Mary's to win games.  Mangum is a great quarterback and fun to watch.  Score!  I went to the Homecoming game with him, it was a great date!  My favorite part is the Marching band! ;)  JK, but they are fun to watch.

Also, some of Dave's old friends growing up planned a little get together, so we went to that.  It was fun to see them all again.  I had met all but one.  They and their families are all wonderful, makes me thankful that Dave had great influences around him growing up.  All of our kids too, though they've never met played together well and had a fun time.

We also went to a Downtown art festival, which the kids enjoyed.  And playing with their cousins and being with Grandparents.

Mid-September, the kids convinced me it was time to decorate for Halloween.  They had been begging for about a month, since stores starting getting Halloween stuff up mid-August.  So I told them if they got their chores done really well one Saturday, we could.  And they have never cleaned better.  And we have never decorated earlier for any holiday.  They had the best time putting them all up!  Cov loves this sparkly skeleton and has to give it a good night hug each night.  Cal wanted to try on all of his old costumes...his Evil Kanevil one fit, sort of!  :)  He was riding it around the neighborhood while riding his bike and the neighbors all thought that was great. The kids love seeing what new Halloween decorations they have at the store.  And like to push all of the sound ones at the same time.

We were able to get tickets to go to General Conference at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake for the Saturday morning session.  We took Julie & Todd with us, this was Todd's first time going to General Conference.  This was also Emma's first time attending Conference.

Em loved the building and was in awe of all of the art work and architecture.  We walked around, touring everything and she was a little photographer and took a lot of pictures!  We took our places and waited for the Prophet and other Servants of the Lord to come in.  I love the special, sweet Spirit that fills the building when these men and women come in!  Emma said she felt warm inside when President Monson walked in and when the speakers spoke.  We enjoyed the beautiful music (I always get goosebumps when the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings!), and there were some amazing words.  

How blessed we are to live in the fullness of times! This is a sad and confused world we live in. I'm so thankful though that we can hear from these men who are called of God, to receive strength, counsel & direction. When I pray to ask if the words they speak are true, the feeling is undeniable. I know we have living prophets on the earth today who help us come unto Christ! Their words are not just for members of the faith I belong to, but apply to everyone. How thankful I am for that!  Here are a few of my favorite thoughts and quotes from Conference.  Photo quote credits: Deseret News.

                                       

On the way back from Conference, we dropped by Amy and Kolby's for dinner.  Oh, we love them so much!  Even if it's just for quick visits.  Here are the kids with their fun cousin Boji enjoying their donuts.  Never mind my white trash looking baby without the pants.  

This past weekend, we traveled to Utah yet again!

Friday night, I met up with my sweet college friends Jasmine and Katie.  We went to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village.  It was so fun!  I've been there many times, but never for this.  We all got dressed up in our witch garb, and had the best night.  Afterwards, we went to get ice cream at Leatherby's and talked into the night.  Many there kept staring and the little kids all wanted to come say hi.  We were the "nice witches", haha!  It was so fun catching up with these cute ladies!

We also were able to go to the pumpkin patch to let the kids pick out their pumpkins.  They had a great time!  And loved that Grandma Sue came with us.

We did some shopping for more Halloween stuff to make our costumes and made shopping runs for our needs.  One night, I took Tayla and Emma and they had the best time.  They kept dressing up and posing and taking pictures of each other.  These girls are the cutest together!

This time it was for our new neice's baby blessing, little Sawyer Hope.  We went to church with them for the full block, which was great.  Then we had a luncheon at their house and visited for a long while.  These cousins love each other SO much!  Tayla and Emma are BFFC's (best friends forever cousins, they tell me), Cal and Kaison had their arms around each other all during church which was adorable, Lucy & Brody giggle and play non stop.  Cov just likes them all, and they all love baby Sawyer and think she's pretty cute.  Emma loves holding her so much!  Sawyer is a sweet little girl and it's great to have another Ryerse join the ranks!

What a beautiful fall with the people I love!