September Wrap-Up

Oh, there are so many wonderful (and horrible) little things I don't post on this blog! (Some because I don't get around to it and some because it needs to stay private...)

Here are some things from September that I want to remember:

We had a great time at a couple different street festivals - Here's a random shot of me and Liza at the "Get Fresh" event in our neighborhood where local chefs compete to make delicious stuff using only non-cooked local produce.

And here are the kids having the time of their life at the "Harvest Moon Festival" last Saturday. Love this event - tons of totally free activities for kids, live music, great food, can't beat it. This event marks exactly three years since we first visited Ogden. The Harvest Moon Festival and the great neighbors we met when first going to the festival really helped sell us on this place.

Here's Liza almost to the top!

There's Silas in the middle at the top.

 This man-powered ride was a huge hit with all the kids (this is Silas and Ashton):

Oliver and Silas did book reports. They were supposed to create a cereal based on the fable they chose to read. I wasn't crazy about the cereal box crafting part of it and we had a couple crazy weeks so we were doing too much at the last minute. The reports weren't fabulous or polished. But they were sufficient. And for next month's book report we'll get ahead of the game (and thankfully, there won't be crafty stuff involved moving forward, yeah!).

Isaac's been really into photographing food lately. He captured some cool stuff. Food is so pretty.

Here's rubarb (oh, how we love rubarb! I've got to figure out how to grow some because it's pretty unusual to find it in stores...):

And a piece of a peach (we've been enjoying the most delicious local peaches from the farmer's market down the street - nothing like a perfect peach)

And these heirloom tomatoes were both gorgeous and delicious:

Oliver and Silas did a "leave no trace" badge for scouts that included making these posters and doing a clean-up project nearby. They were pretty excited about it.

Silas got a tooth out. He had this weird extra baby tooth grow in when he was about 2 years old and since it had no permanent tooth to dissolve its root, that random extra baby tooth was probably going to just stay in forever and it was making his permanent teeth come in totally weird. So it had to go. Silas was SO brave - they had to give him a few very painful shots to numb the area but he took it like a champ.

Here's the random extra tooth right before we got it out of there - it's the one to the right of his permanent top front teeth.


And he was super excited about this interesting long-rooted tooth he got to bring home. He calls it his "shark tooth" and has decided to keep it in his treasure chest rather than selling it to the tooth fairy. After all it took to get it out, I totally get why he wants to keep it!

(sorry it's a little gross....)

We've been spending a LOT of time watching volleyball games - Ashton's had 2 days a week where he's involved in games from 4:30 until 7:30pm.

Ashton's really enjoying volleyball and he's getting more and more playing time in the games as he's really getting the hang of the game. The team and coaches are wonderful and we're just so grateful for this opportunity for him - it's exactly what he needed in so many ways.

Volleyball's really fun to watch. But wow, those chairs get hard after three hours. The younger kids work on homework while Ashton's not playing then cheer their little hearts out for him when he's in. It's pretty cute.

Grammie and Grandfather came to watch one game. Yeah! 

Isaac's doing great at soccer - when we can actually get him to a game. His games are usually at the same time as his cross country meets and that's not working out very well (when we signed up, we understood the games would be on Saturdays but they had to move them to Tuesdays which really isn't working out well).

I tell you, my Tuesdays are not for the faint of heart. We've got dance for Eliza, lego club and scouts for Oliver and Silas, Young Men's for Isaac and Ashton, Isaac's soccer games and cross country meets. Plus Tuesday is the day for PTA meetings that I've just had to miss. And it's the day my Learning Circle meets. And it's a day Jared has Bishopric meetings. Seriously, why does everything have to happen on Tuesday? It's gotten so that whenever someone asks us to do something or invites us to something, I just know it's going to be on a Tuesday. And I'm usually right.

Here are a couple pictures of Isaac's most recent game (that was on a Thursday so we could actually go to it).

I'll share some photos of Isaac's cross country meets soon. I've driven all over creation to get to his meets and then missed him running on two separate occasions now (thanks to the craziness of Tuesday described above combined with my problems with getting to the right place at the right time...I really need to be less optimistic about how long it takes to get places!).

Eliza got to perform in a really beautiful dance with her Virginia Tanner group at Weber State. Oh how I love the way Virginia Tanner Dance offers kids the chance to dance in such a creative and free way! The boys and I were privileged to watch her dance.

Here's the beautiful finale:


Then that night, Eliza and I had a really really fun girls' night out while Jared and the boys went to the ward Fathers and Sons Camp out up in the mountains. Eliza and I went to dinner, had special treats and painted each other's fingernails and toenails. How grateful I am for this precious daughter!

My sister-in-law Julie was in town and the older kids just had to skip school for a few hours so that they could spend some time with their beloved little cousin, Zara (Isaac was so sad he couldn't come - he had the flu and we didn't want to get Zara sick).

The change of seasons have sent a little sickness our way.

Isaac got some form of the flu - chills and fever and aches for two days - then he was fine. Ashton got a cold. Jared got a cold. And I had this weird bout of vertigo for about a week in September. I'd wake up repeatedly in the night, feeling like I was for-real on a fast-spinning carnival ride. I'd get up and have to hold onto something to keep from falling over and I was terribly nauseous. I'd tipsily go through our morning routine with the kids and thankfully, an hour or so later, by the time it was time for school, I'd feel much better and was OK driving the kids to school and doing the things I needed to do that day including going running or hiking for my normal exercise. Then on Sunday, I was super dizzy all day, having to concentrate really hard to get down the hall to Primary and stand up in front of the kids to do Sharing Time. But I made it through and then the next day I was better. Weird stuff!

I did some research and it seems I had an inner ear infection. My ear did hurt a bit and all the symptoms lined up. It seems there's not much you can do about an infection like that other than wait it out. I guess all's well that ends well but it sure made me grateful for my usual good health!

To top September off, I got to go to the pre-conference Relief Society General Meeting at the conference center in SLC with my dear mom. It was wonderful to sit in the company of 21,000 other women and listen to uplifting talks. I really tried to listen with the Spirit and came away with some helpful messages just for me. I think my favorite part was when we all stood and sang together - nothing like 21,000 women's voices raised together. And it was really cool to be surrounded by women as we waited to get into the conference center and as we headed back across Temple Square afterwards - all these beautiful, faithful women, each with her own challenges and talents and needs and hopes and dreams, filling up downtown Salt Lake for the evening...

Mom and I enjoyed a rare and lovely chance to talk for a couple hours, just one on one, at the end of the conference. I'm so blessed to have this amazing mom of mine!

Despite all the rushing around, the stressful moments, the fact that my to-do list that goes on and on, and the many hard things that happen and are too personal to me or others involved for me to share on this blog, I'm so very grateful for my life and for the beautiful things that make it busy and complicated.