2022, October 24-30

We wind down the month with early Halloween celebrations and other activities. This week was marked by a couple of tragedies in our community, and our hearts go out to the families affected. 

Hallie asked Eliza to get lunch on Monday. One of Eliza's favorite foods is soup, so she pulled out a can of Progresso and heated it up on the stove. Eliza poured the contents then into the bowl you see below and used the spoon she heated it up with to eat it. Hallie asked her why she didn't get a smaller spoon. Eliza replied, "This one was already dirty. I don't need to dirty another spoon." Eliza, you are so right! 

 

We fear that fall may have already transitioned into winter. Here's Y Mountain from Mike's office. No more red and gold. Now we're back to snowy white. Note that the trees in the valley (save the locust) haven't even had the chance to turn. 

Admittedly, the alpenglow from our front yard is quite lovely. Again, there is plenty of fall left in those trees. Here's hoping the warmth comes back for a little bit.  

Landon seems to be enjoying his transition to taekwondo. Once he learns the ropes, Mike might join him. 

 Landon got some other birthday presents from Diamond and Caleb. He's having a good year. 

We had some rain in the valley on Tuesday. On our morning walk with Kai, Dad and Eliza took in the fields with their pumpkins and cattle. 

Hallie noted the dramatic skies and low-lying clouds. The mountains can keep the crazy weather. 

Eliza had the chance to dissect a squid and a sea urchin for science this week. Maybe we have a budding young scientist in our future! Hallie drives four kids home, and three of them brought home pieces of the squid. The car smelled so yummy on our way home. Not!

Hallie got to play dress-up at school for the kiddies. She was a witch on Thursday, and she wore Landon's costume on Friday. Hallie and Mrs. Kelly our teacher went trick or treating in the main body of Springville High School. It was a lot of fun!

On Friday evening, Eliza, Hallie, and Mike went to Guide 'N' Gallop for a bonfire wienie and s'mores roast. Eliza enjoyed hanging out with the big girls. We are grateful Afton (Eliza's trainer) wants to be a part of the community by hosting fun events such as this.

On Saturday morning, we all went over to Jaker's for their trick or treat event with vendor booths along with the usual festivities. Landon even joined us, for which we are grateful. 15-year-old boys don't always want to do what their families want to do, so we are glad when he joins us.

Art City Donuts are always a treat. 

On his afternoon walk, Mike caught more photogenic cows and dramatic skies. 

This photo of flocking birds doesn't do the effect justice. 

In the afternoon, Eliza went on a trail ride with these troopers. She enjoys these opportunities to do independent activities. Guide 'N' Gallop took four students, a dad, and the trainer up Hobble Creek Canyon for a two-hour trail ride. Eliza said they saw a bit of snow. Speaking of independent activities, Landon went over to a Halloween event at Merit Academy in the evening with his friend Corbin. We have two young people who are rapidly learning to do their own thing, and it's a little bittersweet, to be honest.

 

One of Mike's recent master's students who happened to live in our broader neighborhood and who taught Landon in 7th grade lost her battle with cancer this week. Mike and Landon attended her viewing this evening. It's sobering and somber to see such a relatively young life taken. We appreciated seeing the outpouring of love and support for her family from friends and acquaintances from many quarters.  

On Tuesday, Hallie was headed to work a different way than she normally takes when she noticed a police car in her rear view mirror, so she pulled through a school parking lot to let the car pass. As she was about to get back on the road, another emergency vehicle car approached. Hallie got on her way, and more emergency vehicles came past. Hallie could see where they were stopped up ahead. At that moment Hallie knew she was going to be late to work and turned around to try and go a different way. After making several turns through neighborhoods, Hallie made it out near Springville High School when the ambulance came by carrying (as we found out later) a senior from Springville High School who was hit in a crosswalk on her way to school. This is another sobering reminder of how precious life is. 

Diamond called Hallie crying on Friday; her dad has been put on hospice. Diamond and Caleb made the choice to drive to Detroit to see Sylvester and the rest of the Evans family. We pray for all of those involved.

Sunday, Hallie's Uncle Jerry and Aunt Karen stopped by on their way home to Hurricane, Utah. It was nice spending time with them.

We are feeling reflective this Saturday and Sunday. How grateful we are to be able to spend time with our immediate family without a lot to do and to cherish what we have. 

2022, October 17-23

We celebrated the boy turning 15 this week, and we hope we're not already going to have to trade the pleasant fall weather for winter's chill (although the rain is nice). 

Here we see Eliza modeling a shirt she got from our neighbor. The shirt has a rodeo theme, and that makes Eliza happy.

Here we see Eliza reading the book about horses Grandpa O. sent her. 

Here we see Eliza training the miniature horse at Guide 'N Gallop. 

And here we see Eliza picking a witch's nose at the Springville Museum of Art's Halloween party on Wednesday. She had a good time, but she may be outgrowing some of the little kid activities. 

Here we see Landon practicing Tae kwon do on Wednesday in Spanish Fork. The son of Hallie's coworker owns the studio, and Landon told Mom he may have found his new thing. 

Here we see Fergus sitting on Landon's lap. Landon specifically asked Mike to take the photo. Somehow documenting Fergus sittings matters now. 

Here we see Landon riding a tuxedoed flamingo. 'Tis the season for fun Halloween costumes. 

On Saturday morning, we awoke to dramatic skies to the east and the promise of rain. Sure enough, we got rain for most of the afternoon and evening. Eliza went to a horsemanship at Guide 'N Gallop where she learned about vaccinating horses. Eliza was able to vaccinate a horse named Sunny that also let her know that he didn't like the fact she gave him a vaccine. Do we say Eliza is a true horsewoman? Sunny kicked Eliza in the wrist. It is never a dull moment with this girl.

Here is a shameless plug for the TV series Andor. We're low-key Star Wars fans, and Mike particularly likes how well-written, acted, and done overall this show is. The others in the family don't (yet) fully appreciate what this series has done with the rich possibilities of its source material. They'll get there. This dude (Major Partagaz of the Imperial Security Bureau) shines.   

We celebrated Landon's birthday Sunday with bacon, eggs, orange rolls, and presents. The boy got his first electric razor. Fancy, fancy! We're currently on the hunt for photos where we catch our mercurial lad actually smiling. 

The razor was a bit more complicated than we might have expected initially. He'll get the hang of it. Also on display are a ramen bowl we got for him from Muddy Pants Pottery and a print of Venom and Peter Parker Eliza bought for him. 

Overnight, the rain became snow in the mountains. The weather got chillier as the day went on. 

We took Landon and a couple of friends out to a movie (Black Adam, which was pretty forgettable) and In-N-Out Burger.

By the end of the outing, Landon was a bit tired. 

The resemblance is definitely still there, but he's much less our baby boy than he used to be. 

2022, October 10-16

We ended the first term, and the house and neighborhood feel more like fall. We have open doors to let in the pleasant breezes. We seem to have gone to at least a few restaurants this week and celebrated Landon's birthday a little early. 

The fall colors to the south can be seen clearly (once again, the photo doesn't do them justice). 

A friend of Hallie's from her mission came down from Canada to visit with family and friends. We managed to get some time in on Canadian Thanksgiving Monday with them over at Heber Hatchets. Hallie finds it more fun to chat than to throw hatchets, but we also find it better to do something than to eat something.

 

Fergus likes cozying up now that we're leaving the windows and doors open. 

Eliza continues her training regime on the miniature pony. Eliza thinks it is funny to bug mom with the horses. Hallie isn't so comfortable around the horses, but you know we do things for our kids we don't always like or want to do.

Eliza enjoys helping the newbie riders learn how to look after the horses. She got an extra day in at the barn. Having lessons early in the day leaves extra time to work and play at the barn.

Eliza likes catching Landon with the camera and trying to get him to smile. 

Eliza and Dad took a walk north of the house out to the dirt trail near the creek. The rabbitbrush and mustard are in bloom, and the honeybees are busily at work.  

The water is really low on the creek. 

Back at home, Fergus is ready for his closeup. Eliza thought it was funny to make him look like he was wearing a bra. 

Here's the view of the locust tree and Y Mountain in fall form from Mike's office. The other trees are late turning color this year.

 

On Thursdays, Eliza rides a larger pony. This week, she also got to drive a four-wheeler all by herself! 

While she was riding, Mike and Hallie had another impromptu date up in Lindon at the Lindon Farmers Market. We shared some poffertjes (Dutch pancakes) we'd been eyeing at the Springville market for a few weeks and a corndog. Earlier in the day Landon had his six-month check up and received his COVID booster and flu vaccine. 

Ferg was blepping, and Landon wanted Dad to catch it, but Ferg was too wily. 

With fall break, Landon had a visit with friends from the Blas family.  Emma (Mom) took her boys and some friends to an activity center and out to eat and then headed back home to hang out. We are so glad Landon and Sonny are still friends after all of these years. In the morning Landon has an oral appliance that has given him problems. On top of his arm feeling sore from vaccines his mouth now hurt because the appliance needed to be recemented. Lucky boy!

The rest of us went to the Spanish Fork food trucks, which are not as well attended with the earlier evenings. Eliza impressed some of the locals with her acrobatic skills. Even though she doesn't do gymnastics anymore, she still has mad skills. Some boys told her to do a back flip off the top. Eliza, thank you for not listening to them.

(In between these two shots, she did a back flip off the swing.)

Landon got a fancy knife as a gift from Grandpa O. this week. He was impressed. No smile but a great mug for the camera.

On Saturday, we celebrated Landon's birthday at Asa Ramen in Orem. Everyone tried something different. Grandpa and Grandma M. will be out of town for Landon's actual birthday. Everything was yummy!

On the way home, we were treated to a colorful sunset. 

Landon received an early present of the latest book in the illustrated Harry Potter series. 

His friend Ethan recently had to move, so Mom took Landon and Corbin out to get him some gifts for a birthday care package. Taking two teenage boys to Smith's and Dollar Tree can be quite the laugh and quite the adventure.

Whatever this look is, we're just going to go with it. Look we caught a smile from both teenage boys!

Considering this is how they spent most of the afternoon, getting out and doing something for a friend was a good thing. 

We're counting down the days to Halloween with a fun little "advent" calendar Hallie found online. 

Eliza and Mom have wanted to have a fire pit to try out a new s'mores maker Mom got a couple of weeks back. We used the fire pit with charcoal, so it didn't turn out quite as we expected, but we had graham crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate, so who's complaining?