2021, October 4-10

Finally it feels like fall. Pray we get more than a month of it before winter sets in. We had walks, home decorating, an ice cream party, and a sibling meet-up. 

We had sunny pleasant walking weather at the beginning of the week, which meant Eliza and her teacher went for a stroll around the neighborhood. We found wild plum and chestnut trees (yes, that's her high up in the branches of one of her favorite "lounging" trees). 

Don't these chestnuts look great? Downright tasty. . . . Oh, wait. Turns out these are horse chestnuts rather than sweet chestnuts. We went as far as getting them into the toaster oven before Mike checked to make sure these were safe to eat. Looks like horse chestnuts will make you sick, so we abandoned our little culinary experiment. 

While Landon was at the gym, the other three of us went up to IKEA to see if we could find a rug suitable for our new front room. We wanted something soft with some pile and color. We also vainly hoped that there might be other inexpensive furniture or other beachy items we could incorporate into the downstairs. Alas, not really. This overall lack of everything in some stores really seems to have hit IKEA. The shelves of the popular items were looking a bit empty.  

Fergus says hello. He seems to approve of the new rug. We think he may miss the old carpet. 

Here's the rug we went with (for now). 

Fall leaves on the mountains are beginning to fade as the color begins in earnest on the valley floor. 

Driving home from gym on Wednesday, Hallie saw this big flag at Jaker's. This may be the last year this lot gets used for agritainment before it gets converted into some depressing strip mall or office park.  

On Thursday, Eliza and Dad went up to BYU for school. As part of Homecoming Week, our local school district superintendent gave the distinguished alumni lecture. He taught us that you can learn a lot from Zotz (the penny candy). It was quite the inspiring talk!

Eliza learned that she can earn extra riding time if she (with Mom's help, apparently) is willing to shovel horse poop. One does what one must. . . . Hallie was not thrilled with the horse poop that landed on her foot. Lesson learned: wear different shoe next time.

Trainer Sara has some fun fly masks for the horse's and Eliza loved the one she chose for Annie after her ride.

Hallie (finally) got the ring Mike had bought for her in celebration of our upcoming anniversary and vow renewal. 

Our curtain rods came in on Friday, so Mike installed the shear curtains. We've opted to move our Bluenose to the window, where it seems to fit in quite nicely. Eliza notes that she likes how you can see it from outside.  As soon as we get our hands on a pair of shears that bush is gone and the ship will be in more visible from the outside, just like our friends from Lunenburg, the Jewers.

More dramatic weather came in on Friday and Saturday. Fall is asserting itself, and we're not complaining! 

The boys went for haircuts on Saturday. Landon has opted for longer locks in keeping with current trends. But Mom insisted on a clean up of the sides and back.

Excepting the bamboo roller blinds (and couches which will have to wait), the front room is just about complete! 

Now to look into the dining room. 

Landon and the boys' team at gym had an ice cream party on Friday night. Lots of happy kiddos over at SOS Pharmacy here. 

Saturday morning Hallie headed out bright and early to get her blood work done. In our new very nice hospital in Spanish Fork, Hallie found herself at the café for breakfast after the blood draw. A lovely omelet was made for her, and she enjoyed the bit of quiet and good food. Hallie ran a few errands afterwards and was able to meet up with her brother who was here to watch the BYU football game. Hallie got home and to sleep she went. We are hoping the doctor finds low iron and we can get this sleepiness and bouts of depression fixed up in a jiffy. 

We bought Mixtiles at Christmas in anticipation of eventually hanging them in the dining room to replace our present wall mural, which has some dated (if well-loved) images of the kids. After bringing in the new wall art and a few alternate configurations, we managed to fill in the space on the east wall.  

2021, September 27-October 3

The downstairs remodel nears completion. We had some drama with Landon and gymnastics. The girls saw the Gold Over America Tour (GOAT) with the GOAT herself, Simone Biles. 

The mountains glow with autumn hues. It fills the souls with gladness.

On Monday, Mike installed this new toilet in the freshly painted and floored powder room. He found out that is the way to his wife's heart.

Eliza is learning about the properties of matter. Here is some salt and sugar. How could you tell which was which? 

Eliza also is learning how to retell the main points of a story. 

Y Mountain is showing fall flair. 

Hallie is making friends with Eliza's horses. It has been a tough time for Hallie, and being with the horses (who thinks she has treats) is fun.

Eliza switched horses with her friend Reese and she had a great time riding Rue. It is so fun watching Eliza succeed at horseback riding.

Mt. Timpanogos is getting its first sprinkling of snow for the season. 

Mike and Eliza took in views of the fall foliage when he took her to work on Thursday. 

After work on Friday, Mike took Eliza and her friend Jordan to Jaker's Jack-O-Lanterns. They got lost in the corn maze, ate Mexican sweet corn and donuts, and carried pumpkins home to meet their ends at knife point. Bwah-hah-hah! It is so fun that Eliza has a friend her age and grade in our neighborhood. They get along so well and have a lot of fun together.

In the evening, the girls went out to make candles and eat churros in celebration of Grandma's birthday. This was a well-needed outing after a long and somewhat harrowing week for Mom, who spent a lot of emotional energy supporting Landon as he made the decision to stick it out at Bold for this year's meet season. While eating churros fireworks went off in the background. What a fun way to celebrate grandma's birthday!

On Saturday, the girls got dolled up for their trip up north to watch the Gold Over America Tour. 

After getting her hair done, Hallie went to the Provo Farmers Market, where she bought a pretty ring from one of her ISS students and got Mike a delicious Chilean sandwich (he didn't realize it was to share. Soooo good!).  

As of Saturday morning, here's the front room. Mike spent a little time in the early afternoon replacing the current ceiling fan with a new one. Hallie thinks it is awesome! After a couple of false starts and a few choice swear words, the task was accomplished. 

These lovely ladies headed up to Salt Lake on their gymnastics-themed excursion. 

Below we have Grace McCallum, Laurie Hernandez, and MyKayla Skinner partaking in a fun Q&A.

A majority of the University of Utah women's gymnastics team was on hand to sign posters for everyone. It was awesome!!

The girls sat in the 8th row, 2 rows behind MyKayla Sinner's husband. Coach Megan sat 3 rows ahead of us, and man how fun it was!

Meanwhile, the boys watched horror movies (e.g., Gremlins) and ate Panda Express. Landon had a long emotional week as he contemplated quitting gymnastics. Mom promised him Panda Express for boys' night.

Sunday dawned with Fergus getting loads of love from Eliza. Eliza is also is sporting her new tank top that is way too big, but she is happy.

Mike installed the old ceiling fan in the office, which can tend to get pretty toasty in the summer (or even on a sunny day any time of the year). After installing one fan this week, the other was a piece of cake. He even managed to reinstall the dishwasher, which had been poorly reinstalled by our flooring guys. It helps to remember that undercounter brackets hold the dishwasher in place. More happy wife activities!

Another view of the updated family room bathed in the afternoon light. Our curtains arrived yesterday, the blinds are supposed to be here this week, and who knows when the curtain rods will come? Lowe's has given us quite a few different emails. So, they will magically appear when they do.

Hallie and our friend Emma had these tasty nachos during a girls' luncheon. The girls tried Peace of Earth Coffee in Provo. They didn't know the shop served food, and boy the sandwich were great!

Mike and Eliza joined our next-door neighbors in building LEGO robots. This will be a multi-step process. Eliza and the other girls seemed pretty engrossed. Who knows but what we may see some budding engineers? Hallie didn't take pictures, but Landon dabbled at the piano with an app he found that helped him learn the notes to some simple songs. 

It has been a long week, and sometime after 5:00 Hallie fell asleep sitting up on the couch. When she woke up it was slightly after 7:00 and she thought it was the next day. Oops!!! 

As part of some work he has been doing, Mike found an online class on social and emotional learning. One of the practices for cultivating joy and well-being he learned about was the practice of daily identifying three good things. We put the idea into practice tonight as part of what will become a daily practice of identifying what we feel grateful for in life.