Dad's in Town

    In September, dad flew out to Utah and then drove with Skyler, Bishop McLain, Richard, and Ben to Mt. Whitney in California. He was able to stay with us for a few days before and after the hike; it was so good to have him in town. Sam sure loves her "Grumpy". I love my dad! :)

Our family has a talent of taking naps.

He was helping Skyler with her Dynamics homework. I read some of the questions and was completely lost, so I'm glad they knew what they were doing. :)

Sam wanted to help her, too!

Mesa Falls and Feeding Fish

    Other than snowshoeing to the Lower Mesa Falls, I've never been. We took a drive up to the Upper Mesa Falls and hiked around. Gosh, they sure are gorgeous. It's really the perfect time of year to go because the fall colors are astounding, the temperature perfect, and the falls a dream. Sam started out in her pack but insisted on walking herself, and she climbed all those stairs by herself, multiple times.
On our way home we stopped by the fish bridge and fed the thousands of fish some dog food. Huge, well fed fish, thousands of them!

Handsome selfie :)

Ok, I guess not completely by herself...she liked to go completely limp as we swung her around. :)

13.1

    Skyler ran a half marathon! She ran the Park City Trails half, which is one of the toughest because it's all on hiking trails, for the whole 13.1 miles!! She finished with a smile on her face.

My neighbor ran too. Actually, her sister had to back out and so that's how Skyler got the chance to run at such late notice. :) This is Skyler, and Janelle, and her sister and friend.

The park was right next to the trailhead where they started, so we played the whole time. Janelle's husband and son were there, and he and Josh talked about hunting most of the time. So everyone was completely happy.

Go Skyler, go!

Sam did such a good job, but by the end she was a tired mess. She dumped Skyler's chocolate milk down her face and shirt. She's in her second pair of paints because she climbed through some sticker bushes. The was asleep as soon as we got in the car.

Skyler's biggest fans. :)

Summer Fun

    A few random summer pictures. :)

Boating with the Johnson's. It's cold at 8 in the morning. Sam LOVED every bit of it. She became quick friends with Sherry once she discovered the fruit snacks. :)

Samson sure loves Puffy!

Watering the plants is more fun when you get all wet.

It's fun to see her play with the chickens. :)

Eating green beans!

Bike rides are the best!

Tender Moments

  There are moments when I feel so close to heaven, and this moment was while watching Sam. She has yet to show interest in sitting down and watching movies (I know it won't be long and I'll have to peel her away from the TV) but when I turned on The Prince of Egypt she was captured. When Moses' mother was putting him in the basket to put down the river in hopes of saving him, she sings him a song. Sam was happy and laughing and as soon as this scene started to unfold she got tears in her eyes. She looked at me and said, "baby?", worried for him and sad that Moses' mother was crying. And then after that scene and Moses was a grown man Sam kept asking me about the baby. It was pretty cute to watch.

 

Mom's in Town

    My mom and Skyler drove out the last of the last of Nana and Grandad's cars from Georgia. Skyler will start school again soon and my mom drove with her and then stayed here for a week. I was sad to say goodbye. We went to Idaho for a few days and spent time with Nana and Grandad. We shopped all the DI stores in the area since there aren't DI's in GA...for someone who doesn't like to shop, I really did a miraculous job at staying happy. My mom even mentioned how surprised she was that I left in a good mood after 3 hours of shopping...But when you don't get to spend much time with your mom even shopping is a fun activity if it's with her. :) We went to Lagoon one day and had an absolute blast there! We drove down south to visit Aunt Cindy and her kids-who are all grown up! It was good to see them and catch up on life. We also spent an evening and visited Danny and Tiffannie and their kids. I sure love family! Mom and I explored the family history and church history museum and Temple Square in SLC one afternoon, too. It was a blur of a week because it went by so fast, and I'm glad mom made the time to come and visit and spend time with us.