Wow the last month has been incredibly insane. I am just now getting a chance to post any updates to the blog. This post will be a picture dump for sure!
Last month to celebrate Grandma T's birthday we did a girls day pedicure and breakfast. It was a fun morning!
Noah got to participate in the March of the Titans which is a bi-annual fundraiser. It is where they stay up all night walking laps to raise money. Josh, Daniel and Sarah have all participated in this, however, I guess the organizers decided this year they didn't want it to go all night long. They stopped everything at 2 am. Noah was kind of bummed, but it was fine. Here's a picture:
Josh had his friend, Rico, visit for Conference. This is someone Josh got to teach while he was a missionary in Chicago. A group were able to go to dinner one night:
They also got to attend one of the Conference sessions in person.
One evening they were all able to go to the temple as well.
Josh enjoyed seeing him.
We have been going with Sarah to a few different temples. We got to go with her to the Bountiful temple to do an Endowment session which was nice:
The beginning of October Sarah and I got to fly out to help take care of my niece, Sydney, who had traumatic brain injury earlier this year. Jill was taking Lila, her daugher, on a trip to New York so we were happy to help. To help prepare Sarah for the airport when she actually flies to California I had Sarah navigate the airport and roll both her and my luggage. When she will fly out she will have two big suitcases, one carryon and a backpack so I just wanted to help her prepare. I was a silent partner and let her figure out the steps we needed to take to get to the gate. She did great. Here she is rolling hers and my carry-ons:
We flew out Friday afternoon:
Unfortunately, Sydney was admitted to the hospital earlier that day for a fever and rapid heart rate. While she was in the hospital we did get to take a quick trip to Bucee's and to visit G&G Mancil.
The next morning we did go over to see her in the hospital. While we were there Aaron FaceTimed us letting Sarah know her missionary tags had come in the mail.
Thankfully, Sydney was cleared for discharge from the hospital that Sunday afternoon. Jeff, her dad, brought the handicap accessible van so she could go home in her wheelchair. Neither one of us had ever secured a wheelchair in a van before so that took a minute to figure out. We got her home and got her comfortable. Sarah and I then made breakfast for dinner. We have a family tradition of having a huge family breakfast for Conference every six months. Since we weren't at home to enjoy Aaron's breakfast we made our own and Jeff got to join us.
The next morning Jeff went to work and we cared for Sydney. It has been a minute since I have done total hands on patient care like frequent repositioning, tube feedings, medication administration via NG tube, etc. Sarah had just quit her CNA job the week before so it was nice we could work together to take care of Sydney.
On Monday for lunch, after we got Sydney situated, Sarah stayed with Sydney while I ran and grabbed some take out sushi and brought it back to enjoy.
Aaron did send us a picture of their Sunday Conference Breakfast with just the boys:
While we were gone in Texas, Noah got to help with the city annual Pumpkin Walk with the youth council. They decorate booths and dress up to hand out candy to all the people that come through. Noah's tent was mad scientist which is what he dressed up as. Aaron went with Josh to see Noah and sent me these pictures:
Sarah and I got Sydney situated before we left for the airport Tuesday afternoon. We were there from Friday to Tuesday. I had Sarah navigate the DFW airport by herself while I was a silent partner. She did great.
When we got home Sarah opened up her mail and checked out her missionary tags:
We did go attend another session with Sarah at the Syracuse temple. Afterward we grabbed some ice cream. They actually had black licorice flavor. I love it! No one else likes it which means I don't have to share--haha!
Matthew has been keeping busy. They had a fund raiser for Special Olympics which he got to help with. It was a truck pull.
Since Sarah's mission was coming up soon we asked her what 'last' things she would want to do. She did request to go on the 'Car Graveyard' trail up Farmington Canyon. We try to hit this trail every year in the fall to enjoy the pretty fall leaves. It didn't disappoint.
You can tell it is definitely getting colder!
The other morning Noah let us know he had a really flat tire after he had parked in the high school parking lot. Ugh! We waited until after school was out to go and change it only to find out the spare was flat, too. Boo! Thankfully, the original tire was still intact--it was just some moron who thought it was funny to let all the air out of the tire so it was not a nail or something else. It was still a pain to take care of, though.
Aaron was lucky enough to get a spot of pre-skin cancer removed from underneath his eye. Ouch! Luckily, it was benign, but if it comes back they will need to remove a bigger chunk. Keeping our fingers crossed they got it all.
Daniel didn't come down for his birthday weekend so we waited to celebrate his birthday when he was able to come down. He chose to have tri tip and mashed potatoes for dinner and a cheesecake for his birthday cake. He is now officially an adult which is crazy to me!!
Sarah was able to get set apart as a missionary the night before she started Home MTC. Here is the newest missionary:
It appears this has become a tradition to take this exact picture of the set apart missionary in this exact place:
Sarah requested we get her an exercise ball to sit on for her chair during Home MTC. Here she is trying out her exercise ball:
Home MTC went great.
A few weeks ago Noah got asked to Sadie Hawkin's.
He answered her back last week with a poster and some fun size candy bars and a few bags of Funions. He said it would be 'fun' to go to Sadie's with you. He and a friend dropped off the poster on her porch, rang the doorbell and ran away. It wasn't until the next afternoon they found out they got the wrong house--Whoops! Luckily, they had gotten her neighbor's house so they were able to deliver to poster to the intended recipient. Phew!
While Sarah was doing Home MTC Aaron worked from home a few afternoons so he could be with her on her breaks. Sarah does not like Tex Mex or Mexican food which is a travesty since she is going to California on her mission. Aaron is trying to remedy that with introducing her to the California burrito. It is a burrito with guacamole, French fries, sour cream, rice, beans, meat. Sarah said it was just okay, but still ate it. Hopefully, she will develop a liking to Mexican food on her mission.
Daniel was not going to be able to come with us to drop her off at the MTC in Provo on Wednesday so they hugged and said goodbye in person that Sunday, too.
Matthew wasn't coming to drop her off at the MTC either, so she gave him one last hug, too.
Here's the last full family picture until Sarah gets home from her mission--sniff, sniff.
One last family game night with us all before Sarah left:
I had off Monday and Tuesday. I did take Sarah out for Sushi for lunch:
We did do one more family dinner for sushi before she left, too:
Tuesday we spent the day packing and picking up all the last minute things she would need.
Josh took her out for dinner that evening:
The next morning it was time to drive down to Provo to drop her off. Here she is with all her luggage:
Saying goodbye to Sophie:
We took the Camry down to Provo. Unfortunately there was not enough room in the back for all her luggage. Aaron was the MVP and held her carryon suit case in his lap:
Sarah wanted her last lunch to be at JCW's and get a yummy burger:
We did stop by the Provo temple that is still being renovated to take a few pictures:
Then it was time to drop her off at the MTC in the dark and sad parking garage. Goodbyes are hard and sad:
There were so many people dropping off their missionaries--traffic was crazy. Interestingly enough the car right in front of us happened to be my brother in law's brother. They were dropping off their daughter at the MTC as well. I am excited for Sarah, but sad to see her go.
Last week was the annual Syracuse Pumpkin Walk. We go to this every year. This year it was just Aaron, Josh and me:
When we dropped off Sarah we did connect her pictures to our google photos since we have more storage. The nice thing is we get to see her pictures as she takes them. We were not able to speak with Sarah until her Pday so it was nice to see some pictures of her until we got to talk with her:
This is her companion who is from Farmington:
Monday couldn't get here soon enough. It was so nice to be able to speak with her!! She is doing well and enjoying the MTC. I was at work, Aaron was at work so it was nice to still be able to speak with her all at the same time.
Josh joined the call for a bit, too:
It was nice to see that she is enjoying herself and getting along with her district. She did request that we send her some caffeine. We ordered a 12 pack of Diet Coke for her to be delivered the same day--haha!
Later that evening Josh, Noah and I went and did our annual Haunted House. We went to Nightmare on 13th down in Salt Lake. I love doing this every year with them!! Aaron does not like it so he stayed home.
