Cone of Shame, Solo, Chip Challenge, Fall Colors, Surprises, Fall Break, Band Concert, Work Party

Another two weeks have flown by.  Daniel had a meet two weeks ago.  He was not participating in this meet, but he went to support the runners who were participating.  To pass the time him and a friend decided to try the ‘Paqui One Chip Challenge’.  There is an individually wrapped tortilla chip that is extra spicy.  The chip is made with Carolina Reaper peppers and scorpion peppers so it is REALLY HOT--it supposedly ranks roughly 2 million on the Scoville heat units. For reference a jalapeño pepper ranks around 2,000-8,000 on the Scoville scale.  You are supposed to eat the extra spicy chip and wait as long as possible until you eat or drink anything else to cut the heat.  Daniel didn’t last very long--haha!!  To prove you did eat the chip it turns your tongue blue.

He sent us a copy of the video.  He ended up drinking all of his Slurpee, most of his Sunny D drink and his mouth was still on fire--haha!

 I have been working all over the place these last few weeks.  Just this week alone I have logged roughly 800 miles which is crazy!  I did find myself down in Orem and Provo 3 different times.  Aaron loved that because that meant I could stop by the BYU bookstore and pick up a few things for him--haha!  I ended up driving past the old Enrich building where me and my friend, KiLee, used to work back when we were single and roommates.  Seeing that brought back a lot of memories!  Enrich used to be a natural supplement company.  I worked with keeping their master formulas updated and appropriate for distribution in the United States.  It is now out of business, though.  It was a fun job.

I also got to drive from a clinic in Provo over to a clinic out in Kamas which meant I drove through Provo canyon.  I got to see Bridal Veil Falls which was beautiful especially with the fall leaves:

I got to drive by Deer Creek which was REALLY LOW because we are still having a drought:

The Fall colors were very pretty to see through Provo canyon:

In between my Provo clinic and my Kamas clinic I stopped and had a quick lunch at Dairy Keen in Heber.  I got a salad instead of a Train Burger (aka heart attack burger) and chatted with Josh on his P-day via Messenger while I ate my lunch in Heber in a parking lot.  Then I headed off to do my clinic in Kamas.  I got home about 10 pm that evening.  It was a long day.

I also got to drive up to Green River, Wyoming, too, last week.  At least this year there wasn’t any snow, yet, which I was glad for!

I did get this text about Josh last week.  Wahoo!  I had to make sure they were really talking about Josh, though--haha!  When Josh lived with us he NEVER kept his room clean.  Maybe there are miracles in this world--haha!

It was time for Sarah to get her labs drawn again.  Things are looking about the same.  She will have a follow up in about 6 months.  I am so glad Sarah doesn’t mind getting shots or her blood drawn.

Columbus Day was two weeks ago.  Aaron had the day off from work since it was a holiday.  We ran errands together and then went out for lunch at Olive Garden to try the never ending pasta bowl.  It was a fun day.

The following Wednesday I worked at the Senior Expo clinic in Layton.  As we were starting the clinic I was surprised to see my Mom.  She was at the expo and happened to see me working.  How crazy!  It was fun to see her and chat for a few minutes.  Later that day Aaron came to get his Covid Booster shot from me.

The next two days was Fall Break.  We tried taking the kids to SeaQuest, but the line to get inside was HUGE. We decided to try going there another day because we all HATE super crowded places.  We did wander around the mall for a bit and then went to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch.  The next morning we tried SeaQuest again and the line was even longer than it had been the day before.  We instead went hiking up Farmington Canyon on the Automobile Graveyard trail to see the fall leaves instead.  They were beautiful!  Here’s Sarah, Noah and Daniel on their way:    

The kids were faster hikers than Aaron and me so we stayed together and they stayed together until Daniel decided to start jogging up the trail.

Daniel needed to do a running workout so later on in the trail he took off jogging and made it all the way to the second waterfall:

On his way back from the waterfall he ran into Sarah and me and we got to check out three of the very old wrecked and rusted out cars.

Noah stayed with Aaron at the first waterfall so they weren’t with us when we saw the old wrecked cars.  Daniel decided to run back down the trail which left Sarah and me hiking back down together.  

Again the fall leaves were pretty!

When we got back to the first waterfall everyone had started hiking back to the car so we didn’t run in to them until we all got back to the car.

We love to do this trail in the fall.  We try to hike it every year.

Later that afternoon we all headed over to Lagoon to enjoy some Frightmares.  Sarah had gone earlier with some friends and said she would meet us there when we got there.  We picked up Matthew took him to get his flu shot and covid booster and he came with us.  Here’s the rest of us as we were walking in.

We did some haunted houses.

For as brave as my family thinks they are, I was made to go through all the haunted houses first while everyone followed behind me--haha!

Sarah ended up hanging out with her friends for a lot of the time we were there.  She loved going on Cannibal with them.

We did meet up later that evening with Sarah.  It was a fun night.

Our garden is definitely winding down.  I was able to do two more batches of tomatoes.  I have one more batch that needs to be taken care of and then I think we are done with the garden for this year--especially since we had a hard freeze the past two nights.

Not all the kids have been available when I have been close by to get their flu shots.  I finally had to take Sarah to a clinic I wasn’t scheduled at to get her shot done.  Luckily, it was a CNS clinic and they let me give the shot to her even if I wasn’t working that actual clinic.  I had just gotten off a previous clinic not more than an hour before this, though, that’s why I was still in scrubs.  Sarah didn’t even flinch.

Sarah had a pumpkin painting young women activity last week.  She painted a Perry the Platypus pumpkin from Phineas and Ferb. 

Sarah and Noah had their first band concert this year.  Noah is loving being in percussion and Sarah still plays the flute.  Here’s Noah playing the xylophone or Glockenspiel in the beginning band:

Noah again:

Sarah got to play with the advanced band and in the jazz band.

We were pretty shocked to see that Sarah was playing a solo during one of the jazz band songs.  She didn’t say a word about it so we got to find out about it when we saw it in the program--the stinker!!

She nailed it!

Here’s her solo:

Here’s my two cute band kids:

This past Friday Aaron’s work opened up part of his classified building to a friends and family day.  This is the first time they have done that in the 11+ years he has worked there.  It was fun to go with Sarah, Noah, Daniel and Aaron to check out Aaron’s work.  They let us tour three different rooms that held three different projects Aaron has personally worked on.  One was an Anechoic chamber for Radar testing that Aaron designed and had built. Another room contained an actual F-16 that Aaron had converted into a test stand. It had equipment that plugged into it that would make the aircraft act and react like it was flying even though it was on the ground. A third room contained two giant domes that had F-16 cockpits in them that acted as F-16 flight simulators. Each cockpit and dome had 30 projectors to help simulate the sky and ground around you. Aaron was a supervisor in that group for around 6 months. He was so excited to show them off to us.  It was cool to see the things the things in person he has worked on through the years. It was too bad that they still wouldn’t let us take any pictures in the building.

Daniel got to take the ACT test this past Saturday morning.  He was a bit nervous, but I am sure he did fine.  Saturday evening we got to take Matthew to a class Halloween party.  A girl in his special education class invited the whole class to her house for a Halloween Party.  Matthew was SO EXCITED!  We dropped him off at 6 and picked him back up at 9.  He had a really fun time.

Saturday evening Sarah got to help out with a fundraising carnival for the school.  She got to help out manning a game station.  She was glad to help and get some volunteer hours in.  When she got done she got to come home and plan her class lesson for young women the next day.

They are really coming along with the Syracuse temple!  We drive by it every time we pick up or take Matthew home.  It is fun to see the progress since it is so close to our house--5 minutes away.

This morning Sophie had a grooming appointment.  I dropped her off at 8 am.  I picked her up at 10 am and brought her home to find her paw was bloody and she was missing a toenail.  I took her back to the groomer and they looked at her paw.  They then checked her holding kennel they kept her in while they were waiting for me to pick her up.  They then found the missing toenail on the floor of the kennel.  It had somehow snapped off while she was in the kennel and was bleeding.  They advised me to take her to the vet to get checked out.  The only vet that had an open appointments today was the ER Vet.   I work all the rest of the week so today was the only day I would have time to take care of this.  I even work later today so I was on a bit of a time crunch.  I took her in to the ER and waited forever to be seen.  When they saw her they just wrapped up her paw and told me to keep it clean and that it would be sore for a few days.  I am glad it wasn’t more serious, but had I known that I wouldn’t have bothered to take her in.  Anyway, they did clean and wrap up her paw.  She absolutely HATES it, and it appears to be sore but she got lots of treats when she got home so she is doing fine.

She does try to be extra dramatic sometimes because that seems to get her more treats--haha!

How can you say no to that face and cute bandage?!

It was a bit of a crazy morning/afternoon.  Well Sophie wouldn’t leave her dressing alone.  She pulled it off and wouldn’t stop licking her wound.  That meant we had to pick up a cone of shame, some Coban, and some antibacterial spray to keep it from getting infected.  She is pretty pitiful right now, but hopefully it won’t get infected.