Special Olympics, Corn Maze, Conference, Working, Vaccines, Fall Leaves, Dance Asks and Answers, Concert, No Braces, Eclipse

We have been keeping busy these last 3 weeks.  Here’s what we have been up to.  We were able to get a hold of 5 tickets for in person Conference a few weeks ago.  The kids (Josh, Sarah, Noah, Daniel and his girlfriend Katie) have always wanted to go so we were excited they got the chance.  They got there early to make sure they got a good seat.  Here they are waiting outside before the Conference building opened:

Here’s their seats:

After Conference was over they came home and replayed the Sunday morning session and they pointed out where the camera picked them up on the TV: 

Since they had to get up extra early to make it down to for the Sunday morning session, they were tired.  Josh did fall asleep during part of the afternoon session--haha!

You can’t watch Conference without snacks....I was eating some sugar snap peas and Sophie was watching my every bite....

The previous day, Saturday, Josh was able to meet up with some friends from his mission and watch Conference with them.  He had a great time catching up with all of them.

It was Daniel’s birthday a few weeks ago.  His friends decorated his car:

We did have a nice dinner for him and Aaron picked up 18 donuts that morning to celebrate.  We had his nice birthday dinner Sunday after Conference.  He got to eat knock off homemade crunch wraps--his choice.  It was fun.  I took him out shopping for clothes later that week because that is all he wanted for his birthday.

I am so frustrated.  Our dishwasher is not working again.  UGH!!  I am about to throw it out the window.  The warranty company keeps trying to fix it, but I don’t know if it can be fixed.  The repairman came back out to the house (this is going on 16 weeks of a nonworking dishwasher) to look at it.  He had to order parts which won’t be in until next week.  I guess we will just cross our fingers that it will be fixed for good by next week....Ugh.  I am so done with this stupid dishwasher!!

Anyway, I have been working a lot these past two months.  I finally worked at a clinic by our house two days in a row.  Between both those days I got to give Aaron, Sarah, Noah and Josh their flu shots.  I didn’t get any pictures of Josh getting his shot, though.  Daniel told me he was an adult and did NOT want to get a flu shot.  He did have to repeat some previous childhood vaccines that he didn’t get an original immunity from so I was able to give him those.  He was not too happy about it, but it needed to be done.

I have been a bit overwhelmed this fall so I didn’t get much canning done which I feel a bit guilty about.  I guess I can try again next year.  I just feel a bit guilty not doing something with our garden tomatoes...Anyway, my brother got a BUNCH of peaches from his tree this year that he couldn’t use.   I did a bunch of peaches from him so we were able to build up our supply of peach jam and diced peaches.  The kids were excited about that:

I had a clinic in Logan a few weeks ago while the Fall leaves through Sardine Canyon were at their peak colors.  The drive up was beautiful!!

Two weeks ago we went to Black Island Farms for a Saturday afternoon.  Sarah and Daniel had to work so it just ended up being Aaron, Noah, Josh and me.  We had fun.  We did go down the huge slide on a potato sack.  It was great.  Here was Noah:

Josh--who barely fit--haha!:

Aaron:

I went down, too, but there was no picture of me.

We then decided to try out the corn maze.  There were three phases.  We had read about an theory that if you turn right every single turn you will make it through the maze quickly.  It actually worked!  Every single intersection we could chose a direction, we chose right.  It didn’t take us too long to get through all three phases.  That was pretty cool.

Here’s what this years maze looked like:

I then dared Josh to ride the kiddie train.  He was up for a challenge.  It wasn’t as hard to get inside the car as it was to actually get out of the car--haha!  It was great.  Noah and Josh rode it together:

We then watched a magic show.  After the magic show we went out to the pumpkin patch and got everyone a pumpkin:

Riding the tractor back to the farm after the pumpkin patch:

They also had a bubble station we had fun playing with:

Daniel got asked to the Sadie Hawkins dance last week.  The invite said, “Captain (meaning Captain Underpants which is a child book character) I’ll make this brief, Sadie’s? I’ve gyatt (got) to go with you."

She put a picture of Captain Underpants on the wall and then dressed up like Captain Underpants.  It was great.

Daniel answered her back, but didn’t take any pictures....Oh well.

Columbus Day was awesome.  It is a holiday Aaron and I look forward to every year since all the kids have to go to school, but Aaron gets the day off.  It’s great.  We spent the day together. We drove down to BYU to look at the bookstore.  We then drove up Provo Canyon turned by Sundance and drove the Alpine Loop.  The leaves and views were awesome!

Bridal Veil Falls:

There was snow on the backside of Mount Timpanogas!

We stopped to stretch our legs in the middle of the drive for a few minutes and walked around the Ridge Trail.

We do live in a beautiful area!!

A few weeks ago Sarah got up enough courage to ask a boy to the Sadie Hawkin’s dance.  Here’s how she asked him:

He answered her back last week and it was really cute:

It said, “Thanks for popping the question.  Going to Sadies would Rock with you"

She is excited to go to the dance next month.

Noah had a concert a little over a week ago.  He got to play different percussion instruments with different songs.  He did great.

At the end all four bands played a song together.  It was great.

Noah, G&G T were going to go to a coin show in Salt Lake.  However, Grandpa woke up not feeling well, so they decided to stay home instead.  They picked up some coin rolls and filled some of Noah’s coin books.  Noah had a great time hanging out with them.  He came home and was so impressed by Grandpa’s collection.  He wants to have a big collection, too.

Matthew had his long awaited meeting with Vocational Rehab appointment.  We had one scheduled three weeks earlier, but on our way to the actual appointment, we got a call saying Matthew’s Voc. Rehab councilor had a family emergency and had to cancel our appointment.  We had to reschedule three weeks later.  Matthew was really upset about that change in plans, but what can you do.  He was excited to make it to this appointment without an issue.  Our next step is to wait for his Job exploration person to reach out to him.

After a long arduous journey Sarah FINALLY got her braces off for the last time!!  Yay!!  She was excited to see her name on the ’Say Goodbye to your braces’ board at the orthodontist’s office:

Here’s the before:

During the removal--I was walking by her in the chair and took a picture:

My beautiful girl!!

Daniel had his very last Cross Country meet.  I was sad because I had to work and couldn’t go.  Luckily, Aaron face timed me while Daniel ran his last lap so I could see it.  It was great!  

Daniel usually led the chants before the races, but this time he gathered all the other seniors so they could lead the chant all together:

Daniel’s girlfriend came to cheer him on, too:

Last post race picture....sad!

Noah got to go on a campout last weekend.  He said he had a good time.  His leader shared some pictures:

They did some target practice:

They also got to see the Annular Eclipse:

I had picked up safe eclipse viewing glasses for all my family, but we were not all together for the eclipse.  Noah was camping, Daniel was working, Josh was working, I was at work, so that left Sarah and Aaron at home to view the eclipse. However, it was so cloudy we didn’t get to see most of it.  I did get a few minutes while at work to run outside and try to see something.  I got to see a few seconds of the eclipse before it was covered back over with clouds, but for the most part it just looked like this:

Here’s Sarah and Aaron trying to look at it:

I told Aaron he should wear these glasses all the time--haha!

Later that day Matthew had his state Special Olympics Bocce Ball tournament down in Salt Lake.  Aaron picked me up from work and we rode down together to watch Matthew compete.  Matthew did a great job.  I still don’t fully understand how Bocce ball is played, but Matthew did great.  He even got a silver medal.  Here’s Matthew competing:

While at the meet they had some special clinics set up for all the Special Olympic athletes.  Matthew got an eye exam, a dental exam, and a few others.  I think that was pretty great.  Here’s Matthew doing his eye exam:

Daniel and his girlfriend Katie picked up some pumpkins.  They then tried to paint one anothers pictures on the pumpkin from a photo off their camera.  Here’s how they turned out:

Sarah and Daniel got to help out with the City pumpkin walk Monday with the youth council.  Sarah’s tent was a Mario theme and Daniel’s tent was a Ghost Buster theme:

Noah dressed up as a penguin to walk around the pumpkin walk and get candy and to see Sarah and Daniel.

Aaron had to give Sarah a hug:

Sarah’s tent:

Daniel’s tent:

Noah the penguin.  It was a fun night.  I am grateful for the adult youth leaders that help run the youth council program every year.  They are so wonderful!  Noah is looking forward to applying next year.

This past Wednesday I got to go up to Green River, Wyoming for a clinic.  It was a beautiful drive.  When we got to the facility there were three deer just nonchalantly laying around.  It was cool to get so close to them.

That was a long day, but the clinic was great!

Matthew got his Covid shot this week.  He has been calling me and giving me a play by play of his side effects.  He called me so many times back to back, but I was at work and couldn’t talk then.  I told him to text me what he needed.  This text was the greatest:

This weekend was Fall Break for all the kids and one day for Josh.  I tried to do some activities together, but everyone ended up working--even me.  We did have a few minutes we were all together Thursday morning.  We decided to compare and contrast refrigerator cookie dough.  We tried a Nestle, Pillsbury, Kroger, and a Private Selection brand.  The winner ended up being Nestle.

Here’s the results:

We had another soda challenge we wanted to do, but everyone had to go to work.  We will try and do the soda challenge tomorrow.  

I worked all day Friday and hadn’t slept well the night before.  I was embarrassed that as soon as I sat down to watch a 20/20 show with Aaron I fell asleep.  I guess Aaron did, too.  Here’s our exciting Friday night--haha!