Special Olympics, Temple, New Job, Fall Leaves, Dinner Guests, Pumpkin Walk, Concert

We are staying busy at our house.  Here’s some of the things we have been up to the last 12 days.  Aaron and I had a chance to do a quick temple trip.  It was a nice, calm break amongst the chaos.

Grandma T and I were able to do an Endowment session together ,yesterday, too. It is nice to be able to attend the temple when time permits.

Grandma T came over for Sunday dinner two weeks ago.  Noah wanted to show her his new airsoft gun (it’s like a BB gun).  We even talked her in to trying it out.  Noah had made a makeshift target area with a bunch of different things so he practice.  Grandma T tried it out, too.

Matthew had his area Bocce ball tournament last weekend.  He got a new partner named Daniel. He and Daniel did great with their two rounds of games.  They earned a silver medal and will continue on to the State competition later on.  Matthew was super excited about it!  He made sure he wore his sport glasses and his camelback hydration backpack to make sure he didn’t get dehydrated.  He is a funny guy.

Here’s the Chrysalis Knights (Matthew’s team) marching on the track:

They even asked Matthew to give the Special Olympics Athlete’s Pledge before the games started.  We had to reinforce to him that if he was going to use a microphone that he COULD NOT YELL into it. Even then he only half way listened. Oh well. Everyone was definitely aware that the games were starting after Matthew got done with the Athlete’s Pledge--haha! Hopefully his excitement was contagious.

Here’s Matthew and Daniel:

I still don’t fully understand how Bocce ball is played, but it looks fun.  We were able to meet and chat with Daniel’s parents.  They were nice.  

Here’s one of Matthew’s turns:

Matthew made sure to bring his silver medal to our house on Sunday to show everyone.  He is pretty proud of it.  He even brought it to work on Monday. Hopefully it wasn’t too much of a distraction at work.

Sarah is continuing on the Little Caesar’s Mancil family legacy.  She quit her job at Surf and Swim in Layton and is now working at Little Caesar’s.  It was better pay and closer to home which were two important things to consider.  When Daniel was still here before he started his mission he walked in with Sarah to drop off her application and to introduce her to his boss, Hailey.  Since Hailey was Josh and Daniel’s boss she was fine with hiring Sarah as well.  We are just glad to have our pizza connection back in service--haha!  Here’s her first day:

Sarah is also teaching a dance class as well this year at her dance studio.  She is a busy lady.

I have been working quite a bit lately. In the fall we usually try to drive around to look at the beautiful fall colors, but it has been hard to find time this year. We decided that as soon as I got off of work this past Saturday Aaron, Josh and I would go for a drive to look at the leaves up around Trapper’s Loop while we listened to the afternoon session of General Conference. The leaves were beautiful, but I think we missed the peak time by a week. A lot of the leaves had already fallen, but they were still pretty.  Here’s a few pictures of what we saw:

We had to get home in enough time Saturday evening for Josh to go out on his date. A girl from his YSA ward had asked him out on a date for Saturday night. They were going to go to a Weber State Hockey game and then to dinner. When they got to the hockey game, Josh unknowingly happened to sit right behind some coworkers of his.  They subtly took a picture of Josh and his date and sent it to him.  Here’s that picture:

Josh had a fun time on his date.  Josh also got a chance to start volunteering at the hospital. He will need volunteer hours to help him get into his desired program at school. There was a process to get on the volunteer waiting list.  He went through the volunteer application and finally got on the waiting list. They said it would take a few months to find a volunteer position for him. He was excited to finally get that chance to volunteer this week.  He had his orientation meeting and will start volunteering in the ER.  I am sure it will be eye opening and interesting for him.  

It was Conference Weekend.  Noah watched a few sessions of Saturday Conference with some friends at their house. He did take this picture:

Aaron continued with tradition and made a HUGE Sunday morning breakfast that we ate before Conference started. We did miss Daniel who is now in Omaha. We had eggs, bacon, hash browns, biscuits and gravy with some chocolate milk or orange juice to drink.

Daniel got to watch one session of Conference at a member’s house.  They got to watch the rest of it at the church.  Here’s a few pictures:

We got to talk to Daniel last Monday.  He is still getting used to missionary life in Omaha.  He and his companion are sharing an apartment with the Zone Leaders.  There’s not enough room so Daniel and his companion get to sleep on mattresses on the floor in the living room.  It has taken some time to get used to things, but he is doing okay.

We got to have some guests dine with us for Sunday dinner.  Rico and Grandma T came for dinner.  Rico is someone who Josh got to teach and baptize in Chicago.  He was out here in Utah for Conference.  It was fun to see him again. We had met him last year when we went back to visit Chicago. We were happy to have him and Grandma over for dinner.

Rico wanted to meet Matthew since Matthew wasn’t able to go to Chicago with us last year.  Rico was kind enough to bring Matthew some paper maps of Chicago as well as two T-shirts that showed the map system of the subway in Chicago.  Matthew was pretty excited about that.

Every year our city puts on a Pumpkin Walk.  They decorate the sides of the sidewalk in the park with carved pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns.  The event is staffed by members of the city youth council.  Along the pumpkin walk they have different booths that hand out candy.  This is where the city youth council helps out the most. Each booth had a different theme. Sarah’s booth was Hawaii so she dressed in a Hawaiian shirt with a flower lei.  

Here’s her booth:

Noah’s booth was from the movie Inside Out.  Noah got to dress up as Anger.  Here’s their booth:

Here’s Noah and a few of his fellow youth city council members.  Noah is on the far left side with the painted red face.  He seems to blend into the background:

Here they are handing out candy:

Noah had his first band concert of the year. He was in the back playing percussion. They played along with another junior high band and the high school band as well.

Here’s Noah’s Advanced 9th grade Band:

At the end all the bands combined to play one piece together.  There were a ton of kids on stage, but it sounded pretty cool:

Aaron was out of town so I was glad Grandma T could come to the concert with me as was Noah:

Aaron has been out of town for the majority of the last three weeks. It has been hard, but we are getting by. This last time he was at the airport waiting to fly out he ran into a big group of missionaries on their way out to Chicago to start their missions.  It was pretty cool because that is where Josh served. Aaron told them that their Mission President and companion were awesome.  That was pretty cool. He also ran into another group of missionaries who were flying out to the Winnipeg, Canada mission which is where Aaron served. He was pretty excited about that. He also ran into a couple who were flying out to serve in the Regina, Canada temple.  They happened to be leaving from my Mom’s ward and knew her. They had also helped out during my Dad’s funeral. It was crazy to have Aaron run into so many cool connections that morning.  I will be glad when his traveling will lessen, though.  

I usually try and give all the kids and Aaron their flu shots.  However, this year trying to find a time when our schedules match up has been challenging.  I was glad that Josh and Noah were able to come to one of my local community clinics to get their shots.  Aaron came to the walk in office location a few weeks ago and got his.  All that is left is Sarah so hopefully I can get her her flu shot soon. Noah was not excited to see me at the clinic, though, as you can tell--haha!  

I tried to get Daniel to get his shot before he left on his mission, but he absolutely refused.  I am getting a lesson in 'Adult children can make their own choices'.  After being their mom for so long I am trying to learn how to let them chose for themselves and not say anything. We can sometimes disagree about things, but since they are adults now they should be making their own decisions whether I agree with them or not.  I am a work in progress, though.

The other day I was able to attend the Human Rights Committee meeting with Aaron as a parent volunteer.  In this meeting they look at care plans of special needs individuals and make sure they are appropriate and the least restrictive option to keep the client safe and healthy.  They also go through different write up situations to see how they can improve their service and make sure the employees are following a care plan and being safe with the clients.  It was a very interesting meeting.  You never really do know what some hardships people are going through or dealing with.  I was glad to be able to attend this time around.  Aaron has been attending these for the last four months so I was glad I was finally able to attend this time.

Noah and his friends all have airsoft guns.  They like to get together and do target practice a lot.  Noah’s aim is getting better.  My aim on the other hand seems to be getting worse--haha!

I am still getting tomatoes from the garden and from my Mom’s garden.  I was able to do a batch of tomato soup the other day.  I think I will be able to do one more batch before it freezes and the tomatoes die.  Homemade seems to taste better than store bought for most anything and it is cheaper, too.