Sept 30: We went to Lagoon as a family--coincidentally it was the same day that Mick and Jen took their family, too. We hadn't ever taken the boys to Frightmares before, and since we were heading to General Conference on Sunday in Salt Lake the next day, and this was Ammon's last fall at home, we thought it was time! The weather was drizzly all day, but we had a good time. The worst part was waiting in the long lines that night for the Haunted Houses. We tag-teamed with Jen to wait in line, so that the kids could still go on rides rather than just waste time standing in line. I loved all the Halloween decorations, and being together as a family!
October 1: We stayed the previous night at my mom's house in Tremonton, and then drove to Salt Lake on Sunday morning to go to General Conference. It was the first time we'd gone to it in the Conference Center. We got to watch the Music and Spoken Word prior to the morning session, which really set the mood. It was amazing! I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go. Robert Hales passed away that day, in between the morning and afternoon sessions. Unbeknownst to us at the time, it was the last general conference with Thomas S. Monson as the prophet, although he was unable to attend and watched from his home. Our seats were in the balcony, but we still had a great view! I could really feel the spirit prevalent in the building, and it was so uplifting! After the morning conference, we drove back to Tremonton and watched the afternoon session with my parents.
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| Some monks we passed by when we were leaving. |
From Facebook: On our way home from Utah today, we happened to stop at a gas station in Pocatello JUST to get a Redbox for the boys on the drive. I decided to go in and use the bathroom, too. On my way out of the stall, a young lady walked into the bathroom. She stopped and stared at me as I washed my hands and said "you look familiar". I replied, "I do?" She said, "You look like a teacher I used to have". I stopped what I was doing, and said "a music teacher?", and she replied "yes". "In Salmon?" I asked her, and she said "Yes". I turned and really looked at her, and instantly knew who she was. I asked if her name was ___, and she said "yes". I gave her a hug and told her it was so good to see her. She's in 6th grade now--I hadn't had her as a student since she was in 2nd grade. And then the rest of the drive home, I couldn't stop thinking about all the chance circumstances that led me to seeing her. If I'd even been in that stall for 10 more seconds, I wouldn't have even run into her! I don't think it was coincidental at all--I think it was a tender mercy--a small miracle. And then I couldn't stop thinking about miracles that happen every day in our lives, just as Donald Hallstrom spoke about in General Conference this very morning!
West J's 2-week spud harvest continued the first full week of October, and I was able to get a lot of canning, cleaning, and cooking done. It was such a nice break for me!
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| The beloved French Onion Soup that I only make once a year! |
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| The highly-requested pumpkin fudge, that I also usually only make once a year! |
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| Dehydrating the 70 apples from the small tree--it took me 3 days to get it all done. |
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| I wanted to start a series of photo of evidence that lifes moves on in Salmon with my family even when I'm not there. Every weekend when I come home, I can always see visible changes, that I might not usually see on a daily basis when I live there full-time. The first photos I took were of the dehydrated apples. It took me days to dehydrate the apples, and it only made about 1 gallon of them. Two weeks later, they were all gone! The boys loved snacking on them! |
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| The raspberries were still producing into October! |
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| My dad found this gift from my grandparents to me for my 2nd birthday. The dollar bill was brand new and crisp from 1977!! p.s. I spent it after I took this photo! |
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| The first snowfall of the year happened that week while I was getting my hair done! |
XC Senior Night and Home Meet in Salmon also were that first week of October during my last week of spud harvest, which worked out so nice for me! The seniors on this year's XC team were Ammon, John Koenig, Katie Jo Gebhardt, Kaitlyn Burgess, Hannah Simmons, and Victoria Wilcox. Us parents all got them each XC hoodies with their names embossed on them.
The Salmon XC Invitational was on Friday, October 6. The weather was beautiful! In the junior high boys' 2 mile race, Micah got a time of 12:11, and finished in 5th place. Jonah's time was 12:57 to earn him 12th place, just short of the Top 10 medaling. Ammon ran a hard 3.1 mile race, but he was disappointed with his finish: he got 12th place with a time of 19:54, and was unable to earn a medal in his last home meet. Kanyon and Abby helped me pick up the flags and markings after the race ended in order to assist Josh in opening back up the course for golfers. We took the boys to Savage Grill afterwards for ice cream--they'd worked hard, and we were so proud of them!!
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| I liked how Kanyon and his friends Abby and Scottlyn all showed up in Salmon's colors orange, black, and white! |
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| The Jr. High boys before their race. |
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| We fit a lot of people on the carts as we drove around to watch each of the races! |
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| The High School boys team before their race--all sporting the arm bands for breast cancer awareness month. |
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| As Ammon came off the hill, Josh was showing him that he was currently in 9th place. |
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| Ammon nearing the finish line--we were both crying at this point. He'd given it his all, and nearly passed out once he crossed, but it wasn't enough--he got 12th place at his final home meet: just short of a medal. I was so sad for him, & he was beside himself. |
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| Top Ten Junior High boys |
On my last home weekend I was home for Spud Harvest break, we got more work done in the yard and around the house, the twins got ordained teachers, and we took family pictures. Josh picked out a place he passed every day on his bus route with pretty tree colors, and I gathered some outfits together for everyone last minute. I was so excited to try out my new camera, but the wind was blowing, and I couldn't get the camera to focus with the lighting like I wanted to while it took timed pictures, and I was kind of disappointed in the results. We at least got ONE good picture out of it, which is good, but it's always a stressful 15 minutes, since the boys hate taking pictures and their patience is short! I was sad to see my relaxing break come to an end.
Josh helped the twins go hunting for their deer tags. They stayed pretty close to home, in the fields above and below our house. Jonah was the first succesful one to get a deer on October 10.
On October 12, just the junior high XC teams went to Firth, giving the high school teams a break before Districts. It was the last race for the Junior High runners for the season. I was unable to go to this meet, but Josh went as the bus driver, and took photos and let me know how they did, which was so nice. In the 1.5 mile race, Micah ran in a time of 9:35 and got 6th place, earning a medal. Jonah ran it in 10 minutes flat, which was so cool!
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| In this picture, Micah is ahead of a boy from Shelley, and teammates Kohlbin, Keller, and Colton. Colton and Keller ended up passing him before the finish line, but he maintained a lead over the other 2 to keep 6th place. |
Josh traded the Jeep he bought with another guy in Salmon for a little Chevy car to help with the long commutes between Salmon and Mud Lake...and good thing too, because it became a necessary car in just a few weeks time (although he didn't know at the time...).
Micah got his deer on October 14!!
And both of the boys' deer became ground up meat that same day... They helped Josh skin the deer, cut the meet into strips, and I worked on grinding and bagging the meat. We got 41 pounds of burger and 4 roasts out of them!
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| One of our last rides of the season--riding this bike with this man NEVER gets old, and I crave it all winter long until we can go again! |
The High School District race was hosted by Ririe on October 18. It was at the 7N ranch, near Heise Hot Springs. It was the first time our team had run there, since they opted not to go to Ririe's meet earlier in the season. It was another beautiful day, and was quite momentous, too! I cried watching the girls race as they passed the finish line, seeing how hard they had all worked and giving it their all, and knowing it was a bittersweet moment for the senior girls. Then when the boys raced, I was so nervous for Ammon. He wanted so badly to be in the top ten, and to beat fellow freshman teammate Treygan. He achieved his dreams--crossing the finish line in 8th place, beating Treygan by just two seconds, and then I cried again because I was so proud of him! Both the Salmon Boys and Girls teams won first place at Districts! It was so exciting!
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| Josh jogging the course with the team pre-race to get familiar with it. |
I was driving the new-to-us compact car on this trip, and it had a low tire when I left West J. I showed Josh when he was at the race, and he suggested I go get it filled up at a gas station. I had never done it before, and was unsure of how to know when to stop putting air in? I basically drove it with a flat tire all the way back to Rexburg. Along my drive, people kept passing me and pointing my tire out to me, but I was already aware of the situation. In addition, it kept smelling like oil and I was so nervous I was going to blow an engine. I hate car problems. I was quite frazzled and anxious when I pulled up to the gas station in Rexburg. Thankfully, cousin Mikey was there and he saved the day--he filled it up with air, had a tire pressure gauge, and told me that I'd been driving on zero air pressure. I'm very lucky that it didn't ruin the tire! Also, he checked the engine and said there was just an oil leak, and that it would be wise to frequently check the oil and add more, but other than that, it didn't look too bad. It was a small miracle that he was there at that time-- he said it wasn't his normal gas station, and he rarely stops there. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father was mindful of my small situation and sent him to help me!
The next weekend, we spent working--I had Salmon Idol practice, Stake Youth Choir practice, and the boys were working in the yard. We cleaned up the leaves in Grandma's yard for the last time. It's always a huge job; even with everyone involved, it takes over 2 hours to do.
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| When I drove to Salmon for the Salmon Idol Dress Rehearsal, there was this small rainbow of light right above the mountains at Gilmore. I stopped to take pictures, but the cell phone camera doesn't show it very well. The Bingham's were driving by at just that time, and asked if I needed help! I like that people are always looking out for me, especially since I've been alone a lot this year! |
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| The performers singing the opening number--I opted not to, since I could only make one mid-week practice where they learned the song and the choreography. |
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| Flash Mob--the whole Show Choir joined them in the song at the end. |
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| That's my "stinger" on the back of me. |
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| At the end, she came out as a "royal", and I unzipped my jacket to reveal a bumble bee striped shirt underneath (but I sort of had a zipper malfunction, so it didn't go down very far in the performance and not everyone saw it). |
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| Mr. Pace announcing the winner...you can see I was shocked! |
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| I love Peyton's reaction! |
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| The closing song was performed by the Legacy Choir from the show "Dear Evan Hansen", and was very moving! |
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| The next morning when I drove back, the sunrise was just coming over the distant Tetons. It was gorgeous! |
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| Peyton's mom gave me the flowers and mug, and I used them as a centerpiece at my first Parent Teacher Conference. |
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| Kanyon made the leader board for the 5th grade mile times at school! |
October 27 from Facebook: It's been a tough week. But i knew my reward at the end of it was a fun trip to Boise to see the Meridian temple, eat dinner with my friend, stay in a hotel with my husband, and see my son run his last H.S. XC race, so I somehow survived all the challenges I had to face this week. However, today began with me accidentally locking myself out of my house when I loaded up the car--I left my house keys, car keys, work keys, and cell phone inside. And I had a meltdown realizing that I don't know any of my neighbors and didn't know where to go for help. Then as I was driving myself to Boise, my car broke down in Mountain Home and I have been stranded the last 2+ hours. So, no more temple tour, or dinner with my friend, or relaxing evening that I've so desperately needed. Instead, for the first time in my life, I've had 2 full-blown anxiety attacks in one day. I'm posting this because I realize that life isn't always about the good times; I can make it through the hard times, too (our family's theme this year). I will be okay because I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and I'm surrounded in my life with good, caring people.
October 27 was a stressful day for me--I called several people when I was stranded, and Julie Severe, my friend from West J, said her daughter was driving to Boise from Provo to see her sister run the next day, and she picked me up. I had to wait in the parking lot about 2 hours before she arrived--after calling several people, talking to people at a dealership, and discussing the situation with Josh. It was a hard week, a hard day, and I was spent emotionally and physically. Thankfully, the other boys were in Salmon (I had taken them there the previous day), so I was the only one stranded. She dropped me off at the hotel where the XC team was, and my key wouldn't let me in my room, so I sat in the hall outside the room door waiting for Josh to return with the XC team (they'd gone out to dinner). I cried most of the night, but just being with him I was able to start feeling better.
I rode the bus with Josh and the team to the XC races at Eagle Island Park the next morning. I watched the races there all day, and drove home on the bus with them, too. It was another beautiful day, and it was definitely memorable. The girls team won 2nd overall, again. And the boys race was a nailbiter--they ended up losing by ONE point, earning 2nd place. That ONE point is haunting! They were disappointed, especially Ammon and McClay. Ammon was the only senior running, so he was especially disappointed, as the others will have the chance again. Ammon was the 5th runner in from our team, with his time of 18:12, and he lost by a second and a half to the 5th runner from the Soda Springs team. It may always haunt him, but he gave it his all, and Josh and I were so proud of him. He had a great XC career, ending as the team leader his senior year as the team captain. The boys team did earn State Academic Champions, however, which was an awesome surprise!
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| I cried the moment I took this picture of these graduating seniors with their coach of 6 years. |
October 28 from Facebook: Riding home from state XC with this winner! I'm so proud of this son of mine! I gotta admit I did shed a few ugly tears after the race knowing it was the last time I'd see him and his senior classmates run. Today was an excellent finish to their high school running career: both the salmon boys and girls teams placed 2nd in state, and the boys were also academic champions!
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| More evidence of life's ever-changing nature. |
Our Family Home Activity on Sunday night the 29th (we switched FHE to Sunday nights, since I'm not there on Mondays) was carving pumpkins. We grew these in our garden, and had to buy two more from the grocery store in order to have enough for our family. It's been many years since we purchased pumpkins from a store! However--it was so nice to have the pumpkin patch this year! There's no way we could've done it living in 2 households, with all the boys' athletic activities, too!
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| They turned out good! |
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| Kanyon was a "dementor" from Harry Potter. |
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| I was SpongeBob. |
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