The twins built a snowman in the backyard after the freak snowstorm that hit at the end of September. When Josh and I got back from our short trip to Utah (where we went hot air ballooning by Moab) on October 1, it had already all melted, and there was no snow left except what was left of their snowman in the backyard!!
So...I had a little argument with Josh the morning after we went Hot Air Ballooning. We'd made it to Mud Lake the night before, and after we woke up, I got mad with Josh for something he did. I was so mad, that when I walked out the front door, I didn't realize there was a thin layer of ice on the wooden steps, and I totally slipped and fell--doing the splits in the process and twisted my left knee. I couldn't move for a few minutes, but Josh was in the shower, and couldn't hear me calling him. When we got home to Salmon, I couldn't even walk. Josh helped me inside and put the ice pack on it that I got from my knee surgery a few years ago and I took several ibuprofen. I iced it on and off for the next few days, and ended up going to the doctor the next week. I was diagnosed with a sprained MCL (I was just grateful it wasn't a torn MCL!). He gave me a brace that I wore during the day for another month. This was my payback for irrationally getting mad at Josh!!!
When we got home to Salmon, we also discovered that the freak snow storm that had come the previous weekend had done some damage to trees around our place. The wet snow had put too much weight on the trees that still had leaves on them. One tree in the yard had 3 broken branches, one tree in the Triple S had several broken branches, and sadly another one of the trees in the Triple S had completely fallen over (thankfully it totally missed the chairs that were there)!
Speaking of the Triple S... since I had time off from work due to Spud Harvest, I spent a few hours every day the first week of October picking rock, and finally finished where I wanted to get to by the first weekend in October. This was the results of my time out there:
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The walkway down to the grove of trees where the hammocks
are. The rock section on the left is now much more defined.
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I put the rocks that I picked along the fence, in a big tree ring around the center
tree, and in the area between the main sitting area and the hammocks. The ground
is much more level and even now, so that our friend Ryan can come in with
his wheelchair without it getting stuck on the uneven ground with jutting rocks.
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| Before After |
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| Before: +After: (you can see where I stopped by the chairs) |
I was so grateful that I got to be home during Salmon's Homecoming week the first week of October. I got to see Micah perform with the sophomore class at the Skits and Lip Syncs Night. For the skit, they acted out synopsis from the play Little Mermaid; Keely played the prince and Erik played Ariel. It was cute!
The parade on Friday morning was cold and rainy, but Josh, Kanyon, and I watched from under a store's awning on Main Street. I haven't been able to watch the Homecoming parade for several years, so I was glad it worked out that I could this year! Jonah was on the band's trailer, and Micah was on the Sophomore class float. Afterwards, Josh, Kanyon, & I went to Camille's store for a big open house. We ate hamburgers there and I went shopping for a few things, too.
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This was the storefront window that the sophomore class painted,
which Jonah and Micah helped decorate.
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Micah was part of a big date group for Homecoming on Saturday. Since it was also the first day of General Conference, they decided to watch it as part of their day-date. The kids all came over to our house for the morning session, I fed them lunch in between sessions, and they watched the afternoon session before leaving to go get dressed and ready for dinner and the dance. I loved having a house full of kids! Jonah left in between sessions to go golfing with some friends, and then he went with a different group of kids that without dates to the dance. Micah's group took photos at the Cannon's house, and Jonah's group took photos at Ele's grandma's house.
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| All ready for his first date! |
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| He went with Ariana Williams. |
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Micah's group: Ariana & Micah, Cayden Bradley & MacKayla Hone, Johnny Simmons
& Leah Cannon, Bryson Garner & Dessa Richins, Anthony Barton & Paige Hilton, and
Wyatt Linger and Juleena *the German foreign exchange student that lives with Davidson's
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Jonah's group: Tyler Hilton, Dakota James, Ele Tarkalson, Beth Davidson,
Jonah, & Erik Oliverson
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After I re-did my wall in the living room with an arrangement of family photos, I decided I should do something similar with the boys' school photos in the family room. Ever since Ammon graduated, I've wanted to put all his school pictures in a collage frame, and I finally did it in October this year! I bought frames online for all the boys, and found all their old pictures to fill the squares with. I like the final product!
Because it got so cold so quick in September, the colors were super disappointing this year. Everything just seemed to die rather than slowly change, which unfortunately didn't make for a very pretty fall. However, there was this ONE small tree that we passed by every day on the way to town that was gorgeous, and I loved looking at it as I drove by!
Hunting season was exciting! Micah and cousin Annika both got deer on the morning of Opening Day. They both got their deer in the field south of our home. Jonah got his the next morning in the field next to the Harris' house, and then it jumped into their yard and he had to drag it out. That same morning, Josh got his deer on the hill east of Tim & Barb's house, and as a result, he wasn't able to get a photo of Jonah with his deer in the field. They hung the deer in our garage and in grandpa's shop, and then we processed the meat on the weekend. Altogether, we harvested 13 roasts, 36 lbs. of deerburger, and 3 gallons of meat for jerky. The twins helped Josh cut the meat, and Kanyon helped me in the kitchen. He was in charge of the meat processor and I bagged and wrapped the meat. Kanyon also helped me make the marinade for the jerky (I wanted to try a new recipe), and the meat strips soaked overnight in the marinade before we dehydrated them on Sunday. We tried 3 different methods: the dehydrator, the oven, and Josh used the smoker for the first time. We decided the dehydrator made the best jerky. The oven jerky was a little chewy, and the smoker jerky was too dry. I'm so glad that all 3 of the guys got their deer during opening week and that we could work together to be self-sufficient to process the meat so quickly! It's a great feeling to have the freezer full of meet that we grew and processed! (Both of the twins' deer had been eating and hanging around our place for months.)
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| Micah and Annika on opening day! |
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| Josh's deer |
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| Jonah and Josh's deer before they got hung up to be skinned. |
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Everything on the closest corner of the table under wax paper was what we
used to make jerky with. Josh used the meat slicer to cut them into thin slices.
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I separated the meat into groups of what each deer produced.
Micah's was the smallest, Jonah's was in the middle, and Josh's was the biggest
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One of my 40 Things to Do this year was to play a new game. I won a free game from the DFY (Drug Free Youth) for taking a photo at dinner with my family in September and posting it on their online page in a contest. I got the game ITZI, and we played it for FHE in October one night. I love playing games with my family!
Josh stopped by the river one day after driving school bus, because the views were so pretty with the sun shining on the trees! I love his perspective--he takes great photos!
All the West Jefferson Jr. High students got new t-shirts as a surprise at an assembly the day before they went on their field trip. They're holding fingers that say "W" and "J". Kanyon is in the 2nd row on the right hand side:
My domino's group met in October--but we didn't play. Rosalba made Flautas and fed us dinner at her house, and then we sat around talking. It was the same day that the junior high had gone on a field trip to Yellowstone, and they got home later than anticipated, especially with a broken down bus. I had to leave to go pick up Kanyon, and then came back. Then Tanis had to leave to go pick up Bailee but she was unable to come back. It was the first time I had Flautas. They were delicious! I love these ladies! They are my people!
Royal Gorge Hot Springs has continued to be mine & Josh's favorite hot springs. We went one night in October and had it to ourselves. You can see the highway in the distance in the first photo. It's amazing how close it is to the road, and is still so hidden from view! We love the views and the sound of the rushing Salmon River that runs right next to it. We always feel so relaxed when we leave there!
Josh has been working on a fencing project re-doing the falling-down tall fence around the driving range at the golf course ALL year! He finally finished it at the end of October. It looks so good!
I came home at the end of October, and was surprised to find that Josh and the boys had cut out the fallen-down tree and branches in the Triple S. It's such a pretty spot to be...although I miss the extra shade and privacy that the tree and branches provided before they fell.
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| Next project for this area: fix/replace the fence |
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Now you can see the road from our sitting spot (under the trees
in the distance)--the branches used to cover it up.
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We carved pumpkins for FHE on Sunday, October 27th. Josh carved the spider, I did the winky smiley face, Kanyon made the tri-force symbol from Zelda, Micah carved the big smiley happy jack-o-lantern, and Jonah carved the baby smile! I love this tradition of ours! Thankfully, we had just enough big pumpkins from our garden this year that we were able to use what we grew without having to buy any from the store.
Kanyon's science class made models of the playground and school halls and classrooms and had them on display in the school. I had my 2nd graders in my class go to the junior high class's demonstrations and explanations of their models--they did so good, I was really impressed!!!
Amanda and I were the MC's for the Salmon Idol event this year. We've been planning for months--we hosted the pre-show, were the MC's for the senior show, and we also had a special musical number with John during the show. I've had this idea for years for the three of us to sing the song "We Belong" while wearing hot dog, mustard, and ketchup costumes. John didn't like the idea, but after a few years of me bringing it up, he finally agreed to it this year--I think because it was SO close to Halloween, and he had Halloween on the brain in his planning of it! I'm glad my idea was finally brought into fruition! For the pre-show, Amanda and I had a trivia contest of 50 TV show theme songs, and I made a Kahoot quiz that lasted about a half hour. We sang one line of a theme song and had the audience guess what TV show it came from. It worked out really well! For our MC gig, we sang or said little commercial jingles in between each performer. There was a lot of planning to do all three things--we've been coming up with theme songs or jingles since August, and then I narrowed down the jingles into categories and put the theme songs in a pattern of shows from the past and present, and singing songs verses ones we hummed. There was no way I could memorize everything, so I typed it all up and put on little cue cards for both Amanda and I to help the whole night run smoothly. John, Amanda, and I came up with our choreography and practiced with our costumes the first time on Sunday night the 27th. We laughed so much that night!! On the 28th, I drove down to Mud Lake to go to school, then drove back home to Salmon after school to practice the pre-show program and the run-down of the jingles for the first time all the way through with Amanda. We also practiced the song with John onstage using microphones, since the stage was all set up in the gym. There was a horrible snowstorm that blew into Salmon that night. After we practiced for a few hours, I drove home from the high school and couldn't see the road due to the wind and the snow. It's the worst I've ever seen that highway!! Thankfully, the wind stopped in the night, and the roads were plowed, so I drove BACK down to Mud Lake on Tuesday morning, and then returned home to Salmon AGAIN on Tuesday after school. I made it just as the junior show was ending. I ate dinner at their fundraiser at the school, then got everything set up for the pre-show trivia contest. It went pretty well. Josh and Ryan sat by each other--it was the first time that Ryan came to a Salmon Idol event. Amanda and I took a 5-minute break after the pre-show ended, and then got the senior show started. The show went pretty smoothly, and everyone loved our song!! John actually enjoyed dressing up like a hot dog, and he got a HUGE crowd response when he entered the stage wearing it, which he loved. We messed up the footwork at the end of our song, but it was okay. We had a hilariously awesome night, and I was on cloud 9!! Josh, Amanda, Ryan, John and I all went out to eat afterwards at Bertram's. I love performing with my besties! I am so happy when we make memories together!
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We couldn't stop laughing when we tried the costumes on
for the first time as we practiced on Sunday night.
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| We were still all smiles after our practice on Monday night! |
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| Thanks to Amber Pace for the great photos! |
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These 2 performers ended up winning Salmon Idol this year--they sang a duet,
dressed identically, and tap-danced, too!
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| Thanks to Gina Hobbs for lending us the mustard & ketchup costumes! |
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| This is my favorite photo of the night right after our song ended. |
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The show choir sang "Africa" at the end of the show before the winners' names
were announced. Micah is in the 3rd row on the left side.
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John got the crowd to interact with the choir before the song by making
rain sounds with their hands, legs, and feet.
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| What a fun night! |
Kanyon's XC banquet dinner was on Wednesday the 30th at the ALC. It was a delicious meal with great company, and uplifting comments from the coaches about the athletes. We love being part of the West J XC team!
Happy Halloween!!! I used the new hot dog costume I bought for Salmon Idol, and wore that for Halloween (what an easy costume!!). Kanyon went as a ref--pretty genius! He doesn't like to dress up anymore, so I'm glad he found something he felt comfortable wearing to school and to the junior high dance that afternoon. We had a class party in my room, and the elementary school had a costume parade, which is a fun tradition. That evening, we went to the church ward party in Terreton, and because it was so cold outside, they moved the party to indoors rather than outside. We ate soups, and had an indoor trick-or-treating around the inside of the gym. It was awesome! Kanyon got an overflowing bucket of candy, so he was happy too!
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| My group of "lunch ladies" eating lunch in my classroom |
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Our principal, counselor, and secretary dressed as characters
from the TV Show "The Office"
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| The costume parade coming through my room. |
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| Kanyon and friends at the church party. |
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