School Starts:
For the first time since he was in 2nd grade, Kanyon started school at the same place as his brothers! Kanyon is now a freshman at Salmon High School, and Jonah and Micah are seniors.
Kanyon and I picked a bunch of corn from Cherry Farms in Mud Lake again this year, and the boys helped me shuck it and I used the cooler method to get it all cooked in one day, which was pretty impressive. I'm so grateful that Tanis Cherry taught me how to do that: it saves SO much time! I made over 40 quarts of freezer corn this year!
Josh brings me Joy:
The raspberries came on pretty late this year, due to the weather conditions. In September, I made three batches of freezer jam, but it wasn't near what the garden produced last year. I only made 25 quarts of freezer jam this year--all in September.
Ladies Night Out:
I took my friend Jackie to go watch the play "The Secret Garden" at the Hale Theater in September. I've wanted to watch this play since I was a teenager, and she had too! It was so beautiful to see it on the stage, and to watch it with someone who enjoyed it equally as much as me! I loved the music, and the unique stage ideas the Hale introduced to the production. It was fun to catch up with Jackie; I hadn't seen her for several years. We ate lunch together, and had a nice drive to/from Salt Lake to her place in Farmington. I spent the night at Amanda's house after the play, and we got to have ladies night out, too! She cut/colored my hair, and then we dropped Ryan and his Miata car off at a car show, and the two of us ate at the Greenery Restaurant in Ogden and shopped at the Rainbow Gardens after dinner. We had a hilarious time together! We laughed pretty much all of dinner, and had so much fun shopping at the cute boutique store! I bought a cute Hot Air Balloon pillow for my classroom. I left early the next morning, but it was a fun, albeit short, trip to Utah!
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| When I was a kid, I used to want a Miata. I got to drive it to the car show for Ryan, and with the top down, too! It's a cute car! |
Josh was my show and tell in the first few weeks of school. It's become an annual tradition now for him to come and meet my class. I enjoy having him in my classroom; it's such a rare treat for me! It's not always easy for him to find the time to do this for me, and this year was no exception, but I'm incredibly grateful he's willing to come meet my students!
Josh didn't get his COVID vaccine when it was available earlier this year (I got my first dose in January) because he was staying true to his political views on the topic. However, after his co-worker Donny's fiancé tragically passed away from COVID soon after giving birth to their son, Josh changed his mind and decided to get his vaccine after all. He wanted to be one-and-done with it, and the only company that offered one shot instead of two was Johnson & Johnson, but that company's vaccines were not administered in Salmon. We drove over to Hamilton to get the shot instead. We made an afternoon of it: we shopped at a cute game store, walked through a small hometown book store, and ate lunch at Naps. He felt quite lethargic all night after, but other than that, he was fine. I'm so grateful for this man!
Choir Events:
Senior Boys:
We went to the Hilton's house one Sunday evening after Paige's Mission Farewell at church. They have a nice, big house, and it was fun to get together with all our friends. At one point, the 6-pack of senior boys in our ward were sitting completely by themselves, and I had a glimpse of this moment in time. I was thinking about how grateful I am to have such a great group of boys that my twins have grown up with and how it will soon end. It was an overwhelming, emotional, beautiful moment in time, so I took a photo of them together to remember it by: Micah, Nathan, Tyler, Jonah, Boaz, & Erik.
Those same 6-pack of boys were the only seniors on the XC team this year, which was magical. What a cool experience it was to have 6 boys, who are the same age, same grade, and from the same ward, to participate on the same team and be the leaders on the team! Their senior night was at a home volleyball game on September 23. 
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| L-R: Tolmans, Oswalds, Oliversons, Hiltons, & Deschaines |
I asked the local photographer who took Ammon's senior pictures if she would take them for Jonah and Micah too, but she took the year off due to her most recent pregnancy and upcoming arrival's infancy. Jonah and Micah weren't too concerned with senior pictures, so I just took them myself. We went out to the golf course one Sunday in September when the weather was nice, and drove around the course and snapped some shots of them. They do not enjoy having their picture taken, so even though the whole session lasted less than 30 minutes, they were both quite ornery by the end!! Thankfully, I got a few shots that are decent, so it wasn't a complete waste of time for all of us!
Jonah and Micah are both in the Legacy choir this year, and as a result, they've sung the National Anthem at a lot of events, such as football games, volleyball games, xc meets, hockey games, etc. It's been fulfilling to watch them sing with this group!
My Dominoes friends got together at Rosalba's house on the last Thursday of the month. She made us Zupa Toscano soup for dinner, and we sat around talking and venting and laughing and catching up. Rosalba's food is always so delicious and soul-edifying, and the company was delightful and comforting, too.
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| Jonah is in the back row on the left side. |
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| Micah is in the back row on the right. |
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| At the home XC meet at the golf course.a |
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| Jonah is in the back on the left. Micah is in the back, center. |
Concert:
Josh and I went to another outdoor concert at Sweet Water Hollow to listen to 2 groups we'd never heard of before. We got there kind of late because it was the same night as the twins' Senior XC Night, but thankfully Darcy & Phil saved us a spot by them at their table on the grass. It wasn't as busy as the last concert we went to there. The music was decent, and we had a good time with our friends. Josh and Darcy danced more than any of the rest of us--I wasn't really feeling it that night. However, overall, we really like the ambience of the setting and the outdoor stage at that venue and were glad we went.
Food:
We actually got a small crop of corn on the cob from our own garden this year. Although we planted some last year, too, it didn't grow very well into mature corn. We ate it for dinner for a couple nights, which is always fulfilling after growing it all summer long!
Fall:
Fall felt extra beautiful this year. Last year it turned cold so quickly that the beautiful colors on the trees never had time to develop. However, this year we had a wonderfully warm fall, and the colors were brilliant and vibrant, and I adored watching the world around me change on a daily basis.
