27 November 2016 - Thanksgiving

For family home evening, the girls made a gratitude turkey.

After much turkey and affiliated food stuffs, we needed a little physical exercise, so we headed over to the church for a little volleyball, basketball and tossing the football.

20 November 2016 - Logan Wedding / Birthday

On Friday of this week, we drove to Logan for the wedding of Joanne's former Laurel class president from our Idaho ward. It was 21 years ago this month that we got married in the Logan Temple, so it was really nice to go back the very same sealing room for this wedding this week. Joanne got a nice us-ie while we were waiting outside.

Here's Jaycee with her husband after the wedding.

We also like to go back to the Bluebird Cafe, where we held our wedding luncheon.

On Sunday, it was my birthday (44, if you're counting). Tiffany got the t-shirt for me (it says 'world's okayest brother' on it). It was a good birthday.

13 November 2016 - Busy Fall

Joanne continues to work in her craft room. Here's part of another quilt, this one for my cousin Randi's baby.

The girls have been busy with family history, and had an outing to the Provo Temple to get some of the work done.

Joanne got us an excellent fire pit for our backyard. The weather has been so mild in November we could enjoy it late into the season.

Another quilt Joanne made. This time as a wedding gift for one of her former young women.

6 November 2016 - Homecoming & Happiness

Jessica went to Homecoming this week and was excited to be voted Homecoming Queen by her peers.

We celebrated Jennifer's birthday. Joanne made her a fall pumpkin table runner.

A bunch of the youth from our ward on a mutual outing.

30 October 2016 - St. George & Halloween

Emily and Jessica were on the high school volleyball team this fall. Their team was very good, two-time defending state champions. As a result, Jessica and Emily, being new players, didn't get to play much. In the semi-final match though, with the game pretty much in hand, Jessica got into the game and ended up scoring the winning point.

This is a picture of the seniors with their coach.

Jessica and her friend Christina on senior night.

There are lots of smiles in this picture, but what you don't see is that there are some tears as well. In the championship match, the girls' school lost in three games, 15-13 in the final game. It was close and hard-fought, and especially for the senior girls, a tough pill to swallow to go out on a loss.

With a couple of days off from school, we went to St. George for a short break. We went 4 wheeling in the mountains above Cedar City while Jessica did a college overnighter at SUU. The next day, we went 4 wheeling west of St. George. My dad took us to Bloomington Cave. You need a permit to explore it, so we only went into the entrance, but now we're motivated to get a permit and go back to see more.

It was still warm in St. George, so after our 4 wheeling excursion to the cave, we took the boat out to Sand Hollow. Here's Emily in a short cliff jump.

We also took the paddle board for a season ending float.

On Halloween, Madeline was Adrienne's escort for her first trick-or-treat.

23 October 2016 - College Tours

With her SUU acceptance in hand, Jessica took in a few other options during Fall Break this week. We went to see Utah State first.

Then stopped in Ogden on the way back to check out Weber State. The jury's still out.

16 October 2016 - Creativity

Jessica got good news this week: an acceptance letter to Southern Utah University with an offer for the Fellows Scholarship, which pays 75% tuition for four years. She's not fully committed to SUU yet, but it is her top choice.

Joanne continues to wax creative. This is her latest quilt creation.

Madeline loves purple. This week she painted her room.

9 October 2016 - Nashville Conference

This week was my annual conference, held this year in Nashville. Our fun night outing was to a show at the Grand Ole Opry.

I'm not a huge country music fan, but I do enjoy cultural institutions and the Grand Ole Opry is certainly one of those. It was an enjoyable evening.

2 October 2016 - Lindsey Sterling

This week was Natalie's birthday. We had a good time getting together with our family and having fun celebrating Natalie with cupcakes.

So this picture didn't turn out great, but in the darkness of the UCCU Center at UVU, I wasn't likely to get a good shot. We got a good deal on a Groupon for a Lindsey Sterling concert. The girls loved it.

25 September 2016 - Trees!

With our yard finally beginning to take shape, Joanne decided we needed some trees. Madeline found some she loved so much that she hugged them.

Shopping for trees is seriously fun.

This week was also UVU's street fair. We scored free sunglasses for taking a picture in the giant inflatable Willy Chair.

Emily was queen of the double hula hoop.

When all was said and done at the street fair, I'd scored an impressive array of free sunglasses.

This photo shows four of the five trees Joanne bought for our backyard.

When the weekend arrived, I had business back east and Joanne joined me for the quick trip. We had a late flight back home on Sunday, so before heading to the airport, we went to the Baltimore Shipyard and took a walk on the waterfront.

18 September 2016 - Peaches and Mazes

Joanne was invited to go and gather up peaches as the fruit growing season draws to a close. She found a little helper.

If you help, you get to reap the rewards.

On Sunday we celebrated Phil's birthday. He got a season ski pass to Sundance, ensuring another season of enjoying Utah powder.

We also went to the Electric Maze at UVU. It was a night maze with fluorescent and black lights and different stations projecting images on screens, backed by music.

At the end of the maze, we scored some cool electric shades.

Joanne decided she liked this backyard fire pit. Now we just need a patio to put it on.

Even without a patio, we were able to enjoy it on a pleasant fall evening in the back yard (which as of last week now has a fence around it).

Some of the peaches made their way into Joanne's homemade freezer jam.

11 September 2016 - Mt. Timp

For Labor Day, we decided to attempt to climb Mt. Timpanogos. Our family was joined by our niece Hannah, our brother-in-law Eric, Joanne's stepdad Phil, and our friends the Larsens who recently moved from Pennsylvania to Kentucky to Utah. Here's a shot of the older two girls with Hannah.

The intrepid climbers at a rest stop on the way up the mountain.

After five hours of climbing, we reached the top.

It was a gorgeous day. On the very summit at 11,752 feet, the wind was a little cold, but we took our pictures, ate a few snacks, and then began our decent.

Jessica took this panorama of the Utah and Salt Lake valleys. The metal hut that stands on the highest point of Mt. Timpanogos is on the left.