Christmas tree hunt

The tradition is to get our Christmas tree after Thanksgiving. This year we did not know if Cindy and I would join the event with her knee replacement a few days ago. She decided that if she stayed in the car this would work. The day was great and temperature pleasant and not much snow on the mountain. We tried a new location up the same canyon. We all got bundled up and ready for the adventure. Connor and Payton already created their own adventure with the twig "dinosaur bones" they found.

The others were also excited.

We walked into a grove and found a wonderful grouping of trees that we all liked. Cecelia and Cameron found their tree so quickly she made little snow creatures while they waited for the rest of us.

We all headed back with our trees in recorded time.

The next week was Payton's birthday and she is now 8.

We had a good snow storm on Payton's birthday. Later in the week there was a beautiful sunset that lighted the Ben Lomand. This may be the last season to have the views we have been used to for decades as a subdivision is being laid out in the open field.

Thanksgiving

The month of November was very mild. I was picking tomatoes and zucchinis till the mild of November. November was also the time of Cindy's knee replacement. She had dealt with the problems of having no ACL and the wear on her bones because of no cartilage to cushion the bones as they move back and forth
The night before her surgery we started the Christmas family home evenings at our house.

She went in  on November 22 for her surgery on her right knee. Here is the before picture of her knee.

Then it was off to the hospital and Cindy's preparation for surgery.

In a little more than an hour she was done and then another 40 minutes she was wheeled into her room where we were anxious to greet her.

She spent the night there and then the next morning she learned her exercises and was ready to go home with her new knee.

The next morning was Thanksgiving and we were so grateful that she was home and doing so well with her healing. Payton had to show us what she had done at school to get ready for Thanksgiving.                                                  

We had a wonderful dinner prepared by all the girls so Cindy could rest and recover.

After dinner was games and good time. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving especially to have Cindy home and see her recovering. 

The month of October

The first of the month started off with General Conference. Cindy, Mark, Jan and I received an invitation to attend the Sunday afternoon session of conference from Elder Carl Cook. He was speaking in the afternoon and was going to use some exerts from Joseph Skeen's journal in his talk and so gave us this invitation which we gladly accepted. We walked in a special door without waiting in line and then when we saw the location of the seats we were amazed. We got there early not knowing what to expect.

We watched as the church leaders and their wives entered the center and then felt the spirit as President Monson came in. There is nothing like being there for feeling and spirit. We were so grateful for Carl giving us this opportunity.

Of course football games are also part of our Octobers. Every home game started at 8:15 so it makes for a late night but we enjoy it.

We stayed in Lehi one night instead of going home and then the next morning went to Salt Lake and the church museum to see the new displays. They are wonderful and also have a good spirit with them. Afterwards we had lunch at City Creek. We set at an outdoor table to eat and in a few minutes some of the restaurant people and security started looking under our table. When we asked what was going on the said there was a bat at the base of the table. We got up and went inside. A couple days later we read that there were some rabid bats found downtown. Just our luck.












Aubrey's 1 year birthday was also celebrated in October. There are so many things she likes, but books seems to be on the top of the list.

Birthday celebrations are followed by the changing leaf colors out our window and dress up days for school.

That is then followed by our Halloween party. It is always a fun time to get together. We had a couple of themes going, Zootopia and the elections.

It was a fun evening together The next morning Cindy and I went to the Tabernacle for Music and the Spoken Word broadcast. It is interesting to see a full rehearsal and then the actual performance for tv and radio. It was so great being there. There is nothing like the sound in person and the power of the music. 

Beauty and storms

This last week has been a time to observe the beauties that exist with the mountains around us. Last Thursday was a quick moving storm that created a tornado in Washington Terrace and heavy rains in other areas. The rains ended up being snow in the mountains and when the storm left the tops of the mountains were covered in white.

One of the other beauties of this week was with the road widening at Washington our street was closed for several hours a day and there was no traffic.

Thursday again a storm rolled in at evening time and the sunset created interesting colors on the mountains and the clouds behind them.

We live in such a beautiful place.

Trip to Moab

On September 18 I left for a two day trip to do a presentation in Moab. A planner for Grand County had heard me do the presentation in Phoenix earlier in the year at the national APA Conference. He said the people needed to hear this to help them see the potential of their community. They made arrangements for me and Justin Anderson who presented with me to go down. Justin drove down with his family but they offered me to fly down which I did. I flew in an 8 seat plane of Boutique Airlines which I did not know existed. I made it down there in 40 minutes.

This picture is from the inside as you could see the pilots and look through the front window and see everything they see.

The next morning we had various meetings with city officials, a luncheon that was a question and answer period and then that evening Justin and I spoke at a place called Star Hall.

Here is a picture of us setting up in the hall. We had about a 100 people come that evening to listen to us and it turned out well.

The next morning I had some time before my flight back so I rented a bike and biked over to the Colorado River and went up the river on the trail and also on the bridge that crosses the river.

Then it was time to head back. Here is a shot from the sky of Canyon Lands. The plane I flew back on was a single engine where I went down on a twin engine.

The next few days were stormy and by the end of the week was the first snow on the tops of the mountains. Quite a week of different temperatures.