So many things

     Greg survived a camp out and hiking adventure with a few young men & young men leaders.

Greg “enjoying” a hike from Antelope Island, Frary peak.

    

      While Greg was away, I let the kids “play”. They did a great job assembling a small dresser for Charlie’s room and if Greg would’ve been around, he would have lost his marbles watching the chaos ensue.

A “fun” little project for the kids & neighbors while Greg was camping/hiking.

     Sunday we celebrated Morgan’s 23rd birthday. 

She’s a good sport!

     And we had a rare night this week with all the kids, that live at this house, eating dinner together.

     And my favorite bonus photos, Reese’s birthday photos! She will be 2 in only a few more days. Crazy cute!

      And we had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with the majority of the kids and grandkids. Everything turned out great and we had quite a hilarious round of “what we’re grateful for” as well as an alternate game of  “Hitster”. We’ll just say that Tanner likes to play for real and to win and the rest of us just want to be silly.

Thanksgiving 2025 was a success, just missing the newlyweds.

These photos are a reminder not to leave my phone lying around.

      We’re now nearly done decorating for Christmas and have put a dent in purchasing Christmas gifts and in case you were wondering, only 27 more sleeps to go.

More birthday fun

     Bonus birthday festivities; Isaac gifted Greg his very fancy cowboy hat, plus Greg got a tool he'd been wanting for awhile. And the Wendel girls tried on the prettiest crocheted coat you've ever seen. (Thanks to Gr. Grandma Elaine and her very talented friend, Karen.)

Yeehaw!

Apple pie and homemade ice cream to end the night.

Who wore it best? It's definitely a perfect fit for Elliot.

    It's been a simple week, outside of the birthday fun. Charlie had her final choir performance, as a 7th grader, this week, but I don't have any photo evidence. 

    Now on to Thanksgiving!

P.S. 34 sleeps until Christmas!

Prisoners, cops and birthday shenanigans

     What a fun week, mostly. Brock and friends had fun on their day date and at the school dance (Sadie's), I got a fun new set of gel nails, and Greg had is 53rd birthday.

Cute Wendel girls!

Cutest gnome!

Brock and his friends dressed as prisoners and cops for the Sadie's dance. (Brock's the guy in the white tank-top on the left.)

Brock and his cute date, Mya. (She's in our ward and one of my favorite young women.)

    Greg had a rough work day on Tuesday (18 hours fixing two water line breaks) but he got a little love note from God when he caught a glimpse of the northern lights at the end of the night. A pleasant surprise for many.

    And Wednesday we had fun celebrating Greg's birthday. Several people had gifts for him and we'll do a little more celebrating Sunday. Not photographed is the gift card for dinner from Carter, and an optic for his gun from two of his best friends. And more gifts are coming Sunday.

Mixed nuts and soda from the Wendel's.

Lots of yummy snacks from some of our favorite people.

John and Stephanie are the best!

V8 from Charlie.

And a super cool tool kit from Thomas and Gina.

    And I had to share this adorable kindergarten photo of Beau. She's growing up way too fast!

    November is going quick and great, over all. And another scary report, 41 sleeps until Christmas!

Halloween highlight

     The two youngest kids really had a great Halloween. McClane didn't officially trick-or-treat but he loved roaming around with a couple of his favorite cohorts and they couldn't have picked a better trio costume theme.

Talk about a classic combo! (McClane's Grimace, his buddy Maxwell is Ronald McDonald and Brooks is the Hamburglar.)

    And Charlie did trick-or-treat and got quite a candy haul. This may be her last year to do the traditional Halloween things and she made the most of it, mostly thanks to the best family, who let her tag-a-long, or really who she coerced into taking her all around.

Charlie with some of her most favorite people.

    And that's all I got. This week has been super simple. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but, only 48 sleeps until Christmas! That's the scariest thing ever!

Birthdays and canyon drives.

     Saturday we got to take a ride up American Fork Canyon with the newlyweds in their rental car. (Morgan's car was in the shop for some repairs after a little fender-bender so this was her sweet ride for a few days.)

Cutest newlyweds around!

What a view!

    We had fun celebrating Isaac's birthday Sunday afternoon. Happy 23rd birthday to this guy!

That was fast!

    And now on to Halloween fun!

A glimpse

         Here's a glimpse of my latest set of gel nails. I'm definitely ready for Halloween.

    And here's a glimpse at cute Reese, who also seems ready for Spooky season.

    And here's a glimpse of McClane's fun time in California over fall-break.

   

     And there you have it, a glimpse of a glimpse into our latest life events. 

Surprise!!

     We had the three Wendel girls show up Sunday with the cutest matching shirts and I immediately suspected they might be trying to make an announcement, and it's true, they're all going to be big sisters in June! So exciting!

    We also attended a wedding reception, here in Alpine, and it was at a private location that allowed us access to a popular spot we can't normally get to so we made sure to get a few photos without having to 'break in'.

Sliding Rock

    Wednesday evening I got to tag-a-long with the Wendel's at Gardener Village for the "Witches Festival". It was a fun but wet night.

These two were more than happy to pose for photos, Beau not so much.

I think there were real witches there ready to pose for pictures.

Proof I was there too.

    And then, our favorite Linda, came by with her famous caramel apples. We're sad we weren't here but Charlie was thrilled to take in the delivery and take a photo.

Yummiest caramel apples ever!

    It's currently 'fall-break' for the kids and McClane is currently on his maiden voyage to Disneyland with his best buddy and family, so lucky! We're just enjoying easy days at home. (I'll take easy home days over Disney crowds, lines and big $$ any day!)