Fall

    Greg took Charlie and me up American Fork Canyon, fairly early, Sunday morning to avoid the worst of the crowds. The fall colors were amazing and, like always, photos don't do the views justice. We did run into more people going down then coming up but we enjoyed the adventure without too much hassle.

 

    Charlie never tires of visiting neighbors and she always has a friend in-tow.

Why one shoe!?

    Our General Conference weekend was great. My favorite talks were Clark G. Gilbert, Saturday morning and Brad Wilcox Saturday evening. So many great messages from the best church leaders. I can't wait to read over and study all the talks over the next several weeks and months!

Homecoming & birthdays

    Carter attended Lone Peaks homecoming last weekend and had a great time. He didn't know his date very well but he had fun and was happy to be part of a great group with several of his good buddies. I just got a couple photos before he left but thankfully the group had professional photos taken so here's a few Carter was able to get and share with me.

Just needs a tie.

Cole & Carter headed out.

Carter and his date Jade.

Nice looking group of kids.

    I wanted to go for a motorcycle ride to check out the fall colors but Greg decided to take the three youngest and me after church in the car, which is fine, I guess.

These photos definitely don't do this view justice but you get the idea.

 

    McClane turned 11 on the 30th and we had fun celebrating his special day. We kept it simple but he got what he wanted, chocolate cake, two wireless nintendo controllers and a new nintendo game.

 

 

 

McClane and his buddy, Jacob, who stopped by with a nice birthday gift.

    So that's our week highlights. Now we're looking forward to General Conference weekend! I definitely need a spiritual feast!

Hair fun

    I'm still a fan of doing Charlie's hair and she's almost always happy to allow me to choose the style. Here's a few of our latest hairdos. (And yes, this is the most exciting photos I had on my phone this week.)

Twists and criss-crosses.

Leaving it down, a rare treat for her and a nightmare of tangles for both of us later.

And todays up-do.

    So this really was all I had for photos this week. It's been a simple week and no ones complaining.

Greg's photos

    I neglected to take even one photo this week so I decided to see what Greg had to offer and he had some fun ones. First, we will never forget 9/11/2001 and we learned, recently, that when you can't fly your flag half-staff you can use these black ribbons so that's what we did to honor all those lost on that dreadful day 20 years ago. 

 

    And Sunday evening, while enjoying our weekly ice cream gathering, a rescue was put in place for an injured hiker so Greg got out his scope to watch the rescue process happening on the mountains north of us. Beau was happy to be grandpa's scoping partner.

 

 

That 'light' on the mountain was where the rescue was taking place.

    So there you have it, a week from Greg's perspective. I may start adding his weekly photos every once in awhile to give a bit broader view of our family fun.

Charlie’s baptism

    Charlie's baptism was definitely the highlight of our past week. It was a great day and she couldn't have been more excited to finally start her journey on the Covenant Path back to her Heavenly Father. 

Baptism Day, new scriptures and scripture bag, courtesy of mom, dad and Kayli.

 

 She can't wait to get in that font.

 

    So many came to show their love and support for Charlie and sadly we didn't get photos with everyone but here are the photos we do have. 

Charlie with Grandma and Grandpa Kmetzsch

Charlie with her immediate family and nieces.

Grandma and Grandpa B. all the way from Oregon.

 

Sisters!

    Such a great day and now we're DONE! (At least with baptism's for our kids.) We're so grateful for the gospel in our lives and only pray our children will all want to follow the teachings the gospel offers so we can be together forever. 

Babies and grandparents

    This week has been slow but ended fun and the fun is still happening. Charlie gets baptized tomorrow morning so we're having family visit and looking forward to Charlie's special event.

Silly girl.

Meeting Grandpa Jim and Grandma Elaine for the first time.

Harley meeting Aunt Marie for the first time.

    

We always welcome a rainbow.

    We're so happy grandma and grandpa/mom and dad made the long drive to be here for Charlie's special day and thrilled Marie could fly out from Texas. We wish everyone could just teleport so we could all be together, even for just a day, but we'll look forward to opportunities in the future to be together. 

    On a side note, Mark is finally a legally licensed and insured driver again so he can get himself around without bumming rides from friends and family! (What a relief to be done with all that.) He also starts a new job Tuesday that hopefully will make his financial status a little more secure as well. 

    Not a lot has happened in the Kmetzsch household this week but that doesn't mean things aren't happening in the world. It's actually been a devastating week for the world and this world is starting to feel a lot heavier and dark. I'm so grateful I have a faith and belief in Jesus Christ that can bring peace even in the darkest of days. As for the kids, they've been doing so well getting up and out on time for school and I'm really enjoying my 'free' time.

    Brock hung out with a few of his Deacon Quorum friends at their campout but opted out of sleeping over. Charlie still takes lots of silly photos of herself and we had a pretty crazy wind storm blow thru town and found a tree 'casualty' that was pretty huge. And we had a fun visit from the grand babies and Charlie loves any opportunity to take a photo.

Brock and a few of his deacon buddies. 

She's a goofball.

And I guess this is where Charlie gets her 'goofball-ness'.

Pretty big tree bit the dust.
(This is near our house but not in our immediate neighborhood.)

 

Cute girls.

    The world needs Jesus! Lets pray for peace and sensible government leadership. (That last one is a long shot but we can have peace even amongst turmoil.)