Driveways, piano recitals and birthdays

    The extra driveway is pretty much in and looking good. Charlie and McClane had their last fall recital with their piano teacher, who is leaving with her husband in January for a Senior mission to France. And Isaac is officially out of the teen years and is the big 2-0.

 

 

 

 

 

    Another week of fun for us. Still no word on Isaac's crashed car but he did buy himself a 1992 Honda Civic for $700 that he will bring home eventually and I'll post photos when I can. Apparently, it's not the finest-looking vehicle, but it runs and gets way better gas mileage versus the Armada. And Mark is, most likely, buying the little Trailblazer from Isaac so I'm sure Isaac will start the hunt for another car because he needs two vehicles for some reason. So that's the latest and greatest.

Fun and no fun and more fun.

    Charlie had two amazing Saturdays in a row. Last Saturday she spent a fun-filled day at the scarecrow festival/Cornbelly's with her good buddies, the Lopez boys. And this Saturday she spent most of the day with her Atkinson and Smith cousins. She was in cousin heaven for sure!

 

 

  

 

    Carter is the chill uncle who Harley loves to sit with.

 

 Sadly, Isaac's 'new' car was hit by a crazy driver Wednesday morning. The guy hit a Prius and then Isaac and then took off but thankfully he was quickly found and made to be responsible. He actually was in a work truck so there was insurance and all involved should be made whole, eventually. The crazy thing is Isaac just lent his Trailblazer to Mark, whose truck broke down Sunday, so this accident is definitely a major inconvenience but I guess he can drive our Armada if the weather won't permit him to drive his motorcycle. At least he has one or two other options and hopefully it won't be long before Mark gets a new car and returns Isaac's more practical vehicle.

 

 Greg really wanted to take the Avalon on a road trip so we made a quick trip to Meridian to visit the Atkinson and Smith families. It was a fun if not very short visit and the car drove like a dream and is definitely much more fuel efficient than the Armada.

Youngest and oldest.

Fun times.

 Crazy Ella and Charlie.

Cousin raking party.

    So there's the latest and greatest. 

Selfies/filters and fun.

    Not the most exciting week but I did find a few silly photos on my phone, thanks to Charlie, and I also received a couple fun photos of Carter, who is enjoying a few days in St. George for fall break with his buddy, Keaton. The rest of us are laying low while the entirety of Utah County travels the countryside clogging up lines at Disneyland, or crowding the camping locations throughout the state.

When you're bored at church you take filtered selfies with your dad.

 

Wow!

Two buddies having a good time.

St. George, another crowded location during Utah's fall break.


Just hanging out.

    So that's the highlights. We'll see what another week brings.

Birthday finale

    We had a great General Conference weekend and we wrapped up McClane's 12th birthday celebration. Sadly he had no gifts to unwrap but his custom Xbox remote was delivered just a few days ago and he enjoyed his cake and ice cream. 

 

    Nothing else too spectacular happened this week and I have no other photos to share. We just can't believe it's October!

Celebrating!

    Sometimes it's fun to wear a shirt that brings a little shock and awe and also a little truth. I have a couple friends who share the same shirt and I'm proud to wear it along side them.

 

    Harley is so fun to watch. She's busy and silly!

 

    And we did it! We bought a second car this week! Meet Avie, our 2015 Toyota Avalon. She's fun to drive and a great addition to the family. Now we can move forward with the Armada repairs and pray it won't be much more money to get it back in stable driving condition. And in the mean time, this car is beyond fun to drive!

Car Max treats you right! 

 

    And we're happily celebrating McClane's 12th birthday this weekend. Cake and ice cream will be tomorrow but we can't start a birthday without at least a bouquet of balloons.

 

    So that's our week of celebrating. Now bring on General Conference! I can't wait!

Blue!

    Carter's homecoming date/dance was a good time and they mostly wore blue!

Grace was the date!

 

    Isaac bought a new car and it's blue! (Blue and tiny)

2002 Toyota MR2/Spyder

Greg barely fits.

    Charlie got a new pair of overalls, blue denim.

 

    And Charlie's Utah cake project turned out great, she used a lot of blue.

 

    Car troubles are still at the forefront of our world but, hopefully, it won't be much longer before we have a second vehicle to rely on or our car at least starts driving like it should, time will tell.

Throw back

     I don't have any photos from this week but I thought it would be fun to throw back to several years ago when we visited Marie and her kids in Arizona. That was a fun time!

    We did look at cars this week and there's a good chance we found one we'll buy, we just have to wait for it to be shipped here from California. Our car got a new computer installed and now only time will tell if that's the fix it needed to run properly.

    The kids are all just plugging along with school and work, nothing new or exciting really. We did cancel our cable TV services and changed our internet provider, so my whole world's been flipped upside down, but I'm sure it won't take me long to adapt to my new TV options. I probably need a drastic change to my habits anyway. Let the weekend commence!