Our MTC departing missionaries October-December 2014

 Some things never change...as in Scott photo-bombing or taking selfies with my camera when we are with missionaries...



These are the last shots of our missionaries when we were at at the WEST CAMPUS over in Raintree Apartments and Wyview Terrace.

We are adjusting, but we really loved the small community there!

Elders Gomez, Stoker, Coombs, Me and Scott, Elders Lohberg and Lindstrom

All headed to Mexico.

 Sisters Hancock, Sarvey, Nation, Ence, Me and Scott, Elders Bushman, Hansen, Messenger and Sewell.  Headed to CA Santa Rosa and NY NY City South.

Sister Bishop who lives in our neighborhood in Provo, friends with Braden, headed to Tempe AZ!

 Sisters Gardner, Pulley, Elder Payne, Us, Elder Kimber, Sisters Jones and Bowler.

Headed to CA Santa Rosa and NY NYCity South.

 US, Elders Adams, Gage, Aguirre, Jardon, Berry and Macinnes.

Headed to Mexico Missions.

Us, Sisters Evans (From our stake here in Provo), Muggleston, Kilgore, Johnson, Petit and Riddle.

Headed to CA/LA, DC South/ TN Nashville/ OK Oklahoma City.

 Us, Elders Day, Southwick, Jack, Seversike, Jensen, Sisters Bishop, Morse, Christensen, Doty, Day and Woods.

Headed to Tempe and CA San Fernando.

Each Sunday, the missionaries from the MTC get to walk to the temple as part of their Sunday activities.  They love it!

 This past week, our current missionaries:


Front:  Me, Sisters Reidhead, Campbell, Welch and Chambers.
Back: Scott, Elders Perez, Marchant, King, Scow, Guthrie, Branson, Glenn and Beeston.

Headed to CA Santa Rosa and NY NY City South.

Us, Sisters Andelin, Foster, Berger and Kurta.  Elders Elder, Allen and Moore.

Headed to AZ Tempe and CA San Fernando.

Scott posing them for a panorama shot...













Our entire branch right now!






And, the panorama!  Beautiful December day by the Provo Temple!

LIGHTS UP/ ROCK BAND/ FALL HIKE etc

 Some ODDS AND ENDS for the past week.  We spent much of the past Saturday on the roof...it was nice enough to get up to put up lights.  Something we had done the past 3 years in AZ by ladder, but not possible with our home here.

 But as you can see, the view was spectacular!!

 This Thursday we showed our age by being the oldest couple in VELOUR, a place in downtown Provo where bands play weekly.  At least they had a disco ball!!  That we can relate to.

One of our Returned Missionaries is in the band Tri-Polar Bear and had told us about it so we went to support their CD release.

Blake is the guy on the right who looks like he has a halo.  He is a clean cut, really great guy so it was good to see him in action enjoying his music.
Austin used to play there sometimes, so it is dear to our heart.

 And here is our "selfie" to prove that we were indeed there.  Our kids thought we were a little bit crazy I think.

 This morning we walked near where Breanna and I would go when she was training for her triathlons...she would swim in the lake near the Lindon Marina.  There is a nice trail and dike trail there that we went on.

 As we walked, 4 of these motorized gliders came by really close to us and it was fun to see the contrast in their color and the beautiful dry weeds of the marsh area.

 Scott took the shot of the wetlands area near the lake.  Isn't it so pretty?

 And he likes to try the panorama feature of his phone for the shot below.  I was on the phone with Breanna.

 

 The big project this month was all the Christmas wreaths we made for local family.  Breanna started me out and I was hooked!

They all turned out so beautiful and it felt good to craft again.

 

Thanks Breanna and Megan for the great idea!

And Scott took this shot near the MTC statues of the missionary bikers...WITHOUT HELMETS!

Not sure the message that sends :)


We had a lovely dinner in SLC Friday night with all our RM Mission President/Wives from the North America Southwest area.  All of us live in Utah so it was really therapeutic to get together and see what each couple was doing.  We can relate to each other in a way that really no one else quite can.  We got stuck in traffic for over an hour due to an accident and missed Elder Callister, who was at the dinner the first hour.  He was our direct supervisor of our area.
We are grateful for the service that we were able to give and that we are still working with missionaries.  We believe in the principles that we teach and know they are the way to enduring happiness.

SOME FALL FUN

These are not in order, but some glimpses of things we have done in November.


THANKSGIVING was fun to host at our house again.
The past two years, we have had Susan to visit and hiked on Thanksgiving day then did our big meal another day.
It was fun to do the big meal with family!!  THANK YOU FOR COMING!

ADDIE thought she was invited.

Got Daniel getting ready to eat his whipped cream.  He was pretty excited about it.

 The spoonful was much bigger than his mouth!

Meanwhile, Nathan was upstairs building something amazing with Victoria.  The boys enjoy playing with new stuff at our house when they get the chance.

Scott and I had walked the Provo River Trail down by the lake last Saturday and it was so pretty!

 We saw lots of birds.  It is hard to see, but that is a WOODPECKER on the left side of the pole.

And now he has hopped up on top!

We were enthralled with the CLOUDS OF BIRDS that were all over the fields near where we walked. They would billow up and turn every which way as they flew.  So pretty to watch!

Here, they are in a field eating something.

Picked up Bre on Sunday.  Here is our selfie shot to welcome her home!

The neighborhood birds like us.  We feed them so they come.
We have had sparrows, junko, finches, pigeons, and even a scrub jay comes often.  We love to watch them.

We have been making PUFFLES by the hundreds for Breanna's classroom...you can see Addie here with a packet of Puffles...what do you call a group of Puffles Breanna...you know...gaggle of geese...

Bre took the train up to Ogden with me when I went to a sealing there and she met up with Gma Taylor/Olsen.  They had a great time going for breakfast and SHOPPING!  Good girl fun!  It was so good to be able to do that.
We love the train and wish it went all the way to Pleasant View more than early AM and later PM.

Had to get one more selfie shot of the 3 girls together!

HAPPY FALL TO YOU ALL!  WE LOVE YOU!

We loved having Bre visit and we kept busy with projects and shopping and shows.  We can't wait to have her back in only 3 weeks!!

NIGHT HIKE!!

 SOMEONE had the bright idea to hike up to a HOT SPRINGS in the middle of the night in the freezing cold...(not saying who:)


Let's just say that we were invited and thought it sounded interesting.
2 of our RM Sisters; Sam Stanley and Alisa Baumgartner, Breanna, Cheryl and Scott were up for the challenge.

 We drove up Spanish Fork Canyon and up Diamond Fork towards the trailhead...about 8PM.
The trouble was, the road was closed about 4 miles from the trailhead which meant a 4  mile walk on the paved road before even starting the hike.

Wouldn't have been so bad but it got snowy and icy after a while and it was cold without tree cover to block the wind!

 We kept a really good pace just to keep warm!

One of the main reasons we came was to enjoy the night sky and it did not disappoint!
The sky was BEAUTIFUL!  We would stop every once and a while just to admire it and look for where Orion was then.

 Once we hit the trail (after walking FOREVER!!)
we then enjoyed the night trail.

We were walking uphill most of the time, not extreme, but near hillsides where snow had rolled down all on its own to create some really interesting formations.

This one was just laying there after rolling down the hill.  YUP, its a SNOW HAT!!
Sam tries it on for size!







  


I saw this little spiral snow roll and it looked just like a ROSE...so Alisa added a stem and a couple dry leaves and this is how it turned out.
AMAZING!

After hiking FOREVER once again...we smelled the strong sulfur smell and knew we were getting close.

We finally arrived at the hot springs and somehow got out of our hiking clothes and into the warm water...it was slimy but wonderfully WARM!

    We had some adventures with what we thought was someone's lost shirt or sock scaring us in the water...
...and when we finally pulled it out to toss it, we realized it was plugging the pool and all our warm water was now draining to the pool below!  Ooops!

 Our next adventure was trying to change clothes in the dark without freezing to death.



 We all got changed and it was time to head back down.

I think the main thing that kept us going was thoughts of going for hot cocoa when we got down to the valley!

But it WAS beautiful!  We enjoyed the company and had such fun chatting as we walked...trying to warn each other of icy spots and helping others each time someone fell.
The night sky was AMAZING too!

At the bottom of the trail I tried to place my camera on a post and do a timer shot...but we could not see at all, pitch dark, so it turned out really funny!  We could not see where the camera was pointing at all!
We booked it the next 4 miles to the car, getting spooked once by a large animal apparently sneezing?? near the road.  Scary!
After what seemed like an eternity, we made it to the car, got the heater going and drove our stiff little bodies...stiff from 13 miles in the freezing cold!!!   Got to Flying J and went in for hot cocoa...and as soon as we were in the warm store, we all started shaking uncontrollably.  It was pretty funny!  I think this was about 3:00 AM so we were exhausted but satisfied we had done something tough and beautiful.
Can't wait to hike this one once the road opens to the trailhead.  It will be amazing in the spring, but we are ready to let it rest for the winter!  THANKS ALISA AND SAM!!!  Happy Trails!!