OCTOBER FAMILY ACTIVITIES

 PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINE FOR ALL FAMILY RELATED PHOTOS THIS MONTH!  YOU MAY BE IN SOME OF THESE IF YOU WERE WITH US!


We started the month up at the MTC saying goodbye to our Italian missionaries leaving right after conference.  We had even way more Sisters than this!

I got to go up to Breanna's classroom on her birthday October 5.
Her students surprised her with a tee shirt they had signed and lots of gifts.  They are a really sweet class...and boy did she need that after last year!!

The Saturday after this, we met Breanna and Elliot up at DONUT FALLS in Big Cottonwood Canyon for a fall hike.  We had done this hike in March and found it under 3 feet of snow.

Strangely enough, an early snow made it snowy in places today as well, it was actually so beautiful with the fall leaves and the snow!  Photos don't do it justice.

We got up to the falls pretty quickly, it was chilly and there was snow going up the sides of the river, and it was slick and cold.
Scott and Colton Anderson braved it to climb up to the donut hole...

This is the view that they found up inside the donut.

And this is them coming back down.  We were freezing just waiting for them, and they got pretty cold, but enjoyed the hike!

The next Sunday at the MTC, we found this beautiful view on our way up to the temple on our walk.
That tree was halfway bare by the next Sunday.

One night while Austin and Laura came to see us this month, Braden surprised us by coming upstairs in his DINOSAUR COSTUME!  We worried the kids would be afraid, but they figured out who was inside pretty quickly and all was well.

The boys went to the BYU game that night and Brooklyn helped me make BROWNIE CUPCAKES for Breanna's zoo birthday party the next day!

She was a wonderful helper and also made little favor bags for the guests.
The kids picked out things from the dollar store to put in the bags.

Early Saturday morning, Scott and I drove to Heber for a Mission President Reunion with our friends from the area we served in the Southwest with.

What great people they are and what good they continue to do!


We then met up with our family at the Hogle Zoo for a birthday celebration reminiscent of Breanna as a young child!

We got the biggest kick out of Evan.  Every time we would say something like "We are going to see Breanna today" he would say "AND ELLIOT"  They had Skyped one time and it made a big impression on Evan.

He took right to Elliot and held his hand ready to go into the zoo!

We love that they have the old Lion drinking fountain that we used to get pictures of OUR KIDS drinking from, and now it is our GRANDKIDS!!  We can't be that old!!

Acting like MONKEYS!!!

We are loving getting to know McKenna better and she was a great sport coming along with everyone!!

And how about these traditional pictures?!!

And the boys turn!  We were so happy to have Nathan and Tanner and Daniel join us with Jennifer today!!

We just cannot get enough of baby Mackenzie smiles!  She is at a sweet age and so happy!

Reminds us of zoo pictures at Phoenix with Brooklyn when she was little!

Evan wanted to stand inside this nest near the bald eagle.

And crawling through the big log, he plays PEEK-A-BOO with his favorite big friend!

We spent a long time with the underwater view of the sea lions and seals.  They really put on a show-off-show for us!!

We seriously could have stayed there all day if we were not so hungry!!

Brooklyn studying the zoo map!

Taking the boys down the steps by the polar bear and seals.

Some Grandpa Mackenzie time!!

And some Mommy Mackenzie time.

Some Grandpa Evan time!

And a lovely picnic lunch for us all at the zoo!

Complete with Birthday brownie cupcakes and candle for the birthday girl!!

Some book time before bed!!

And family time at the MTC the next day after Church there.

Sunday night we headed up to Lori's house for another family celebration for Breanna!
So good for everyone to see each other and celebrate again!!

Evan liked the "skinny carrots" that I got for the salad...we spelled his name out then he ate it!

We spent a long time Monday at the MUSEUM OF NATURAL CURIOSITY in Lehi.

Brooklyn loved acting and dressed in many costumes.

Evan is blowing a big big bubble that we formed with the screen.

And making really cool swirly patterns on the spinner.

 Daddy and Brooklyn make a short stop motion movie.

And Daniel and Brooklyn heap their plates with tons of UNHEALTHY CHOICES and love it!

We spent some time in this room building with many shapes!!

You can see Evan peeking out from under this one!

 The kiddos building more magnet machines.

Getting ready to step on some pirates in this game area.

Out in the Children's Garden Evan and Daddy took a lovely walk.

Brooklyn was SUPER BRAVE today and went on the zipline!

Scott and I came back over for a tour of the new LIGHT OF THE WORLD GARDENS in Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

Beautiful scruptures of the life of the Savior.

Then we met up with Jennifer and the kids who had stayed from the morning and went to FARM COUNTRY.
They were making cute crafts...then we went on a scavenger hunt for 10 pictures of Halloween items hidden all over the farm.  They were determined to find them to get a prize!

And Brooklyn was brave AGAIN and rode the pony!  What a good day!

They were really good learners and interested in the insides of some squashes and pumpkins at one of the educational tables for the day.  

And we got a photo of them in the beanbag toss barn!

As we were leaving, it was MILKING TIME so Daniel and then Nathan wanted to have a try at it!

It was pretty cool that they got to do this!

Story time with Uncle Braden and McKenna.

 A morning at HANG TIME with Daniel and Nathan...good times were had by all!

It was so hard to move once you jumped into anything...made me feel really old!

Laura and Brooklyn did pretty good though!!

What could be more fun that bouncing with bouncy balls?!!

The foam block pit was EXTREMELY HARD to get out of once you got in!

We love JAKERS PUMPKIN PATCH down in Springville as a fall play place!
Daniel found a nice pumpkin seat!

We went on a HAYRIDE...

We got to choose pumpkins!!!

Some more Grandpa Mackenzie time!!

And more Elliott and Breanna story time!  They LOVED the book about cats growing on a farm!

I think most of you know I am now on the Provo Energy Board for the City...
Our new Power Building is just completed so I was there for the GRAND OPENING and RIBBON CUTTING!

 The video may not work til I upload it correctly...if I do...but they cut it with an electric arc.  Pretty fun!

Scott and I went to a Halloween Party with some old friends from our ward.

Borrowed the T-Rex costume and I went as the Paleontologist...

The one who gets eaten!!

Working on some sewing projects for Baby Mackenzie!!  Name banner and quilt in the works!!

Last Saturday we spent up in Logan on a beautiful fall day!

We went to a temple session with about a dozen mission friends.

Then I took up lunch and we met at the home of one of our RMs and had more come meet up with us for a great visit!

So good to see these kids and many getting married and still in school and working so hard and doing so well!!

The home has a DISNEY ROOM completely full of Disney stuff.  Had to get a photo in preparation for our upcoming Disney trip with Jenna and Ty and boys!

Checking out a lovely wooded area in Big Cottonwood Canyon that Bre has scheduled for her and Elliot to tie the knot next summer.
 More details later!!

And it is traditional PUMPKIN PIZZA time at the Taylors for Halloween!

And traditional pumpkin carving as well!
Very well done all!  We grew our own pumpkins and they were super thick!

HAPPY FALL!!  WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

SEPTEMBER 2016

 I'm not sure where September went, but it went too fast!

We have been in the fast track all month and have evidence in photo form!

This is our son Braden.  He is very silly.  This is him in the backseat on our way to Phoenix for the BYU vs AZ game the first of the month!

We had a great time there and of course, visited with friends from our mission time!  This is Dana taking photos of our Office Couples at a dinner we had.

We had to get out on our hike over at Thunderbird Conservation area near the Phoenix Temple...one of our favorite traditional hiking areas.  And yes, it was hot!

We picked up Austin at the airport and went on a tour of favorite places...


The Mesa LDS Temple

Bahama Bucks Shave Ice!!!  We were there when they opened at 11 AM

And Chino Bandidos for our fix of Chinese Mexican food!!! YUM!!!!

We took our friends the Kings to the game with us at Cardinal Stadium.  It was SO MUCH FUN!

The stadium was HUGE and is all enclosed with a retractible roof, and even a grass field that they can roll out into the sun and roll back inside as needed.

Lucky for us, BYU managed a win that day!  We had fun seeing quite a few RM friends at the game as well!

Back in town, we were able to go to the sealing for an RM Landon Bouwhuis.  He was one of our earlier missionaries and it was great to see him after a long time!

We had been watching the leaves turn colors up on the mountains, so for FHE we took Braden and Makenna up to Bridal Veil falls on a little walk.

I got the bug to do some re-do's in the house this month and oh, what a mess I am still in...because one thing leads to another!


I started with the bathroom cabinets.  The old oak cabinets had seen better days and I thought white would match the beadboard on the walls so...

...here is the new look.  We love it!  It looks crisp and clean.

So, when I was looking up some things online I saw some re-dos of railings.











I gel stained the top and end rails and have been painting the spindles white...it is a very long and tedious process but the entry rails are ALMOST done and I am working on the upstairs now.

Scott has torn out the tile in the entry for me and we got some nice dark wood-look ceramic tile to re-do that as well.

Several RM receptions and sealings this month including Spencer Brame.  He had brain surgery last year so this is rather a miracle!

 We held our Reunion up in Rexburg the weekend before Conference and had a lot of fun up there with an evening open house, morning temple session and lunch at Pizza Pie Cafe.

We went to help Carole pack some boxes and got home late that Saturday night after a rainy weekend.  We did not see the snow that had fallen in the mountains til the next morning when we went to the MTC.  It was so beautiful with the snow and then the red trees underneath the snowline!


And that day we also had our monthly mission dinner at our home for whoever had signed up at reunion.  We had a great group including our friends the Kings who were in town!

Last month I officially started as a member of the Provo City Energy Board.  Actually, I attended my first meeting before receiving the official letter from the mayor.

One of my invitations this month was to tour the newly acquired West Valley Power Plant, a natural gas facility that Utah Municipal Power purchased.  It was really interesting to see inside all the workings...and yes, I had to wear a hard hat.  I was the only one in our group who did not have their own hat.   Hmm...all I want for Christmas is my own hard hat?

I'm pretty sure I have one in the costume box...









We held our semi-annual reunion in Provo this past weekend and it was very fun.  Of course, we have less each time that come, and that is normal.  And more are married or have children.  We had about 70 RMs and then additional spouses and friends, but it is a good time for whoever comes!

More visits with RMs at the reunion!











We also had a few over for S'Mores after Priesthood session of conference and that was also lots of fun!

Sunday morning before Conference, we went to say good bye to our missionaries heading to Italy this week.  This is just part of the Sisters in our Branch who stayed after for a photo.  We are pretty attached to this group and will miss them!

BUSY SEPTEMBER!!
Looking forward to a visit from Austin and Laura and kiddos for OCTOBER and then Jenna and kiddos for NOVEMBER!

AUGUST 2016

When I see African violets, I think of my Mom.  She always had several and they were so beautiful.  I imagine most of her kids have them in their homes as well.
This particular one, Breanna gave me.  It had gotten so large, I split it into 3 plants this summer and gave one back to Breanna, and took one on the plane to Jenna.
The mother plant, looked pretty bad after the split...wilted and unstable.  But after some time, it perked right back up and now it produced this plethora of blooms!
I imagine there is a lesson we can take from nature...its hard when you have change, and we may react and need time to adjust, but we can recover beautifully with some TLC!

Jenny brought over a watermelon plant on her birthday...tiny leaves and all...and it has thrived SLOWLY.  It finally produced two small watermelons, which we shall see if they have time to mature to adulthood!  Cute though!

August brought an exciting trip to SEATTLE area to visit Austin, Laura, Brooklyn, Evan and new baby Mackenzie.


She was even cuter in person and we loved that first meeting!

Brooklyn on the other hand, just wanted Grandpa there to be super SILLY!  She wanted to laugh all the way home from the airport and any chance she got after that.

Lets just say that Grandpa gave her plenty of chances!

Evan is at that fun age where he is really coming into his own as such an individual with strong likes and dislikes.

He LIKES the beach area at a lake near their home.
He does not like to tell you where he is going at any given time...he just takes off so you have to have eagle eyes with him!

The big boys enjoyed going to a SEATTLE MARINERS game in town!

And Evan was particularly excited about the Museum of Flight, which has greatly improved since we went many years ago.  We really had a great visit there!  Tons of airplanes you could see and even walk up through!

We made a day trip into Seattle to meet up with a former missionary, Kynsey Solaita and her baby and husband.  So sweet to get to spend some time with them!

Ane we made a visit to the famous Pikes Place Market just for old times sake.  If we only could have brought home the beautiful fresh flowers you can get so cheap there!

Had to snap this shot of our cute little family during scripture time of Family Home Evening.  They are so good each night to read a scripture story and say prayers together.  I know it is making a difference in their family!
Good Job!!

Mackenzie does not lack for attention or love.
(We could not resist getting a couple of matching outfits for the girls either.)

We had a park morning where we took soccer balls and tee-ball equipment to play with.

Austin is such a good daddy...and good brother to Braden too.  They all had a lot of fun!

We went on lots of walks in the area while we were there, and Brooklyn was not afraid to go with us.  This morning she was doing dips with Braden at a little park area on our walk.  SO CUTE!

We spent the most fulfilling day with Breanna at her BURN CAMP for preschoolers.

It was the most amazing experience for all of us.
She was super organized and the whole camp is a pretty spiritual experience.  They really build up all these youth to help them become who they really can...unlimited potential!!

Here I am with Michael, Braden's camper, and my two campers Landon and Kipton!
Our other camper was Griffin was assigned to Elliot, which we were grateful for...he was out of control!  But all were so cute!!















Breanna read them the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" which was the perfect message for them that they can do ANYTHING they put their mind to!

Here is our group at our campsite.  It was one busy place for the day...projects on every table!!

We had the Janulis here for Education Week and loved getting to see them a few times.  They were great to tag along to all our family activities that week!

 We flew over to Fort Collins Colorado to be with Scott's family for the Open House of the new temple there.

It was just beautiful!  We loved it inside and out, and loved being there with people we love!

It is not a big temple, but it is a great design!

(Scott, Lori, Mitch, Carole, Alan, Aaron)

We went up into the Poudre Valley to a family camping site they used a lot...spent a long time just playing by the river.
Here I am with Jessica.  It was fun to have Mitch, Jen, Jessica, Megan and her girls Olive and Rosie...Aaron, Michelle, Ella, Matthew, Collin and Lily, Alan, Carole and Lori.