Halloween

 As per our annual Halloween traditions, the girls make jack-o-lanterns right before the holiday on Wednesday, October 30. 

Ana gags as she guts her pumpkin.

Winnie and Miriam prepare their gourds.

Rebekah using our new tool (a glove with a built-in scraper) to prep her pumpkin.

On the actual day of Halloween, our family went to the temple to do baptisms for a dead (Halloween is a GREAT day to do that because nobody else is there and you get in and out really quickly). Then we took pictures of the girls with their jack-o-lanterns. Winnie went trick-or-treating with her friend, Chloe, while Miriam and Ana watched a movie with a few friends at our house. I made apple cider and spudnuts. We had (only!) four groups of trick-or-treaters come to our house. 

Outside the temple before our appointment.

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The girls with their pumpkins. Winnie did a ghost and a tombstone. Ana did a silly meme pumpkin. Miriam did the Beatles' silhouettes on Abbey Road. Rebekah did a ringwraith from Lord of the Rings.

Silly family picture with pumpkins.

The jack-o-lanterns all aglow.

Even though the girls all wore their costumes to school and Seth wore his to work that day, we didn't get our family costume pictures taken until the next day when we had more time on our hands.

Miriam as Velma.

Winnie as a ghost. Or Winnie as a person dressed up as a ghost. She was going to be Bingo from the kids' TV show Bluey, but her friend that was going to be Bluey didn't go that route after all, so Winnie decided to go with the sheet right before the holiday ... which ended up working perfectly with the costumes the rest of us had chosen.

Ana as Daphne.

Rebekah as Fred.

Seth as Shaggy.

Andrea as Scooby Doo. Gratefully Rachel's family had done the same theme last year, so I was able to borrow their Scooby costume.

Being chased by a ghost.

Darn those meddling kids!

Fall performances

Once the school year gets underway, it's only a matter of time before our evenings fill up with concerts and performances. Here's the rundown of our fall performances. 

Choir concert: Monday, October 14

Ana claps and sings during the Bonnevaires' performance of "" in the Performing Arts Center at Hillcrest. It was Ana's first-ever choir concert.

Singing with the choir.

BYU-Idaho concert: Thursday, October 17

Rebekah playing the second trombone part in a trombone trio at the college. Despite not being a registered student this semester (because of her mission starting in November), she was asked to perform with her trombone professor and a senior classmate during this concert.

Rebekah with Quentin and Brother Meacham. (Rebekah is so much shorter than the others. And so much more animated when she plays.) The piece they played ("Trio Con Brio") was composed by a French music professor who came to Rexburg and conducted the piece.

ISU choir invitational: Saturday, October 19

Ana sings "Never Let Go" with the Bonnevaires at a choir invitational. Each choir sang one of its own songs, then they all got up on the stage to form a mega-choir that sang some gospel songs directed by a professor from Illinois who had spent the day teaching the kids.

Halftime: Friday, October 25

Miriam and other ballroom dancers talking to kids in the stands while waiting for halftime.

Miriam performing "Pictures of Mountains" with the ballroom team during halftime at a football game.

Miriam's first high school ballroom performance.

Band concert: Thursday, November 7

Miriam plays the bass drum as the band performs pep band songs at the beginning of their concert.

Playing the marimba during the percussion ensemble piece titled "Sofapilla."

Band concert: Thursday, November 14

Winnie takes a break between songs in her first band concert as a middle school student. We couldn't see her face whenever she had her baritone up, hence the picture between songs.

Miss Bonneville: Saturday, November 16

Ana participates in the opening number of the Miss Bonneville scholarship pageant. Ana had considered participating her junior year, but decided she actually wanted to do it her final year of high school.

Ana sings the Postmodern Jukebox version of "My Heart Will Go On" during the talent portion of the pageant. 

Ana answers her onstage question during the pageant. She was asked if she could travel to anywhere in the world, where would it be? She answered by saying she would love to go back to Italy because she has taken some classes at Bonneville (Art History I and II) and would love to see the art and architecture again. 

Andrea and Seth posing with Ana after the pageant. Despite all her hard work, Ana didn't receive any awards besides the $150 in scholarship money that every participant received.

Posing with her sisters. Ana put her heart and soul into the practices and performance, and she learned a lot.

Miriam's marching band

 This kid loves music. And she loves to be involved. And she's a pushover when it comes to recruiters. So last spring when the high school started hyping up marching band, Miriam decided she'd participate.

Things got off to a rocky start. She missed the spring camp because she was in Washington, D.C. for National History Day. Even though it was a school activity and we got the band director's blessing to miss the camp, Miriam was very stressed about being behind everyone else. 

Then her section leader told everyone in drumline that they had to submit daily videos showing them practicing the music for the show. Miriam stressed out about that as well. Even though I thought that surely her section leader would understand if she missed a couple of days because the family was traveling across the country, Miriam didn't think so. So she submitted videos while we were in Nauvoo.

Then she went to fall camp. It's a grueling two weeks of music and marching, drills and memorization. Miriam was ... wait for it ... stressed. And her feet hurt. She grumbled that this would be the one and only year she did marching band and that she would quit if she could but she knew she'd already committed.

Finally after countless hours of work--by herself, with her section, with the band as a whole--the season officially started. The band participated in four competitions and performed twice at halftimes. We were pleasantly surprised when the High Desert Marching Band took first place in their division at Highland High School's competition. Then they won again in Rexburg. We were shocked when they took first again in Logan. (At this one they were competing against bands they hadn't seen at other competitions, and marching band is a really big deal in a lot of places in Utah, so we didn't think they'd take first there.) They're last competition was at ISU. Not only did they take first place in their division, but they also received the best percussion award (which is especially exciting because Miriam is part of the percussion) and the Gem State award which is given to the band from Idaho with the highest score at the competition regardless of their division. (We heard a rumor that this was the first year in 15 that Madison hadn't won that one.)

And at some point during the season, Miriam relaxed. She had fun. She saw her hard work paying off. 

Now she's talking about participating in marching band again next year. So we'll see if she still feels that way in the spring.

The band had an end-of-the-year banquet after their final competition. The directors handed out a series of awards that were voted on by the students. Miriam received the "outstanding freshman" award. 

She is. It was hard. She sometimes regretted her involvement, but despite that she continued to work hard. And she was amazing. She's the cutest little 3rd bass drum player I ever did see.

Signaling her love before performing at the end of their fall camp. The family members were invited to Hillcrest on the final day of camp to see what the kids had learned.

Heading out onto the field before their first competition at Highland in Pocatello.

Heading behind the props during their performance at Madison in Rexburg.

Kneeling at the end of the performance at Madison.

Dancing to Cotton Eye Joe in the stands as the judges tally the scores at Madison.

Miriam performing at a Bonneville football halftime. The band performed once for a BHS halftime and once for a Hillcrest halftime since the band is combined with both schools.

Miriam signing a copy of Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree to give to her drumline directors. The show this year was titled "The Giving Tree" and was based off the book.

Miriam rehearsing before their competition at ISU in Pocatello.

More rehearsing.

Andrea and Seth with one of the rolling props that spelled out "And the tree was happy." We signed up to help move it on and off the field. Unfortunately, there was an incident with the prop and I ended up getting the back of my leg run into. The bruise was gnarly.

Seth shooting pictures of Andrea shooting pictures of the band at ISU.

Miriam with her outstanding freshman award and all the awards the band earned in their 2024 season.

General Conference

Years ago we had talked about taking all the girls to General Conference one time after we had taken each of them separately after turning 8. We even talked about how we needed to go for October 2024 Conference because we knew Rebekah would be home in between missions. Then we kinda forgot about it until just a month or two before Conference. So when Seth reached out to the stake to see if there would be six tickets available for one of the Sunday sessions, we weren't holding our breath. But maybe because this was the first year since 2019 and COVID that the Conference Center was filled to capacity, there were tickets to be had.

We knew we'd be busy the Saturday of Conference with a marching band competition. So it worked out well for us to leave home about 7 (Miriam's call time was a bright and early 4:30 a.m.) on Saturday morning (October 5), drive down to Logan, watch Miriam and the High Desert Marching Band perform, then carry on to Salt Lake and spend the night. 

Miriam following her performance. The drumline bought this unworldly combination of a shark and a horse to share. The kids took turns taking it home and caring for it. Miriam got it at the Logan competition. 

Miriam watching the other bands performing. We waited around to see the awards for her division. We had been sitting on the west side of the stadium for Miriam's performance, but pretty soon we felt baked and moved to the one spot of shade in the south bleachers. Some of us listened to parts of the Saturday morning session of Conference while watching the other bands perform.

Eating Aggie ice cream after the award ceremony.

Watching the Saturday afternoon session in our hotel room.

We had packed a lunch to eat while at the stadium. For dinner we had everyone vote and ended up ordering Apollo burgers with mozzarella sticks, onion rings, battered mushrooms and fries for dinner. We ate them in the hotel room while we watched the Saturday evening session.

Sunday morning we slept in a while (except Rebekah who woke up at something like 5:30 so she could go down to the lobby and have a phone call with her not-official boyfriend in Delaware), then ate breakfast, got dressed, packed up and checked out of the hotel. We drove to a parking lot downtown with easy access to a park and TRAX. We walked to the park, listened to the morning session of Conference, ate another picnic lunch, then put the cooler back in the van before riding TRAX to the Conference Center. 

The family sitting on the picnic blanket outside the Salt Lake City and County Building listening to Conference on a Bluetooth speaker. 

The girls laughing at the prank Miriam and Winnie were playing on Rebekah. Rebekah had a water bottle that was almost completely frozen. Miriam pretended to melt the ice and hand it back to Rebekah so she could dump the water into her water bottle. In reality, Miriam was simply pouring water from another water bottle into the one with the frozen core. Rebekah was astounded time and time again as Miriam gave her more melted ice. Winnie helped to distract Rebekah as Miriam played the trick. In the end, Rebekah admitted to knowing exactly what they were doing and just playing along with it.

Winnie applying some of her lavender mascara to Rebekah's eyelashes while the family waits for TRAX.

The whole family outside the Conference Center.

We found our seats on the mezzanine (the second level, which is one whole level lower than I've ever sat before), then enjoyed listening to the speakers and taking notes. President Nelson was not in attendance at every session (bless him, the man is 100 years old after all), but he was there for this last session. The last talk was a prerecorded message from the prophet which included the announcements of 17 new temples. After the session, we walked back to TRAX, rode it back to our van, and drove home. This will be our last family trip with all of us before Rebekah goes on her mission.

The family inside the Conference Center.

Seth and Andrea before the Sunday afternoon session.

Walking back to TRAX after the session.

Rebekah and Sister Frei, her companion in Nauvoo. We were walking back to TRAX when a girl in front of us glanced behind her and then did a double take. It was Sister Frei! She and her boyfriend were at the same session we had just been to. Neither of the former Nauvoo brass bandmates knew the other was going to be there. What are the chances we would see each other?! It was a fun and unexpected reunion.