Fall miscecellany

 Class reunion shoot: Monday, September 12

Andrea talks (with her hands) with Seth (the photographer) while getting set up to shoot a 60th class reunion for our neighbors, the Berretts. The class reunion was held at Rigby High School. 

Seth has a chat with one of the members of the RHS class. This class member had a table set up with information about his Big Foot sightings. Seth was a captive audience.

 Daughter date: Saturday, September 17

Miriam, Seth, Winnie and Andrea pose after completing an escape room as a daughter-daddy-daughter-mommy date. We barely solved it in time.

Enjoying Orange Leaf after the escape room.

Movie date: Saturday, September 17

Peach and Seth watch a movie in the shop with Rebekah. Seth and Rebekah regularly watch scary movies together. This evening they chose to watch in the shop so Peach could join them (as Peach is not allowed in the house).

 Birthday date: Wednesday, September 21

Andrea and Seth shoot a selfie while on a date for Andrea's birthday at Smokin' Fins.

Out for dinner: Thursday, September 29

Andrea, Winnie, Miriam, Rebekah and Ana at Noodles and Company. All of us (but Winnie) qualified for a COVID booster, so we got our shots and then went to dinner. Seth was spending the week in Island Park archery hunting with his dad.

Chillin': Saturday, October 1

Winnie, Ana and Miriam hang out in the master bedroom on a Saturday morning. Seth had texted to let me know he was on his way home from hunting camp, so I took this picture to show him what we were currently up to.

General Conference: Sunday, October 2

Rebekah, Miriam, Winnie, Seth and Ana watch General Conference in the great room.

Winnie and Seth stretch their legs during a session of General Conference.

Rebekah takes a little Conference snooze on the couch.

Car repairs: Friday, October 7

Seth pours transmission repair fluid into the Stratus. It had started acting weird while Rebekah was driving home from school the day before, so I told her to pull over and I'd pick her up. We took the car in to have the transmission looked at, but the mechanics couldn't find anything wrong. We assume the transmission repair fluid did its job.

Substituting: Friday, October 14

Andrea expresses her misgivings about substitute teaching for the first time in 19 years. I thought it would be a good idea to sign on as a sub for the district. My first job made me second-guess everything. The lesson plans were sparse at best. One kid kicked a wall. Another kid lay down on the ground and started crying. It was a long day.

Shopping: Saturday, October 22

Winnie poses while wearing the most ridiculous heels she could find at Goodwill.

Winnie is elated to find her name on Santa's nice list at Home Depot. We were shopping for parts to make another lightsaber hilt for Bennet to be a Jedi for Halloween.

Crocheting: Sunday, October 23

Rebekah crochets in bed. Ana taught herself to crochet by watching YouTube and reading tutorials. Then she taught Rebekah to crochet.

T-shirt quilt: Wednesday, October 26

The T-shirt quilt Andrea made for the Fairview Fall Carnival. I volunteered to make the quilt for the raffle. The T-shirts were donated by (mostly) teachers. Frances Merrill did the quilting.

Ghost dog: Thursday, October 27

Ana fits part of a sheet over Peach in preparation for a photo shoot. Unfortunately, the holes for Peach's eyes and nose ripped out while she was trying it on.

Ana photo shoot: Friday, October 28

Ana poses at Freeman Park during a photo shoot. Ana chose to do the shoot for her mommy-daughter date.

Ana tosses leaves during the photos shoot.

Ana and Peach as ghosts. Apparently the ghost thing was an internet trend. That's what I'm told, anyway.

Bed head: Sunday, October 30

Winnie's outrageous bed head. She took a shower the night before and fell asleep on her wet hair.

Corn maze: Friday, November 4

Winnie uses a punch to mark her game card in the corn maze. Seth and I had promised her that we'd take her to a corn maze since all three of her sisters got to go to one as part of a youth activity. Then the month of October slipped by, and we panicked when we realized we hadn't made good on that promise. Thank goodness one corn maze was open the week after Halloween. By that time, the corn was dead, the temperature had dropped, and it actually snowed on us that night. We bundled up and managed to complete the maze and all the games.

Andrea in the corn maze.

Family onesie selfie: Monday, November 7

Andrea, Seth, Rebekah, Ana, Miriam and Winnie (with only lips visible) in our onesies in the great room. This is what inspired us to do the Christmas card shoot in our onesies at the Utah State Capitol.

Ana photo shoot: Thursday, November 17

Miriam participates in a Zoom webinar with the author of her favorite series. Shannon Messenger offered tickets to her webinar in conjunction with the release of her latest book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. Miriam spent her own money to buy the ticket. 

Peach sleeps inside: Friday, November 18

Peach gives Seth some love after he let her into the laundry room for the night. Peach isn't allowed to be in the house--with the exception of cold nights. Seth has taken pity on her (she IS 9 years old, after all), and lets her come in to sleep when the temperature gets below 10 degrees at night.

Peach helps around the house: Saturday, November 19

Seth attempts to screw a piece of siding back into the house while Peach gives him kisses.

Ginger plays: Saturday, November 19

Ginger plays in the space Seth has provided for her on the kitchen floor. Unfortunately, Ginger passed away sometime in the early morning hours of December 17. We had suspected she had some underlying condition or sickness for a while, but despite that, she was spry and playful clear up until the day before she passed.

Thanksgiving

The girls had the entire week of Thanksgiving off, so we spent the first part of the week at Grandma Hendricks' cabin (November 20-23). Everyone but Seth came up on Sunday, and Seth joined us Monday evening so he could work part of the week. We spent our days up there watching movies, playing games, eating food, going on walks and sledding.

Seth in the saucer. We found a good hill on the south side of Henry's where we only hit a few aspens on our way down.

Ana and Miriam burying Rebekah in the snow.

Ana burying Miriam while Rebekah, Seth and Winnie watch.

My last run of the day included a faceplant.

Winnie enjoying the loft of the cabin.

Ana reading with her giant crocheted octopus that she made while we were there.

Ana, Rebekah, Winnie and Andrea on our way back from the cabin.

Usually we cut down a Christmas tree a day or two after Thanksgiving, but this year we were headed out of town immediately after the holiday, so we coordinated with the Scotts and went the morning of Thanksgiving day (November 24).

Winnie driving Uncle T's tiny snowmobile.

Winnie, Ana and Rebekah on the Grover four-wheeler. Miriam stayed home from the tree-cutting because she had a cough. Rebekah was trying to get over a cough, so she kept her face covered while we were out.

Ana petting Cu while the family loads up the trees.

After unloading the tree into a bucket of water in our shop, we went over to Grandma Scott's and had a delicious traditional Thanksgiving feast. 

The day after (November 25), we drove to Provo to attend the Larsen family reunion. This reunion was for all the descendants of Vernon and Lula Larsen (Grandma Hendricks' parents). There weren't nearly as many people there as qualified for attending, but with the holiday it wasn't a surprise. We were the only grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Grandma Hendricks' in attendance. It was fun to meet so many of Seth's family and learn about Vernon and Lula.

Miriam, Rebekah, Winnie and Ana riding in our rental van to Utah. Why did we rent a van? Because the power steering on our van wasn't working, and the mechanic couldn't see it until the next week. Why wasn't the power steering working? It wasn't because the pump needed to be replaced (which is what we assumed), it was because the guys at the other mechanic shop hadn't hooked the hoses up correctly when they took it apart to replace the rack and pinion. Argh. 

Miriam, Rebekah and Ana looking at some of the Larsen artifacts on display at the reunion. They had examples of Lula's embroidery, tatting and crocheting, and Vernon's lapidary work, paintings, etc. 

Because we made the drive to Utah, we figured we'd spend some time having fun while down there. After the reunion, we went to dinner at City Creek and walked around Temple Square to see the lights. Because the temple and the surrounding area are under construction, there weren't as many places to walk around, but we enjoyed what had been decorate and what we could see.

After eating dinner at City Creek, the family chooses some items to donate at a Light the World kiosk. We purchased diapers, water purification and ?? for those in need.

Miriam, Seth and Ana looking at the Salt Lake Temple as it is strengthened and repaired. 

Miriam, Seth, Rebekah and Ana in the Assembly Hall. The Assembly Hall, Tabernacle and Conference Center were all open for patrons. 

After spending a night at a hotel and eating breakfast the next morning, we all got into our onesie jammies (one hotel patron saw us leaving the hotel dressed in them and asked, "Headed to a pajama party?") and drove to the state capitol to shoot the pictures for our family Christmas card. 

Then we went back to Temple Square to spend a couple of hours at the Church History Museum before coming home again. The church history information was great, of course, but it was certainly a different experience now that we've actually been to all the places mentioned at the museum. We could point to the displays and say, "Remember Joseph Smith's house in Palmyra?" "We saw that store in Kirtland." "We walked around the Nauvoo Temple."

Honestly, the highlight of the museum was probably the art on display on the upper floor. The church had its annual art contest's entries on display, and we spent a long time looking at every piece before finally tearing ourselves away so we could drive home.

Winnie pushed to one side of the hotel bed with no covers while Miriam sleeps diagonally. 

Ana shooting a sister selfie in front of the Capitol. We only got a few strange looks from people while we were there; the Capitol was pretty empty the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Our super rad Christmas card featuring serious pictures of us in our onesies. We changed into "regular" clothes in the Capitol bathroom before we headed back to Temple Square.

Rebekah, Ana, Winnie, Miriam and Seth looking at the church history display about Kirtland.

Winnie taking in the interactive map.

Miriam, Winnie and Seth looking at one of our favorite pieces of art: a depiction of a Primary class on Sunday. Everyone related to it.