October 2022

 

Me with the college I attend (virtually) in the background

Travis and I at Chaplain conference

Gideon's class got to see a firetruck

Austin at BYU-IDaho

Travis going bowling with Joseph and Jessica

Me in front of one of my favorite paintings in the conference center

Gideon on the zipline at the fall festival

The going out trick or treating

Climbing the big tires at the fall festival

Rolling in the tunnels at the fall festival

Caleb thought it was funny to try on SpongeBob SquarePants slippers (the kids know I don't like SpongeBob)

Lets go fly a kite!

Austin doing a color run with her roommates at college

I am Mrs. Green for "clue night" at a relief society activity

Clue Night for a relief society activity

At chaplain conference

Me with my friend Lisa Fletcher at Chaplain Conference

Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon at a Stripling Warrior primary activity

Sam's Halloween candy haul

Austin at the end of her color run

Attending General Conference together!

Youth Temple Trip (Samuel)

Austin hurt her foot, when boys were rough housing and one landing on her foot.  Luckily it was not broken

Me with my friends Elizabeth Lewis and Catherine Wiberg

October was another fun month.  My mom came out and stayed with the kids while Travis and I went to chaplain conference.  It was wonderful to hear the words of the prophets and apostles in person.  The spirit in the conference center was almost tangible.  Especially when the prophet entered the room, you could feel the spirit bear witness to the truthfulness that here is a prophet of God.  After conference on Sunday we went to Maia and Jamies house and had dinner with them and Joseph and Jessica, and then we helped Joseph and Jessica move to their new place in Eagle Mountain (and Airbnb that they are still in until the end of January) It was nice to see them, and help them into into their new place, then we went over to Nick and Nora's (Travis' aunt and uncle) who also live in Eagle Mountain and had dinner with then (boy was I stuffed).  Then for the next two days we had Chaplain Conference which was wonderful and filled with the spirit as well.  I had to do school work in between sessions and afterwards, but we still managed to have a little fun, and Travis went with Joseph and Jessica and took them bowling one night.  It was an inspiring and faith-filled trip.  My mom was certainly happy to have us back, and realized that next time she watches the kids she needs my Dad to come too, the kids are a bit of a handful for one person.  We were certainly grateful that she took such good care of them.  Instead of Travis coming back with me to Texas after conference, he went and visited his mom and dad in montana for another week.  He enjoyed spending time with his parents.  In October we went to a fall festival/pumpkin patch and had a lot of fun with the activities they had there.  The kids got plenty of candy from the ward trunk or treat and from trick or treating on Halloween.  I told the kids that I would buy there candy from them in an attempt to have them not each too much candy.  So they tried to get as much candy as possible, so that they could get more money.  They got plenty of candy, I ended up paying over $50 for candy to them.  

September 2022

Saying Goodbye to Austin before she goes off to College again

Betsy's first day as a substitute teacher

 September was mostly getting used to having Travis home, and spending time with him.  Betsy also got a job as a substitute teacher and started subbing when she didn't get enough hours at subway.  We enjoyed getting harvest from our garden and planting a fall garden.  Austin went back to college and I also started my fall semester at Ensign College, taking an Excel, quickbooks, communications class, and religion class.  

August 2022

 

Malachi found a good tree to climb

Samuel at our silo at Lonehollow camp. 

Gideon and Malachi on our hike in St. George

Happy Birthday Malachi

Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon found a fun spot to crawl in while on our hike in St. George

Malachi's first day of school

Gideon with the bag Grandma made him

Samuel spinning on one of the games at LoneHollow Camp

Malachi the birthday boy!

Malachi loves riding horses

Making pancakes look like peoples names is fun to do

Caleb, Malachi, and Gideon climbing up high on our hike

Caleb's 1st day of Middle School

Samuel, Caleb, Malachi, Gideon in the archway under our silo at Lonehollow Ranch

Swinging with my Mom at a dinosaur park in St. George

Gideon on our slot canyon hike in St. George

Betsy is "18"!

Camp LoneHollow

Caleb, Malachi, Samuel, and Gideon up a tree

Gideon loved this slot canyon hike

These are tiny little frogs!

All of us with the bags we made with Grandma Hardy

Samuel's not too big to swing

Caleb going down the slide at Camp LoneHollow

Daddy made it home!!!

Malachi and Caleb playing games together

Gideon sure loves fishing at Camp LoneHollow

Travis's formation at homecoming ceremony

Malachi got to hold the flag on his birthday

Caleb made Malachi lots of cool things from popsicle sticks

On our flight to St. George the captain let Gideon go into the cockpit and sit with him for a minute

I love hiking in St. George

The inside of our silo we stayed in at Camp Lonehollow

At the park with Grandma Hardy

Malachi caught a fish on his birthday

Rock climbing was fun at the rec center with Grandma and Grandpa Hardy 

Gideon loved riding horses at Camp Lonehollow

I think Malachi got 3 birthday celebrations.  We celebrated before we left for Camp Lonehollow and he got a small cake he picked out from the store.  Then he got to open presents on his birthday while at Camp Lonehollow and be the birthday boy for the day.  Then we celebrated again at Grandma and Grandpa Hardys' house in St. George Utah!  We sure packed a lot of fun into the first two weeks of August. We went to the Young Life camp at Lonehollow, Texas.  We had a lot of fun there, but it was sure hot, hot, hot.  Over 100 degrees every day.  Luckily the silo we had all to ourselves had good A/C and we stayed comfortable indoors.  The lake was really the only thing to do in the afternoon, and it was a bit difficult for me to watch all the boys at the same time, and Samuel when he would try and help, kept hurting them.  Austin didn't want to go the lake as it's makes her feel ill, and the one time Betsy came she ended up falling off the zipline and bruised her back so she didn't want to go again.  We loved the free food and the activities, and the skits and entertainment all week were pretty good too. Malachi and Gideon absolutely loved the fishing and horseback riding.  At one point we stopped in the gift shop becuase I needed to buy some soap for the shower, as they didn't include any in our room.  Gideon was looking at stuff and asked me how much something was, I told him it was $7, and he loudy exclaims "but, I dont' have any dollars".  Everybody in the shop laughed at that.  At the end of the week they announced that a generous donor provided $50 for each person to get things from the gift shop.  Everyone loved being able to pick out a few things, and Gideon was especially happy!  Our family won the outdoor game events where we had to collect the most tokens by doing different things outside, like catching frisbees, playing volleyball, and telling jokes.  Gideon and Malachi were constantly going up  to the guys and telling them ridiculous jokes to get more tokens, pretty sure that is why we had the most.  Everyone there was really nice and helpful and we had a great week.  As we were leaving the camp, they gave us sack lunches and backpacks full of supplies for each kid, it was awesome.  We drove to Austin and stayed the night in a hotel and then flew to Las Vegas, and rental a minivan and drove to St. George and stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for the week.  We had another great week. We loved hiking and playing at parks, and sewing bags and playing in the pool.  The kids also loved going to a ninja gym and skating rink.  The last day we had to leave early and hung out at Dave and Busters in Las Vegas until it was time to catch our flight.  The kids had a lot of fun, and we made it home safely.  The kids all started school the next day, and had a great day at school.  Unfortunatly for Caleb though he had a terrible time riding his bike home.  We learned that riding a new bike that is a bit too big for him, having a really heavy backpack with the straps not tight enough, and over a hundred degree weather is not a good combination.  He had a really rough ride home, and has never ridden a bike to school again.  But school itself was good, and he either walks with me to school or rides the bus.  Betsy turned 18 years old, and we had a nice little celebration for her.  Travis made it home the end of August after his 9 month deployment, and for once he didn't arrive home in the middle of the night.  The little boys were all able to come with me to pick up Travis, and it was really nice to be together again.