We had a pretty basic week of school. Ben had karate, guitar, and running club after school. Beth had karate. Calianne worked two days and had piano. Chey had piano and got some clinical experience for her CNA.

Cali and Chey both finished their BYU applications as well as their applications to other schools (Dixie, UVU, and BYU-I are all high on their lists). We cheered and slapped high fives when they pushed submit. Yay!

This weekend was Halloween! Chey didn't go to the high school on Friday because she was at MTEC that day. So, she didn't dress up, but she did attend the piano recital that Cali couldn't go to because she was helping Funfinity hand out candy on Main Street. Cali did dress up for school though as a flamingo with a couple other friends. Fun times! Bethany and her friends dressed up as the cast from Miraculous. Ben didn't dress up for school, but he did bring a cape in case he changed his mind! Savannah went to Kirk's party where they made homemade doughnuts. She wore her cape, too!

Amy and her family came to visit again for Halloween this year and also to see Mandy at BYU! She and Paul took Kevin and I out to eat and then to Mandy's band concert Friday night. It was so fun and the music was beautiful! On Saturday, we had fun visiting, carving pumpkins (yes! the ones we grew ourselves!), and drinking Cali's homemade apple cider. That night, Kevin, Paul, and Amy went to half of the football game (to see Mandy in the band!), Ben went trick or treating with the Browskis. Beth, Emma, and Hannah went trick or treating on their own. And Cali, Chey, and Kayla dressed up and went to two houses that they knew just for fun! Savannah had to work, but no one at all came to the store the last two hours!

Cider!

These girls made slime!

It was a fun Halloween! We always love having extra family to do things with! Amy and her family left on Sunday but we're so glad they came!

 We went back to school and our regular lives this week. We had a lot of rain, but also, the leaves in the valley have all changed and so orange lines the streets and sometimes creates a carpet, too. It's very pretty and I love sweatshirt weather.

Savannah worked most of the days this week. She was upbeat and fun. She told us a story of a beetle climbing out of the vent in her car and making its way "deliberately" toward her while she was driving on the freeway! She had to tell herself to focus on driving so she wouldn't crash.

Megan invited Kevin and I to come watch her play in a racquetball tournament at the Provo Rec Center. She is playing on BYU's racquetball team for the second year in a row and might get to play in some competition this year since Covid is more under control. It was so fun watching her do something she obviously is enjoying so much! Ammon coaches her from the sidelines. They're having a great time with it.

Chey is still enjoying MTEC and her CNA training very much! She learned about log rolls and helping people "ambulate" this week. In her hospital internship, she learned about jobs in labor and delivery. She came home and asked me lots of questions about labor. It was fun to tell her my stories! She came with us Friday night to SLC to see Jens, but also got to play frisbee and make pizza with her group of flamingo friends from here in Springville. Otherwise, she is busy with college applications.

Cali is also busy with college applications. That BYU application is a bear with all its essays! She worked at Funfinity on Tuesday and we had a learn-to-paint-night at young women's on Wednesday. She had fun Friday night watching a scary movie with Richmond at our house. She spent almost all day hanging out with the flamingos on Friday (no school because of end-of-term)! On Saturday night, Cali, Chey, and Bethany all helped at a wedding reception. They looked pretty darn cute!

 Bethany had "no sugar" week at school sponsored by her health teacher, Mr. Hammon. But, Mr. Hammon is also her cross country coach and they had their end-of-season party this week with doughnuts! Oops! So he let the team eat the doughnuts. Good thing because it was a hard week for Beth! She likes sugar a whole lot. Beth played with friends on Friday and watched a scary movie with another friend. 

On Saturday morning, Beth and Ben had a practice belt test for karate. Those things are intense. First they run three miles, then they do 100 combined push-ups and sit-ups and THEN they do strikes and blocks and kicks over and over. Then forms and weapons and they finish with fighting matches. Four hours later, they were WIPED out. I love that they are getting such good exercise and strength training! I took them to McDonald's afterward as reward.

Ben had running club twice this week and received the "Runner of the Week" award. He said it was for working hard and helping others. He also had karate, of course, and guitar lesson. He's very pleased with his straight As for first term at middle school. I am, too, but when he started talking about trying to get all A+s, my mom-alerts starting going off about perfectionism! I think his teachers and I talked him down from that goal. I sure hope so! He does so want to do good. He's a great kid.

Kevin and I went to our sixth play of the year at the Hale theatre in SLC. This time we saw Agatha Christie's "Mousetrap." Super fun and always good to do stuff with Kevin B! Other than that, I went on some walks this week but always later in the day because the mornings have been cold and wet. I also am working on getting my second book out and reevaluating my "social media presence." Fun stuff.

 

We went to California this week! The kids had no school on Thursday or Friday because of fall break! Kevin, Savannah, Sarah, McKay, and Ammon took the days off work, and Megan brought her computer and tried her best to keep up with her university classes while partying with us! Mariah knew the souls of the people of Long Island needed her for a few more months so she will party with us next time. We can't wait! In the meantime, it was good for this momma's heart to have so many of us together for a few days!

Also good for this momma's heart was to see her own momma and papa!! We left Wednesday afterschool. (I'll have you know that we were only 15 minutes behind schedule this time which is our best record ever! We were picking Ben up from school so we could really not be much later than that!) We drove down to Vegas and stayed the night at my parents' house. It was so fun to see them, get hugs, visit, and eat all my dad's fresh baked cookies and bread! He says I am still eating him out of house and home but he loves to see me anyway. Ha ha!

The next day we drove to our vacation rental AirBnB in Oceanside. We were right on the beach!! We walked in to the view of sun sparkling on the ocean right outside our big windows. We had three bedrooms, four bathrooms, and enough beds for 12! Plus a giant kitchen. Also, two patios that looked out over the ocean. We went down the steps to the ocean and we got right to work boogie boarding and rock hounding. It was a lovely afternoon.

The next day we had tickets to Disneyland!! We hadn't been there for over ten years and felt like we needed to bring Ben and Beth at an age they would remember it. We wanted to go last year, but ... it was closed because of COVID! So, we got reservations and tickets months ago! Even then, I think everyone on the planet was at DL with us! It was sooo crowded. But still, we got to go on all the rides we wanted to go on (except Rise of the Resistance) and we had the experience and took the pictures and we were together! It was fun! But we were sure tired at the end of the day! Megan made a super-cute video of our day, too! It will be fun to always have that, since ... we're not going back ever! Ha ha! Just kidding!

On Saturday we enjoyed our vacation home on the beach all day! The kids played games in the morning and I read my book by the window. Then we all went down to the beach again and the kids made things with the rocks and we boogie boarded. We even tried the paddle boards. We haven't quite figured out how to have fun with them yet, but Ammon used one as a surf board and even got up once! That night we grilled hamburgers on the patio and ate outside while the setting sun made beautiful colors over the ocean. It was a beautiful, beautiful day!

On Sunday we drove all the way, all the way home. We were in the car for 12 and a half hours! It would have been at least an hour less if it hadn't been for road construction on the I-15 in Arizona. For a funny story, ask us about peeing at the side of the road during standstill traffic. It was an EMERGENCY!! It was a hard day but we made it home and we were all so glad we got to go to California!

 This week we had tennis, tennis, tennis! On Tuesday, Cheyenne played a qualifying game for state and WON! Quite easily. We drove to Brighton High School in SLC for that. Then on Thursday, we were in SLC at Liberty Park all day for the first day of the State Tournament. Cheyenne and Calianne both won their first matches. Later in the day, Chey and her partner lost their second match but sure played great tennis! Cali and her partner were in the last match of the day and as the lights came on, beat an undefeated team in a third set that ended in a tie breaker. It was exciting! That meant Cali played in the second day of the State Tournament on Saturday (again in SLC but it was raining so they played indoors at the SLC Swim and Tennis Club) in the SemiFinals Match! They played great but ended up losing to the team that won it all. It was a fun, exciting, emotional tennis week! Both girls are super sad to see it all end. (Trust me. We have told them it doesn't have to end and they can play tennis their whole life, but... it is an end to high school tennis seasons. So, they can be sad... for a minute). They have sure improved a ton and play really great tennis!

In other news, Beth and Ben have been pretty much totally neglected this week. If it weren't for Savannah, the police may have been called. Ha ha! Not quite that bad, but Savannah did help a lot--taking them to karate and feeding them dinner on a couple of those nights. Savannah did still manage to work almost everyday and even fit in a BYU walk with Kirk.

Bethany had her last week of cross county this week. Her district final race was Friday afternoon at 3:00 (no tennis on that day! Yay!) She improved her time this year by a whole minute! And she even followed the front group in the wrong direction and had to double back. Even with that setback, she worked her way back up to 6th place in the JV race. She did so great! We were so proud of her.

Because the twins didn't have quite enough to do this week, (actually because it's their senior year and they don't want to miss anything), they went to Sadie Hawkins on Saturday! The theme this year was Western gear. They looked super cute in their flannel shirts and cowboy hats! They played games, went out to eat, had pictures in the canyon, and went to the dance. Yee haw!

Back in the summer I signed up for a writers conference for this weekend. Somehow I managed to go to 2/3 of a day of it on Friday! I can see the other classes online through the end of November, but it was really great to be there in person on Friday and feel of some of the energy. 

Friday night, (yes, we also had something on Friday night!) we had been invited back to the multi-million dollar mountain home of the Doterra founders (the Cook's) to celebrate the launch of some animated stories to help stop suicide. Kevin works in one of their other projects to stop suicide "Parent Guidance," and was asked to say a few words during the presentation. That is how Kevin got on the program with Nathan Pacheco. It is pretty fun to be a part of "that life" for a little bit. The funnest part for me though was running into my high school friend, Scott Porter, who I haven't seen since 1994! We decided we had one of the best friend groups ever in high school and that we were pretty darn lucky. It was a pretty amazing night.