This was Beth's first week of performances for Les Miserables at the high school! She is one of the nuns and also one of the suffering poor in the chorus. She did great! In fact, all the participants did great. They really knocked it out of the park! And I've seen Les Mis performed professionally in London! I'm so glad she gets to part of it all!

Benjamin continues to run. As part of the choir, he was required to sign up for three of the performances of Les Mis to add his voice backstage and he enjoyed learning the songs that he did. This week he also had the driving range for driver's ed. That meant three hours every night Monday through Thursday. Somehow, in spite of all this and the many hours I find him playing chess on his phone, he promises me that he is also keeping up with his homework. I do hope so!

Savannah went on two dates with Peter Scott this week including taking him to see Beth's performance of Les Mis on Saturday night. She is having fun getting to know him better. She missed some work because she wasn't feeling well earlier in the week but rallied toward the end and put in babysitting time for all her sisters! She is a pretty awesome aunt!

Cheyenne is keeping busy with school, homework, work, church, FHE, temple, and institute. In addition, she has been going to UVU basketball games to cheer on both the men and women. She got to participate in half-time again and won more stuff, too! Yesterday, she and Calianne got together with their high school friends to play tennis and then went with Abby and Ellie to SLC to a Ben Rector concert. I hope they had a great time!

Calianne and Richmond got their announcements in the mail this week! Go team! Cali is busy with school, homework, work, church, temple, and wedding planning! I almost always see her in the mornings because she gets up early for her own scripture study in the kitchen, and I get a hug from her before she's off for the day!

Megan is the new YW president in her ward and on Saturday she went to a Being a Mom conference where she learned lots of good stuff for parenting teenagers! The best part was that Micah got to hang out at our house! He is so fun and loves to crawl around and explore and even show off his toddling skills. We love that little guy!

Besides babysitting, I organized and hosted a funeral luncheon on Monday and that took a lot of time but turned out lovely. I spent most of Tuesday working on my final paper for my final class for my MSW. Other than that, I've been working on the temple quilt we are making for Cali.

Kevin taught for IITAP this week. Isn't it lovely that he can do that over Zoom now and doesn't have to take a plane somewhere? He is still working hard at work and as bishop of the YSA. He has also been taking advantage of the warmish weather to get in some tennis hours with his tennis buddies. His old friend, Kevin Simpson, called him this week and they went to a BYU basketball game together and that was tons of fun for him, as well!

We went to my niece's wedding on Friday! Liz and Matt got married in Toquerville and we piled a bunch of people in the van to go celebrate! I drove because Kevin forgot about the Intensive he was teaching on the same day. He was sad to not be able to come! But we did bring Savannah, Sarah, Oliver, Megan, Mariah, Kolby, Evelyn, Cheyenne, Calianne, and Richmond! The wedding was lovely and it was wonderful to be able to visit with so much of my family! We are so happy for Liz and Matt!

Jocelyn was their flower girl!

Back on the home front, Bethany is gearing up for her play. Les Miserables opens next week! Bethany doesn't have a lot of parts but she still needs to be there for most of the rehearsals and she is having fun!

Ben is still having cross country practices. He and Bethany are also having volleyball games twice a week and really enjoying that! Ben was behind on his online homework for driver's ed and spent a lot of hours this week getting it done including all day Saturday. But he finished the final exam late last night! Celebrations abound!

Cheyenne broke up with the guy she's been dating. We're so proud of her and her careful thought about what she wants and needs! But it is a hard time for her.

Calianne continues to be very busy with school and work and wedding plans. We're also so proud of her and her careful thought about what she wants and needs! It's a stressful time for her but also exciting!

Avery and Lyla and Oliver came for a visit on Saturday. Oliver watched the game with Grandpa and I took Avery and Lyla out to the trampoline. It was a glorious fall day and so fun to be with those precious little girls!

Sarah and McKay blessed Oliver today! Oliver Ron Hatch. He wore the same blessing outfit his grandpa Kevin wore and his Uncle Ben. He looked super cute! McKay gave him a beautiful blessing and so many of his family were there who love him. (Kevin was there too but had to leave before the picture to do bishop stuff.) What a special little guy.

On Monday of this week, we carved jack-o-lanterns and everybody came over! It was super fun and we got some great pumpkins for our Halloween celebration.

Benjamin ran in the state JV race this weekend. He did great coming in third on his team and running the course in 18:30 something which broke his last PR by over 30 seconds. Way to go, Ben!

Our other big accomplishment this week was that we bought Cali's wedding dress! Megan, Mariah, Cheyenne, Chloe, and I went with her on Friday. Then Kaiya, Kenna, Sarah, and I were there on Saturday when she said yes to the dress. I can't show you the dress but here are all of us having fun with the experience!

 Megan made a video about their trip to the Redwoods and here is the link:

https://youtu.be/Be6RdMARzpE

Ben went to Sadie Hawkins this week! He went with a girl named Bella. For the day date, they carved pumpkins. That evening they had dinner at one of the girl's houses and then went to the dance. After the dance they went back to the same house and played games. He had a headache, but otherwise reported having a pretty decent time. The theme was SHS through the decades and Ben's date chose the 1950s. That was pretty fun because I got to dress my son up like James Dean!

Bethany met with her personal trainer twice this week. She likes her trainer a lot and is motivated to go. Thursday, though, she pushed so hard that she could barely walk on Friday. She was in so much pain on Saturday that she did not think she could go to work. No one could cover for her, though, so she hobbled on in. It was not a fun shift, but she did not let them down. Way to go, Beth.

Beth and Ben also had their first volleybal games this week! They are going to be doing volleyball twice a week for the next month and they are already having tons of fun. Go team!

Calianne and Richmond drove down to Tuacahn on Saturday and back the same day! They were able to represent us at my niece's bridal shower, too! Cali continues to be busy with school and mentoring work and planning her wedding with me!

Cheyenne is dating a boy named Peter and on Saturday, they went to a UVU volleyball game. They got recruited to compete during the half-time show (who could jump rope the most in 60 seconds) and Cheyenne won! (She did just run a marathon two weeks ago.) They gave her a Minky Coutre blanket! It's so nice! She also beat Peter which might have been even more fun for her. Ha ha! He was a good sport!

Savannah went on a date Friday at the Orem Mall. Afterwards, she found a great sale at Havenlight and got almost all her Christmas shopping done! Woot! Woot!

Kevin and I took our ATV up the mountain Saturday morning. It was cold and most of the leaves were gone but it was still beautiful!

So, last week, our fearless travelers successfully completed their marathon! Go team! They all said it was the hardest thing they'd ever done. It was very painful and they had to keep on running anyway. They were in pain for days afterwards as well. It was a good thing they brought Savannah as their designated driver! She ran/walked the 5K and was in a much better position to do the driving. They got into their hotel at 1am that night and woke up at 6am to drive the rest of the way home in hopes to get Chey back to coach her girls' tennis team. Unfortunately, the van overheated and they had to stop to get it checked out. Chey was an hour late but it all worked out. I was so glad that they were all back safe! There were so many people in that car that were important to me! What cool kids!

Those of us still in Springville got to eat at Sarah's and McKay's for Sunday dinner. They did a great job feeding us and we had a super time!

When Beth got back we did an exciting thing, too--we took her to the new EOS gym that was having its grand opening. We signed her up and got her a personal trainer! Health and fitness here we come!

Ben finished his third week of driver's ed classroom edition. He barely made the class on Wednesday because he got sick Monday after cross country and was out for the count for the rest of school. There was no school on Thursday and Friday so he's had time to recover and we're glad he's feeling better.

On Friday, Beth and Ben went to Lagoon!! I bought the tickets in September so Beth would like September again but then their ride (the Carter's) decided to go over Fall Break instead. Beth still had a great time. Ben started to not feel well so he took the train back to Provo in the afternoon. He is a fan of public transit.

Also on Friday, Kevin's dad came to visit! Yay! We had a great time talking and spending time with him.

On Saturday, Megan had a party for Micah. He is turning one!! Yay! What a cute boy! Megan had a "Little Pumpkin" theme which was so cute. Both families were invited to the park and it was a beautiful Fall day! We sang Happy Birthday and Micah had pumpkin pie for his birthday cake. We love that little boy and his mommy and daddy!