Happy Anniversary #49...and Thanksgiving!

 It's one of those times when our anniversary falls exactly on Thanksgiving!  And I'm ok with that because being married to Paul is one of the things I am most thankful for!  I will always be grateful for him coming into my life when he did and bringing me the love I so needed right then.  It has been a wonderful adventure being married to him and having him teach me to love so many things that I knew nothing about pretty much!  I can't believe it's been so long!  I love him more and more as the years go by if that's possible.  It's a little worrisome to think that more of it is behind us than in front of us, at least here on earth.  We will just keep on keeping on enjoying it! Love you Paul, with all my heart!  We celebrated some the other night with one of our favorite dinners at the Outback.  We will celebrate more as we can over this busy week end and then more if we want to later!  

Here's our Thanksgiving!  Ferf and kids and Grandma joined us this year.  Paul's smoked turkey breast was a delicious addition that we will want to keep on the menu in the future.  It was fun to see all of the kids and hear their life updates.  The food was great and the company as well.

On Friday we spent the day together just running errands and getting things done for Anna Lou.  Saturday we got our chores done and then just decided on the spur of the moment to go over to Jacob Lake for dinner.  We drove the back road through Cane Beds and Kanab to get there and stopped off to hike up to the caves by Moqui Cave.  We've driven by them for years and finally decided to stop and hike up to see them.  It was a little sketching getting up to them, but well worth it to see what is there.  The dinner wasn't the best this time, but the cookies and hot chocolate were SO good!  We also put up a fake Christmas tree on Saturday morning.  It is the best one we've ever seen and it will be nice not to have to worry about needles and sap.  I will miss the process of going out and getting one in some ways, but it felt like time to save the trees and do this instead.  Paul bought me a beautiful necklace at Jacob Lake.  And we also bought Paul a new suit on Friday. He's going to be put in the SA Ward bishopric next Sunday.  He has lost so much weight that he needed a new suit.  And we got a great deal on the Black Friday sale!  Happy #49!  

November birthdays - Eliza #11, Brynn #39, Zion #10

 Eliza's gets us of to a quick start on November 1st.  We couldn't connect until the next day.  She's getting to that leaving the little girl stage.  Happy Birthday 'Liza!  We love you! We gave her lots of cute socks, little tablet and hair stuff and some things to use to make a terrarium.  Eliza is very creative and she has little people and things for fairy houses.  Thought she might like to put some of them in a terrarium.  Looks like she got it put together!  

Lucky for me Jay had a great birthday idea for Brynn!  That's always nice.  We just have to do it long distance for her.  We got her a journaling set with lots of colorful pens, etc.  Happy Birthday Brynn!  We love you!

Zion's birthday came...and his present didn't arrive quite one time unfortunately.  Hopefully the PO has not misplaced it.  But it looks like he had a great celebration with his family anyway!  He's a cute, funny, smart boy and now he's into the double digits - #10!  Love you ZP!  It finally arrived!  Zion loves all things sloth right now.  He has on his new sloth robe while blowing out his candles.  We got him some sloth socks and a sloth button to go in his Crocs.  

Pine Valley respite

 It's been pretty crazy lately with moving Anna Lou to an assisted living facility.  I don't have to pick up dinner and bring it to her every night now, but we've had so many things to take care of that I've been spending every afternoon getting things set up, moved, transferred, changed it seems like.  And Paul has been doing the same on other things.  We have the major move everything out of her house and get it ready to sell coming up and it looks like the siblings will not be too much help as usual, so it's going to be a big deal.  We bought a little camp trailer several weeks ago, but never got to take it out yet.  We just needed a little time to unwind, so Saturday afternoon we had finished all of our chores and took a little respite up to Pine Valley.  It was very peaceful with almost no one there after we got past the lake.  We took our afternoon snack with us and enjoyed it up there.  It was pretty cold, but it was beautiful and peaceful and we enjoyed it so much!  Then that night we forgot a Christmas with the Carpenter's concert that I had gotten as a gift.  So DUMB!  

Halloween 2023

 This is it!  Supe and Beacher and kids dropped by, but the rest we just saw via pictures.  Paul and I sat at home and enjoyed watching Signs and eating Halloween candy that no one else needed!  

October birthdays - Jared #47, Koen #15, Tasia #19

The year is going by fast!  Here are the October birthdays already!  We started off a little early for Jay's birthday since we were up that way for a doctor's appointment for Paul (and out of town on the actual birthday).  He needed a Home Depot card for a new workbench project he's working on.  It was fun to go for a quick visit.  The girls were mobbing him while he opened his present!  

Today is Koen's #15.  We went over and celebrated the next night after Ferf and Gaige got back from Hawaii visiting Kennis while she's there on an internship.  Koen got his permit for driving that day too!  He's a handsome, nice boy and we love him.  He has some real interests and learns about them in depth.  He got some great legos, etc.  Happy Birthday Koen!  Love you!

Tasia will be 19!  That's hard to believe!  And she's away at school at BYU!  Everyone's getting older...me too!  And I got no birthday picture of her because she's off at school, but here's one she posted. She's working at the Bean Museum of Natural History and gives some demos.  She does one about tarantulas I guess!  She seems to be enjoying her job!

 

Zade gets his antelope

Z got his first pronghorn antelope buck in the west desert of So. Utah! One shot at 375 yards. Super proud dad right here!! Congratulations! Not a big hunting fan myself, but I know this is super important in your family and a very big day! Good job Zade!

 

Fall Break at the Gettys and Joshua Tree National Park

 We left on Thursday and came home on Monday and had a great trip in between!  It was a long drive, but uneventful.  As we were coming down Cajon Pass I thought of stopping by to see Aunt Georgia on our way by Riverside.  We called and got her address and then had such a nice visit with her.  She's so much better off than Paul's mom in her health at 96 years old.  She has to use oxygen and has some glaucoma, but she's still able to be at home and cook and clean for herself.  She can't drive.  She has her two daughters there in town to help her out as needed.  They are both single.  I'm so glad we stopped by.  She's the last one of my mom's family still alive. (With kids/friend on her 96th birthday.)

Then we went on and got to our hotel in Hawthorne, CA where we spent two nights.  On Friday we spent the day at the J. P. Getty Museum enjoying the art and the gardens.  It was wonderful.  We had a picnic at the end at a great spot we found!  

On Saturday morning we got the the Getty Villa about an hour early and enjoyed peaceful time visiting the Gardens with it pretty much all to ourselves!  Then later we enjoyed a couple of tours - one about the art and one about the architecture.  They were both great and we learned so much.  We also just enjoyed touring the whole place for the rest of our time there!  We had a picnic at the end in a great uncrowded spot.  

 

On Sunday, we went to a great ward in Twenty-nine Palms.  Afterwards we drove to Joshua Tree National Park with a quick stop at the visitor's center first.  It was so fun to drive and hike through this park.  We went to the Cholla Garden, the Ocotillo Forest, hiked to the Arch and Heart Rock and stopped at other viewpoints all along the way to read about what was there.  We did a little plant interpretive trail that was very interesting as well.  And at the end of it all we found a great shady picnic spot for our afternoon snack.   This was such a great trip!  The freeway traffic was crowded and crazy mostly when we were in town, but not too bad out of town.  The car did great and got fantastic gas mileage.  The hotels were good but expensive.  The food was great.  Sunday night we microwaved TV dinners in our motel room.  They weren't bad!  Fun trip!  

This rock cracked us up - it looks like a monster or an old man with a toothy grin!  

Temple tour, Fall tour and Tuacahn evening

 Another fun Friday! We took G'ma and went to the St. George Temple Open House.  It's gorgeous inside and out!  Then we went to see the leaves on Cedar Mountain!  Lookin' gorgeous there too!  And that night we went to see The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Tuacahn.  It was the best of the 3 we've seen there this year and was awesome!  Filled up that day pretty much!  (Aspen Mirror Lake area is always one of my favorite Fall spots!)

Grand Edventure Date - Zade & Trigg

 We've kind of given up on Grand Edventure dates since the kids have mostly gotten to the very busy stage of life and we can't seem to connect anymore, but we did snag Zade and Trigg the other night for dinner and a movie.  We like to go to the Banff Movie Festival which used to be part of Desert Rat's gig.  Now they have given it over to the Get Outside Youth group.  Most of the time the movies are very exciting outdoor adventure types that we all love.  This year was a little disappointing in some of the movies being rants about environmental problems that were very long.  I hope they will be better next time or we will be giving it up.  But it was fun to hang out with these two.  Derek just ended his latest marriage and we hope to be able to spend a bit more time with these boys.  Tasia and Kaebri have both left the nest now and these boys are going to feel the pain of this divorce more than they will I think.  So sorry it turned out this way.  Kelli was a really great mom to these boys.  Trigg hasn't had enough mom time to really even say he's had one that he remembers very much I think.  It hasn't been easy for these kids since Lenae passed away.  They are nice boys and we hope things will turn out in the end for them.  Kaebri and Tasia have both been good examples for their futures.  (Picture taken for Be Real that evening.)

Friday drive - Fall is on the way!

 Paul's knee is too sore to hike, so Friday we just took a nice drive to get out and see how Fall is starting to show up and to enjoy the great scenery around everywhere!  We went through Zion, and around to Panguitch and back down Cedar Mountain.  We listened to a book we've been wanting to hear and had our snack at the White Bridge Campground (closed now).  It was such a beautiful day.  I love having Fridays off and being able to enjoy that day getting out and then being able to be home to do the "chores" on Saturday!  Makes the week so nice.  I guess this could be called our semi-retirement phase!