Surprises, etc.

As we began our fall yard preparations for winter in earnest, we had an opportunity to watch Britton play a local soccer game.  He play every week but our schedules just don't mesh.  The weather was reasonably warm and it was in between rain storms, which is one thing we have had to work around in getting our yard work done.

We pulled out flowers and dug up and divided hundreds of iris bulbs, begging people to take some.  We got two loads of composted soil from a dairy in nearby Idaho to enrich our beds for next year.  We picked hundreds of tomatoes, lots of peppers and had several batches of salsa.  We prepared our green tomatoes to ripen between layers of newspaper.  We hope to be eating tomatoes for Thanksgiving.  We will miss our delicious home grown tomatoes.

We moved furniture and cleaned out some things in the basement as we plan to have a fireplace installed in the basement in November.  We are excited about that!

Back in SL, I hosted my annual "Food For Pies" drive where my clients come to an open house and bring food for the food bank and I give them a pie.  Here are Dustin and Laura's cute kids exchanging their food.  They are almost always supportive of my business activities.

The day after the Food For Pies drive, Libbie arrived for a visit.  She and Steve drove up to CV while I stayed behind one more night to host my Murray book club.  I served yummy British style scones and wassail.  The book was "The Secrets of a Charmed Life.
Thursday, Adam planned a big surprise for Hilary.  Heather drove down from Idaho and the three sisters, Hilary, Heather and Libbie spent the day at Lagoon to help celebrate Hilary's big 4-0 birthday.  While they were having fun. Steve, Adam and I, with the help of their kids started painting the family room/kitchen at Hilary's.

Steve did a great job on two coats of white paint for the ceiling.  I was the edger.  Adam did a great job helping with that too.  Jameson saw a lot of Thomas the Train videos.

Out of order, this is how the basement bedroom looks now that it is put back together.  We like it.  It feels bigger too.

While the girls were at Lagoon, they ran into my sister's daughter-in-laws, Jace's wife, Cassie and Riley's wife, Jen.  What a beautiful group.
The next morning we pulled off another surprise for Hilary.  Libbie suggested we have a surprise boot camp workout in honor of Hilary's big birthday.  That was a very unique idea.  Who does a boot camp birthday party?  Well since Liberty was willing to be the instructor, I started texting around to invite Hilary's friends.  One obstacle was that it was UEA weekend and the kids were out of school so half of CV families leave town.  We still managed to have a nice group which is a tribute to Hilary.  Her friends are loyal.  I served healthy banana bread made with coconut flour, honey, etc. and fruit on skewers.  I opted for a green veggie fruit drink over the prune juice.  I love prunes but not the juice.  Oh well.  It was fun and I actually completed the workout.  That just let's you know that Libbie had to keep it at a level 1.

After Hilary went on a big long bike ride as per plan, we got dressed up and headed to the temple for a session.  I LOVED BEING IN THE TEMPLE WITH THREE OF MY DAUGHTERS!  HEAVENLY.  In between we were painting like mad.  You can find boot camp photos and finished family room photos on Hilary's blog.  I didn't get any.