We LOVE October...

I was back to work this week with Broker Town Hall meetings, a new listing, Broker Network property tour, etc.  This beautiful family home with a new kitchen and a gorgeous fireplace went under contract in 2 days.  What a blessing for the sellers.
Midweek we drove back to CV to take care of several things.  The weather forecast called for freezing temperatures at night.  We harvested 16 pumpkins, dried plums and nectarines from our generous neighbors and covered our tomatoes at night.  It's a good thing too.  Gone are the squash, beans and pumpkin plants.  Our tomatoes survived.  The deer and elk have been after our garden and fruit trees too.  Jameson and Korinne are helping with the plums.

Thursday night, we were able to attend the CV Realtors Fall Family Fun event at the America West Heritage Center.  They had games, a jump house, hay bales for crawling up and over, train and pony rides, pizza, hot chocolate, kettle corn, a bucking bull ride and an extensive corn maze.

 It was a chilly night so we appreciated the hot chocolate and the fire pits.  It was a really NICE family event.  Thanks, Adam, for inviting us.

Friday night I was in the charge of the dinner for our ward's annual Relief Society Retreat held at a beautiful cabin in Bear Lake.  We had a scrumptious potato bar with lots of toppings and Asian chicken salad, plus home baked cookies.  It turned out great so I was happy about that.  I opted not to spend the night and rode back down the canyon with three other gals.  It was a great evening.  The Relief Society presidency did a FANTASTIC job planning and putting that delightful event together.

 I wanted to attend the Providence Days events the next day.  Britton was in the parade as a student city council representative.  Of course, Jameson and Korinne loved all the candy that was thrown throughout the short parade.  They also served spud nut donuts.

 After the parade, we checked out the local vendor booths and the car show.  The weather was crisp but sunny so a lot of cars were brought to the show.

 We took a picture of this Volkswagon bus that was very similar to the one Steve drove on his mission as he visited and trained elders throughout his mission.

 After the parade and activities, Steve and I did a few errands and then took advantage of the good weather to work in the yard.  His leg has healed enough that he was able to mow the grass by dividing it up into two days--the front on Friday and the back on Saturday.  We also filled the garbage can with frosted vines from the garden.  It was almost dark by the time we cleaned out and separated the iris plants all along the south side of the house.  We are willing to share starts as we have more than we can use now.
We went to the local Sauerkraut Turkey Dinner that is part of the annual celebration.  This community was settled by Swiss immigrants, including my great grandfather, Jacob Spori, who lived here before his mission to Turkey and Palestine, so the sauerkraut tradition is a long standing one.
We thoroughly enjoyed our "lupper"- late lunch combined with early supper as we ate about 4 o'clock.

Back at home, we finished dividing the iris plants and froze a bunch of plums for later use.  Then I needed to finish preparing my primary lesson for Sunday.

Throughout the day, we had frequent communication via text with Libbie and Jeff who were in the middle of Hurricane Matthew.  Fortunately, it wasn't a direct hit, but it was a fierce storm with a lot of damage.  We are grateful that they were safe and protected but suffered the discomforts of howling winds, flooding rains, blown down trees,  damage to piers, beaches and surroundings and a loss of power for about 24 hours.  We are so grateful that it wasn't worse. 

 Steve took these wonderful photos this morning showing the beauty of autumn from our front and back yards.  The trees in our neighborhood are amazingly red and we thoroughly enjoy looking at them.  God's handiwork surrounds us in this community!  We feel very blessed.

Conference and Cobbler Night

 I absolutely loved the change of pace and the spiritual lift that Conference weekend provides.  Steve was able to stream from his computer onto our big TV screen.  It worked out well.  Sunday morning, I went to Hilary's to watch with their family.  Steve was finally able to soak in a hot tub since his leg injury so he put the computer in the bathroom and watched and soaked at the same time.  Conference gives me comfort and inspires me to try harder to follow Heavenly Father's commandments and become a better person and a more dedicated follower of Christ.

Steve had suggested sometime ago that we invite our immediate neighbors over for a Dutch oven cobbler night.  We decided Conference Sunday night might be a good time.  A thunderstorm was predicted, but we went for it anyway.

 We prepared two ovens with apple crisp, Steve's favorite, and two with plum cobbler since our neighbor's tree is overflowing and they were begging us to pick and use them.

 While the sun was still shining in our area of the valley, the thunder was rolling in the distance.  We did have some brief rain during the sunny time but it only lasted a few minutes and didn't dampen the children's enthusiasm.  As darkness approached the little ones moved inside to play with Little People toys and animal costumes.  They were so cute.  It turned out to be an enjoyable couple of hours and we think it was a good thing.  We should try it again.

After the jet lag...

We struggled with jet lag after we arrived home from China.  I had a couple of work appointments and we needed to get both of our yards back in shape.  We have picked a lot of produce and shared when we could.  When we heard Heather and Aaron were painting their "big", and it is big, house, we decided to drive to ID and see if we could help out.  We arrived on Friday afternoon and sat in Aaron's truck to watch Jantzen and his team play soccer in the pouring rain.  Brhhh!

Fortunately Saturday morning wasn't raining so we started to work.  Aaron had a lot of frustration with a bucket he had rented that was leaking gas.  Fortunately, Steve and Aaron figured out the problem before there was any serious accident.  Aaron reserved the bucket for another day, and we all just worked as hard as we could while the weather was cooperating.

Everyone did what they could.  Heather was patiently teaching us all how to paint correctly.

 Since the sun was shining and the wind WASN'T blowing, we opted to keep painting and watch the women's session of conference after dark.  I was able to make a quick vegetable pasta dish for dinner while Aaron connect the computer to the TV to scream the program.  It was kind of nice to watch it at home in our work clothes this time.  The girls still requested their treat which Heather was willing to drive them to.  I stayed back at the house and took a nice, hot bath.  It felt so good.

 We left early Sunday morning so I could get back in time for choir practice and to teach my primary class.  This is how their beautiful half-painted house look in the early sunlight.  It is still very pretty.
This beautiful scenery with the snow capped mountains greeted us as we entered CV.  We really love the beauty of this place.

Monday I had to drive to SL for a work appointment.  Steve stayed in CV to train someone on a new piece of equipment.  I also needed to organize and deliver our ward's contribution to the Zimbabwe saints this year.  Last year we did new born kits.  This year we did missionary suitcases and gathered clothes and shoes for missionaries.  Here is the container yard I delivered the items to.  They hope to completely fill this container by the end of October.  I hope they make it.  

I'm always happy to finish our part of the project.

I drove back up to CV that afternoon and we were able to attend Britton's cross country regional meet.  It as a warm afternoon and lots of runners were attacking the hill.  Fortunately Britton's high school took first place.  The brutal hills they train on helped I'm sure.  Unfortunately, Steve tore or pulled a muscle severely crossing the above pictured ditch and he was literally down on the ground to avoid passing out.  We got him in the car and he had to watch the meet from there.  Then it was back home to ice, Tylenol and a wrap.  It will take some time to completely heal, but we are grateful for the blessing Adam and our neighbor gave him and grateful it wasn't worse.  For a couple of days, we really made him rest and pamper his leg.  He is gradually doing more each day.

Hilary, Jenna and Korinne allowed me to tag along that evening to pick raspberries.  It is a big patch and we were required to pick the entire patch so we hustled to finish before dark.

We love the raspberry jam and the custard I made.  So yummy!

One of our tomato plants has big tomatoes.  Here is the biggest one I have picked so far this season.

I was able to attend the Logan temple early on Friday morning.  It is so beautiful and I truly love the grounds this time of year.

I also love these doors that I can imagine my ancestors used before the annex entrance was added.

Friday night our neighbors invited us to a BBQ in their back yard.  They invited quite a few families. Steve is so nice and friendly with the neighbors that they invited us even though we are about twice their age.  It was a fun evening and the food was delish!  Picture above is one of our hosts, Lacie, with her little girl.  She is a busy multi-talented gal with a young family.  She also serves as our ward R.S. president!