September 2025

 September started off with a Labor Day Week trip to Park City.  Specifically Mountainside Resort.  One of our most favorite travel destinations.  We are our happiest selves when we are at Mountainside.

We love staying here.  It meets all of our needs.  Our kids only want

to go here on vacation.  We are very blessed that Papa and Nana invite us to go

up with them every year.  We have such good memories of our adventures in Park City.

Our very favorite thing to do is rock in the rocking chairs in the 

front entrance of the hotel at night.  The temperature was 75 degrees.

Our family occupied the chairs every night for at least an hour.

It seemed that they were always available which is bonkers.

All my stresses go away when I am rocking in a good rocking chair.

I think it takes me back to the 1000's of nights when I sat up alone and nursed and rocked

my babies for hours in my fabulous glider rocker...

We spent our days doing so many fun things

We checked in on the progress of the Salt Lake Temple.

We HAD to see the 5 Wise Virgins Statue

BTW.... I am SO into this parable right now.

People it is 11:59

Have you gathered enough oil?

World's Cutest Aaronic Priesthood Holder

And the Melchizedek Men

We showed the kids the Tabernacle with the 

11,000 pipes

Walt loved the State Capital Building

The boys went golfing.  It was Walt's first time actually golfing.  And he thought this day was

the best day of his life so far.  I haven't ever seen a kid more excited and appreciative and 

grateful to have had an opportunity than this kid was for 18 holes on Mountain Dell golf course.

They had to wear a collared shirt on the course.

He didn't have one, so he borrowed my work shirt.

He is the cutest

He couldn't stop doing a play by play when they got home

and he must have said "this is the greatest day of my life" 

at least 25 times.

PermaGrin 

While the boys were golfing, the girls went into Midway to all of the 

above average darling stores on Main St.  

I couldn't afford to buy a paper clip in any of them, but they were 

SO cute and the vibe in that town is 10/10.

We worshipped

Played games and completed a 500 piece puzzle

Beat our brother at Pool

Went for walks in the local cemetery with wildlife

Kept up with our studies, afterall school was in session

Watched college football and Yankees Games every night

And took long naps

And had really cute hair

On our way out of town, we stopped off at Ruth's Diner up Immigration Canyon.

We love going there and it is beautiful.

The entire week we were up in PC, my ears were plugged up and ringing.

I couldn't hear a thing any one said the whole time.

Apparently, the hostess at Ruths said...  "We can seat all of you right now on the patio, but you need to be aware that there are hornets on the patio that will be

 flying all around out there and once you are seated, we cannot move your party.  

Otherwise if you would prefer to sit inside, the wait will be 50 minutes."

Well.... in my weakened condition....I heard whah, whah, whah, whah whah whah whah.

And so I smiled nicely and nodded my head agreeably and obediently to

whatever she was saying and obviously agreed to the patio plan.

Because, the next thing we knew, we were on the patio.

With at least 250 hornets flying around our heads,

faces, legs, arms, ears, FOOD....

It was borderline traumatizing.

Some of us were handling it more maturally than others.

Like...the deaf girl for instance, was fer-eeking out.  

Rals, ever the researcher, started looking up possible hornet deterrents.  

Tapitio seemed to be the most effective.

Nevermind that it was mixed all in with our syrup.

He also read that they don't like peppermint.

Oddly, Nana happened to have 2 peppermint bath bombs in her car.

So she ran out and got them and we opened them up and put them on the table.

Luckily, they were not stinging us.  They were more like extremely 

aggressive and terrifying flies but nevertheless....we were MISERABLE!!

And we ate our food in like 7 1/2 minutes and ran out to the car.

We may not go back.

Freaking Ruths

We hoped to enjoy a monsoon season at the beginning of September.

There were two days that teased us with the appearance of a monsoon,

coupled with 10 minutes of rain.

It was gorgeous and we needed the rain SO bad in whatever

quantity we could get!!

But St George being in a drought is no joke.

The struggle is real

Ryker is working so hard for his team.

He is a defensive back.

He plays offensive left tackle and slot receiver

He is on special teams

and he is the best left footed punter ever.

Which means he is in on every single play.

Last week, the coach let him take a break for two plays so he could get a drink of water.

And then right back out he went.

In the same game, he sacked the quarterback and he got SO excited he could not

contain himself and he did a little celebratory jiggy dance and yelled really loud...

"LET'S GOOOOO BOYS"

it was the greatest!!

I loved it.

This month I attended the temple with my RS Presidency Sistren

We laughed waaaay too much.

I think some of the ladies we didn't know were annoyed by us...

but Shandee was a wreck and it was so funny.

Cracking up in the temple is the best.  You have to try and not make noise.

This month my decorating project was a charity job.

It was on a home that has been with Red Rock for 10+ years.

It is dated and old.

I talked the owners into just letting me stage for photos.

When I do this, I just go in, transformed things, do the photo shoot

and take everthing out.

Here are a few of the rooms.

It took me 2 days to set it up and it took 3 of us an hour to take it all 

down.  SO rewarding.

As the second counselor, I am in charge of RS activities.

My first activity attempt was painting Books of Mormon.

Typically we have 8-10 women at our ward RS activities.

We decided last minute to combine with the Young Women and 

our turn out was incredible

To say the least it was a complete success

Little miss KK....  NAILED her cover.

She is so artistically inclined. 

I was so relieved when it was over

The worst part is I am already moving on to the next one.

Like a neverending nightmare.

I am NOT a party planning girl.

It's just not my thing, so every activity will be horrifying for me.

Why can't we just bring our diet cokes to the park and sit in a circle and chat?

Every time? 

What's wrong with that?

Speaking of Kaleigh and her drawing skills.....

This is what she did for her design class.

I cannot believe my children have these talents.

I can barely draw a heart.

HOMECOMING 2025 

could not have gone better.

This group of kids was so much fun to watch.

They are all such good, kind and nice humans.

They genuinely cared about each other and they were thoughtful

to make sure everyone felt included and comfortable.

They went to Big Shots for their day date

I did my very best to get Peyton's bone straight hair to hold a curl

for at least an hour.

It took 2 1/2 hours to curl it and one hour is about as long as it lasted.

And I am not a super great hair do-er.

She looked gorgeous in spite of me

I am so glad that this is over.  I was very nervous for her first

dance for some reason.  But, this girl has definitely caught the vision of dances.

She has already asked someone to Sadies.

We have been helping her make plans and buy sweatshirts.

She can drive, but she cannot drive other kids for 6 months.

So, I am sure we will have to be chauffers.

She also goes to every school activity that she can.

Fully embracing high school.

What a super fun month September was.

I really loved it and it went SO fast.  

We have been thoroughly enjoying football season so far.

It is all very dramatic

I got a new phone this month.  That is always a totally chaotic experience.

I lost all of my logins, I didn't have the use of my phone for an entire Saturday.

I also got into a little accident in my car.  Me VS a cement barrier at the carwash

resulted in a 4 foot scratch along the bottom section of my beautiful car.

I was so so sad and I cried on and off the entire day.

But Rals let me put my head on his shoulder for a spell and assured me it's totally repairable and won't be terribly expensive.

We were SO devastated by the passing of our wonderful,

President Nelson.  We loved him.  We love what he did for our church.

We will miss him very much.

Conference Weekend is my favorite and I look forward to hearing the prophet and apostles

speak to us.  It will not be the same without our President Nelson.

We are looking forward to Kori and Russ moving back to St. George on October 4th.  It is important that we get to have them close to us during these final months.  

One of the sweetest things I have ever seen is the darling Primary Children in their ward who came to say goodbye to them and sing to Kori before they move.

I am always so in awe of people and the many ways they think of to serve and show their love.

I am certain all of the neighbors were moved by this act of kindness too.

The world is most definitely in chaos right now.  Just like the scriptures told us it would be.  It is straight crazy the bizarre behaviors and decisions that people are making because they have so much darkness and hate in their hearts.  It is facinating how easily people talk out of both sides of their mouths and don't see the hypocricy in their words.

There has never been a time in history where the world needed Jesus more than right now.

I love that I have a place where I can go to get away from all of the noise and ugliness in the world and feel my Savior's personal love for me.

I love that when I leave that place, I am blessed with increased power, knowledge, strength, capacity, and ability to do all that I need to do.

I love that I can expect angels to minister and have charge over me.  I think that is the best part for me.  Knowing that I have the promise that....

"I will be on your right hand and on your left and my spirit shall be in your heart and mine angels round about you to bear you up"

What thing can this world throw at me that God and his angels can't help me overcome?

It's the peace the gospel brings.

Being content with one's life is the greatest blessing.

I thank my husband mostly for offering me the opportunity to be able to feel content and happy every day.

I truly love my life.

Happy Fall Y'all