On Friday the October 5th Neal, Spencer and Caleb drove to Utah. Caleb wanted to see the Prophet with his own eyes. Neal arranged to take him to a session of Conference. Spencer went along for the ride and a visit to Grandparents homes. Spencer didn’t want to go to the Conference center, he doesn’t like crowds. They made it up there safely and enjoyed a short visit. Saturday afternoon Neal and Caleb were in the Conference center and Caleb said it was really neat to be there. He was excited to see the leaders of the church. Sunday afternoon they drove back home. They stayed with the Hubbard’s and made a short stop at Hancock’s on their way south Sunday. It was a lot of driving for one week end.
Ruth, Andrew and I had a quiet week end. We watched Conference at home. Friday evening Ruth had her dance class. Saturday she had work in the afternoon. Andrew had a scout event with working on his personal fitness merit badge. They had home work and a lot going on, that is why they choose not to go to Utah. Saturday evening Ruth and I went out to eat dinner with some friends before the Women’s session. Andrew stayed home and got his own dinner. He had cooked up some squash. He cooked an acorn squash and a small butternut squash in the crock pot all afternoon. For his dinner he had all the squash and some summer sausage and cheese. He said it was good. I thought it was nice that he cleaned up all his dishes and had everything clean when we got home. We enjoyed hearing wonderful messages and learning from the prophet of God. What a blessing it is that we have living prophets on the earth.
Sunday afternoon Ruth and Andrew wanted to make a giant cookie. I thought it was fun they worked together to make it and had some fun together. We enjoyed our week end and had some good conversations about conference and family. They are good kids.
Monday morning Neal left for work and flew to California for the week. He had some training classes to attend. We missed having him home with us. That was the week of the Balloon Fiesta. The kids had Thursday and Friday out of school for fall break. We stayed around home. Ruth had fun going out with friends for a brunch Thursday morning. Then Ruth and her friend Brianna worked on their Halloween costumes in the afternoon and most the day Friday. I helped them with some of the sewing. I will make sure to get pictures when they have them all ready. It was fun that they were working together and they enjoyed their time together. Andrew and Spencer had fun riding bikes and playing. Caleb found a song to learn and memorized it. It is a song that lists all the countries of the world, sung to the Mexican Hat dance tune. He learned it well and I encouraged him to learn where all the countries are on the globe. He can point to all of them now. He sings the song a lot and is happy to share his knowledge of the globe with others. (The other kids are a bit tired of it though.)
Friday morning we drove closer to the balloon park and enjoyed seeing balloons closer. We can see them from our house but they are small in the sky. We stopped at a Target parking lot and enjoyed the view. It was almost as good as being in the park, without the crowds. After our balloon viewing we went shoe shopping. I bought all four kids new shoes. They were all needing them and I thought a vacation day was a good time to go shopping. Andrew and Spencer are wearing the same size shoe, a 9 1/2. Spencer is close in height to Andrew now. Monday the weather got cold and I told the boys they needed to wear pants, it was about 37 degrees. Spencer was frustrated because none of his pants fit. So we pulled an old pair out of Andrew’s drawer, they fit nice. So now they are wearing the same size of clothes. I ordered some new jeans for Spencer so he can have some that fit. It looks like we have ended the days of hand-me-downs from Andrew for him.
Caleb at the school on the 5th, every year they have balloons come to the elementary schools across the city so all kids can have a chance to see one up close.
We thought the boot and the elephant were some of the fun ones we saw
The kids early watching the balloons by Target
The balloons from my back yard
Ruth had fun going to a Stake dance on Saturday night with her friends. It was a good way for her to end her week end hanging out with her friends.
Monday evening we went to Andrew’s band concert. They played some nice songs.
Andrew plays trombone, back row
Sunday afternoon Neal came home with an elliptical exercise machine. A neighbor had it sitting out on the curb and Neal went to talk to them. They said he could have it. It works nice, it has a broken cover for the battery compartment, but other than that it is in nice condition. Neal said he would work something out to keep the cover closed. Right now it is taped up. It came at the right time for me. The weather has turned cold and that makes it harder to get outside to walk for exercise. I have wanted to get an elliptical and feel that this was meant for me.
Yesterday I went with Caleb on a field trip. We went to an outdoor museum for Spanish colonization days. It was interesting to look at things from the 1700 and 1800 when the Spanish were settling this area. I was thankful the sun came out and it wasn’t too cold as we walked around. Last night we went to the school for a science night. It was fun to do some of their activities.
Caleb at the science activity.
I realized I didn't take any pictures on the field trip
The boys relaxing
It has been a good month so far. In Conference President Nelson challenged the women to take a social media fast for ten days. I haven’t looked at facebook for 10 days. At first I really missed it for the interaction with my friends but now it doesn’t bother me as much. I do like having connections with friends through it and will start using it again. I will also take time to visit with people without the computer. But really, using technology to keep in touch with people is a good use of it.
This morning I saw a rainbow in the west.
I thought that was unusual.
