October 2019

On October 2nd we met up with grandma Braegger, Tammy, Chelsea & her family at Gardner Village for some early Halloween fun.






On the 5th I made taste treat delight, just like my dad made my siblings and I on Saturday mornings when I was little.


On the 12th we took a drive up the canyon to Taggart's Grill for the world's best carrot cake and some other treats and were greeted by this peacock.


Later that evening at Smith's, Bud tried on this cool costume.


On the 15th Faith painted this gorgeousness using watercolors:


Here is her first try at watercolor, an assignment for her art class, in a display class at school:


On the 17th, we got this horrific news about our Bishop:

It freaked me out and I had to take an hour off work to cry and hug my kids. Luckily, he had never acted inappropriately around them or anyone's children I'd heard of. Still, it rocked our ward and left a scar we are still trying to heal from many months later.

Took a picture on the 19th since I put the fall leaves above the cabinets this year:


I didn't get a picture of Faith's I.D., but here is her school picture this year:


That night everyone fell asleep early except me.


I looked at the clock, what the heck? Asleep before 8 pm?


On October 22nd Christian's school invited the kids to dress up like tourists for some kind of ribbon week. We later found out not many participated, but Bud certainly killed it!


That afternoon I had taken a few hours off work to babysit Melinda Townsend's baby, Trevor, while she took her toddler to autism therapy. The sign-up in Relief Society filled up so fast! He was so tiny and squishy and smelled so good my ovaries ached!!


On the 25th Christian went to a Halloween dance (what we used to call "stomps"), his first dance ever. He wanted a Captain Kirk costume because he'd been enjoying some OG Star Trek, but for the amount of money I was willing to spend we could only get this Data from TNG (used, off KSL classifieds), which was the same color. We did get him the old school communicator, though. He had a great time!

(Notice that he isn't wearing glasses--because he got contacts! He's doing the daily use ones that you throw away each night so I don't have to worry about him cleaning and storing them properly.)

October 26th I went with Kim & Brandi to Viva La Diva, Trick-or-Treat Diva!













Absolutely AMAZING! We had the best time!!!

On the 31st Faith asked Jonah to the Christmas dance:




She went to school in her Jack Skellington onesie pajamas, so she was all dressed up to hand out candy that night.






I made chili, cornbread muffins and roasted pumpkin seeds.

I didn't get a picture of Buddy, but he wore the costume from the pic above and went trick-or-treating with his friends and hung out with them.

September 2019

Still at the condo, Christian had fun squirrel watching on his birthday September 1st.


Then doing some gift opening,




and cake.


We drove down to Braeggers and the b-day celebration continued.




That night at home, Bud got his highest score ever in Yatzee!


The next day we went bowling as a family birthday party for him


and played in the arcade there.








On September 4th we finally found the source of the screaming we had heard for nearly a week in the weed/reed patch in the back northeast corner of our house. It was a single, tiny abandoned kitten which was so dehydrated it was nearly nonresponsive at first. The animal shelter was already closed, and Christian wanted desperately to try to save the sweet little thing. So I drove him to PetsMart where we bought a kitten bottle and formula.

I told him I was 95% sure that she wouldn't make it, but he cared for her all night, feeding her and helping her potty every few hours. She was just starting to seem better, but then passed away in her sleep. It was a devastating experience for our whole family, but especially my kind hearted boy.

Because his actual birthday weekend is never conducive to friend birthday parties due to Labor Day, we were trying to decide what day to have it when Christian saw that in a few weeks it would be Friday the 13th. He thought that it would be cool to have a party that day! Here is his digital invitation (we just sent it to his friends by text to save us having to drive around, and also they could access it easily and it wouldn't get lost)


On the 6th I pulled a bunch of artwork & pics off our wall decor:
Bud-










Faith-




On the 11th Christian got his school I.D.


Here are some pictures from Bud's party on the 13th:
knife wound cupcakes


Jason on his banner


eyeball deviled eggs, just because they're creepy




gift bags full of candy, especially big bundles of Blow Pops I'd gotten extremely cheap out of a clearance cart at Smith's


They played night games like Fugitive outside, then came in so he could open gifts.

Just three friends stayed to watch Lights Out (I had recorded the original Friday the 13th off t.v. but weren't sure if it was still appropriate for kids, so we went with a horror movie we had seen and which was only PG-13).

August 21st was Brandt's baptism.




Faith & Jonah looking gorgeous for Davis’ homecoming dance on the 28th. He asked her to the dance with a huge stack of paper with only a few words per page, and candy in between. She answered with a printed, "I would be SODA-lighted to go to the dance with you" and took him out to Fizz for a soft drink. They still managed to have fun even though some jerk exploded spoiled chocolate milk in the gym!
















We took Bud school shopping on the 29th and he picked a bunch of fun t-shirts at Target. Here is one of his faves:

August 2019

On August 5th I created this image as part of the Facebook invitation to our Relief Society yoga and smoothie activity on the 8th. It was a small group, but very fun!


On the 9th we left for Fort Lauderdale,


and on the 10th, continuing our “year of travel” we, after losing three hours of our hotel nap time due to our red-eye flight delay, boarded the beautiful Celebrity Eqinox.


We were super stoked to be onboard with our favorite captain, Kate! (we loved her on our last Celebrity cruise and follow her @captainkatemccue & her adorable feline sidekick @bugnaked on Instagram)


Tony only got a little embarrassed when she noticed us staring at her from our balcony and waived at us! (actually he was super embarrassed and ran inside immediately, LOL)


On the 11th we just enjoyed our balcony, some delicious food including tea time for Christian and I, and some comedy in the theater.

The next day was a sea day, so we explored, enjoyed watching Dirty Dancing on the real grass,

the kids made friends in the Kids’ club, and we had fancy dress-up dinner. I forgot to get any pictures of us all dressed up, but after I finished my makeup (including fake eyelashes) I did chase the kids around until they took selfies with me. Christian even taught me the duck face


Monday, August 12 was our first port—Costa Maya, Mexico. We went on an excursion to the Chacchoben Ruins and loved exploring them! We were just disappointed that our driver did not speak English, so we missed out on getting the information that people who reviewed this excursion on TripAdvisor raved about .

Next, we went to the Ibiza Sunset Beach Club for a few hours of beach time and a yummy lunch. Cute local kids who were walking the beach made Faith and I flowers out of palm leaves






On the 13th we were in port at the island of Cozumel, Mexico.

We went to the Ocean Beach Club and just relaxed all day at the beach. The kids got to hold an iguana, and later we enjoyed the most amazing guacamole and pico with chips!

August 14th we got to visit Grand Cayman. We took a 45 minute boat ride out to stingray city

and experienced one of the best (if not the best) excursions, ever! We loved all of the wild stingrays swimming around our feet and bumping into us, kissing and being hugged by them, and feeding them. The water was clear & warm and the sand was like powdered sugar.

Next, The boat took us to a reef where we got to snorkel for over an hour. We were surrounded by amazing fish

and saw several lines of squid swim by!

Back on land, we enjoyed some fresh coconut water and chewed on some sugar cane.

That night, Tony and I went to a party on the ship. Such an amazing day!!

August 15th was our 27th anniversary.

It was a sea day, so we found some fun onboard. Christian and I did a galley tour and saw the inner workings of the kitchens.

The four of us had a huge sudoku war where we raced through game after game in the café (Tony won the majority, but Faith & I each pulled one W).

Christian got his photo with his favorite statue, I am not familiar enough with art to know the meaning of a silver potato with legs

We competed against other families in general trivia and tied for first place!! (Christian was obviously over being photographed at that moment!)

And they gave us a special anniversary dessert at dinner that night.

August 16th we arrived in Key West and visited the Butterfly & Nature Conservatory.

It was incredible! Large and small butterflies filled the air and occasionally landed on us.

In addition, there were birds, turtles and flamingos.

We loved it so much, we went through a second time!

Afterward, we went to Fort Zachary Taylor beach and swam a bit. I asked the kids to make a heart with their hands, but the best Christian could muster was a fist bump

He also decided to pose pointing to a rock on a tree trunk. He certainly keeps things interesting!

As we were leaving Key West, we took some selfies on our balcony and watched our captain assist an officer in her first time steering a ship out of port.

That night we swam in the serenity pool,

then the kids went to the teen farewell party.

The next morning, I got up early and watched the sun rise from the top deck.

After disembarking, we went to Fort Lauderdale beach since our flight didn’t leave until after 6pm. Tony and Christian didn’t want to fly home covered in ocean water and sand, but Faith and I jumped right in. When it was time to leave I gave my usual farewell to the beach—not ‘goodbye,’ but just ‘until next time!’

We made the nonstop flight back to Salt Lake that night on standby (flying for free ROCKS!) and we were excited to collect our Skittles baby from my parents’ house.

We are so lucky to be able to travel so much and this trip was amazing!! Here is a collection of our souvenirs:

August 19th I took Christian to his brand new Jr. High (both new to him AND just barely built). We were on our cruise for back-to-school night, so I took him over so he could find his classes before school started.

It's a pretty cool school! Shoreline Junior High, home of the Shoreline Sharks.

The 20th was his first day of school.

He was super excited and loved his new kicks (meaning shoes. They are Nike Air Jordan Legacy 312)

Davis High only started the Sophomores on the 20th, so Faith's first day of school was the 21st.

August 22nd the kids and I visited the Kaysville Farmer's Market where Faith was not thrilled I was taking her picture

and Bud got to feed an alpaca.

Faith had taken a selfie with my camera a month or two before and I had fun using that pic in an artistic photo editing app. She is so gorgeous!

On the 31st we were at the condo in Park City and everyone (mom & dad, Sarah's family and Joy's family) went to the Sheepdog Trials at Soldier Hollow. We loved the wild animal and bird programs,

the hands-on displays,

and the herding competition.

And Faith loved getting her favorite gyros!