October Wrap Up

 I thought I had better mention a few happenings before I posted Halloween and moved on to November...

Earlier this year, we as a family, made a goal to hike the range of mountains on the west side of our little valley.  In my youth I hiked them a few times and it is not an easy jaunt.  So we planned to work up to it by going on several smaller hikes throughout the summer.  That never quite happened and so we were not prepared to meet our goal this fall.

 It was bothering Andy somewhat that it never happened and so he decided to take whoever wanted to up as far as they could go.

 The two boys took him up on it.

 And guess what?  They made it all the way!

Andy said it was awesome.  They were troopers and even though it was hard they kept going.

He said it was so good to just talk with them and not have any other distractions.  

I guess along the way the boys decided to give names to some of the landmarks they passed...

Abby's Aspen Grove

Benjamin's Meadow

Dad's Decision Point

(they reached a point where they could see the rim but it was still a way off...Andy had the boys decide if they wanted to continue or not)

Mom's Berry Patch

Josh's Switchbacks

Matt's Lone Pines (apparently there were 2)

Bryan Ridge

...cute right?

 I'm so grateful the boys had a good experience and have this memory to look back on.

LOVE this one!

Abby had her annual strep episode.  She was kind enough to pass it on to Matt this time too :)

(She really did not want to wear that mask...even though there were signs all over telling her too, and the receptionist telling her to)

I have no pictures for this next item but it has to be mentioned.  

The kids have a "Primary Program" every year in church where they have speaking parts and sing primary songs for the whole congregation.  It's definitely one of the best meetings of the year.

This was the first year that Ben was involved.

His young class did not have individual speaking parts but said a few single lines in unison throughout.  Hence, they didn't get to use the microphone.  Apparently, during the dress rehearsal, this was upsetting to Ben.  He really loves being in the spotlight and loves microphones :)  His teacher said that after it was all over she had to let him go up and "talk" into the mic to satisfy him.

This made me nervous for what may occur during the program.  Would he make a fuss?

Ben walked up to the podium with the rest of the kids and his teacher.  They sat on the front row.  You could barely see his little eyes above the ledge.

What happened next was so sweet that it brought my sensitive, mother's eyes to tears.

During the songs, Ben's teacher who was sitting right next to him, held a mic up to Ben and you could hear his sweet mumbling voice among the other childrens'.  He loved it...and so did we :)

Afterwards, his teacher said that she just felt so bad for these little ones because they all wanted a turn (the kids next to Ben got turns as well).

It was a precious moment!

Abby and Matt were anxious to go out and rake leaves one day...Ben was anxious to join them.

They had a blast!

I loved watching them :)

Hooray for Fall!