The Bryan Family Sampler: September Odds and Ends

The Institute had their opening social and since Josh was working and Matt was doing something else I decided to take Ben up. I would not have done that had he not been in his wheelchair to keep him contained.

As I was getting close to the stake center on campus where the activity was being held I was seeing the streets lined with cars and wondered what the university had going on that night. As I turned the corner and pulled into the parking lot I realized all the cars and all the kids were there for our activity!!! The two food lines were crazy long and there were students everywhere!

I got Ben in his chair and found Andy. They were in the midst of ordering more food since they were going to run out fast. The turnout was really incredible!

It was Luau themed so I got a picture of these two cuties!

Ben was a good sport and just got a little hangry as we waited for the extra food to come.

They had ordered an extra 100 pizzas and an additional 80 servings from Mo' Bettahs to feed the remaining crowd.

They told everyone to stay and wait and that the food would be coming. It took a while and I'm sure we lost a few but when the food came it all got consumed pretty fast. We were sure to snag a piece of pizza for Ben :)

Here he is as we waited...I found Julie Delgado and Rachel Orr hiding at the back of the parking lot. We had a good chat. They are two of my favorite ladies :)

Andy said they usually have between 600-700 students come to the opening social and from those that counted, it was estimated we had between 1200-1400 that night! Incredible! It was a fantastic evening and I'm super glad I, very uncharacteristically, to throw Ben and his chair in the car and attend.

A couple of weeks later, President Susan Porter came and spoke to the YA of the valley.

As we were on our way to the spectrum a writer for the Church News called Andy. They had actually worked together when Andy was an intern for Church Public Affairs so it was a fun verbal reunion. Trent wanted to let Andy know he was coming to cover the devotional.

It was a lovely evening. Sister Porter and her sister who joined her were delightful. I actually ended up having an in depth conversation with her sister after the even about our children and loved ones with disabilities.

The blue arrow points out Andy in the church news.

(I'm on the cover of a magazine! - Mike Wazowski)

And Josh sang in the devotional choir for the first time. They sounded amazing!

He really did make it into the news :)

Interestingly, he's in a very similar position in this picture to the one that he was in the last time he was in the church news which was on his mission...very upper right hand corner.

A couple of years ago, I had asked my dad if he would be willing to build something for me for my new laundry room. I had seen a hexagon shoe holder on Pinterest years before and had held on to the thought, thinking it would be perfect for my bee themed laundry room. He agreed that he and Jo could do it for me. After he looked more in depth at the plans he realized he didn't have the necessary tools and he and Mom decided Uncle David would probably be able to do it so they approached him and he agreed.

He built the boxes, I stained them black and then he came back and installed them. Somewhere along the way, he had presented an idea to me that we both really liked. He asked if, instead of stacking them in a boxlike shape and possibly putting sides and top and bottom pieces on, we screwed them right into the wall and let it climb in a more organic way. I thought it was a fantastic idea and played with different configurations (getting lots of input from other people) until I was happy. I would have preferred it not be so symmetrical but I was limited to two cells wide which made it hard.

I seriously love it! I love having my shoes that I use multiple times a week handy right by the garage door and not cluttering up the floor somewhere.

And I love that this pattern created little places too put more plants :)

Matt had his first improv show of the year!

"Murder Murder" is always fun!

It is a smaller troupe this year so that means he ends up being in more of the games which is fun.

Trying to keep Ben entertained by showing him himself in the camera :)

Bro flexed his fancy yoga pose on stage.

(Sorry, I'm sitting here typing, listening to my three semi adult children playing Minecraft and throwing slang so that sentence just kind of emerged)

After the show, we learned that Matt had invited Brother Condie (both of the boys' seminary teacher since Matt is a peer tutor in the special needs class) to come to the show. He and his wife came and stayed for the whole thing. They dropped by our wheelchair accessible seats afterward and said hi to Ben (and us). So kind of them.

The Monday night after Homecoming Matt was asked to Sadies!