September

Just when I'm sure I'm in store for a mundane month, lots of great and fun things happen, so I'm going to stop saying that I expect the following month to be boring- cause there is nothing boring about our life! We had a fun Labor Day.  We were going to start the day out by hiking the wind caves, but it was pouring rain when we woke up so we settled on a big breakfast out on the covered patio- while it rained. . . then that afternoon we had fun bowling, then that evening we invited the Searles, Skeens, Pete's and Bundy's over for a cookout and beach volleyball.  We had a lovely day. 

I have been really fascinated and obsessed with clouds lately.  They're just so cool.  I appreciate a blue sun filled sky (especially if I'm at a lake or pool or in January after a long inversion) but I prefer an interesting cloudy sky with different colors throughout.  It's just so amazing to me.  We have enjoyed a lot of days like these this month and I couldn't be happier.

September 14 started off many days in a row of being super busy- it was all fine and fun and fulfilling, but I was sure glad when it slowed down and I got back to my regular routine.  I started off this Saturday by getting up at 6:15 am to make these delicious orange rolls for a RS birthday brunch that day.  After attending that, I helped Mike and Cam with some yard work.  Mike rented a sod cutter to get rid of some grass in our front yard so we can plant some trees, shrubs and flowers there instead.  It's going to be A LOT of work, but will look amazing when we're done.  At least that's the plan. . .

 In between the assistance I gave outside, I was also inside making 3 batches of salsa. . . It had been a couple of years since I'd made any, and now I remember why. . . it's rather messy but the end result is so good.  Here's my secret:  Mrs. Wages seasoning packet.  All I had to do was add tomatoes and vinegar.  And it's really good salsa- you'd never know I cheated a little. Shhh- don't tell anyone.

In the 17 years we've lived in Logan, I don't think I've ever voluntarily paid money to go to a USU football game when they weren't playing BYU.  I think once or twice some friends invited us to go with them and gave us tickets, but this is my first real game to go and truly cheer for the Aggies.  Mike and I bought a 2 game package- with the other game (of course) being BYU in a couple of weeks.  I have to say if the weather's good and the team I'm cheering for isn't terrible, I love me a good football game.  Well, we got good weather for the first half, then it rained for the next several hours.  We lasted until 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter then abandoned ship. We had a fun time despite the rain.

On Monday we enlisted the help of Jess and Brad to help us continue to remove the sod from the front yard and it was amazing what we were able to get done in a couple of hours.  Cam got out of helping because he was busy with homecoming activities all week. 

Here he is (right hand picture) after painting the street Monday night.  The bottom picture is of him in the homecoming parade with some other senior class officers, then the top left is him going to the "white out" homecoming game wearing one of his friends away jerseys.  He had a great time at all those activities, and is sure making the most of his senior year. 

Tuesday I spent the evening making a batch of chili sauce with some leftover tomatoes from the salsa.  Wednesday I went with Janae to the homecoming parade and the powder puff game to watch Parker dance with the Brickettes.  Thursday I helped Jess and Brad paint the two bedrooms in their new (to them) house. They bought a triplex on 6th East and will live in the two bedroom and rent out the one and three bedroom units.  It will be so weird not to have them living with us anymore!  It's been a great year (off and on) to have them with us.  Friday I had the day off, so I started off with a glorious hike with Lindsey and my friend Tori.  We did Crimson Trail- perhaps my favorite hike.  It was a beautiful day with the leaves just starting to change.  We had a fun time. 

After that I helped Tori for 2 hours make two double batches of salsa, then my friend Dani (formerly a student in Mike's singles ward) came over with her two little girls and I helped her make two double batches of salsa!  I was ready to sit down and relax after that but that was not to be as I went to visit Mom who was sick, then back to Jess and Brad's to help them clean for 1 1/2 hours, then home to get a package ready to send to Jake and listen to the LHS football game.  The next day I rode my bike along the Top of Utah marathon course looking for Dani who was running her first marathon so I could bike along her for awhile to give her some encouragement and diversion. I found her at mile 21 and biked with her for 4 miles. She did a fantastic job getting a time of 3:50. I then hurried over to LHS to help Janae and other parents and students decorate for homecoming dance that night.  They were having it outside of the high school and it was perfect weather thankfully.  Janae and I purposefully wore our opposing team shirts since the big BYU vs Utah game was that night.

Rushed from there over to Jess and Brad's new place (with a stop at Little Ceasars for pizza for everyone) to help them and some of Brad's family unload the trailer and truck full of all their stuff they had been storing at his sisters house in Brigham City.  Back home to mow the lawn since our regular lawn mower was busy with his day date, then went back to Jess and Brad's to help Jess unpack and organize (at least part-way) their kitchen.

Home again to help Cam get ready and off to the dance, then finished preparing dinner and had Mike's best friend from high school (who recently moved back to Logan after a divorce and remarriage) and his new wife over for dinner. We had invited them several weeks ago before we knew what a ca-razy day we would be having and didn't want to cancel on them.  We were able to relax and have a lovely evening with them.  We ate outside, played badminton, and tried out our new propane heater and made some tasty s'mores.  After they left at 10, Mike and I then wasted the next several hours watching the terrible BYU game.  Boo for them losing to the dirty Utes.

We've had a lot of fun this month playing a ton of badminton.  Mostly it's been Cam vs. at least 2 other people- sometimes 4.  And he wins almost every time!  He's exhausted and sweaty, but that boy can move and get almost everything hit to him.  It's quite entertaining to watch.

After living in Logan for 17 years, we finally have the opportunity to get to know the full-time missionaries a little better and it's been so awesome.  Up until now, one set of missionaries has been assigned to our stake- plus 6 others- with about 4 of those being USU stakes, so most of their time was spent on campus working with students.  We would get the chance to have the missionaries over  for dinner about once every few years.  So in the past few months, we've gotten our own set of missionaries for just our stake!  Hurray!  With Jake being on a mission, it's just been great to spend time with the missionaries and imagine how it would be for Jake to be having dinner and hanging out with a cool family in Washington!  We had them for dinner two times this month and both times it was so awesome.  This picture is from the second time they came and so they came prepared to play some badminton with Brad and Cam then after that we had s'mores on our new fireplace grill.
These are just some misc pictures of everyone having fun in the backyard and enjoying the cooler fall weather. (the kids are the Hess kids who Jess nanny's every afternoon and the baby is our neighbors granddaughter who was checking us out- haha)

I finally forced myself to get out my fall and Halloween decorations and decorate the living room and kitchen with them.  I don't know why I had been procrastinating it so much because I love fall and I love these decorations.

One morning on my way to workout, I had to pull the car off to the side of the road to take these awesome pictures of the clouds by the mountains behind our house.  So cool!

The last Saturday of the month was spent with more yard work.  Mike cut down the three ugly bushes by the front bedroom windows, chain sawed down the pine tree in the front yard that is going to get too big for the space we planted it in 10 years ago, and the three of us worked hard all day to get all that hauled away as well as two truck loads of dirt/sod from 2 weeks ago.  There's still much to do, but we are making progress.