Abe's Adventures; Glen Piano, Dad's Elk Trophy, Jacob's Family Here for General Conference

These are some photos from Abe and Klarissa's latest trips to Florida where they attended a BYU game, a work/play trip to New York, and Las Vegas with the family to see Sarah's family.

Rebecca's and Ben's families love to get together here whenever they can.

Guaranteed they were playing games together after dinner until after dark.

Glen set some goals for himself for what to do during retirement. One of his goals is to learn to play the piano. He's been going strong for about 6 weeks now and is feeling good about his progress whenever he practices the songs he's already learned. 

He has figured out that a song is hard until you learn it and then when you move on to another harder song, the original hard song is now a lot easier.

Glen has a favorite saying on that subject that he has used in our family many, many, many times. Now it applies to him!

That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do--not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our ability to do has increased.   --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Now let's talk elk. Specifically Dad's elk. More specifically Dad's trophy elk head which is now hanging in their home. (Still can't believe Mom consented to have this on the wall in their living room.) 

Even I have to admit it is a beaut. 

Dad is awfully proud of that animal he shot on a black powder muzzle loader hunt.

Just giving some perspective of where this thing hangs in my parents' home.

Nice job, Dad, on getting a huge one. Now after two years of waiting to get it ready to hang on the wall, I am sure you agree it was worth the wait. 

Speaking of animal heads... Glen was surprised one day when he saw a deer on our front porch peering up at him. 

As the deer turned, I could see the underside fur had been scraped off clear down to its bloody guts. It was a very big spot and it had to hurt. I felt like the injured deer was trying to seek help for itself. 

A month later, we have seen that same deer and it seems to be getting along just fine. I bet the cold weather will bother that big open wound.

We did our monthly dinner with Glen's sisters.

We drove to Provo one day to have lunch with Michael and Lynn Maughan at the La Jolla Groves. It is such a nice restaurant and we always enjoy eating there. It was nice to catch up on what the Maughans have been doing.

The upscale, outdoor Shops at Riverwoods always has some fun type of decorating--this time colorful umbrellas overhead.

Jacob's family came to Utah for a BYU football game (no one shared any photos of that event with me to post here), a family tour of the BYU campus, to see Natalie, and to spend Saturday with us watching general conference.

Jacob's, Rebecca's and Ben's families all love Costa Vida.

What a fun way to celebrate Levi's 2nd birthday by eating out and then having two birthday candles to blow out.

General conference weekend must include ebelskivers. With three pans going and two helpers, it seemed a cinch to cook as many ebelskivers as necessary for the big group of people eating breakfast that morning.

The younger children wanted to watch conference in the basement by themselves, so Jacob allowed them to do so if they took notes on every speaker. I thought that was a hefty order considering their ages.

Spencer started off the sharing of his notes and I was very impressed.

Claire shared her notes and she had written something for every speaker. Madison shared a few things she learned.

Logan did a very thorough job with his note-taking as well. All in all--I give those youngsters an A+ on the assignment.

The older people played some games in between sessions. 

Levi was enjoying a candy break.

Jacob invited my parents to join us for dinner. They weren't given much notice and we were happy they agreed to join us. 

What a lovely family gathering and a lovely day of inspirational general conference talks.