October Happenings; Halloween Costumes; Skeletons Galore

Once back in town after our vacation, I decided it was time to get our bathroom wall fixed after putting up with it for four years. 

Our upstairs furnace humidifier was installed unlevel and caused a big water leak upstairs all the way to the basement. Fortunately, the upper level and basement did not have the permanent water damage problem the main floor bathroom did.

Glen lined up Jeff and Sarah's basement finisher to come fix the problem.

Greg fixed two places in the wall that had rippled. He fixed issues along the baseboard. And he also patched the ceiling which was where the water had pooled in a big water bubble.

 

Greg did a wonderful job and now I am not embarrassed when guests go into that bathroom.

Nothing like a delicious dinner at Bill and Jan Evans's home with friends to get us in the fall mood. 

All the Swiftie fan girls in the family invited me to go with them to see Taylor Swift's Show Girl that was only playing for a few days at movie theaters.

It had an orange theme to it, so we were staying in the fall colors mode.

Another thing that speaks fall is going to a pumpkin patch. We enjoyed seeing photos of Abe's family doing just that.

October General Conference was happening and there were ebelskiver breakfasts going on in the Excell home as well as our home.

Love the eating stations Lincoln and Jonah had set up for themselves to be able to watch conference while they ate their breakfast.

The Excells joined us later for Sunday dinner and afternoon conference. 

It was Wesley's first experience eating ebelskivers. Laugh was on me when I fed everyone their fill at breakfast, distributed the leftovers, and felt great about feeding so many people those little round bites of breakfast goodness...until I realized I had used egg nog instead of buttermilk in the batter. OOOOPS!!!

Sorry Wesley. Better luck next time!!

After I googled this question, I didn't feel quite as bad "substituting" eggnog for buttermilk.

We all know fall means football. It appears Abe and Newland were extremely happy with the positive end score of the rain-delayed, double overtime BYU at Arizona game and sent proof they stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to watch the whole game.

The next week Jacob's family came to town for the BYU/Utah rivalry game.

Who knew Wesley is the paint-up-your-face-for-the-game kind of guy.

Claire is in her element at the games and loved rubbing shoulders with the players after the fans stormed the field.

The Excell family participated in the North Salt Lake Halloween 5K run.

Some costumes look to be more comfortable running in than others.

Halloween costume photos of Jonah, Lincoln, and Carson.

OOOOPS!! What happened just in time for Halloween??? A chip fracture evulsion in her foot. Poor girl!!!!

Have scooter will roll!!!

Looks like her injury is not getting her down. She is very festive and ready for some Halloween candy action.

Newland (on the right) with his buddies. He reminds me a lot of Abe in this photo.

Didn't see a photo of Klarissa all dressed up, but when I saw this photo of Abe, my first thought was that makeup sure makes Klarissa look older. Then I found out this is a good friend of my parents being photographed with Abe so he could send it to them.

Claire was the only trick-or-treater in Jacob and Laurie's family this year. Our grandchildren are growing up!!

There are still little ones in Ben and Haley's family. I laugh every time I see Kade in costume and wonder how he ever sees out and how he can walk in it. Cute three boys!

It was fun seeing Spencer in costume with his friends (minus the wig he did not want to wear). 

Dallas and Rebecca brought Madison and her friend to our home to trick-or-treat. I absolutely LOVED their costumes!!! 

Of course, I just had to show them the photo of us when we were Thing 1 and Thing 2 one Halloween.

The girls wanted to mimic our pose. Great job, girls!!

Now on to the SKELETON section to end this post. 

Nani has a neighbor who really gets into dressing up. Creepy!!

We have some neighbors who change out their skeleton poses every single night in October for our daily viewing pleasure. Love it so much! They are so creative. 

The first day of the month the skeletons appeared holding a sign that said, "Back by popular demand."

Cute way to end their month-long daily displays. It is always a sad day on November 1st to walk by and see the lawn empty. It feels like we've lost some dear friends.

Quotes of the Week

 The whole intent of the gospel plan is to provide an opportunity for each of you to reach your fullest potential, which is eternal progression and the possibility of godhood.

--Spencer W. Kimball

Ours is not just a Sunday church. Our worship continues each day of the week, wherever we are and in whatever we do. Our homes in particular are the primary sanctuaries of our faith. It is most often in our homes that we pray, we study, and we serve with pure love.

--Gerald Causse

Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow and forever.

--Jeffrey R. Holland

ST. GEORGE: Morning Walks; Early Dinners; St. George Temple; Tuacahn Plays

Our first activity on our first day in St. George was to go on our usual morning walk. We took a path where we could see the city in a distance

We drove all around the Red Cliffs Temple to take some photos. This temple was closed the week we were there, but we enjoyed being on the temple grounds and driving around looking at the neighborhoods in that area.

Glen happily went with me on our next adventure even though he thought it was a pretty dumb thing for anyone to be interested in seeing.

This quirky local attraction is located in Washington, Utah. It is an 80-foot pole covered in license plates from all 50 states. As I was looking it up, it was tagged as "folk art - weird." Glen definitely agrees with the last descriptive word.

I will forever be glad we investigated the License Plate Tower. I thought it was definitely quirky, but unique.

Our dinner for the day was at George's. It was a quaint, old-fashioned bar and grill which was so fun to look around while waiting for our meal to be served.

We split an order of fish and chips and ribs. Just trying to fulfill our yearning for ribs and this definitely did not satisfy our tastebuds. But it was a fun dining experience, nevertheless.

We were in St. George to watch three Tuacahn plays. The beauty of the red rock mountain is always a thrilling sight to behold.

The play our first evening was The Little Mermaid.

We had seen this play at Tuacahn before and thought it would be the same, but that was not the case. It was so well done!! It was good before, but this time it was great!

The crew spent the whole intermission trying to get all the water up off the stage floor.

We saw bunnies on our Tuesday morning walk.

We went back to our hotel and ate our free breakfast before it closed for the day. Then we went back out to check out Brooks Nature Park. 

It was definitely hyped up to be better than it actually was, but the photos will make one think it was a great nature experience.

We got cleaned up and went to get our favorite Yogurtland treat.

The St. George Temple was our next stop. We were able to go inside and participate in an endowment session.

We got there plenty early, so we went to the visitors' center and watched a video about the building of the St. George Temple.

After our session, we went to dinner at Morty's Cafe.

That evening our Tuacahn play was The Wizard of Oz.

I loved the play. Glen says it was his #2 choice with Little Mermaid being his favorite. 

Wednesday morning we walked some trails originating from the Bloomington Hills North Park.

That day we went back to the St. George Temple where we participated in a sealing session on the fifth floor of the temple. While there, we were told we could wander wherever we wanted throughout the temple--just don't open a closed door. 

It was interesting to walk around that temple and see things we hadn't seen when we attended the open house before it was rededicated.  

Our dinner that day was at The Kitchen Table. 

The third and last play we saw was Newsies. 

It had a really large set and the performers did an excellent job, but it is just not our favorite story.

Upon our arrival home the following day, we met up with one of our former missionaries and her husband at Zupas. Amy and Keegan Anderson were in town on vacation. 

Randomly enough, they are living in South Carolina in the same ward as our friends Larry and Debbie Isaksen. Small world!!