Mutual Activities

 Megan and Josh have been having some fun activities and have been able to go to the temple a couple of times.  It is nice that they share the pictures so often.  Megan is liking the new Young Women's presidency (she misses Tricia - she doesn't miss me).  We just got a new bishopric a couple of weeks ago.  Josh says they are good and have been making plans.

Veteran's Day at the Tabernacle

Josh got to sing at the Tabernacle at Temple Square the night before Veteran's Day.  All of Granite School Districs choirs got together a few times to practice and then all performed with a band.  The band was supposed to be an Army band, but I think because of the government shutdown, they couldn't do it.  So, they found a new band quickly and they did a really good job.

We picked up Margie and Lloyd before going downtown.  We parked at the shopping center and walked to the food court to find something to eat.  Most of us settled on Chick-fil-a and Lloyd had a cheesesteak.  

After eating we walked to the temple to see Josh before he had to go get seated.  He was excited to perform and looked so handsome.  He then had to go in, and we went to the bathroom before going into the tabernacle to find our seats.   

We found Josh seated in the very middle section chatting away with his neighbor.  It was fun to watch Josh and the other kids that we know sing so many patriotic songs.  They all sounded so good.  

It was nice going to this program again this year. I really like it with the large choir and the band and paying tribute to the military.  Megan didn't love it and asked not to come back next year.  She may end up singing in the choir herself in a couple years, so I guess we can give her a year off.  Allie seemed to like it better.

After the show we looked at a couple of the statues on display at Temple Square and then met up with Josh before he had to get on the bus.  

The rest of us then walked back to our car and we took Lloyd and Margie home before we went home.  Josh even beat us home, so that was kind of funny.  It was a lovely evening, and I am glad that our kids like to sing in the choir so we can have these types of opportunities.

Halloween 2025 - Tick-or-Treating & Haunted Corn Maze

It seemed like a pretty chill Halloween this year.  Megan went as a softball player and Allie went as a pumpkin.  They both looked very cute and were very practical costumes.  

They both had fun trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with Tony.  They got lots of candy and luckily, they didn't get too cold.  Josh stayed home and played is computer.  He did like handing out candy to the kids.  He did go to a party the next night.   

About a week before Halloween Megan talked about wanting to go to a haunted house.  I didn't think it would be a good idea to start with a really big scary one, so we looked into the Haunted Woods in Murray Park.  Turns out we just missed it and they weren't doing anymore.  So Tony found a haunted corn maze that we thought could be a good first "haunted" experience.  Josh said he wanted to go too, but Allie was a hard no.  Tony then found some discount tickets online for the three of them.  The tickets included the corn maze and the haunted maze.  They said they all had fun doing both mazes and they were ready to go to a bigger and scarier haunted house.  I guess we will have to see what we can make happen next year.

Fall Break 2025 - St. George Day 3 (& 4) - Ghost Town, St. George Temple, Swimming, Naps, Tuacahn, & Going Home

We decided to check out a ghost town after our fun hikes.  It turned out to be kind of lame, so we won't need to do that again.   

We then drove to get some lunch.  We wanted to go to In & Out, but it was super busy, so we just went to Del Taco that was close by and not near as busy.

After lunch we decided to walk around the St. George temple.  It was such a beautiful day and such a pretty place to be.  We ran into some friends from out home ward and took pictures of each other's families and that was extra special.  We then walked around the temple and visited the visitors center and chatted with the missionaries.  It is always such a special spirit when you're on temple grounds.  

After the temple we went back to the hotel to let Allie go swimming.  She is the only one that wanted to swim again.  Tony took her down and let her swim for as long as she wanted, mostly.  Some other kids came and swam, and she had the best time swimming with them and probably would've swum for even longer.  But she needed to get showered and changed so we could go.

I went down to see if Tony wanted me to relieve him, but he was out cold sleeping.  There were other adults there with their kids, so I wasn't too worried about Allie not having someone awake watching her. I then went back up to our room and saw that Lloyd and Margie were also both sleeping, so it was kind of funny.  I was able to get us mostly packed up while Allie was swimming.

Margie wanted to go extra early to the show so that we could eat at the Tuacahn restaurant.  It wasn't very busy, and we were able to order quickly and get our food pretty quick.  It was decent food, and we enjoyed eating in that beautiful setting.

We had plenty of time before the show started after we were done eating, so we walked around the store and then around the promenade area.  

The kids were accommodating and let me take some pictures of them with the show boards.  

We then got to our seats and hung out until the show started.

This was the night of the BYU vs U of U football game.  It started while we were eating dinner.  Tony kept us posted on the score throughout the evening.  It was kind of cool to see many people in their team's gear and the comradery that it created, no matter which team you supported.  You could see people checking the score at intermission and then the cheers of finding out the ending score after the show was over.  I was bummed to miss seeing the game, but it was actually pretty fun to have that kind of experience with so many fans.

The show this night was Wizard of Oz.  This was such a good show.  All the shows were so good, but this was super good.  The sets were all so good and I really loved the fireworks each night.  It felt magical.  We then got out without any problem and went back to the hotel.

The next morning, we ate breakfast and then went to sacrament meeting at the ward near the hotel.  After the meeting we went back to the hotel to get changed and packed up for the drive home.  We stopped and got ice cream at a creamery on the way home and then had a late lunch at the Cracker Barrell.  It was a great trip, and we had so much fun with Lloyd and Margie.  We are so thankful that they take the time and money to take us on these fun trips.  We are very blessed to have such amazing family!

Fall Break 2025 - St. George Day 3 - More Hiking

We decided to go do some more hiking this morning.  We found another park to go and explore that had some dinosaur prints and fun things to explore.

We first found the prints, which to me seemed like a stress to call them dinosaur prints.  They looked like someone just cut out marks in the rocks.  But I am sure others thought it was super cool.  

We then took another super fun trail.  About halfway down we noticed that we could her some music.  We thought maybe it was just from the campgrounds, but they as we continued to hike we found out that there was a man who was in a cove up on the side of the mountain playing different flutes.  He sounded so good.  Josh and Megan wanted to climb up to see him, so I followed them up.  

When I got there, he let Josh play the drum while he played the flute.  He offered to let Megan play something too, but she declined.  Tony, Allie, and Lloyd ended up joining us up the hill and we all got to watch Josh play the drum for two different flute songs.  It was such a neat experience, and I am so glad that Josh and Megan wanted to go up and see him play.  I regrated not recording them play together, but I did take some pictures.  It was super cool.

We then hiked back down the hill to Margie and then continued hiking on the trail.  This is where we found the water and the trail got a lot harder.  We were able to go a little further and we saw how people could keep going by climbing up on the rock hugging the side very carefully.  

One lady didn't want to come back that way, so she just jumped in the water and that was fun to watch. She told us that she knew she couldn't maneuver around the rock so took her chance in the water.  We turned around here and started to go back down the trail.  It was a fun and easy hike with lots of fun photo spots and rocks to climb on.

We then walked back to the car and decided to go check out a Ghost town.  On our way we saw a sign advertising a trading post with cinnamon rolls and ice cream, so we had to stop and check it out.  Most got ice cream and Tony, and I shared a chocolate mud pie.  All yummy.  Allie found her souvenir at this cute store.