A couple of months ago, Scott and I put a quick trip to Moab on our calendar for November 10.  We picked Moab because it sounded warm, even though it's about a 3.5 hour drive.  The weather did turn out perfectly.  We drove down on Friday afternoon and stayed in the Comfort Suites which was right across the street from "The Broken Oar" which is where we ate dinner.  It was a little pricey but the food was good. The following day, we drove to the trailhead for Corona Arch.  Corona Arch is outside of Arches National Park which means you don't have to pay the park entrance fees and it's also a really doable hike--only 1.25 miles each way.  I actually would have preferred hiking a little farther but this is what worked.  On our way, we saw lots of rock climbers on the cliffs that line the road which follows the Colorado River. It was a short trip but really fun.  Our oldest daughter babysat for us, earning money for her cross country trip to Arizon...

Recently our youngest son Talmage earned his Eagle award from the Boy Scouts of America. This makes our sixth Eagle for our six boys!  I'm feeling good about being done.  The other night, Talmage and his good friend Jon had a joint Eagle Court of Honor. Talmage's friend's mother was the organizer for this Court of Honor.  She asked her son what he wanted at this event and he wanted a lot of food--like a dinner.  So this meant quite a bit more effort.  We were put in charge of the program which Scott took care of, thankfully.  I worked on printing the programs and bringing the paper goods plus a bunch of fruit.  The other family set up the gym, put together a slide presentation of the two boys, and did some decorating.  The other mom also made an elaborate Eagle quilt for her son which was quite amazing--I got a picture of it off of Facebook which doesn't really do it justice. We appreciated the support from family and friends and...

A week after Camille's birthday, we had a little party for her.  We called it a pumpkin party and didn't have presents or cake.  The first thing we did was decorate little pumpkins. Next, we played some games:  Don't Eat Pete and Hide the Hotpad. Notice the masculine hand dipping into the M&M's! Afterwards, we made a fire while the kids played in a giant pile of leaves that we had collected in our sandbox which is under a tree.  They enjoyed jumping from the tree into the pile and we hoped no one would get hurt--fortunately no one did. After the fire was going, we roasted hot dogs and made s'mores which everyone enjoyed.  We smelled pretty smoky afterwards. A few days later, we carved our pumpkins for Family Home Evening.  Always a popular activity!

So our Susanna turned seventeen recently.  I think she had a good birthday even though we had to celebrate in parts because of Scott's travel and Susanna's schedule. Here are ten things to know about Susanna: 1.  She is very responsible.  If Susanna is given a job to do, she will do it completely and she will do it well.  She is definitely my best cleaner, by far. 2.  She is a good cook.  She is assigned to make dinner once a week and she does a good job. When she's ready to serve, be ready to eat! 3.  She works hard in school.  She always gets good grades and I never have to remind her about getting her homework done. 4.  She works hard on the violin.  She started the violin when she was about 9 and has made a lot of progress in the last 7-8 years studying with about 6 different teachers.  The current goal is 7.5 hours a week which can be challenging with her schedule.  I won't say practicing is her favorite thi...

We had Fall Break last week.  It's always a welcome three days off school. For the first time ever, Scott decided to take two days off and take Susanna and Talmage down to the San Rafael Swell.  They drove to Cleveland, Utah (no stoplights) and then went on dirt roads for about 30 miles through the Buckhorn Draw where they saw some pretty cool petroglyphs. Then they drove a little farther and arrived at the San Rafael Bridge campground where you get pit toilets and no water or other services for $6 a night (or $5.43 in Scott's case because that's all the cash he had.) They hiked up the San Rafael River for 9.6 miles on Thursday and then hiked 5.3 miles on Friday.  They saw a lot of beautiful scenery. Meanwhile, on Thursday, I took the youngest two to visit "This is the Place" Village with Grandma and some cousins and spent several hours doing activities there, includingwaiting half an hour for a two-minute ride on the tired...