Pumpkin Carving

Well, it's definitely fall on the east coast. The leaves are getting really pretty now. For Mutual last night, we had a pumpkin carving contest. We were really focusing on missionary work - it was a "Bring a Friend to Mutual Night". I thought it was a great success! We had 12 YW there, including one girl who has been totally inactive for several years, and we had 5 nonmember friends. The girls had fun carving their pumpkins, and just being together. The downside was that we had those yucky cider doughnuts for dessert. I hate those things! Anyway, here are some pictures from the activity. Bekah brought Carly, and they both had fun.
The winners of the contest received the much coveted prize of googley-eye glasses!

Fun at the local Price Chopper

Oooooh! Look at my cute Halloween blog! Thanks Bekah, it's adorable! I, of course, don't know how to do a single thing on my blog other than type words. For everything else, I have to get Rebekah's assistance. But that's okay - that's probably the highlight of her day (as you can tell from her latest post!)

I really don't have anything exciting to report, but I will tell you a funny thing that happened the other day. I was at Price Chopper doing some grocery shopping, and I rounded the corner and practically ran into the funniest thing I have ever seen in a grocery store: There was a little old lady (I'm guessing around 70), short and kind of hunched over. She was shuffling along pushing a grocery cart, and (here's the funny part)... she was wearing a blue troll doll wig. Do any of you know what troll dolls are (or were?). They had this stiff, colored hair that stuck straight up. Well, that's what this little old lady was wearing on her head. I wished I'd had my camera with me, because it was hilarious. The funniest part was that she didn't look like she was doing it as a joke - she was all kind of grumpy and cranky looking, and oblivious to the stares from fellow shoppers. I can only hope to be able to have that kind of fun when I'm 70!

Conference Weekend

We went to Millbrook on Sunday to watch conference with the family and to celebrate Grandpa's birthday (I'm not sure how old he is). It was nice to see Grandma and Grandpa - they're both doing very well, I think. Grandpa got his usual stash of candy for his birthday, which we all liberally partook of! John and Kathie Baardson were there, as were Blaine, Robin, Heather, and Aaron. It was fun to see everyone. The drive down was very pretty. The Taconic Parkway is beautiful anyway, but the leaves are starting to change colors, so it was especially nice. John and Kathie are living in the D.C. area, at least for the next year or so, so we are thinking of planning a trip down there to visit them and to see all the sites. Bekah hasn't been there since she was way little, and of course, doesn't remember much. It would be a fun trip!

How to distill the excitement of our lives down to just a few paragraphs??.....

Okay, Rachel says it's time for a new post because the last one was boring. SO, this one will be so much more exciting since so many more things are happening now....

Let's see...I'm still working in YW's and liking it (I give my thanks every day that I don't have Rachel's calling!) Dad and I recently went on the stake youth temple trip to Boston and had the pleasure of riding on a school bus for 6 hours. That's when you know you have a testimony! (Why else would you squish your abnormally long legs into seats meant for 8 year olds for 3 hours at a pop?) But the temple experience was really nice, and it was fun to share it with Dave and Bekah. I'm trying to plug forward with my classes. Unlike Rachel, I did not get all my learning taken care of while I was at BYU. Believe me - I wish I had! The assignments are challenging because they require DRAWING. Yes, it's true. I'm supposed to DRAW. Any of my children who grew up being entertained by my stick-figure masterpieces knows that this is quite a stretch for me. And unlike Mindy, I don't seem to be improving much! Dad's finally going skeet shooting tomorrow. He hasn't been for a very long time, so hopefully that'll be fun for him. He's going with our duplex neighbor. (Our neighbors are a cute young couple with an adorable little one-year old name Andreas.) Also tomorrow we're going to go apple picking. The leaves are turning, and it's starting to look really pretty back here. Yay for fall in New York!

Back to the coal mines.....

Well, we just returned from a veeerrry extended vacation to Utah. Bekah and I were out there for close to a month! Now it's back to New York and work, school, etc. We're trying hard to get back into a routine,but it takes a while. Meanwhile, we did have a great trip! It was so fun to see all of our kids, and to catch up on their lives. I'll mention here some of the highlights of the trip:

Jake and Nicole's wedding
This was, of course, the main reason for our trip out west. We are so happy that Jake found such a wonderful young lady to add to our family (and to our already stellar daughter-in-law collection!). We love Nicole and are so happy to have her as a Field!

Here are some pictures from the wedding.




Getting re-acquainted with baby Abby
Abby's at that stage where she's not sure she's all that fond of strangers. And we're strangers, unfortunately! But we had lots of fun playing with her and trying to get her to like us! She's a real cutie, and it's fun to see how she's grown!



Weekend at Bear Lake
Some of us took a little trip up to Bear Lake for a weekend. While there, we decided to try our hand at wakeboarding. Turns out we have quite the talented family! It was lots of fun. We also did to ATV riding up in the mountains - it was beautiful as always up there, and we got nice and dirty!



Other miscellaneous fun stuff
We also did lots of other fun things, some of which included: helping Amy sew roman shades for her new house (they came out super cute!); spending a day in the neighborhood park in Heber playing with Mindy, Abby, Rachel, and Bekah; going to BYU's opening football game (which they won - go Cougars!); Bekah spent a fun-filled weekend with Jeff and Rachel; visiting with family who came to the wedding; and in general just spending time with family. What could be better!

New digs

We're pretty much settled in our little duplex. It's not bad - other than the fact that half of our clothes are stored in wardrobe boxes in the basement! Other than that, it's almost a perfect fit! (Well, it would also be nice to have one more shower in the place - Bekah definitely could use a bathroom of her own.) Here are some pictures.

Moving.....again

Moving day is fast approaching. We've started boxing things up, taken pictures off the walls, packed up knick-knacks. We're at the point now where it doesn't look so much like a home - mostly just a house! Sigh. Oh well, I'm actually really glad to have this contract and to be scaling back. Who wants to spend 4 hours every Saturday mowing the yard, and hours and hours cleaning toilets (5 of them!) and dusting? Not us! So we are happy about downsizing. It just feels kind of awkward in the interim. Not to worry, though! Soon we'll be in our lovely (well, not OURS, really) little duplex with only 2 toilets to clean and a teeny little lawn to mow! Yay!!!