THANKSGIVING IN IDAHO WITH FAMILY HIGHLIGHTS THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER

The Westover's arranged for an Air B and B in Rigby, Idaho for the Thanksgiving weekend. It was a home with 6 bedrooms so they invited us to come spend the holiday with them.  Charlotte, Allison, Maggie, Kacey, and baby, Arthur drove to Idaho on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Andrea and Casey drove in from Oregon that night as did Jillian and Lydia who live in Idaho Falls and Rexburg, respectively. We left Heber around 10 in the morning on Wednesday and arrived in Rigby around 2:30. That afternoon was spent baking pies, parker house rolls, and cinnamon rolls. That night we played a game called Story Go Round. Kacey had written an app for the phones that made the games easier than passing around papers to add to each story. Some of the ending stories were hilarious.

The home was set in a very rural area. This was
the backyard which included chickens and two pigs.

On Thanksgiving day, the Westovers went to see the new Wicked movie. Paul and I did not want to see it so we stayed home and watched our own movie called Spirited. I made the dressing, stuffed the turkey and put it in the oven so it would be ready for a late afternoon dinner time. I also made the yams and Jello salad as well as peeling the potatoes. I was glad I could help with the dinner and Andrea was thrilled when she got home to have so much done already. Paul was able to watch the BYU basketball game while dinner was cooking which thrilled him. Dinner was delicious and served on a beautiful table. 

The activity for the girls was working on a Lego Harry Potter village. They spent hours on it everyday and finally finished it on Friday just before we left for home. The Westovers stayed until Sunday.

Of course. the highlight for Andrea and Casey was their little grandbaby, Arthur. They miss him terribly as they are in Oregon and he is in Utah. Over the holiday, they couldn't get enough of snuggling him.

At the first of the month, we celebrated Lincoln's birthday. He is obsessed with the Banjo and Kazooie video game and wanted a Banjo cake. After researching exactly who this was, I found a picture I could copy to put on the cake. I had fun trying to make it look just like the Banjo picture. Lincoln loved it.

We spent a couple of days babysitting Lincoln and Ledger this month. Todd was out of town and Kailee needed to take the girls to their mock gymnastics meets. Avery's was on one day and Aria's on the next day. Taking the boys for the 4 to 5 hours each day would have been a nightmare for Kailee so we said we'd come help out. Olivia came to help with Ledger on the first day and Carly came the second day. With three of us entertaining two children, the job was pretty easy. Ledger became obsessed with Paul and kept climbing all over him. So cute!!!!

Lincoln kept his Banjo backpack on most of
the time we were there.

And then there was BYU sports. Football ended and basketball began in this month. For the next to the last football game, Todd brought Aria and Avery along with Susie, Kailee's mom. It was a late game and very cold but that didn't hinder the girls from wanting to come and then staying till the very end of the game. Side note: BYU ended up 11 and 1 and will play in the Big 12 championship game the first Saturday in December.

The basketball season got off the a great start this year. They played well in the pre season games and even won a tournament played in Florida. We're hoping they can do as well in the Big 12 games. 

During this month, I worked on designing a Shutterfly scrapbook for our 2025 vacations. I usually do a book for the Fullers too, but we only took two short vacations with them and I didn't have enough pictures to fill a book. In the scrapbook I made for us, I included our BYU cruise to Mexico with Todd and Jon, our trips with the Fullers to Branson and Colorado, and our annual time in St. George with my family to attend the Tuacahn productions. It was fun to review these great times spent together.

Just a couple of pictures before I end this month's blog.....

The kids loved our new hot tub. This was
the first time they had come prepared to
with swimsuits so they could play in it.

Paul and I laughed when this tennis ball showed up.
We were having our bushes trimmed and this ball
was in the middle of one of the bushes in the front yard.
Several week prior, Todd had hit this ball over the
roof while playing baseball with Jon and the kids.
 He tried to find it but couldn't. We had to take a picture of it.

And a couple of memes with meaning.....

OCTOBER - GENERAL CONFERENCE, FAMILY, AND FOOTBALL HIGHLIGHT THIS MONTH

We had a wonderful surprise when Andrea called and ask if she could fly in and spend conference weekend with us. Of course, we said yes. It seems that she missed snuggling little Arthur and wanted to spend the weekend with him and her daughters....and us. We loved having most of the Westovers here for the long weekend. Jillian and Lydia even drove in from Idaho to be with us all. Andrea, Jillian, and Lydia arrived on Friday evening. Saturday was spent watching three sessions of conference, playing games and eating. 

President Oaks - our new prophet and president

Sunday was a special day, not only because of the wonderful messages of conference but because Ryan and his family as well as Jon and his family came up that afternoon for dinner. It was incredible to sit around the table and talk and laugh together. We always have a fun time when we are all together. 

We missed Todd on this day

Football is always in full swing in October. We had two home games, both of which Ryan brought his family up from St. George to watch. The second game was the biggest as it was against the University of Utah, our greatest rival. We won that game in the fourth quarter so it was a very exciting game. We ended up standing most of the game. Because of another win against Iowa State the next week we are now 8 wins and 0 losses. 

Half time tribute to America with both BYU
and Utah marching bands performing together.

We took a little getaway trip to Worldmark at Wolf Creek. While there, we went to the temple and a movie in Ogden. The resort's hot tub was very inviting as was just relaxing together in our condo. We were hoping to do a little golfing but, when we went to the club house to grab a bucket of balls for the driving range, we found it was all closed up. It had rained a lot that day so they must have closed early. We, then, decided to come home that evening instead of spending one more night at the condo. We were glad we did as we got up the next morning to snow on the ground. Who knows what our trip home would have been like if we had waited to come home in the morning.

Driving down the Ogden canyon
to the movie

We came out of the temple on Wednesday
to lots of rain.

SNOW in October.
This could be a bad winter

October always brings leaves falling from the trees as well as the final harvest of our garden. This October the leaves were plentiful as we ended up taking three trips to the dump with the truck full of leaves. 

Paul raking the leaves to put in the truck

The last thing in our garden is always the squash. We pulled off 11 squash and gave several away to friends and neighbors. I also baked down a couple of them to make pies. I have three squash pies in the freezer along with 3 apple pies. A friend brought us a bag of golden delicious apples from which I made the pies. We're all set for Thanksgiving.

Apple pies ready for the freezer

A sad thing occurred this month with the death of our beloved prophet, Russell M. Nelson. He was 101. We all knew it would just be a matter of time before he was called home but it is never easy to lose such a wonderful man. He was an incredible leader and prophet who accomplished so much to the furthering of the gospel around the world. He will be missed. His funeral was televised and was a fitting tribute to a great man.

Elder Holland speaking at the funeral

Another sad thing.....We drove to the bank one weekend and ran into a group of people in front of the city offices protesting. It was part of the nationwide 'No Kings' day. It was obvious that it was organized by some outside group as the people had matching signs. If it was spontaneous the signs would have been homemade and all different. More than likely these people were bused in or told were to be on this day. We were so sad that our little Heber community was affected by these left wing lunatics.

We celebrated two birthdays this month - Maggie's and Ledger's. Maggie wanted pot roast and cream puffs for her birthday dinner so that's what she got. There was not one morsel of food leftover.

For Ledger's birthday I made Hostess cupcakes, a tradition for our one year old grandchildren. He loved his cupcake and ate the whole thing. We bought him a dump truck that has some learning gadgets on it to help him count and recognize colors. He loved that, too.

Other happenings this month included two trips to the Hale Center theater in Draper. We had to take two trips because the first time we went down to see the musical, Sister Act, the stage wouldn't work so they had to cancel the show. We were able to schedule seeing the show two weeks later and this time the stage worked. The show was incredible. It was worth the wait to see it. 

At the end of the month, Paul went into the hospital in Orem for a procedure to decrease the size of his prostate so he wouldn't have to urinate so often. We were at the hospital a total of 6 hours with  surgical prep, the surgery and then the recovery time. They needed to watch his urine output for 3 hours to make sure there was not clotting before they would let us go home. He spent two days with a catheter and once that was removed, he seemed to be doing quite well. He's been wanting to do this for a long time and hopefully it will have the results he has dreamed of.

And always last in October is Halloween. We opted not to go to Todd's this year partially because of Paul's surgery but also because all the Leavitt's were going to be there. We usually go down to help pass out candy so Todd and Kailee could  take their children trick or treating but, because even Kailee's parents were coming, we wouldn't be needed.  The night before Halloween, Avery vomited so none of the Leavitts came to Todd and Kailee's home to celebrate Halloween. We could have gone down to help but we also didn't want to get exposed to any illness. It turns out that Avery was fine the next day so could even go trick or treating. Todd and Kailee had to take turns with the children trick or treating so one of them would always be at their home to hand out candy. We ended up having about 20 trick or treaters at our home. It's been years since we've been home on Halloween so we had no idea if anyone would come.

Bango and Mumbo Jumbo - characters
from an old video game.

From a new series the girls are obsessed with -
KPop Demon Hunters

Little Ledger

AND THAT'S A WRAP.