Girls Trip to Denver

In October, I had the awesome opportunity to go with my old college roommates to a Time Out for Women in Denver!  We'd all been on the same floor at Helaman Halls our freshman year, and then lived together in Jamestown 31 at Liberty Square.  It was me and Becca (who couldn't make it because her daughter was sick), Julie and Sandra, and Melissa and Sara.  Then Julie and I lived together our junior year as well after the others had either gotten married or left for internships.  We hadn't all been together for about 15 years, so it was about time we had a reunion, and Sandra performs at the Time Outs for Women so that gave us a great excuse.  We flew in Friday and it was so fun to see how everyone had changed, or not changed, over the years.  In some ways it didn't seem like we'd been apart for very long!

As good as it was to see everyone, what made the weekend SO great was the Time Out for Women.  I loved it so much more than I thought I would!  I'd expected it to be kind of fluffy, but it was really good, hard-core gospel nourishment!  I was so impressed by all the speakers, especially the women - Sandra, Mariam Kallon, Jennifer Brinkerhoff Platt, and Emily Freeman.  What amazing examples!  Because we were Sandra's "special guests" we had 2nd row seats (right behind the speakers), which really made for a great show.  Here are all the speakers together...

Jericho Road was the featured musical group and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them! :)

In my eyes, though, Sandra was the star of the show.  He singing and testimony touches so many people!

We spent most of the day Saturday at Time Out, and then we went to dinner and chatted until late that night.  We had a couple suites next to each other in downtown Denver, which was fun.  The only weird thing about the weekend was the zombie walk that was also taking place downtown!  When we walked to lunch or to our hotel we were surrounded by people dressed as zombies!  (It was some event to raise money for a charity, and they were trying to break the record for the most number of zombies together in one place!)  It really created a stark contrast between the spirit we felt at Time Out for women and the freakiness of the outside world! :/  

But I sure love these girls and was so glad we were able to get together!  Hopefully we'll do it again before another 15 years passes, and I really hope Becca will be able to join us next time.  It wasn't quite right without her...  Just for fun, here's a blurry picture of us as sophomores, in our oh-so-cute Creamery shirts! :)

I'd say the years have been good to us. ;)  

More of Fall

Once again, I've fallen behind with the blog.  And now it's Christmas and things are only going to get crazier, so I'd better do a little bit of catching up.  We've had a very busy last couple of months and I won't get to cover everything, but here are some pics of a few things, at least...

Matthew and Bryan both finished up their soccer seasons and did a great job.  Matt's an aggressive little player and doesn't let many people get in his way when he has the ball!  Don't let this sweet face fool you!

His coach, Steve, was a guy I knew at BYU who lives here in Lehi now.  He'll be Matt's coach in the spring as well, which we're looking forward to already!

Go, Matty, go!

Bryan worked hard all season and loved playing with his teammates and his coach, Les.  They didn't win their last games, which was a bummer, but they're accustomed to playing together now and should be a really strong team in the spring.  They start indoor soccer in January, which will be great practice as well.  Here are the kids waiting for one of Bryan's practices to end.  It's great that Owen's old enough now to play with the kids on the playgrounds.  He loves it!

I love Matt's big smile here. :)

David's really in to guns these days, and a few weeks ago we finally all went out as a family to do some shooting.  The kids all really enjoyed it and the boys especially have great aim.  Ari thought it was pretty cool to just get to pull the trigger.

Our target was the little red mark you can vaguely see in the picture.  

On a more quieter note, Bryan and I have also been into family history lately.  We've mostly spent time looking at information and pictures and reading stories of the ancestors in our family tree, but we hope to find some people to add sometime soon!  Our ward did a family history fireside a few weeks ago and Bryan came with me and I thought it was so cute to see him sitting with his buddies, all looking at their family trees on their ipads.  Such good kids!

Bryan really made us proud by earning the academic award for his class for the first term of school.  (Each teacher picks one student for an academic award and one for citizenship.)  I love that I never have to get on his case about his school work.  He's so diligent about completing everything and doing his best, and he seems to enjoy being challenged to excel.  And he loves being at Odyssey!  I think we've got lots of good school years ahead with our smart, hard-working boy.

Here he is with his AWESOME teacher, Mrs. Daley!  Isn't she cute?  Bryan loves her. :)  Both Bryan and Matt lucked out with really fun teachers this year, so we couldn't be happier.