Chasing Fall

The middle and elementary schools had a four day weekend.  It was under the guise of parent-teacher conferences. I didn't mind though.  A couple days off is awesome. Monday afternoon Val called me and said that Tanner was going to be at the temple Tuesday morning.  Super exciting.  I did some rearranging and went down to "bump into him".  Which didn't work out as nicely as I had hoped.  I had to get up super early, and for a 5:15 scheduled normal rising time you know it was super early!  Then I hit a lot of traffic and ended up getting there after the session started.  That was okay I had a plan B.  I did some other work and then waited where I knew he'd be.  I saw tons of handsome missionaries but no Tanner.  Finally I asked one of the young sister missionaries if this was their whole mission and she said no it was only half and the other half was coming tomorrow.  I was super bummed and thought maybe he got stitched to another day.  When I got out to the parking lot I called Val and told her.  We were sad. Of course I wasn't sad to spend the morning at the temple but bummed not to see him.
Eventually we learned that he was there, in the baptistery.  His car broke down on the way to the temple and he was also late.  I never thought to check there and we were both disappointed. :(

I got home at about 10:30 am and Grace and I, and Audrey and Brynn took off on a finding fall adventure.

We drove up to Tehachapi to go apple picking & to have lunch.

cute store with a clever name.  Audrey bought a pie for her family.

Our first stop was a cute German bakery where we enjoyed a yummy lunch and delicious pastries!

apple bags

Then we went to find an orchard.  Weirdly many of the orchards had no crop this year.  I don't know why...and neither do they but we saw many signs that said no crop and several of the websites we had checked before we headed up also said they didn't have one.  Something happened at the blossom stage.  A couple did so that's where we went.

Brynn and Grace

me and Audrey

It turned out that it wasn't a "you pick" farm.  But a "you pack" your own bag out of the boxes that we pick.  They did have sampling and so we tried some different varieties and packed our bags with our favorites.

pumpkin time

Next it was off to the pumpkin patch.  It was a funny little place with fields of pumpkins, fun flowers and a sign that said take knife and go out to the patch and cut your own pumpkin. Come back and weigh it and then leave the right amount of money in the "honesty box".  So we did.

Grace packing the bag

Our pumpkin weighed 15 lbs.

which ended up being $13.

some pretty flowers

We had a fun afternoon and got back around 3:30. Then it was off to choir for Grace and then soccer for Ethan.

This was the last game of the season and the boys did great.  They won 7-0 and Ethan scored a goal.

in action

look at that sunset! beautiful!

soon after this it got dark...and cold

Ethan is glad the season is over.  He didn't love his coaches and while soccer at it's worst is still fun it was less fun than normal.  High school try-outs start at the beginning of November and I have my fingers crossed that he'll make the team.  If he does I will break out my parka for future soccer viewing!

And just for fun: bitmoji's. I love them and have been snapping with my girl but Dani combined ours and made some cute adventures.  So fun!

Dani made us bitmoji partner pictures!

Thoughts on a Monday

First off love these little ones. Sierra and Dani get to see each other a lot. I know they love it. Sierra loves Dani's babies and is such a fun aunt.

Look how gorgeous those colors are! I loved fall in MD. Everywhere we went it was always so pretty. It made a simple neighborhood walk or drive to the drug store a treat.  Here we don't get the change of color but it's super fun to see the girls pictures!

I went to the gym this morning. By myself. I know. It's been much more fun than I expected. Even though it's only been a few times I actually can tell a difference in how I feel. Maybe I'll become a gym person.

After the gym I went to TJ Maxx where I found more awesomeness than I needed to! I got this scary dinosaur costume for Moe! Can't wait to see it on him!

Grace didn't have school today but she went to robotics so I picked her up at noon. 

We did some cleaning. Specifically she had to clean the bathrooms. It took many times of me checking before she passed it off. Eventually she accused me of having "black light" vision that can see dirt that's not visable to the naked eye. 

Tonight is Ethan's last soccer practice of the season. 

And how fun is this! Kenz posted this picture of their FHE group at the pumpkin patch. These girls are Hannah's roommates. So Hannah is in the back. Then the tall girl with the hat is Afton, the girl in the red sweater is Katelyn.  The front row of girls is Madi, Kenz and Sierra. I don't know any of the boys names except Brennen in the red sweat shirt.

Grace and I like to lay on my bed and watch TV together.

Sunday

I taught today in young women. The lesson was on gratitude and it was super fun to prepare and teach.

When we got home we had a quiet afternoon. For dinner we had Hawaiian Haystacks. Ethan's request.

After dinner we played phase 10. Dad won:)

We are almost done with the Book of Mormon (again). Tonight we gathered around the table and read the rest of Ether, super sad chapters. This week we will read Moroni and then done! It's been a wonderful year reading purposely together.

After cleaning the kitchen we needed a sweet treat so snickerdoodles was in the menu.

In other news a few weeks ago Sawyer broke up with Hannah. She was sad but quickly realized it was for the best. Now he can focus on this mission. She had been having a lot of fun at school, loves her classes and roomies and has met lots of fun young men. This one is a little special. They've gone on several dates and she thinks he's pretty great. His name is Brennen and he's from WY, served a mission in the Philippines, and they are having fun!  So fun times are being had!

I've been subbing a lot. Thursday I spent the day in special ed. Friday Rob asked me to spend the day with him. It was not hard to convince me😊. We had a fun day. We went to the gym together and had lunch. 

Friday was crazy hair day. For both Tatum in Utah and Grace here in CA. Funny! I did not hear about the big day until 9pm the night before so we had to use what we had on hand. 

Coincidentally Dani and I both stuffed the girls hair into plastic cups! They both looked cute!


Friday night Ethan went to the homecoming football game. QH won and they had fireworks! How fun is that?!

This morning Grace made banana bread out of some bananas that were r.i.p.e! It turned out so very delicious!
Rob, Ethan and I went to the gym again. 2 days in a row baby!

We did some cleaning up, some football watching, and Rob and I went to the stake high priest meeting and dinner. It was pretty nice. President Crawley gave an awesome talk and the dinner was tasty and it was fun to see our friends.

Boo!

It was our turn to go booing. I really liked the way our little caldrons turned out. You can't see but there was a caramel apple kit in each caldron. We gave one to the Dunn's. They have four really cute little girls and I thought they would love the Halloween headbands! The other one we dropped off at the Sherwood's.
We had a fun combined activity tonight. We played jeopardy with fun clickers that Dan brought. The adult team won! After the points turned into "dollars" to bid on the treats at the end. The YM did a great job planning the activity and everyone had fun.

Monday

Last night Rob and I stayed up too late watching Madam Secretary. This morning I had to get up for seminary and to sub 3rd grade. The kids were really great so we had a good day in the classroom. 

Despite that there was an air of sadness in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. What is up with our world? It's so heart breaking. 
Tonight we had FHE. It was Ethan's turn to facilitate the lesson. Then we played spoons. For treat we lucked out and we were "Boo'd" so we had yummy cupcakes! 

October!!!

I love October. Fall is an awesome season. Here in the desert we don't see lots of signs of fall but the weather does get cooler. 

We watched general conference all weekend. It was amazing! I'll recap my favs tomorrow. 

After Grace and I played phase 10, then we went in the back and set up our hammock and relaxed with books and the small dog.

For dinner I did a low country shrimp boil. It was good but not awesome. Custard pie for dessert. Also good but not awesome. 

Rob and I took Z for a long walk, which was very nice. 

Talked to Val and Hannah on FaceTime. 

It was a nice weekend.