Birthdays

 Paul and I really enjoyed our birthdays this year. Katie and Al came over and spent the day with me for my birthday. We sat in the hot tub and got some lunch. Paul got me some of my favorite treats and some very thoughtful presents. He said they were from the kids, which was his way of getting around the fact that my bike was supposed to be my only present this year. :) He got me a necklace that has the ocean, mountains, and sun on it. All of my favorite things. He also got me a bracelet with pine trees all around it, and the inside says "The mountains are calling, and I must go..." It's so true! :)

The kids each wrote me a very sweet note. I will treasure those forever.

After dinner we watched family videos. I love watching our old videos.

I took some lunch over to Paul on his birthday. It was nice to spend a little time with him in his library. He opened his presents when he got home from work.

I was pretty excited to surprise him with this one. :)

Paul chose Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then we stopped and bought some pumpkins on the way home. We turned on some music and the kids painted their pumpkins. It was a really fun night.

Everyday Adventures

 Tessa was so excited to dog-sit Sadie for a whole weekend. She takes great care of her and loves it!

Rockwell went to Classic Skating with some friends one night and was thrilled that he won enough tickets to buy a stuffed penguin!

I have been riding my bike up to Vivian Park a couple times a week. I absolutely love this ride. The scenery is gorgeous and it's just good for my soul to exercise out in the beauty of the canyon. I'm really going to miss it this winter.

Matt & Lori came to town at the end of September. We celebrated the September/October birthdays and Elena was so excited to get a party at Grandma's house.

Tessa and Hallee spent their evening doing each other's hair. They sure are seeming older these days!

Our annual birthday picture with Jonah. :)

Rockwell was so excited to be chosen to work at the Book Fair at school. He spent a lot of time there and bought quite a few Wings of Fire books. He's loving that series right now!

Mel and I bought tickets to the Kane Brown concert months ago. Since then, she has dislocated her shoulder and had to have surgery to repair the damage caused. She is still recovering from her surgery and didn't feel like going to the concert would be wise. We were both so bummed. We have been wanting to see Kane live for years. Paul came with me instead and was pleasantly surprised with how many songs he knew and liked.

It was a great concert! The opening acts went on way longer than we wanted them to, but once Kane came out, it was so much fun!

Life Lately

 We went to Katie's house for a Labor Day family swim party. Al & Audrey came too and we all had a really fun day. Paul ended up having to miss it because of real estate issues that came up. We all missed having him there.

Rockwell and Tessa are both doing awesome on their jobs. Rockwell loves when he finds snakes in the yards that he mows. He's seen a lot of baby ones this year and a few big ones too. He always likes to pick them up and hold them for a while.

Tessa loves when Roxanne needs her to watch Sadie. It really is the best job ever for Tess!

I got a new bike as an early birthday present. I've been riding the purple bike from my childhood, and it finally bit the dust after about 27 years. I can't believe it lasted that long! I love my new bike and have enjoyed riding it this past week. 

I've been working toward a goal of riding from our house to the top of the trail in Provo Canyon. It ends at Vivian Park, which is a 17 mile ride round trip. I made it to the top today!

I really love riding in the canyon through all the beauty.

Tessa and Damon opened the door dressed like this when Grandma and Grandpa Ham came to babysit them. Grandpa asked Damon who he was and Damon said, "A mighty warrior!!" Haha!

They spent a lot of time using their imaginations this weekend, and I loved it. They spent Sunday afternoon outside playing all sorts of things in this relaxation area they made. I love the times when the kids play together and come up with non-screen things to do.

Date Nights

 Paul and I went to the Little Big Town concert Friday night at the Eccles Theatre. We've been waiting for this concert for a year and a half. It got rescheduled twice because of Covid-19. We were so excited to finally get to go! We had to show our vaccination cards to get in (or a current negative Covid test). That was a little weird to have to show that, but venues can require that if they decide to.

We love Little Big Town's music. Their voices are amazing. Each of them sound great on their own, and amazing when they harmonize together. The staging at the concert was awesome too.

It was so nice to spend a night singing and dancing along to our favorite songs.

We got to go on another date Saturday afternoon. Grandma & Grandpa Ham came and watched the kids while Paul and I went out to celebrate our 16th anniversary. (Thank you Mom & Dad!!) The kids were so excited to spend time with Grandma & Grandpa, and loved showing them all sorts of tricks and all the things that they love right now. Paul and I went to Provo Canyon and did the zipline adventure.

The guides drove our group up the mountain in a huge truck.

There are 5 ziplines on the tour. Each one gets longer and faster as you go down. It was a really fun afternoon. I just love the beauty of Provo Canyon and love any time we get to spend there.

On the last zipline the guides were fine with us going upside down or getting creative with how we went down. I went for the upside down Spiderman approach. :)

When we were finished in the canyon, we went to Shoot's for dinner. It was packed with people in town for the BYU/Utah football game. (BYU won the game! That was the first time they've beat Utah the past 9 games. It was SO exciting!!) Luckily we didn't have to wait too long, and the food was delicious as usual.

On our actual anniversary I woke up to this sweet note and candy heart from Paul. It was very thoughtful of him!