General Conference at the Farm

This General Conference weekend we worked at winterizing our yard so that we could spend most of the time up at the farm.  The first announcement of the first talk the first day, now announcing the new age for missionaries was just awesome.  It made me think if I would have gone on a mission if that was around, the implications that will mean for youth now, and the increased number of missionaries that it will create.  All of those things are so neat.  

Grandkids with the Grandparents

After the first session we headed up to Franklin and enjoyed the rest of Saturday with Grandma and Grandpa Haworth, and a lot of the Tanner family was up there too.  During the priesthood session Grandma, Sherri, Kristie, Lacey and I all did manicures, and even Lilah chose a color to have her nails painted.  Thanks for letting me crash the party girls :) 

 Taking a walk to enjoy the weather in between sessions

 Jack wasn't too sure about the cows, after I set him down he was screeching 

and wanting me to pick him up again.

James on the other hand LoVeS the cows and always asks to go see them again.

 All the grandkids love a ride on Grandma's wheelchair

It was gorgeous weather up there, so we took advantage one day and took a ride through the river bottoms area as a family. This is one "toy" I want to get someday.

Jack was usually taking a pretty good nap during the sessions, and James was either playing pretty good with all the neat old toys they have, or I was trying to get him to listen by getting a different treat when he heard a key word like "missionary" "Jesus" "prayer" and "scriptures". 

I love General Conference and am always inspired to do better afterwards.

And we love to visit the farm, this fall weather made it all the better.

Before and After of Project Fence Stain

 I've been motivated lately by the lovely weather to do some projects.  And we needed to winterize the fence.  I guess I didn't realize how bad it looked until we had stained and water proofed it for winter (and we had to get that done before we could go to the farm for General Conference!)

 My lovely helper!

I would try to get it done while Jack was sleeping, so it took me a few days.

Once we got started though it was looking so good we didn't want to stop.

 

All the stain it took!

We underestimated this, and had to go back to Home Depot...twice

 Before...

 During... James was helping take pictures too

 You can see the side by side comparison of done vs. not done

What a difference! And just in time, because it has snowed since this!

We used 5.25 gallons to do our entire fence, front and back

We tried spraying it on then rolling it in, just plain rolling it, and ended up painting it on with a brush.

That took some more time, but used so much less that we probably could have done it w/ the original three gallons that we bought.

Pack's Pumpkin Patch

Say that five times fast.  Ha, I just tried, and failed :)  

James' preschool had a field trip to the pumpkin patch, where they got to pick out a pumpkin and learn about farming pumpkins.  There was also this really fun maze set up out of hay bales.  We got pumpkins for our house, some cornhusks, and had a great time.  The kids were happy to ride in the cart that I had to push to collect some different sorts of pumpkins and gords for my fall decorations.  Jack-Jack thought it funny to start throwing out the gords that I had picked, then he decided to take a bite of two of them too.  Happy Fall!

 Jackman is so cute!

 And is now walking everywhere!

This place had goathead thorns though which got stuck in his shoes, my boots that I wore(I had to scrape them on the road before we started driving they were sooo full of goatheads).

Not to mention I had cornhusks going from the back to the front to get home.

Our car needed a vacuuming when we were done with this trip. 

 

 Learning about farming pumpkins

What a little ham :)>

 Some of James' little buddies

The dinosaur hoodie and tutu in this picture just make me smile

I love three year olds!

Fish at Bridal Veil Falls?!

So there is a popular little place up the Provo Canyon called Bridal Veil Falls.  Last year a small fish pond was created near the base of the falls, with rocks around it so the fish could not escape.  At the beginning of this month I went to visit Kirstin, and she suggested we go up to the fish pond at Bridal Veil.  I was thinking "what?! yeah right", but there really is a fish pond now with a little dispenser to buy food for 25cents to feed them.  James and Jackman both loved it.  I love all the pictures too.  It was such a beautiful fall day.  Thanks Kirst!

Headed up the trail

Look Mommy, fish!

Hanging out in the pack

Mommy and her two boys

Xterra Triathlon

Nathan raced in the Xterra Off-road Triathlon, long course, this year up at Snowbasin Resort, which is a measly 10min drive from our house.  He's wanted to do it the last two years, but the timing hasn't been right.  This year he did really well, and we were so proud of him, and we were able to go watch him come in from the bike and then at the finish (I didn't think that the kids would do well trying to see him come out of the swim, then find a place along the bike course, then on the run somewhere, transitions...you get the idea).

Nathan getting out of the water at Pineview Reservoir after a 1500m swim

Some friend's of ours that we know through Nathan's work were there so Becky got a picture of Nathan at the swim.  Jeff was racing the long distance too. 

 James and Jack-Jack held a sign for Daddy

 

Mountain Biking, 18miles and 3400' of climbing 

Climbing is Nathan's forte 

 Coming down the chute for the finish after running a 10k trail run

It was so gorgeous for this race up at the Snowbasin resort.

The leaves were mostly all red and so pretty

 

 Looking pretty determined

 Right after the race "just give me a sec"

 We love our Daddy!! 

James liked seeing Daddy be a racing person

Turns out that Nathan won third in his age group, which right now is such a hard group!  

Way to go Daddy-O