Busy Saturday

Saturday October 1st was a busy morning for us.  It started out at 9 am when the whole family had to be up and dressed in decent outfits for our family picture.  The beginning of the school year the elementary and middle schools have sign ups at the open house for family portraits.  You pay like $20 and you get an 11 X 14 family picture.  The entire $20 goes to the school and the photograph company comes back to the school on a designated weekend and takes your picture.  I was the second person to sign up at the middle school so I picked the first time slot they had on Saturday.  It was a good thing I did because the Roswell Youth Day Parade changed it date from Oct. 8 (because of Yom Kippur) to October 1st.  The kids did a great job and Connor did better than we could have hoped.  The last time we had a professional picture of our family was when Brenton was 2 1/2 and Connor was 1.  We have had professional pictures of all the kids about every couple years but non with Jon and I in them.  The pictures turned out great and I am so glad I can check that off my list.  So after we got our pictures taken Jon headed over to our church building for a funeral.  Our last Bishop's father died.  While he was at that I took the kids to the youth day parade.  The kids love this parade and look forward to it every year.  Of course, all the kids got plenty of candy.  After the parade was over, we had to head home to get ready to watch General Conference.    I enjoyed all the talks from conference and since then I have enjoyed listening to the talks again on my ipad every Tuesday morning I would put a talk on and listen to it while driving to the temple and then after.  It took me a couple months to relisten to them all.  I used to try and read them all in the Ensign, but could never finish them all before the next months Ensign issue.  So this way I could do 2 things at once drive and listen and get my goal accomplished after many failed attempts. 

Candy Parade

Every October our city has a what is called the youth day parade. We call it the candy parade. They start off by having a 3K run. After the runners go by, the parade starts. They have lots of different people from schools, to scouts and girl scouts, to dance and gymnastics, fire trucks, horses etc. your typical city parade. Plus lots and lots of candy. This year was by far the best year for candy. In the past they threw a lot of brachs peppermint candy (the red and white ones) which kids don't really care for and most of the time just leave on the street. This year was the year for skittles and starbursts. All of my extended family was there except for Cheri's husband who was working and Morgan who is out at BYU Idaho. We even had Christa's mom and dad in-law there. They were in town from Kansas City, Kansas. Her dad in law is finishing their basement.

Megan and Lincoln

Megan, Sonoma, Olivia, Payton, Lincoln, Talmage, and Hayden

Hayden, Paige, and Eliza

Oh yeah, Brenton wasn't there either. He had a stake 11 year old scout day camp. He was most upset about not getting any candy. So that is when Jon decided to make the item below.

Not a very attractive basketball hoop with the electrical wire, string, duct tape, plumbing pipe, but he found everything in our garage and didn't spend a dime. Anything he collected in the bucket went to Brenton. It was a big hit everyone was trying to make a basket. Eliza who is 2 was right next to the basket and let me tell you she cleaned up because most people missed.

Hayden

When the parade got over, we went to the church to pick up Brenton and then headed over to the park. Every year after the parade they have free lunch for the kids (adults have to pay). They have hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and soda, water, or sports drink at the park. They also have about 6 big inflatable jumpers, slides and obstacle courses along with pony rides, train rides, and a rock climb. This year we just had lunch and headed home. We usually stay and do the inflatable items but not the other things because the lines are way out to China since they are all free. My sister Cheri was staying longer so she took Payton and Kennedy with her. The reason we didn't stay long is because it was our turn along with 3 other families to clean the church. We cleaned the gym and the bathrooms. The church wasn't that dirty since it was General Conference the week before and most people stay home and watch it on satellite. Then we headed over to my parents to watch the BYU football game which we won:). We figured out Payton and Kennedy had only been home for 1 hour all day long. They were wasted.