Fort Collins, Colorado Temple

The Billings Temple has been closed since the middle of November.  In November we went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple in Utah.  We knew were going to have to make a road trip somewhere in December. We talked about all kinds of options and finally decided to make a trip to the Fort Collins temple in Colorado.

We left Tuesday morning and enjoyed the drive down to Fort Collins together. It is good to spend time together off on an adventure alone.  We stopped at Sonic in Casper for lunch.  We enjoyed the day together.

 Our friends, the Checketts, moved to the Fort Collins area a couple of years ago. We went out and saw their family and their new house.  It was fun to eat dinner with their family. We were blessed to attend a session at the temple with them.  Neil and Brother Checketts drove to the temple together and I drove with Sister Checketts so we would have a chance to talk about life.  It was fun to catch up with her.

After attending the temple we went for a walk near our motel.  We thought we would go and find the Colorado State University campus. We walked quite a ways and decided we should go back.  We never did quite make it on to the campus.

Wednesday morning we went back to the temple and did a sealing session. It was a great experience to do sealings for family names. There were quite a few people there to do sealings. We helped do a family sealing with about 5 children.  We enjoyed the morning at the temple. It was quite windy while we were there.  The Fort Collins Temple is a smaller temple and has a different look than a lot of the temples. It was beautiful.

After attending the temple we headed for home. We drove to Cheyenne and went to the LCCC campus for a short break. We walked around a bit. We drove through the downtown part of Cheyenne and saw the Capitol Building and several of the government buildings.

We stopped in Casper again on our way home and did some shopping at Wal-Mart. We got lunch there and then headed for home again.  It was a great adventure. We were grateful to attend the temple together.

The Billings Temple opens again the middle of January. It will be great to have it open again.

Thanksgiving at home

We also cooked Thanksgiving at our house even though we had a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday before. I love cooking with the kids help.  It is one of my favorite holidays just because of the family time.  We did most of our cooking and baking on Wednesday.

 On Thursday, Emma went to help at the community dinner. She served lots of pie. She was the whip cream lady.  She even got her picture in the paper. When she was ready to come home the Kia wouldn't start so Bethany ran to get her. 

In the morning some of us went to the church gym to play.  We flew paper airplanes and there was some basketball going on. It was fun.  Here is a video of our activities:

We made lots of pies.  Two pumpkin, peanut butter, lemon meringue, banana cream and coconut cream. We also had the leftover chocolate pie from Grandpa and Grandma's house. It was super yummy. I thought the lemon meringue pie turned out so pretty. Here is a picture:

In the afternoon we painted ornaments to send to Matthew and played games. It was a fun day. I love Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving and a quick trip to Utah

Neil had the whole week off for Thanksgiving.  We decided to buy tickets to the BYU football game the Saturday before Thanksgiving and make a trip of it.  It ended up that BYU also had a basketball game the same day. We bought Dallin and David tickets to go to the basketball game with Grandpa and Grandma.  It turned out that David had a robotics competition in Butte Montana that weekend. He decided to go to that instead of with us.

We decided to go down on Thursday instead of Friday so we could go to a show Rebecca was in. Grandma Sharp went with us to 12 Angry Jurors on Friday evening. It was a good show. Rebecca did a great job. It was fun to watch her again.  We took Bethany, Julia, Emma and MaryAnne to the show.

Saturday morning we went and did temple work. Grandpa Sharp took Bethany, Julia, Emma, MaryAnne and Dallin to do baptisms. It was Dallin's first time going.  Bishop Jeide came to our house and ordained him after his birthday so he would be able to go.   Neil and I went and did a temple session. In the hustle of getting out the door I forgot my temple bag. I had to rent clothes and get clearance to be admitted without my recommend.  It all worked out though.

Saturday afternoon Neil and Dallin went to the basketball game.  BYU won pretty easily.  I think they enjoyed going.

Emma and I drove to Provo and met Grandpa and Grandma, Neil and Dallin for dinner. It was a fun evening.  Emma was a good navigator as I was driving.  We went early enough that the traffic wasn't bad. We drove past Grandpa and Grandma's old house in Orem just for fun.

After dinner at Magelby's Fresh we went and walked around the campus at BYU. Emma needed to make a campus visit.  We walked up to the stadium for the football game.  It was a fun game, but not too full.  8:15 isn't an ideal start time for late in November. It was a little cold, but not as bad as it could have been.  At least it wasn't windy or wet. BYU won so that was fun.  At half time we moved over to sit with Grandpa and Grandma.  They shared their hand warmers with us.  Part way through the 4th quarter Ezra Andreasen texted us and wanted to know where we were sitting so they could join us. Dallin enjoyed seeing Adam again.  After the game, we gave them a ride to their car parked by the Provo City Center Temple.  It was good to see them.

Sunday morning came early because Grandpa and Grandma have 8 o'clock church. We didn't get back from the game until about 1:30 a.m. After church Grandpa cooked a Thanksgiving dinner. It was fun to see Ben and Dawn, Thomas and Michael, Rebecca and Justin, and Nate, Zac and Samantha. Nate's friend Lara was also there with her little boy.  It was a fun afternoon. The food was delicious. Grandpa let Joshua have his own turkey leg. He thought that was great.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:

Halloween 2018

This year there aren't any Andreasen children here for our kids to dress up with. I think they are pretty sad about that.  Aaron wasn't too excited about putting on a costume at all until he started getting the candy. Lydia worked hard to make her own Moana costume.  She and Emma painted the shirt. I helped her make the grass skirt.  I found the wig at the Restore for twenty five cents.  It was fun to help her make her costume come togther. Joshua wanted to be the Pokemon, Polliwhirl. We looked online and found an easy costume idea and he made it himself. Dallin wasn't sure he wanted to dress up, but decided to at the last minute so he could get candy.  He was going to be Harry Potter and had everything gathered up, but after school he changed his mind and went as a baseball player.  MaryAnne and her friends were doing something together, but I am not sure what they were being.  I didn't get pictures of Dallin or MaryAnne in all the hustle and bustle of the activities.

I went and watched the Costume parade at Westside. It is fun to see all the creative costumes.  Lydia is at about 1:40 into the video and Josh is at the end.

Wendi Long and I took the kids downtown for Powelloween. We enjoyed walking and talking. It was fun and the kids got lots of candy.  After dinner we went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. We also took the kids over the Lobsteins. Sister Lobstein wanted to see their costumes and make sure they had enough treats.  It was a fun evening together.  We had  a few trick or treaters come by our house now that we are in town.

We had to buy pumpkins this year because we didn't grow any.  We decided to only buy two and have kids work together to carve them.  It was a fun activity.

Fall Band Concert 2018

MaryAnne had her fall band concert a few weeks ago. They have gotten really good. It is fun to listen to them play.  I am proud of her and the hard work she puts into playing the clarinet.

Here are the videos of the 8th-grade band songs. I hope you enjoy them.

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday the kids were out of school. It seemed like the leaves all fell off our tree over night.  It was a nice warm day so we went out and raked leaves. We had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather. 

This morning we woke up to snow.  I am not ready for this yet, but the kids are very excited to see the snow.  They couldn't wait to go out and play.  Joshua loves to be outside.  Aaron went out for a bit, but didn't last too long before he was cold.  I hope winter isn't really here to stay quite yet.

October 2018 General Conference

I love General Conference!  I think they are my two favorite weekends every year.  I love gathering our family together and listening to the Prophet and Apostles. One of the things I love is knowing that no matter where my children are in the world we are hearing the same thing at the very same moment.

I try and make Conference something to look forward to for everyone, even the littles around here.  We have treats to hand out for each Apostle.  We also have coloring activities, BINGO games, and I Spy.  We even set up a tent facing Conference. Each of the younger kids gets to sit in the tent for one session of Conference. The older kids take notes, work on cross stitches, puzzles, quilts, and paintings.  I am grateful that our children like to listen to Conference.  I think they are almost as excited as I am when it is time to listen.

There were some pretty amazing messages shared this Conference. I am so excited for a home based Church supported curriculum starting in January.  12 new temples!! That is the most ever announced in one day.  Julia tells me we will have 200 temples when they are all built.  I loved President Nelson's talk about using the correct name of the Church to show respect and love to the Savior.  Powerful thoughts that I had never really considered.  Wow.  I am so excited to read and study these inspired messages.

Here are pictures from our Conference weekend: