General Conference
I love fall and I always love General Conference. Tess came home for the first time since going down to BYU in August. It was so fun to have her home for a couple of days! We enjoyed listening to conference together as a family and Saturday night while the boys were at the Priesthood session, Tess, Madeleine and I had a girl's night out. We went out to dinner and did some shopping at the mall. We had a great time!
Sunday we were invited to Pat and Wally's for the traditional sourdough pancake conference breakfast. This year Wally had an extra fun time flipping the pancakes because we gave him a ginormous pancake turner for his birthday (he always makes the pancakes the size of your plate!)
I am grateful to be able to listen to conference every six months to receive new counsel and direction from the servants of the Lord here on the earth. It was also nice to know that Loren was listening and participating in conference at the same we were . . . we miss him.
This year Alan and I decided to go see the leaves back east. It is always tricky several months in advance to be able to predict when the leaves will turn, so we do our best and then cross our fingers. This year we got to see lots of color although I understand that after we came home, the color was even more amazing. Oh well -- it was just fun to be back east in the fall. We spent some time with our friends the Collettes at their home in Bedford, NH and then the four of us took a short trip up north to stay a couple of nights in a beach house in Kennebunkport, Maine.
We visited a couple of lighthouses, had lunch on the beach, did a little shopping, played games, watched movies and enjoyed a fabulous lobster dinner at a restaurant call Mabel's where apparently the Elder Bush's enjoy eating occasionally as well as Rachel Ray. My favorite part was that for a few extra dollars they got all the lobster out of the shell for me -- it was called Lazy Man Lobster, the only way to go for the person who enjoys eating it but not necessarily looking at it or having it look back at you!
It was nice to have a vacation from everyday life. Alan was able to work from New Hampshire on his laptop on a couple of the days while Melora and I did "girl stuff." The kids did great at taking care of each other. It was fun to get away.
The Kids
We have been getting Phillip ready for his mission that is coming up in November. We are mostly ready except for a few odds and ends and we are glad that it is finally time for him to go. We will miss him, but he has been ready to go and wants to get on his way! One night he had all his friends from Provo over for a big fondue party. He has many wonderful and supportive friends which parents are always grateful for in their children's lives.
Loren is doing well on his mission and has been excited to report that an entire family joined the church in October. It has been an exciting time for him and his companion. They have some other promising investigators as well, so things are busy and good. He sounds positive and happy -- another thing parents are grateful for in their children's lives.
Our college student Tess is doing well at school this year. She has decided to declare Early Childhood Education as her major. She has been volunteering in an elementary school and seems to really enjoy it. She is also really enjoying her sign language class which has involved "being deaf" for a day, attending a deaf branch one Sunday and spending an evening with the deaf club playing games.
In October I get to go to Mother's Day at Waterford and spend the day going to school with my kids. It is always fun to sit at Clark's desk and do fun activities together. With the older children we just sit next to them or in the back of the class and observe their regular classes. Of course I have to divide up my time amongst the kids. This year was heavy in the Math department -- I got to work on Less Than and More Than, Geometry and Calculus. I came home exhausted and all I had to do was observe. No wonder the kids come home so tired everyday -- they have to learn and retain!
This year we had good weather for Halloween which was nice, especially since we've had snow three times already this fall. Monday night we carved pumpkins for our Family Night activity. On Halloween night after the kids ran around trick or treating, we watched a scary movie together. The kids still enjoy dressing up in whatever we have in the dress up box or around the house. Of course Alan wore his t-shirt to work that says, "This is my costume." It has been one of my best "costume" purchases ever!