The Colors of Autumn

A couple weeks ago we headed south a little ways to attend the baptism of a friend's son. It was a very special occasion, and we were grateful we could be present. Afterward, based on a suggestion from my parents, we decided to drive up the nearby Nebo Loop a ways to enjoy the fall colors. We were so glad we did! The autumn colors were stunning, and we thoroughly enjoyed taking in all the beauty. We ended up staying longer than we intended, but we didn't regret late return home and subsequent late dinner. It was completely worth it.

We decided to stroll up the short Grotto Trail to the little waterfall. The golden light streaming through the trees along the way made the trail warm and inviting.

In fact, it was a nearly perfect Indian summer day. We were enjoying it so much that we decided to continue on to Payson Lakes.

We had the area nearly to ourselves when we arrived. The lighting was ideal, and the brilliant colors of the aspens reflected in the water alluringly.

We skipped some rocks and drank in all the serene beauty we found there.

 

Abigail

Just over a month ago, my brother Allan and his wife Katie had a baby girl. I was so excited for them, and excited for this addition to my side of our family. Abigail is now Austin's first cousin from my family. We got to meet her for the first time during our family dinner at our house following our ward's primary program. She was born early, and seemed so tiny! We enjoyed meeting her and taking turns holding her.

Allan and Katie also just moved closer to us. We are excited to now have family within such a short distance, which makes seeing each other and helping each other out so much easier. To get this trend going, I volunteered to take some pictures of Abigail. I am by no means a professional photographer, but I worked hard to research newborn pictures, take some descent ones, and then edit them to their final forms. I don't think the results were too bad. It was a fun though time consuming process.

This was not the intended look for this image, but the way it turned out makes
me laugh. I somehow captured Abigail and Austin looking at each other
with such confused expressions!

Visitors From California

Nate's parents and his brother Timothy, all who who are fresh from their missions, recently came to Utah to visit family here. It was so fun to spend some time with them all! They spent a Saturday hanging out at our house and playing games with us before we all went out to dinner. I then went to Women's Conference at the Conference Center with Nate's mom as well as other female family members of his that live in Utah.

The following day we had lots of family come to watch Austin in our ward's primary program. Austin did a fantastic job delivering his memorized part. Knowing how good he is at memorizing and delivering such things, he was given a much longer part than many other kids, including his older peers. He spoke loud and clear, and afterward everyone we saw comments on how good he did. When church was over, we had a large family dinner at our house.

Then on Wednesday, September 28, we met up with Nate's parents again to go hiking along the Davis Creek Trail. Despite the many trail markers on this hike, we found it a little challenging to determine for sure the right way to go. The trail markers didn't always match the labels on the map we had, and there were also trails that were not on the map. I went a ways up one trail to see where it went, and then we all went up it again later to see the waterfall up that way. For awhile, Nate's dad believed we had missed the place we needed to turn in order to loop around, so we went back to one trail split only to find out that it was not the right spot and go back to where we had already gone. All this made the hike much longer and more time consuming than originally planned, but we had fun. Austin did a great job hiking despite the steepness of the terrain.

This is the waterfall we didn't originally plan to
go to. A fallen tree partially blocked its view
from the bottom

A beautifully colored tree in "Pretty Valley"

Sunday we went down to Nate's sister's house for another family dinner before Nate's parents headed back home. We were grateful for the time we had to spend with them and with Timothy!

Nate's Birthday

My birthday celebration was stretched out this year over the whole month almost.  Rebecca's gifts hadn't arrived by my birthday, so all i got on that day was Austin's gift of Reese's penut butter cups, which I love.  He was so excited for the birthday "party" that he insisted we wear party hats. 

I did get a really special dinner and cake though.  We had BBQ ribs which were delicious, and loaded mashed potatoes which were also delicious but a little too plentiful considering Rebecca doesn't like mashed potatoes.  The cake was especially awesome.  It was an "Orange Dreamcicle" cake; orange cake, orange mousse filling, and orange cream-cheese frosting.

We didn't have as much orange coloring as the one in the
recipe blog.  Sorry.

Rebecca's gifts arrived after a few days so we had another round of celebration.  I pretty much bought myself an IPad mini 4 for my birthday, and Rebecca got me a nice cover and screen protector for it.

Later in the month, we had Rebecca's family over for dinner to celebrate my and Nathan's birthdays.

Austin having fun with Aunt Rosanne and the gift wrap

Rebecca and her siblings pitched in to get Nathan a Wallace and Grommit movie.

I also got some more presents from Rebecca's family, but they were mostly gift cards and cash so they didn't really need to be photographed.  It is nice to have so much family to celebrate with!