Emily's Wedding Shower

I travelled to Utah County last weekend for Emily's wedding shower. It was fun seeing her Mom again, and to meet her sisters, sister-in-law, and friends. Brian is lucky - he's marrying into a great family. The shower game proved that Emily and Brian know each other really well! You know those games where a video of the groom is taken, then the bride tries to match his answers and if she misses she has to chew another piece of gum? Well, Emily only had to chew about three pieces of gum - and there were 29 questions. I found out some fun things I didn't know - like they want four children, and Emily was the first one to say, "I love you." It was fun to have my Mom and sisters come down to join us. Thanks guys - you are always so supportive!

Uncle Scottie

Scott came home to visit this weekend, and to meet his nephew Caynen for the first time. It was the first time Shellie had brought the kids up to visit since Caynen was born at the end of July. Scott really likes living in college housing and enjoying the independent lifestyle. He has 4 roommies, and they all seem to be getting along just fine (they each have their own room - that's a bonus!). Scott rides his bike and the bus to get everywhere he needs. He gets himself to work on time, does all his own laundry, cooking, shopping, etc., and is even staying clean-shaven. Kirk and I are proud of the progress he's making.

Babies and Fishies

Kirk and I spent a couple of days with Shellie, George, Abby & Caynen in Las Vegas. We had a great time hugging, feeding, and playing with CUTE, CUTE babies. Caynen has such a sweet little smile (even at 3:00 in the morning!). Abby repeats just about everything you say - she calls me Noni (short for Grandma Joanie). A minor detail of the trip was that Kirk caught a bunch of stripers at Lake Mead (notice that he has a bigger smile while holding grandkids than he does while holding up the fish - that's quite a coup for the grandkids, since fishing ranks pretty high up there for Kirk).

Conference in the Mountains

Kirk and I spent the entire conference weekend up at our Kolob cabin. The leaves are just starting to turn, and it was so quiet and peaceful. It rained all day and night Saturday, but that just made it extra cozy inside listening to conference, popping popcorn, drinking hot chocolate, watching movies, and relaxing.

Conference was wonderful—I especially enjoyed President Monson's Sunday morning talk (although it made me cry when he reminded everyone to enjoy the everyday moments, especially with your family, because before you know it they are grown and gone). It was an amazing talk. Its probably something we should re-read once a month. Here's a link: http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-26,00.html. Kirk then drove down off the mountain Saturday night to go to the Priesthood session in LaVerkin all alone. Its the first time in about 23 years (since Mike was 12) that he has gone to the General Priesthood Meeting alone, without at least one of his sons. He didn't go to the traditional after-priesthood-meeting seafood dinner, since there was no one to take. Life is a changing - its a little sad sometimes, but we're hanging in there and finding fun things to do together.