Gardner Village Starting the Halloween Season

In our opinion, one of the most fun things to do during the Halloween season is to walk around Gardner Village to see all of the funny looking witches and decorations. Meira really liked the witch hats and the pumpkins. She especially liked this little stool in one of the stores though. Anything that is her size really makes her day. I could see why living in such a big world. :-)

My Mission Trainer Comes to Town!

I am sure all of you have had people who have come into your life who have made your life better forever. One of these people in my life is my trainer, Alli Condie Louthain, from SLC, UT. She lives out of state now and came to visit her home last week. We were able to spend a few hours together at Gardner Village looking at witches, trying to keep children entertained, all the while catching up on nearly 4 years of absence. We could be apart for years and reunited feeling the same love we felt as we served together. She is one of those people who know how to make anyone in their presence feel loved and special. I learned so much from serving with her. I love ya Zolonda!

Pumpkin Patch

I don't know what it is about pumpkins, but they are just fun! Meira has been facsinated with them ever since pumpkins have begun showing up all over the place. She calls them "Butch" (pronounced with a short "u"). She got to take a minitature pumpkin home the night of our pumpkin patch outing and giggled all the way home with excitement.

Visiting "Gaka" (Grandma) in the Fall

Mark has been traveling a lot lately. Occassionally when he travels I will go up north to visit one or both of our families. This weekend we went to my mom's house and enjoyed the fall weather and scenery. We spent most of the day outside in the Hyrum Canyon.

Splash Park!

Meira loved the splash park this summer. "Gaka" (Grandma), Molly & Reuben came with us.

She waits for the water to spray out.

No fear of the water at all!

She ran from spray to spray. Here she is in action!

Molly & Reuben had fun too.

My Childhood Friend, Judith & Family Come to Visit!

Judith and I were connected at the hip in our youth and we would still be if we weren't so far away from each other. She still lives in Colorado and came for a visit on Labor Day with her husband Russ and her daughter Noa. We grew up together playing Barbies, riding horses nearly every weekend, swimming at the lake, flirting with boys, eating lots and lots of food, and just having fun. We always say how happy we are that we stayed kids together for so long. Great friends are so hard to find. We are so glad that we found each other. Judo McJackson, I love you.

Of course, there's hope that our little girls will grow up loving each other as well. They really liked each other when Meira wasn't teasing Noa with her toys. :-) She would offer a toy and take it back as soon as Noa reached out to grab it. No, I did not teach her that. We are working on sharing.

One of our favorite activities as teenagers was having modeling shoots. Of course we had Mark take some pictures while we strutted our stuff. The rain cut our shoot short.

I don't remember what we were laughing at, but this picture is awesome!

We went with my mom, Molly, Reuben, and Grandpa Rayback to the ice cream factory. Little did Judith know that a hungry mouth beneath her would like a bite too. :-) This picture was too cute. It would be hard to not be able to feed yourself first. I know all too well that that is true. Mommy got the first bite this time.

Random Summer Happenings...

Meira discovered glasses and really likes them.


Porter bouncing with Meira at the Parade of Homes home that we visited when Porter stayed the night at our house.
Aunt Les and Porter at the Parade of Homes.


Daddy's special red plate for his birthday.

Daddy's Birthday! Breakfast for dinner and the red plate treatment. We love brinner (breakfast for dinner).

Salt Lake County Fair with Grandma, Reuben, Molly, Lesli, Mommy, & Daddy.

This is the rodeo after the fair. Daddy, Les, and Meira went home, but we stayed. It was so much fun! I put these pictures in because the guy behind us was funny and tried to get in our pictures. You can see him in both. We took a few pictures because I couldn't fit us all in holding the camera.

Meira at the park.

Meira on the toilet. She loves to read while she waits.

My mission companion, Sister Andrus', wedding.
My birthday at Sundance.

Mom stretching between talks at a women's conference she took me to for my birthday. We had such a good time. Our friend Karen was with us also.

Meira discovered she really likes ketchup at Maddox with the Taylor family for Mark and Rachel's birthday dinner.

Trenton builds a fort at Nana & Papa's house. Meira really liked it too.

Meira's first coloring.