Cami found the blog! Hi, Cami! I have to say, I never considered the fact that significant others would have access to to my kids entire lives. But…I guess it’s a good way to vet them? ha ah. I went to Utah for Hawaii Friendsgiving and got to spend a whole fun day with Cami and Josh. Josh and I both had our hearts set on a beautiful fall hike, but mother nature had different plans. It poured rain all day long. I heard it was the most rain in 24 hrs in 100 years. We decided to get tacos and drive the Alpine loop instead. And we encountered SNOW. We still had a great drive, made better by the fact that I took some kind of wrong turn coming out of Cascade Springs and instead of ending up in AF Canyon, we ended up in Midway. Oops. The better part was now we could get milkshakes at Grannys! Delicious, as always. We wanted to hit up General Conference, but we didn’t have tickets. We heard it was pretty easy to get standby tickets on Sat evening. Off to the conference center we went! Still with the rain. We were directed to the Tabernacle and given a ticket. Then, just a few min before the session started, they walked us over to the upper balcony in the Conference Center. It was really neat to be there. I haven’t done that since I was about Josh’s age! I think my favorite talk from the session was by Elder Kearon about Christ and new beginnings. “you. He hasn’t set a limit on your second chances. You press on. You keep striving. You seek help from those around you. And you trust in the new beginning that is there for you every time you turn back to your Father in sincerity of heart. Leave deliberate sinning, casual repeats, and prideful rebellion behind you, where they belong. You don’t have to be who you’ve been before. Embrace your fresh start, your second or third or fourth—or hundredth—chance, offered to you through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.”
Cami and Josh are adorable and it was so fun to get to know her and spend time with Josh.
Hawaii Friendsgiving and Favorite Things Party! One of my favorite days of the year. Everyone gives the best gifts, and I love spending time with these amazing ladies. This year Rachel hosted at her mom’s house in Draper. And since it’s not really Thanksgiving time yet, she made us delicious wild salmon they caught on one of their Alaska trips. So yummy. I spent the night at Steph’s, and as usual, it just wasn’t enough time!Banks vs Perez in a rainy pickleball matchFriday night lights! As Mr. Fruits likes to say…”It’s Bandtober!”Dash was looking adorable in the car but I couldn’t get him to stop squinting is one eye. Longmont Halloween Parade. Blake just wanted something that would keep him warm, and then it ended up being soooo hot. We got our annual Cheba Hut after. Birthday celebration with the Besties! We went to Cherry Creek Grill and shopping at Park Meadows. Loved celebrating all of us.Josh took the Frontrunner up to visit Adam in Farmington. Amy sent me this picture and said, “I thought they had gone thrifting. But no….This is just what they were wearing.” It made me laugh. Love these two. Mave’s birthday celebration. I surprised her and checked her out for lunch. We went to Freddies and then to Hobby Lobby where we got this fun Unicorn that you can airbrush. Rusty in Houston for Afrotech. He had a great trip which included fixing a malware issue on his Uber Driver’s phone, and sneaking into the conference hotel lazy river that was in the shape of Texas.HOLY WAR!! Josh and a friend didn’t get tickets, but after much pleading, they convinced one of the ticket takers to let them take the place of a few students who were leaving. They were soooo excited and it was so fun to have BYU storm the field after a big WIN.Coal Creek Kids and BYU soccerWe are going to buy Alan and Sharon’s house! After our whole nightmare with the Will after Alan died, this feels really healing. We’re going to rent it out for several years, and then hopefully there will be more Banks family memories to be made in this beautiful place. (and….grubs ate half the grass this summer. Ugg)
Another month is in the books! Rusty and the Teachers had Anne McDowell teach them how to create food art. Blake earned his 100 miles! He has been working so hard this year. General Conference. Every year we try to pick a service project to do in honor of Jim’s birthday. This year Halle researched on…
The best part of March was Sound of Music! Being back inside a packed auditorium watching live theater without masks on was HEAVEN! Halle played Frau Schmidt and she had a TON of stage time. It was so fun to see her shine. I tried to obey the rules and so I only snuck a…
Labor Day trip to Grand Lake. We let each kid invite a friend. This was a fun way to travel! It was a bit colder than we would have liked, but we had fun at the lake, playing games, swimming in the pool, and wandering around the cute town.
Oh Wow. This was a BIG month. The one where Halle goes to college. I feel like we lived a lifetime in just 30 days. We celebrated our 20th anniversary with a night at the Art Hotel in Denver. We didn’t get away until late, so we had a 9pm dinner at Rioja. The next…
I had some witty, insightful comment about the changing of the seasons, both weather and life that I couldn’t wait to share on the blog, but I forgot it. Seriously. I worry about my brain. Kids are back in school, the mornings are turning crisp, and peach season is in full swing. What’s not to…
