September 2025

Week 1 Summary: Soccer was on Wednesday, and Let's Play Music class was on Thursday. On Saturday morning, BethAnn and I bought and canned Tessa's leftover peaches at Tessa's house while Evan helped Justin and Ethan pour and set up the sidewalk on the west side of his house, and the kids played, played, played. That afternoon, BethAnn watched the kids while I went to a former student's bridal shower hosted at the Madsen's house - it was simultaneously awkward and fun thanks to Lisa Hale being there for me to sit by and chat with. On Sunday it was Landon's baby blessing, so we spent time at their house in the afternoon for the luncheon. Then, at 6, we had the Simpsons over for fish tacos and the kickoff of the NFL season, a game between the Bills and the Ravens. While the Ravens led handily for the entire game, the Bills kicked it into gear for the last 4 minutes to come back for the win. We were grateful the Simpsons went home at halftime so we could be humiliated in private.

Week 2 Summary: On Monday, Renee and I went on a walk with Ruth for the first time in a very long time. It was a joy to catch up with her. I don't know why, but I always feel like I can talk to her about anything without feeling judged. It's a great feeling, and I'm grateful to her for that. That evening, we had Let's Play Music class, ate a quick dinner, and then went to a soccer makeup game. Busy, busy! On Tuesday morning, Megan Rose and Becky came over to practice for a musical number for sacrament meeting on Sunday. I changed the song from what we ran through the previous Sunday (from Because to Stand as a Witness), and they were both really nice about it. On Wednesday, Deacon Lorimer came to our house to play. The boys had fun shooting hoops downstairs and riding motorcycles until dinner time. He rode up to soccer with us. Thursday, Evan insulated from 5-7. On Friday, there was no school, so Evan went scouting from 4 am until noon. He went again on Saturday from 5-10 am. Fortunately, they're seeing some animals, so that is a good sign! After Evan got home on Saturday, I went to Megan's house to practice the musical again. Evan scouted once more on Sunday from 5-10, and scurried off to his meetings in the nick of time! The musical went well, except that I missed my last note of the song. Luckily, Becky hit hers, so at least it sounded like someone was singing for the final word! 

Week 3 Summary: Monday, all of the hunting excitement came to a peak - the open was finally here! Evan left at 3:30 a.m. and was back around 1:30 p.m., empty-handed, but excited about how the day went. The boys had LPM that day after school and soccer games on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, Evan clocked out early and left for a big weekend hunt at 1 p.m. On Friday evening, the kids and I took a Domino's pizza to the park for dinner. They had fun playing afterwards, and we dropped Thomas off for a birthday movie night for Thatcher Pearson before heading home. I went to pick him up at 9, and I'm lucky I got him to leave at all, he was having so much fun with his friends.  On Saturday, Evan got home around 1 in the afternoon, and we went to Rachel Mavy and Walker Merritt's wedding reception for a few minutes. On Sunday morning, it was raining and cold, so of course Ben hit an elk with his bow and needed help locating it so he could haul it home. Evan, Dallin, and Ethan responded (Justin did too, but didn't go up the mountain much because he had too many obligations that day already) to the call and were occupied for most of the day with no luck finding the animal.

Week 4 Summary: On Monday, Renee had her 18-month well-child appointment and passed everything. That afternoon, the boys' music class was cancelled so the other classes could all catch up in the lessons (long story short, theirs was the only class that took place last week because Brad had a heart attack about 2/3 of the way through their class and was in the hospital for several days after that, causing the remainder of the classes to be cancelled). I was going to just let the boys come home and have a normal afternoon, but I decided to surprise them with a trip to Swirl instead. They had fun and I ended up running in to Janice Fry, who I haven't seen in ages, in the parking lot.  On Wednesday, Evan left to go hunting at 3 a.m., and came home at 2 with his biggest buck to date in tow! Thomas went to play at Zeke Curz's house after school until 5 (he had a blast playing video games and seeing all of Zeke's fun 3D printer stuff) and Evan insulated from 6-8. On Friday, the boys had practice for the Primary Program after school. I watched Landon and Jenna for Tessa while she went and did the music and she brought my boys home aftewards. On Saturday, Evan went hunting again to help Garrett try to find his own buck, and Thomas had another party, this time for Will Erickson's birthday, at Star View from 10-12. On Sunday was the Primary Program and the boys both did a great job! We had family dinner at Tessa's afterward. She and Justin tried to do an all the SV Call's dinner again, but only Joyce's kids/grandkids, and DeeAnn were able to make it - otherwise it was all Dale and BethAnn's kids/grandkids. We had fun and ate some yummy sliders.

On the last Monday of the month, Becky and I decided to go shopping in Jackson to see if we could go out of town with the kids and make it back before school was over. We left right after the school-aged kids did, and went first to Wilson so Becky could show me a really cool statue/bridge thing by the river. When we came up to it, there was a baby moose in the trail, but Becky was determined to show me the statue up close. She made sure no mama was in sight, and then braved walking right past it (within 10 yards), and lived to tell the tale! The statue was reallllly cool! Afterward, we went to T.J. Maxx, Target, Wendy's, and Smith's. We didn't feel like we found any deals that made our trip worth it, but we sure enjoyed spending time together, and the girls all did great! We got home in time for me to put everything in the garage, load a poopy Renee into the van, and race to AES to grab Thomas and James for a parents attend LPM. Bless Evan for taking on a girl who didn't get a great nap, had a full diaper, and was probably hungry!