October Wrap-Up

Tanner with President & Sister Johnson

Tanner drove down and back to the SLC area with several missionary buddies going to school at BYU-I for his first official missionary reunion (Oct. 13).  He treasures his time of serving under the loving leadership of President & Sister Johnson for the first 10 months of his mission.

Jagger, Quinn, Elsie, Jett

A realtor friend of mine invited us to attend a Fall Festival event and we randomly met up with Chris & Julia/kids, Jordan, Cam and his boys.  It was like a mini-family reunion since we rarely see our Idaho kin much these days.  The cousins had fun watching the pumpkin launcher, eating scones and sliding down ginormous slides.

College friends on a Sunday morning.

The roomies "bonding"

Brinley & Haley

Brinley & Amber in a corn maze.

 Being on the PTO Board and having my good friend (Ashley P.) in charge of the Hibbard Elementary Fall Festival meant I helped with set-up.  For someone who doesn't "do Pinterest" and has never claimed to be crafty, I laughed when I became responsible for the front desk area where tickets were sold.  It came together but those CIRCUS letters were very temperamental!

Elsie joined her friends at a different school carnival (Oct. 12) so it was very strange to just be me and Quinn.  We ended up staying the duration (longer than I wanted) but at least I won a game of BINGO and scored a hotel get-away!

Cub Master Jane & Quinn

Pack Night - Quinn received awards for the extra Adventures he has recently completed.

Ainsley, ?, Anna, Mikelle

Cross-country District Championships were held at Freeman Park on October 18.  Ahh, the girls were nervous for this race as their team placement would determine whether they qualified to go to the State Championships.  Everyone ran well and the girls pulled off the 2nd place finish they needed.  They missed the top spot by only 3 points (which is tight in XC scoring).  Anna ran well and happily snagged a 6th place overall finish so she qualified to run at State regardless.

Top 10 finishers at Districts

Family support for Anna's big race.

Quinn, Elsie and I attended a S.T.E.M. evening held at the middle school just so Quinn could make progress on his Robotics Adventure for Cub Scouts.  The kids received an extra raffle ticket for wearing costumes.

  We have a 'revolving door' in the costume department every October at our house.

October was an extra busy travel month for Aaron with his speaking at a conference, attending the funeral of a dear friend's daughter in CA and conducting the annual HCP Retreat in Park City for his executive team.  Thus, I often found myself with more on the schedule than I could possibly attend (particularly during Parent-Teacher Conferences at 4 schools).  Elsie was a great sport to join Leatham's for the Mother/Daughter Halloween Party since I had long before made arrangements for a mother/daughter date with Brinley at Citrus Pear and could not reschedule (financially committed).

Elsie - the "Toothfairy"

Haley, Kara, Heather, Brinley

We chopped and diced and laughed for a few hours while putting together 10 different freezer meals (each).  Now our college girls will have some healthy meal options they can whip out when they're short on time and dough:).

Swimming at hotel in Pullman, WA

It's a very long drive to get to Lewiston, ID.  It took the entire weekend to attend the State Cross-Country Championships held near the campus of Lewis-Clark State College on Oct. 26.  Anna left town on a nice bus with the team (on Thursday) before Aaron, Elsie, Quinn and I did.  There are a few different routes that can be taken to get to Lewiston.  We drove up through Spokane, WA and spent our first night in Pullman, WA on the campus of Washington State University.  That town is 110% Wildcat fans.  There were no hotels available in Lewiston...

Breakfast in Pullman, WA

It's only a 40-minute drive from Pullman to Lewiston so we arrived in plenty of time Saturday morning to watch a few of the state races.  Being in the toughest, fastest division (5A) and racing against nationally ranked high school teams from the Boise area (for the first time) was an eye-opening experience.  Though Anna did get a PR (fast course), it was not the race she hoped to have.  However, the girls received the Academic All-State Award which is a significant honor to receive these days.

Madison varsity girls - Academic All-State Award

Anna returned home with the team by 4:30am Sunday morning.  Aaron and I drove to Missoula, MT and stopped at a hotel.  We aren't into driving all through the night like that anymore.  Quinn and Elsie were not exactly sure they would be awake enough to participate in the Primary Program at 9am the following morning anyway so we found a lovely branch in Drummond, MT to attend en route to home.

 Carving pumpkins and potatoes - FHE

We have hosted several college FHE groups for Tanner and Brinley this fall.  Tanner's group painted pumpkins one night at our house and I was impressed by the talent displayed (no pics).  The Henry's Fork Stake YM/YW were invited by the Sugar City Stake to combine forces for a 5th Tuesday activity on October 30.  There have been plenty of parties and pumpkin decorating this Halloween season.

Making & mimicking their potato faces

The kids got a kick out of the random package of pig noses received in the mail from G-ma and G-pa P (serving in the Independence MO Mission).  Later, Aaron dressed up as a "Pig-in-a-Blanket" for work - easy costumes are the best!

Speaking of pigs, here Elsie is dissecting one in 6th-grade science class.

Elsie - Monsters, Inc.
Leaving for the bus on Halloween morning.

Quinn - proud of his handmade "Ghost Busters" costume

Quinn's 4th-grade class

Happy to not be in charge, I helped conduct one of the experiments during Quinn's "Mad Scientist" class party.  It was not your typical Halloween party with lots of candy so I had to laugh when the students were 'begging' me to eat one of the sugar cubes we were using for our experiment.

Elsie, Quinn, Tanner

Elsie went trick-or-treating with friends in town while Quinn ran around with Jensen between our two country neighborhoods.  They received equal amounts of "loot" and had a great evening.

At some point during the month of October, Jantzen and Aaron had a great time at a shooting range.  And since the older kids are always so busy with school/friends, pictures of them are less common!