Our Beautiful Fall Drive

Here are some pictures of our fun little jaunt through New Hampshire and Vermont a few weeks ago. We were driving to a section of Vermont called The Third Kingdom, evidently well known for it's beautiful foliage in the fall. We managed to capture a few pictures of all the beautiful trees as we drove.

We finally managed to find some REAL mountains! We were pretty close to the Canada border at this point.

A real mountain! Haven't seen one of those for awhile!

We stopped at a Maple Syrup Museum and Reed evidently felt this tidbit of information worthy of a picture. Lucky you!

Yes, friends that is a maple syrup sucker in the shape of a maple leaf I am holding in my hand. In case you can't tell. :)  It was yummy!!

These are other views of the farm we parked next to. This little valley was so green and had so many beautiful trees!

Bronwyn and Daddy making horse noises, which is why Reed has such a funny expression.

It was such a fun trip and I would totally do it again, maybe drive a different route next time and go earlier so we could catch more colors from the leaves on the trees. It was beautiful and a fun little memory.

Halloween: A Couple Videos

Aftyn and her prince

Here's Bronwyn in her costume, doing her cheerleader thing.

And Aftyn being a princess, with a curtsy even!

Trunk Or Treat

Our BSU cheerleader and our princess (at her request)

Just so you can see how different or similar our two girlies look, here's Aftyn at the same age when SHE was a BSU cheerleader. Bronwyn got really into it, and would shake her pompoms and say "Rah rah rah rah!".  :) See where on Aftyn the skirt hits above her knee and on Bronwyn it's at or below her knee.  And I love how they're wearing the same shoes. :D

Dark Clouds Rolling In

Here's what our sky has looked like all day - no rain just lots of clouds

Dark  clouds are overtaking the sky . . . . I think we're getting rained on tonight

Has The Hurricane Hit Us Or Has It Not?

No one seems to know if we're done with the hurricane, but today was no different to me than a day back in Idaho full of rain and windstorms.

No loss of power, no broken windows, no flooding of any of the streets around us.

I think we were only to be receiving 2-4 inches of rain today.

On the plus side, all my laundry is done, I have enough food in my fridge that is ready to be eaten for a few days and we just enjoyed a nice family day at home.

Other than a few noisy moments where the wind blew hard on our windows,

 this day was pretty nice.

I think we were duped.  Nothing out of the ordinary happened today!

What a nice thing to be duped over.

I'm feeling very blessed.

*Kid Moments*

I finally got around to buying Bronwyn some more binkies today. We only had 2 and it seemed as if we were always misplacing them both and then bedtime got stressful as our tired girly cried in bed while we searched for a binky. Okay now back to my story. I gave Bronwyn the package containing her 2 new binkies and said "Look what I got you! Go show them to Daddy and he will open them for you!". Off she toddled to show Daddy, who promptly opened them for her and they went flying two different directions. Reed and I scrambled to pick them up and place them in her chubby little fists where she promptly placed first one in her mouth and then traded it for the other. Reed and I laughed at her zeal in wanting to try them out, and then I asked her "Do you like them?" to which she nodded enthusiastically. Oh what a sweet sweet funny girl. She wouldn't give up her new binkies until I asked her about 5 minutes later if she wanted some food, and then she handed them both to me with a big smile on her face. Oh goodness I love her little personality. 

Aftyn surprised both Reed and I by asking to have her door SHUT tonight at bedtime. She usually insists the door be open. I wonder what's going on in that little mind of hers. . .

I Think it Only Appropriate

I had a song pop into my head tonight while washing the dishes. 

Sung to the tune of "Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime".

Here you go.

"Oh what do you do in hurricane season when all the world is wet
do you buy batteries and hope you won't freeze when the power is knocked out?
Is that what you do? Just about.

Oh what do you do in hurricane season when you've never been here before
do you worry about the people who doubt that the hurricane's coming at all?
Is that what you do? S'pose that's why they have emergency shelters.    :)

Oh what do you do in hurricane season when all the world is scared
Do you sit on the couch and lazily slouch while outside the wind blows by?
Is that what you do? So do I."

I'll let you know how we ride out the storm. It's said to be starting up Tuesday morning. Or it could be sooner. Or it may miss us. You just never know with these things, I guess.

Unfinished Thoughts

I feel like the title says it all.

I am really struggling with putting my thoughts into words because I feel like I'm in the middle of figuring so many good things out right now.

Moving away from "home" has been a good experience. I have had to grow, I have had to become more open minded when I already thought I was open minded, I have had to just accept things the way they were and work on making them better, I have had to withdraw from being in the drivers seat of life and I have had to learn to be content to let my Heavenly Father take the wheel and guide me when I had no idea which direction to turn.

We have a new family in the ward. We'll call the wife Tracy. Tracy and I have a lot in common. She is struggling with many of the same things I struggled with when we first moved here. In talking to her, I have been able to realize just how much I have grown. It makes me so appreciative to be where I am now, instead of in her place where she is still trying to figure herself out in her new environment. It also makes me want to reach out and help her struggle not to have to be as hard as my own by just being a good friend to her. I have often wondered why I have struggled so much with finding friends out here but at the same time I knew, as in all things, that Heavenly Father had a bigger plan and purpose than I could/can see. There is always a purpose to our trials.

You may have noticed lately that I turned off my comments on this blog. I love comments. Dearly. But I think I was putting too much stock in them. Knowing that my friends and family care enough to want to read the little updates of our lives is enough for me right now. I love you all and really appreciate your care and concern for me and my family. I am trying to be a better me, and part of that is not being tempted all day to check my blog, or Facebook to see what the latest comment or  status update is. I feel happier. My kids are happier.

And in other news, I have recently discovered humidity can be your friend in the winter when you're running outside. In the west, I could never run in cold weather. Today it was cold outside but I ran 2 miles and when I got home I didn't feel like my lungs were bleeding. It was awesome!

**Post Edit** I forgot to mention, on my run at 1 pm in the afternoon, on the way back to our apartment, I came across a woman in front of me weaving her way down the sidewalk. At first as I watched her I thought she was doing it to be funny, going from one side of the sidewalk to the other as she walked, but after a few minutes I noticed that she really didn't seem to be able to control what direction her body was going. So sad. I gave her a very WIDE girth as I ran by her and also looked at her face to see if maybe her lack of balance wasn't drug related. She had this look on her face that told me she was pretty high on something. This is at least the 2nd or 3rd time I have come across this on my street. It's so sad to see people waste their life away like that. **