Peter's Eight Date and General Conference

 

A few weeks ago Abe and I (finally) took Peter on his Eight Date.  He turned eight back in August, but life has been... well... life!  We had a wonderful time with Peter.  We still went downtown to Temple Square, like we had with the other kids, but it wasn't quite the same.   With the massive renovations of the temple and the visitors' centers, so many of our traditional visits were closed.

That is the temple (with all the scaffolding) in the background.

Instead of the Garden Restaurant, we were disappointed to settle for The Nauvoo on the first floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  That being said, their berry salad was SO GOOD and plentiful!!! I would happily go back for that!

We enjoyed walking around the Tabernacle-- which was still open.

Peter got his first set of scriptures with his name on them.

It's been so interesting to do these Eight Dates with all the kids and see their personalities so strongly.  As expected, Peter was happy to take the lead and had plenty to say the whole time:)

Abe and Peter and Keith and Kate went to the Sunday morning session of General Conference.  

These two!  They have been friends since they were so little and somehow they seem to understand and appreciate one another.  They are also taekwondo buddies.

Upon leaving home, Camille requested that Keith take some pictures.  He laughed and responded that he was going with Abe-- he'd take plenty of pictures!  Truth.

Here they are with Phil-- Abe's younger brother who we all agree has the most interesting job!  He is a top audio/visual guy for the church.  He gets to travel all over the world and interact with the brethren.  The rest of the Fox family is pretty envious!  Now look here----

He can now add "Prophet's Seat Placer" to his list of official responsibilities.  He was the one who placed and removed the prophet's stool.  How cool is that!?

It was such a wonderful conference!  

This was such a beautiful moment-- this cute sister missionary was serving as an usher and was helping our people find their seats.  She noticed Abe's Texas flag pin and asked if he was from Texas.  Of course, he responded that his daughter was serving there.  She replied that she was from Fort Worth.  He said,"My daughter is serving in the Arlington 1st Ward".  She excitedly responded, "That's my HOME WARD!  My dad is the bishop!"  Coincidence?  I think not:)

Thursday Outings

Introducing the Butterfly Boy!
Early on Thursday mornings. George, Peter, Greta, and I head down to Lehi for Greta's violin lessons.  Then we drop George off at Thanksgiving Point for his Maker Space class.  So then Peter, Greta, and I go play for two hours until it's time to pick George up.  We've been having a marvelous time on our Thursday outings! 

Our first Thursday was the Butterfly Biosphere.  It's been a favorite of Peter's for several years.  Something about it soothes his intense little soul.

In hindsight, I wish we'd have combed his hair that day-- but he's a sweetheart.

Another week it was the "Dinosaur Museum".  It's so fun to hang out with just these two.  I watch the young moms juggling and chasing the babies and toddlers and I must admit-- going around with an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old is a far cry from what they are doing.  It's pretty cushy.  I mean, don't misunderstand me--- I HAVE EARNED THIS TIME!  And I am loving it!

And I really appreciate that these two get along very well and quite enjoy each other.

Classic!

This past week was the Scarecrow Festival at Ashton Gardens.  That was really fun-- a perfect fall day and 72 scarecrow displays.  This was my favorite!

Ha ha ha!  Gru!

I also really liked the Sasquatch scarecrow.  People are so clever:)

I had to pose by my fellow Queen Elizabeth.  

This one, entitled "Grandma Melba" made me smile and think of Bethany's alter ego-- Grandma Lou.  I snapped a picture to send to her.

Abe had a little outing with the kiddos this week as well.  They went to Gardner Village to see the witches.

The American flag wall makes for a great patriotic photo.

George got a headstart on pumpkin carving.  He took one of our small decorative ones and made the first little jack-o-lantern of the season.

Happy Little Moments

Cannon masters Pac-Man at the orthodontist's office.

A little while back Greta and Peter had a sleepover at Elinor and Brandon's apartment and then went to church with them.

Meeting up with some of Grover's doggie friends (and my dear friends) on a Sunday afternoon walk.  

The purple girls playing on a Saturday afternoon.

A late night with neighborhood friends

Going to the temple with Bethany's dear mission companion-- Sister Aimee Tibbits.  This girl is a GEM!  Seriously a beautiful soul!

Friday morning temple time with Dad and kids.

The final BBQ of the season with the Schramm Fam-- some of our very favorite humans:)

A Baby Yoda birthday party for Greta's bestie cousin, Jules.

Remember when these two little cuties were the "Love Doctors"?-- giving love advice to Faith's older siblings and neighborhood teens?  Hard to believe they are now 16 and 17 themselves and likely in need of Love Doctors themselves:)  They are as adorable as ever!

My best find at Costco lately. SO DELICIOUS!  Run to your nearest Costco and buy at least two bags.  

Siblings Retreat and BYU Football

Back in September, the nine Fox siblings gathered for a weekend of together time in Park City.  By all accounts, they had a wonderful time talking and laughing and sharing and crying.  They sure love each other.

Here they are in order of age from left to right.  Samatha, Daniel, Russell, Stuart, Abraham, Jesse, Phil, Marjorie, and Baden.

At church in Park City.  Cool fact-- the wife and family of the leader singer of The Killers (Brandon Flowers). -- He wasn't there, just his family-- but Baden recognized her.  Anyway, kind of fun.

College football season is upon us, and Cannon is ALL IN!  

Cannon was beyond thrilled to tag along with the Snow family to the BYU versus Baylor game.  Double overtime and rushing the field at the end!

Hanging out at home and watching the game is pretty awesome too.

I suppose the rest of us were a little jealous that Cannon got to go to a game-- so we all wanted to go!  There is a little more to that story.  I made a deal with Cannon and Faith that we'd take them to a BYU game if they'd commit to coming to ward choir until Christmas.  I'm the accompanist (which I love!) and I think the experience of singing in the ward choir is a great way to learn to sing parts.   So anyway, we bought five of the cheapest seats we could get.  

Then to our joy, the Snows came through again and offered Abe and me two awesome tickets with them.  So did we ditch our kids in the nosebleeds and sit with our friends in the good seats?  Uh... yes. 

We brought along our good friend Hayden, whose family are our dear friends--- even though they are big University of Utah fans.  Did we take great delight in outfitting Hayden in a BYU shirt for the above group picture?  Oh yes, I did! 

We didn't bring Peter and Greta because it was a very late game and the next morning was our ward's Primary Program at 8:30 AM.  Peter and Greta spent the night at their house and we just brought Hayden home with us since it was going to be so late.  Then we swapped the kids early in the morning.

Did my friend Camille take even greater delight in outfitting my children in the University of Utah garb?  Heck yes, she did.  

I guess we had that coming.

I think the kids had a great time and thankfully Keith and Camille sent them to bed before the BYU/ University of Utah rivalry came to blows.

We had such a fun time at the game-- there were several empty seats below the Snows really good seats, so it turned out that our whole gang got to sit together after all.

The biggest fans of the family.

The Snows:)  A funny thing about their season ticket seats-- there are some VERY vocal fans a couple rows back from them.  They seem to be exceptionally knowledgeable about the game and are so helpful to advise everyone on the field on how to better do their job.  It reached comical levels:)

The Cougar Tail is now an institution!

This was a fun moment when I spotted the Youngs-- the couple Abe and I lived next door to as brand new newlyweds.  They were awesome then and 25 years later, they are even more impressive.

Faith fangirling with Algier:)