A Hodge-Podge of Fall

 

A little while we had our first family book club-- we read "The Witch of Blackbird Pond".  We wore witch hats while we discussed and then played a card game we enjoy-- "Salem".  

Next month's book is Ender's Game

Sleepy little sweetie love birds.  This semester Faith's clinicals are  Fridays from 7 pm to 7 am.  So she just doesn't sleep.  Then, rather than coming home and immediately crawling into bed, she goes to teach swim lessons Saturday morning.  So this is how we usually see Faith on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  Missing a whole night's sleep sounds like complete torture to me.  I think nurses are made of different stuff than I am.

Little Charlie is the sweetest!

HE LOVES HIS MAMA!

Clark organized a siblings corn maze night.  It makes me so happy to see them choose each other.  From left to right-- Faith, Landen, Elinor, Hunter, Brianna, Clark, Ben, Bethany, Cannon, Rachel, Cannon's friend Sterling and his date (I don't remember her name)

Meanwhile we had a night with the GRANDS!  

A night at the theater to see Sister Act.  Here's kind of a fun thing.  The guy on the far right (Devon) is Andrea's cousin.  The guy next to him is a delightful Frenchman named Jerome.  He also happens to be a dress designer who was off the next week to London to do fittings for  costumes he made for a West End production of The Greatest Showman.  He has also created pieces for the show Guilded Age.   

I mean, come on-- that's just cool!  We've played games with them on another evening, and they are a lot of fun and very nice.  

Greta hosted a little Halloween craft party with friends.  She made and delivered her own invitations.

Nine year-old girls are so much fun.  They aren't quite tweens, but they aren't little kids who need a lot of help and supervision.

We've been enjoying some beautiful fall weather.  I mention it every year, but once again, I declare October to be the BEST month of the year!  Last Friday we had Daniel with us for the day, so we went on an adventure to the Scarecrow Festival at Thanksgiving Point.

I love this picture!  

I'll admit, it's more fun to be a grandparent when the grandchild doesn't live with you.  It's special and fun and you really can spoil them and then send them home.  It's a pretty great gig!

The Frog and Toad scarecrows were my favorite.  George loved Frog and Toad as a little guy, so of course we needed a picture.

I bet you didn't know that K Pop Demon Hunter scarecrows are all the rage these days.  True fact.

A Twilight scarecrow.  What they won't think of next!

People are so clever

After Thanksgiving Point we went to visit Landen at work and get some yummy Chubby's food.

Friday night Abe and I took Peter and Greta to go see The Addams Family at the Draper Historic Theater.  I hadn't ever seen the show and I was planning to go anyway, but when I found how the guy playing the part of Gomez was the husband of the friend who introduced Abe and I at BYU, we were for sure going to go.  

It was a great production, but Gomez (Brett Haymond) was particularly fantastic!  

I quite liked the music.  There is a song called "Full Disclosure" where the characters are supposed to share something they haven't told anyone else (sounds naughtier than it is in the show).  I had to chuckle because it was so much like our family tradition of "Camp Fire Confessions"

A Mish-Mash of Fall

 There used to be a children's show on PBS named "Nature Cat".  To be honest, I hated this show-- it was too overstimulating and annoying for my taste.  

But you know what I do like?  NATURE GRET!

Greta, the naturalist, made herself acorn and mini-pinecone earrings.  

You might notice the redness at the bottom of her ear lobes.  The bobby pins she used to clip them to her ears necessarily pinched a little.  

The day after Elinor and Hunter's wedding we decompressed by taking a drive along the Alpine loop.

We live in such a beautiful place!

To see how much my girls love their babies makes my heart so happy.  And to see how much Daniel loves Charlie is adorable!

One of the Madrigals annual events is "The Ice Cream Sing".  Each member performs a number-- can be a solo, duet, group, etc.  This year Cannon and friends planned a little something special.

Introducing Riverton's own Backstreet Boys performing "I Want It That Way"

So silly:)  

A visit to the witches at Gardner Village.  This is often "the family" these days.  Faith lives at home-- but between being engaged to Landen,  nursing school and I-don't-know-how-many jobs-- we see very little of her.  And Cannon is a senior, so he still lives at home.  But between seminary, choirs, MTech, and ballet, we see very little of him as well.  So this is kind of the gang at home.  

Peter is 11 and growing like a weed

She's growing up a little too quickly for my taste

How can George already be 15?

Cannon had his fall choir concert a couple of weeks back.  Cannon is the far left side

I'm not too happy that Cannon is a senior.  I'd kind of like him to stick around a few more years.

Grandpa duty is Abe's favorite

Elinor's best childhood friend, Ben, got married last week and Abe and I were so happy to get to be a part of it.  The Johansens have been long time besties of ours since Ben and Elinor were about 4 years old.  

My friend:)

Elinor and Hunter's Wedding Dinner

Elinor and Hunter decided to do a wedding dinner the night before rather than a luncheon in between the temple and the reception.  This was in an effort to conserve Elinor's social battery on the day of the wedding.  And I have to say, I really liked this arrangement.

Grandma and Grandpa Cannon

Clark and Brianna

George and Greta

Charlie with his Grandma and Grandpa

Ben and Bethany

The dinner was in a private room of Archibalds Restaurant at Gardner Village.  It was perfect!

Peter with Sawyer and Ariel (Hunter's nephew and niece)

Six of the nine Fox siblings

Faith, Landen and Charlie

Another view of the room.

Tiffany, Katie, and Lori

It's always a loud party when the Fox siblings gather

There were speeches and when I get them uploaded I'll share them:)  

Well Played, Landen, Well Played

So while we were all so busy planning Elinor and Hunter's wedding and welcoming little Charlie into the world, Faith went and fell in love.

I know!  It's shocking to all of us.  

I first introduced you to Landen (on the Memorial Day 2025 blog post) as "Faith's special friend".  By  the July 3rd Parade post he was labeled "Faith's boyfriend". 

And now, on October 10th, I am happy to introduce him to you as Faith's FIANCE!!!!!  

About a week after Elinor and Hunter's wedding, and about a week before Landen proposed, he took Abe and I to dinner and asked for our blessing -- which we happily gave.  Then he treated the four of us to a play (Something Rotten) at The Ruth.  It was a very lovely evening, and well played on Landen's part to take us to a play!  It's only our most favorite kind of outing!  

They are planning to get married in April.  I appreciate the slightly longer engagement so we have a little more time to pull ourselves together for a third wedding in as many years:)

They are a LOT of fun to be around and we think they will do wonderful things together. 

Here's a fun little story about this picture.  It was taken at the start of the summer and I believe it was only the first or second time we had met Landen.  Bethany and Ben had just had Charlie and it was little Charlie's first visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  

Bethany and I were sitting in lawn chairs watching these four play spike ball.  They were laughing and flopping all over the grass.  At the time, Elinor and Hunter were not officially engaged yet and we'd just met Landen.  And I had the thought, "Hmm... I wonder if those are my three sons-in-law?"  They're having a great time together.  They are good guys and very good to my girls.  What if I am looking at our future family  What if that is the combination of sons-in-law?"  

It seemed just a passing thought at the time--- who knew I was such a prophetess!

Rise and Shout, the Cougars Are Out

Abe likes to get tickets to at least one BYU football game each fall.  This year he bought two nose-bleed seats for he and Cannon to go to the BYU/ Stanford game.  

And then the day before the game, our good friends, the Snows, offered us two more tickets-- only these were actually very good seats!  We really enjoy BYU football, but the Snows are die-hard serious fans, so its fun to go to games with them.

So the four of us went to the game and the weather was absolute perfection!  

I'm always stunned with how beautiful the stadium is with the mountains in the background.

This is where Abe and I met, so its always fun to be back.  Well, technically we met in the library, but you know what I mean.

We met fall of 1996-- 29 years ago

Peter and the view from the cheap seats.

We went down early so we could be a part of the Cougar Walk, which happens a couple of hours before the game.  The team, coaches, cheerleaders, and band walk through a corridor with everyone cheering.  I had never gone to it before, and I must say, it was so fun!  Totally worth going down early for.

Hee hee hee-- Abe took my picture as the trombones past by.  Did you know I played trombone in the BYU marching band?  True fact.

This is me high-fiving the head coach, Kalani Sitake

This is Peter high-fiving our starting QB-- Bear Bachmeier.  Cool stuff 

Peter's eyes are so expressive.  The waters run deep with this one.

Cannon is a senior in this year-- college is just around the corner for him--- crazy!

The view from the good seats:)