So yesterday and today there was a super moon.  I guess it was kind of a big deal....it won't happen again til 2034!  KC and I had talked about it and he decided to try out his new telescope to see what we could see.

He got it all put together (it's pretty complicated, but he knows how to work it) and we took it outside and set it up. 

 It was pretty cool to look at without the telescope...these pictures don't do it justice at all.

Lizzy wanted to see too.

 At first, we couldn't see much, but then KC changed a lens and that made a huge difference.  It was like looking at professional pictures you see of the moon!  You could see craters and everything! 

Ha ha my geraniums are blooming better than they have all summer!

KC went through all the boxes that were under his bed to see what he wanted to keep.  Oh boy we found some treasures!  He has kept all his old trophies, uniforms, scout stuff, pokimon cards, special school awards and papers, nintendo and play station and games, and a whole box of cool things that little boys collect.  Oh man, looking through that stuff with him sure brought back the memories.

We are both a little bit sentimental, so he only ended up getting rid of a couple of things.  I think maybe his own son will like playing with those things someday!  

Could we possibly squeeze one more hike in before  the snow flies? Yes we can!  

Saturday Candice and KC and I went up Little Cottonwood Canyon  and took a hike called Lisa falls.  It was still so pretty in the mountains, even though all the leaves had fallen.

 We followed the little creek up the trail till we got to the falls.  It was pretty cool!  KC was more adventurous and kept hiking up the rocks to the top of the falls.

 Aren't they just the cutest.  I love them so much sometimes I think my heart will explode.  Watching them together and the special relationship they have makes me so grateful.  I'm incredibly lucky to have four grown children who truly love each other, are very involved in each others lives, and are always there for each other.  They are all about as different as night and day, but that doesn't make any difference...they support and encourage each other in the different paths they have taken. 

We were done with that hike in record time so we decided to stop at the temple quarry trail on the way down the canyon.  It was interesting to learn how they got the rock to build the temple.  Seems like an incredible and impossible task when you see those huge granite boulders.

 So glad they invite their old mama to tag along on their adventures!

 Oh man I can't believe another week has flown by already.  A few things that have been happening...

The weather continues to be amazing!  Here it is the middle of November and the flowers are blooming like crazy.  We are expecting a big storm next week though so I'm trying to enjoy each of these beautiful days to the fullest.

.  

 The irrigation cart totally came back to life after being pretty much dead. (hello...water me please)  Petunias are just the cutest and bloom till it freezes.

 Katie and Kelley have been really busy lately with lots of orders for art pieces and furniture.  They've been spending all day every day out in the garage.

I asked Kate if there was something I could do to help.  She gave me a bunch of boards and some paint and said I could paint for her.  It was such a nice warm afternoon, it was nice to just be out in the sun and paint for a few hours.  I love to paint!

Katie has made some pretty incredible art pieces...this last one for Ann is one of my favorites. They are sending it down to Mexico in this storage container Mark is getting ready to send.  Oh that's another thing, we have been looking for a moto to send to Mexico in Marks container cause it's a lot cheaper to buy one here than it is to get one there.

Kelley found one on KLS that was pretty nice so we decided to get it. It didn't have the double back seat so we had to buy one of those too, plus some new tires, so yeah, it probably cost as much as getting one down there.  Then there's the hassle of getting it over the border and insurance...that will be a few more hundred dollars.  ummmm, maybe not the best move we've made, but it's done.  It's really a pain renting one down there...it's expensive and sometimes their not even available.  That's pretty much the mode of transportation down there so you gotta have one.

Katie is going down there this tuesday and staying for 10 days (lucky!!!)  so hopefully it will arrive there and she will be able to use it.  

 Last Sunday in church, Stephanie said they were planning a little get together for Mindy's birthday on Monday night. She had called a bunch of Mindy's friends and said to meet over at the church, then we would walk over to her house and surprise her.  Stephanie had let Josh know what we were up to and he thought it was a good idea.  I felt a little weird taking her away from her family on her birthday, and on Monday night.  Just thinking how I would feel.

Josh let us in the house, then he went to get Mindy.  She was really surprised to see us all there in her living room singing happy birthday to her. 

Stephanie had planned on going for Sushi, (yuck) but Mindy had already eaten dinner so we went to Leatherbys for ice cream. It was a lot of fun.  Stacey and I were the oldies in the group, but they are a fun bunch to be with.  It took me back about a hundred years ago to when the kids were little to hear them talking about all the struggles they are going through.  Even though this was probably the funnest time of my life, I sure wouldn't want to be starting to raise my family again...not in the world we have today.  I cringe when I see the grandkids watching what they see on tv and I know this is pretty common as to what they face every day at school.  I wish I could just take them somewhere away from this world.  I want them to stay sweet and innocent and untouched by the ugliness that's out there.  Even watching the presidential election got to be so crude and disgusting, I didn't want the kids to see it.  I didn't even want me to see it.  It was scary to think that this was what America had come up with for us to choose from to lead our country.  There were a lot of strong feelings about these two candidates and they were all negative.  It turned out to be a contest of not who had the best plan for the country,  but who could find the most dirt on their opponent, and it got ugly. 

So election day came and went and we now have a president who was most recently a game show host.

Heaven help our country.

(It was actually comforting the day after the election to hear Pence ask for America to pray for them...that they need God's help.  That helped me to have a little hope, and that's about all we have right now... hope and faith that God will continue to watch over and bless this great country that's kind of broken right now.)

On a happier note...just look at these roses!  They didn't get the memo that it's November 13th.  Ha!

 Oh and this happened!  I had seen a few potato plants in the garden (that we did not plant) and thought I'd see if there were any potatoes down there.  Kelley had pulled up almost all of the garden and cleaned it up except down by the raspberry bushes.  I decided to clean up the rest and when I trimmed back the raspberries, I found about five more potato plants hiding under the all the branches. I got out daddy's pitchfork  ( I have some great memories of helping him dig up the potatoes.  He would loosen up the soil  and turn it over with the pitch fork and I would pick up all the potatoes that surfaced and throw them in a basket.  I thought it was cool when we found a funny shaped one and daddy would let me keep it!).  and started digging.  There were a lot of potatoes down there!  KC came over and he helped me get dig up the last few plants.  We ended up with a whole box of them...and all volunteers from last year!  How cool is that? 

Last Sunday, I flew to Arizona to spend some time with Camille's family. The day before was our ward trunk or treat so I made about 200 popcorn balls thinking that would be enough to cover the trunk or treat and Halloween. Well after the trunk or treat, there was about 7 balls left...(those little darlings came back to our car about 4 times....ummmm, I've seen you before!..  'well I need one for my brother, and my mom, and etc...) so I had to make more popcorn balls for Kelley to give out on Halloween. He helped me a lot and we had them all done before I left on Sunday afternoon. 

 The sky was so beautiful on the flight I just had to take a few pictures...

 I made about a hundred popcorn balls for Camille's trick or treaters.  I told her I thought she'd need more, but last year they didn't have too many trick or treaters so she thought they would be ok.

(We ran out after about a hour...lots of people have moved into their neighborhood since last year! Camille had some back up candy though so it was fine)

The kids were just adorable in their costumes.  Olivia is such a good helper.  She took Emily and got her costume on and painted her face and got her all ready to go.  She is going to be a big help with the new baby.

 The sweetest family lives next door to Camille.  They have a gal Livy's age and a boy Sams age and a couple of older girls. Their parents are great people and good friends to Camille and Kellen.  They really watch out and take care of each other. What a blessing to have people like that in your life!

It was pretty amazing to see how so many people in their ward were looking after them too.  The young women brought a big pan of chicken enchiladas one night and several other people just stopped by to see how Camille was doing.  

 Beautiful sunset

 Sam is sooooo into turtles right now. They couldn't find a childs turtle costume but this adult one fit him just fine!

 Camille's neighbor Tara is pretty good with a saw and made this scary tree.  They brought it over and set it up in Camille's front yard.  Camille set up her strobe light in front of it and it looked pretty cool!

 Tara's older daughters  and some friends took the kids around trick or treating while we sat out on the driveway with Tara and Steve in lawn chairs around a bon fire Kellen built and passed out candy and popcorn balls.  It was a lot of fun! I got to meet lots of their friends from the neighborhood.

 Checking out the haul the kids made. Where are the Almond Joys?

Tuesday morning we went to see Camille's doctor. They did an ultra sound and did measurements of all the baby's parts.  She said the baby's head was measuring kind of big so she thought maybe he would come a little sooner.  It was so cool to see his little heart beating so strong and his little hands covering his face like he was playing peek a boo.  The technician tried to get him to move his hands so we could see his face, but he wouldn't.  They said everything looked great and also that he has hair!  So excited to meet this new little soul!

Emily likes to have me snuggle her to fall asleep for her nap.  We usually end up laying there giggling at silly snap chat faces.  This was a face swap with Kelley.  "That's just creepy grandma"

She's just a little joy to be with.  Always so happy and quite the ham.  I have some great videos of her dancing and singing to songs her and Olivia love.  She knows all the words  is silly as all get out and actually has some great moves!  

Camille was feeling a little better on Friday so we decided to take the kids out of school early and go to the Butterfly wonderland.  Camille had been there a few times with the kids but they kept talking about how cool it was and wanted me to see it too.

First we went into a theater and watched a  3-D movie about Monarch Butterflies.  It was so cool!  The butterflies looked like they were flying right at you.  Their life cycle is pretty incredible

Then we went into a room where they had all the  butterflies getting ready to hatch.  It was so interesting!  They were at all different stages of coming out of their chrysalis.  

A gal talked to us about going into the next room where all the butterflies were.  She said we had to watch out to not step on them and not touch them because we had an oil on our hands that can harm them.

It was fun to watch Sam with the butterflies.  He had come here a couple years ago with his preschool class and had a bad experience.  The butterflies fly all around you and sometimes light on you and he didn't like this at all! He freaked out and they had to leave.  Sam has grown up a lot!  He wasn't a bit afraid of them and was telling me all about them.  He was even wishing they would land on him. 

They were just so incredibly beautiful!  The vibrant colors and intricate designs were just incredible.

I mean look how cool it is that God made them just to blend right in with their beautiful surroundings... or did He make the beautiful flowers just to match the butterflies?  Sure made my heart bust with love and appreciation for this amazing world and all His creations He has given us to enjoy.

There were cool aquariums and other cool creatures to look at on the way out.

We spent my last night there playing racko and being entertained by this little ham.  

I can usually hold it together when it's time to say goodbye...not so much this time.

It was sure good to see my sweetie though.  I don't like being away from him for so long.  It feels like a part of me is missing.

I sure feel blessed to be able to come home to this good man who treats me like a queen.