Such a beautiful fall!  I don't want it to ever end! The flowers are still blooming and the days are warm.

I'm so attracted to the fall colors! The golds and oranges and reds are so pretty!

 I picked another big basket of peppers and did one last batch of sweet pickeled peppers.  If they run out this year I will eat my hat.

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 Ok, this is the late August view of the spaghetti squash...aren't they the cutest?

This is after we had a little frost...couldn't even belive how many squash were hiding under those leaves!  Candice and I counted them one day and there were 30 big ones and several smaller squash!  I like squash, but seriously.

I kept five of them then loaded up several boxes and took the rest to the food bank. I can't believe the difference it makes to have the bees here in the yard.  The garden has produced like crazy!

We were having such great weather, we decided to have one last outdoor bbq. Kelley did some chicken on the Tragar, I made some rolls, and Candice did this yummy appetizer.  Michelle did some yummy potatoes and brussell sprouts. She made the best pumpkin cake too! 

 We sure enjoy spending time with their sweet little family.

 We got to spend a few great days  up at Strawberry  before the season ended.  I don't know what happened to the summer but I sure feel like we didn't get enough days fishing!  

 The day Dan and Brenda came up was a lot of fun other than the fact that Kelley about sliced his thumb in half.  They were putting gas into the boat and Kelley was trying to modify the spout so it would go in better.  He was cutting off a piece of plastic and continued on slicing right through his thumb.  Dan said "No you didn't"   but yes he did.  It was pretty deep and probably should have been stitched shut but do you think Kelley would ever do that?   He just wrapped it up in a paper towel to try to stop the bleeding.  Dan ran up to the marina to get some bandages but when he got back, it was still bleeding like crazy.  So we bandaged it up tight in hopes it would slow down the bleeding.  He changed the bandage several times and it finally stopped bleeding. It's not a great day ever to be Kelley's fingers.

For a little comic relief, I hopped up quick when I saw my line twitching and ran straight into the sliding door.  I'm sure I'll never hear the end of that.

 The weather has been so lovely this fall.  Warm days and cool evenings.  The leaves were so beautiful, I had to keep taking more and more pictures because everywhere I looked it was just breath taking!

I started working on this project about a month ago 

finally got it finished and sent off to Angie.

Candice told me a long time ago that Angie had asked her if she would stitch the words to this song for her.  She's been so busy with school, she didn't get around to it, so I thought I would.

This is for sure one of the favorite songs we would sing together and as I stitched each word my heart was aching to be with mum again...to hear her playing the ukulele and singing along with us girls.

I know Angie loves these songs and is missing mum too. They were very close.  She is going through a real hard time right now.  Her cancer treatments haven't been working so they are trying something new.  It's making her so sick and miserable. My heart is breaking for her..  She keeps us updated on her progress and is always so positive and grateful for any good thing and even for this very hard thing she has to go through. She is a great example to me of enduring it well.

Anyway, Angie got the package last week and sent me the sweetest note.  Brenda did too.  I guess it came at a low point for her.  Her furnace had gone out and she had been in the cold for two days feeling miserable from the intense chemo treatment.  She said it really cheered up her day. I'm so glad for that. This is one of those times you want so badly to do something to help, but she is so far away, it's pretty limited what I can do. So knowing I could cheer her up a bit sure made me happy too.

  

I just have to say I'm really proud of this girl.  She always gives 100 percent to what ever she does and this calling is no exception.

They have been planning this service project for months and it really was a great activity.  They were collecting things to make kits to give to the refugees.  The Relief Society ladies really came though and filled up all the sign up sheets then they showed up to help put them together!  We had a great turn out, probably at least 40 people.  They brought their items and put them on the tables to put into the kits, then everyone sat down and listened to Katie give them a special message about service.  She had lots of information on other things we can do to help the refugees too.  

Kim had given a lesson last month about ways we can help the refugees and it really touched my heart.  I'm going to check into some of the ways they talked about that we can help.

 Kathy had a project going too of making  centerpieces for funerals and events that she had all the ladies help with after the kits were done.

 Katie and I had made a bunch of  different breads for dessert and she made some hot apple cider too that was yummy.

It was a great night that left everyone feeling good cause they were able to help someone out.

Something that stuck in my head was when they said "What if their story was your story?" They told us how these people are just regular people like us...they had jobs and families and homes  but because of war or natural disasters, they can't go back to their homes.  I can't even imagine what they have been through but when I think about it I realize we don't know what the future will bring to us... these are very uncertain times...their story could very well be our story.

 We got to have a quick visit with Camille and Kellen last weekend.  Kellen's grampa that lives in Coalville passed away so they flew here last friday. We were still in Las Vegas but headed home early Sunday morning so we could spend some time with them.  

It was so fun to have them here.  Candice and KC came over so we had some good all together time.

 I think the baby was pretty excited to be with all of us too cause he was jumping all over the place!

 Snap chat face swap gone way wrong.  We laughed about a months worth in one afternoon.  I think that's one of the things I miss most about not having Camille here...just laughing a lot.

Kelley and I got to spend such a fun weekend  together in Las Vegas.  I had got him tickets to Jimmy Buffets concert there for his birthday and we have been looking forward to it for the last five months.  

We got down to St. George Friday afternoon and stayed at Dan and Brenda's place.  They are so generous to share their lovely home with us!

Last time we were in St. George we ate at the Black bear restaurant and really liked it so we went there for dinner.  It was great once again!  After we went to see the movie Deep Horizon, a true story about a disaster on an oil rig.  It was a pretty good movie.

Saturday morning we got down to Vegas and went to visit Chris.  He has just had knee surgery but is doing really well.  Lisa is in Utah taking care of her dad cause he just had heart surgery so I think Spencer has been helping Chris out after his surgery.  It was good to visit with him.

Chris was telling us about a mall there that had a Dillards outlet.  He said he had found a lot of nice clothes there so we decided to check it out.  It was huge with acres of racks of clothes.  It was a little overwhelming for me, but Kelley found  some nice shirts and a couple pair of shorts for great prices!

It was late afternoon by then, so we headed over to our hotel.  I had found this place called Tuscany suites online and it looked really nice and it didn't disappoint.  Online it looked like it was within walking distance to the MGM (where the concert was) so that was another reason I chose that place.

We relaxed for a bit, then got ready and headed over to the strip to find a place to eat.

Las Vegas is such a interesting place.  It's a melting pot for the whole world and the people watching is incredible.  There are people entertaining everyone all along the sidewalk and I would have liked to stay and watch what they were doing, but we didn't have that much time before the concert.

 We decided to eat at PF Changs and it was delicious! 

After dinner, we headed for the  MGM.  When we got closer, we knew we were in the right place because the parrot heads were lining up to get in.  Ha!  I actually wished we had dressed up cause most people were!  

The MGM Grand is a huge building!  We got in through the security line, then it felt like we walked another mile through the casino and shops, restaurants, hallways and lobbies till we got to the Garden Arena.  It took so long to get in there, we could hear Jimmy starting to sing!  We finally made it to our seats and  thoroughly enjoyed the next 90 minutes of his music.

It's more like a party...

 I loved how the background changed with each song...I don't know where I'ma gonna go when the volcano blows!  (That was the name of this tour...I don't know Ha!)

Leaving the arena was another great experience in people watching.  Jimmy Buffet fans are a different breed.  Being in Las Vegas, people are probably less inhibited, but this bunch did not hold back.  It's interesting to see the varying ages of fans too...a good bunch of younger fans, but mostly older folks (ha! that's us!)  Much more mellow (less drunk and stoned) crowd than at outdoor concerts.

We went to Johnny Rockets for a Strawberry shake after the show and met up with Ty and Heather there. He is also a huge Jimmy Buffet fan and him and Kelley have been talking about it for months.  Ty is one of my favorites.  Him and Kelley have worked together off and on for years.  Ty quit laying brick and got a "real job" for the city several years ago, but never really liked it so he went back to construction about a year ago.  He's been trying to get Kelley to join him ever since.  I know Kelley misses laying brick and has been tempted, but I don't know when he'd find time to do it!  Anyway, Ty is a great friend who never forgets to tell Kelley that he loves him every time they talk.

It was a great time with my sweetie.  He's been so busy the past few months, we probably wouldn't have gone if we didn't already have the tickets, but I'm sure glad we did.  The older I get, the more I appreciate these great memories we are making together.