October

October

If I thought that September was difficult...October literally drop kicked us in the gut. But despite all that we went through in October we did have some great moments and those deserve to be documented too.

First of all, our weather was glorious!! It was one of the most beautiful Octobers that I have ever seen. We tried our best to be outside enjoying the weather and the colors as much as possible.

Bryn finished up her XC season. She did fantastic!! Her best race was her last race with her SYSA team. She came in 2nd and that was a record for her. It was the most difficult course with lots of hill running. Literally straight up a huge hill twice. Luckily her coach makes them run hills like crazy and this was her home course so she totally kicked butt and it was awesome to see!!

At every meet she wears a side braid with this ribbon for luck. I'm not sure how that became her lucky hairstyle but it has worked out well this season. :) Her coach was so excited when she crossed the finish line in second place!! He coached her last year too and he has loved watching her improve. He is tough but the kids love him. She had a huge cheering section!!

After that we stopped for donuts and chocolate milk and hurried home to watch General Conference. I love General Conference so much and so does my family. It is like a twice yearly holiday to us. We stay in our jammies and eat amazing food and listen to the leaders of our church. We were so inspired!! It was nice to have Reilly back in town and able to watch with us too. We always have the best discussions after each session. Our kids are so smart and have such a great understanding of the gospel.

Our three cute girls camped out on the floor listening to Conference. Don't worry. Ailey was taking notes on her phone. :)

Yes, we put our pajamas BACK ON!!

Bryn was sewing and crafting while listening to conference.

In between sessions on Saturday, Tyler and I ran over to the Lucky Vintage Fall Festival. Several of our friends were vendors and we found some awesome things to put away for Christmas.

Sunday was more of the same with a big waffle bar with both regular waffles and pumpkin waffles with all the fixings and great snacks for the afternoon session too. We were fed physically and spiritually. So many great talks and things that I have been pondering for weeks now. I love it!

Bryn's Activity Day Girls (her church group) had a fun Daddy/Daughter Night with all kinds of minute-to-win-it games and treats. Tyler and Bryn had a fantastic time together and I loved all of the pictures that my friend Mary, who is one of the leaders, was texting to me through out the night. So hilarious!!

So cute!!

I love all of these good men who love and support and show up for their daughters!! Look at our bishop heckling Tyler! Ha ha!! They are a competitive bunch!! But great friends and loving fathers.

Their adoring and also competitive daughters!!

Those are some great dads!!

Bryn had another XC meet with her school team. She came in 3rd, PRed for the year, and qualified for the All-City Finals!! So exciting!!

Bryn before the meet with her besties: Naomi, Berkley, and Audrey

Picking up her race packet!

Right around that time Reilly had her gallbladder surgery which I already talked about in a previous post. The kids also got their "Better Than School Pictures" taken by my friend Amy. It was a freezing cold Saturday on photo shoot day. But at least it didn't rain!! Reilly wasn't able to get her pictures taken due to the fact that she was recuperating at our house from her surgery.

Amy took the kids pictures at this awesome church...St. John's Cathedral. I love its classic Gothic architecture. So beautiful!!

Ailey and Bryn got their flu shots. Now the whole family was done with those!!

We had a day off of school and Ailey and Bryn treated us to Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread. So good! We found a great new recipe!! We are so lucky that these two love to have "Bake Club" whenever they get a chance.

Kameron got this sweet card given to his manager at work by one of the residents. I love this!! This is one of many that Kameron has received. I love how hard he works and how kind he is to the residents. I also found out that he does all kinds of service there when he is off the clock that I didn't even know about. Apparently one day a new resident was dropped off by his family and they literally left the man on the door step with all of his belongings on the curb. Kameron was just getting off of work when he saw this. He stayed and helped the man and completely moved him into to his new apartment. I found this out months later. We hear things like this all the time about Kameron. He just quietly serves others and never says a word about it. Tyler and I are so proud of him!

Bryn's All-City Finals meet was so much fun!! She did a great job and loved every minute. This is always such a fun event. They have a DJ and swag and all kinds fun of stuff. Bryn loves it!! We had a great time and Bryn had a huge cheering section!! Family, friends, church friends, school coaches, her SYSA coach and teammates from her SYSA XC team. We were all strategically placed around the course. Bryn had "Coach Kameron" at the middle and the end to yell at her/motivate her all the way to the finish line. It is so funny to watch them.  Kam is super intense and Bryn loves it and requests that he does it but he did get some looks from other parents like "chill out dude" ha ha! But Bryn really loves his "coaching" and she always runs faster with Kameron barking at her!! Ha ha.

Passing people!!

Heading to the finish line!!

Bryn's biggest fans!!

She did awesome and had a great end to her season!! We are all super proud of her and her hard work. It really paid off too. That girl loves to run!!

Then it was time to celebrate!!

Bryn wanted to celebrate with dinner at Costa Vida and we were happy to oblige. It turned out to be quite the party too! Many of our friends and Bryn's friends were there including about half of our stake. We filled that restaurant and it was quite the PAR-TAY celebrating those cute little runners!!

Brynnie was super excited to wear her All-City shirt to school the next day!!

Kameron had his Fall band concert and it was amazing!! The advanced bands that he plays in... his Jazz Orchestra and his Wind Ensemble...sounded absolutely fantastic!!

We had a great night as a family listening to our boy!!

That same night before the concert Ailey was at the middle school putting on a Harvest Festival with the other WEB Leaders for the families and siblings of kids at her school. They had been planning and preparing for this event for weeks! It turned out great!! We had to divide and conquer that night but everyone made it back to the high school in time to hear Kameron perform with both band groups. Bryn thought the Harvest Festival was OUTSTANDING!! Well done Ailey. :)

I have a book club again!! Yay!! I have been without a book club for a few years which I hate because I love to read and I like to challenge myself to read books that I maybe wouldn't read on my own. I also love to discuss books and all the other good things that come with book club so I was thrilled when my friend Annie started one up. Yes! Back in business. Our first book was Prayers for Sale by Sandra Dallas which we discussed at our very first October meeting. It was a fun night for book readers!!

Bryn started Tennis before her XC season was even over. Things were a little crazy the last two weeks of XC for her with two teams and tennis and piano lessons and activity days. This was her first time playing tennis and she loved it. She is our little sporty girl!

The month was a super busy one for me. It was Primary Program season so as member of the Primary Presidency I was busy with practices and making sure that everyone had their parts written and that everyone was ready to go. I was also super busy planning Bryn's 3rd grade Halloween party with two other moms. Our house was decorated for Halloween, costumes were all figured out, and candy purchased. We were planning to go to Greenbluff to get our pumpkins and donuts and we were ready to do all of our favorite Halloween things when all hell broke loose on a Friday afternoon on the 27th of October.

And we ended up here. At the hospital.

I want to say that it was the worst day of my entire life. It truly was absolutely horrific and scary and hard and terrifying. But something always stops me...and makes me add this too...it was also the best day of my life because Tyler survived. He lived. I didn't lose him that day and I am forever grateful.