October
We have had the most spectacularly beautiful October! It has been a month of sunshine, gorgeous colors, warm weather, brilliant sunrises, and sunsets. It has been a perfect Indian Summer and we have been outside enjoying it every single day. We have been hiking and biking and walking. It has been fantastic!
XC season for Bryn was still going strong in October and she was kicking butt!! It has been so fun to watch her run!! This picture is of her running at Regionals. She came in second!! That qualified her for running in the Finals so she was super excited to double qualify for All-City...on her school team and her city team. She has never qualified on her city team before. It is much more competitive and difficult as they only take the top two runners. So she was VERY excited to have accomplished this!
It was also General Conference that weekend which I absolutely love! Right after we were done screaming with joy about Bryn coming in 2nd...Kameron called us to say that they had just announced in conference, that starting in January, church would only be 2 hours!! I may have screamed with joy even louder at that than at the meet!! Hooray for Primary Presidents everywhere!!
We grabbed hot chocolates and headed home to watch the rest of the morning session with Kameron. It was so good and Sunday was amazing as well!! It is an exciting time to be a member of the church!! All of these changes are a breath of fresh air!! General Conference is like a mini-holiday for our family and we love it! We had our usual donuts on Saturday and crepes on Sunday and appetizers and snacks for both afternoon sessions. General Conference is the best!! I love being inspired and feeling the spirit and I love being in my jammies!!
Kameron listening intently and coloring!
(Sometimes I still get a glimpse that little seven year old boy!)
After the Saturday session of conference it was the Homecoming Dance which I have already written about and the Homecoming Game. All of that was so much fun this year!!
I also managed to decorate for Halloween the first week of October which thrilled my kids. They love when I decorate for all of the holidays. Halloween was here so fast this year!! While I love the beauty of the fall it is also the harbinger of winter which I hate so I have mixed emotions and some melancholy about Autumn.
Kameron and I had our traditional mother/son flu shot date!! I love these...despite getting a shot.
Ailey got her dance team pictures taken. She looks so grown up and beautiful! This is only the teaser. More are coming later with her team photo. I also have mixed emotions about Ailey being in high school!! Our kids are growing up so fast.
Ailey's dance team had a dance clinic for elementary school kids. It was so cute!! Bryn was THRILLED to participate and to hang out with her big sis and her friends. They had a fun day and the little girls learned a dance that they performed for the parents. It was fun to see both Ailey and Bryn perform!! There might be a third Johnson girl on the dance team one day!!
Tyler and I are loving our bedroom update! I need to take a picture of the other side and our little sitting area that we LOVE and use all the time!! Our room is so restful and is now a true retreat.
Like I said before...we tried to be outside as much as possible!! Fall bike rides are my favorite!! Tyler even got me off roading this year! I am pretty proud of that! I haven't done much *true* mountain biking since we were in college. So fun!!
Jordin and Ramon came and rounded up all the younger cousins and treated them to a day of fun at the mall, movies, pumpkin patch, and out to dinner. It is fun having them close!! Bryn loved it!!
Good luck Elder Rowley!!
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| Kameron, Caden, and Nick |
Caden is doing great and we have been enjoying reading his emails and hearing all about his new adventures! I am so grateful that Kam has such a good friend who is setting such a great example for him!!
Look what has returned to our house...the recorder...kid FOUR!! I don't think I can possibly express how much I hate this particular instrument...and the song Hot Cross Buns.
Here is a picture from one of our hikes this month...this time we were hiking in North Idaho. It is so beautiful and if I am hiking I prefer to look at water. Thank goodness that is possible everywhere around here!! We live in the land of beautiful lakes!!
Bryn got to go downtown to Fleet Feet, a specialty running store, to pick up her race packet for All-City. Tyler and I had a fun little morning date with her too.
This cute little bakery and coffee shop is owned by my friend, Celeste. We also went to Hello Sugar for more mini-donuts!! Bryn loves that place.
Ailey and the dance team helped with a fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. They were helping a local coffee shop raise money. She looked pretty cute out on the street flagging people down to donate...which so many people did!! I love that our community is so generous!
Finally the big day arrived... the ALL-CITY XC FINALS!! Bryn was so excited!! This meet is so fun! They have a DJ and swag and all kinds of fun things that celebrate how hard these top runners have worked this year. Reilly couldn't believe it! When she got to the park she said, "Is all of THIS for the elementary school kids???" Yep! They go all out and it is awesome!
Bryn's cheerleaders and intense sideline coaches!! We were scattered all around the route screaming, yelling, and cheering for our girl!!
Starting out... I love that BIG SMILE on her face!!
Half way point... looking more intense!!
And... crossing the finish line!
The Finals are TOUGH but fun!! Bryn PRed. She totally moved up in the rankings and was happy with her time and place! We were so excited for her and were ready to CELEBRATE!!
We asked Bryn what she wanted to do to celebrate and she said, "Go eat shrimp!!" Done!
We are so proud of Bryn and all of her hard work and dedication. I can't believe how well she has done this year and how much progress she has made. We thought she would be excited for a little break from sports but she is already counting down the days until track!!
Ailey had her first high school choir concert:
You can really hear Ailey's voice in this little snippet from her concert.
She did fantastic!! Our high school has the greatest music department...amazing choirs, bands, and orchestras! I love that our kids really appreciate and participate in these programs.
A week later Kameron had his Fall band concert:
I can't believe that all of our years of attending band concerts are winding down and that Kam only has a few more concerts to go. Senior year goes by so darn fast!! :(
It's a good thing that sometimes I stumble upon random pictures of Kameron like these:
Kameron and Jonathan
Caden, Kam, and Nick on Caden's last day of work. Soon they will all trade their uniforms for suits.
Ailey had another half time performance at a home game. The weather was terrible. It was pouring rain but she danced her heart out and did such a great job!!
I survived the planning and carrying out my first Primary Program!! We had around 55 kids, all with speaking parts, 10 songs, and a little quartet musical number. It went really well!! Hallelujah! I worked on that thing for three months straight and we had two huge crazy practices. It went off without a hitch. It is amazing how it all came together. When I had to give my remarks I could barely speak because I felt the spirit so strongly. I am so glad that it went well and I am so glad that it is over! Then we got to have fun at our after party!!
We played games, decorated cookies, sang primary karaoke, and had a great time!! The kids loved it!!
I don't know who loved karaoke more...the kids or the missionaries!! Primary karaoke was a hit!! That karaoke machine has been the greatest gift from Tyler's sister Lori! The missionaries, all of the kids, and even some of the teachers lined up to belt out the songs!! Ha ha!!
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| All photos and videos were sent to the missionaries' mamas!! |
We got Kameron's Senior pictures back and I love them! We got them just in the nick of time to turn in to the yearbook department. This sneaks up on me every time! Luckily there were multiple extensions. I need to remember to do this during the summer between Ailey's junior and senior year!!
Kam's Senior Pictures will be its own post...prepare for a picture overload of a super cute boy!!
Ailey and Bryn were our only pumpkin carvers this year. Bryn can finally do all of it by herself. For the first time in the history of our parenting...no parental scooping/cutting skills were needed.
My mom, sister, and I hosted a lunch out at the lake with some of our vintage vendor friends. We have made some very dear friends over the years in the vintage world and we just never get enough time to talk and catch up. This turned out to be so much fun! I love all of these ladies and it was so nice to get together!!
Back Row: My mom, Penny, Me, Jennifer, Rebecca. Front Row: Kathy and Stacey
I love being a part of a community of women who love, support, champion, and encourage one another. Every one of these women could be considered *competition* in our industry. We are at the same shows and we all sell vintage and antique goods. But every one of these women has been a lifeline of encouragement and advice to us in navigating this industry. Each one has gone out of her way more times than I can count to support Sisters Creed and one another...in business and in our personal lives. It's a beautiful thing.
We also had our ward's Harvest Festival. It actually turned out to be pretty fun. There were some amazing chilies and we brought my Grandma Ellersick's cornbread. It was a nice evening. I also had book club, a primary baptism, and another Halloween party.
Look what else Tyler and I found whilst out in nature...
I haven't seen one of these fuzzy caterpillars since we moved from Utah seventeen years ago! It is so crazy because Tyler and I had just had a conversation about bugs with our kids and how some of the most common ones from our childhood in Utah we never see here in Spokane...like fuzzy caterpillars, grasshoppers, and monarch butterflies. All of which were very common in Utah. I used to make habitats for these fuzzy caterpillars in canning jar with sticks and grass and leaves and put it on my desk at school and on my dresser in my room. I thought they were so cute! Anyway...we had just discussed these fuzzy little guys with the kids when suddenly we saw about 20 of them. Craziness!!
This month has been a good month and a fun month. We've carved pumpkins and eaten all the pumpkin things. We have walked and crunched in the leaves. We have had fun with friends and family. But it has also been a time for reflection. The anniversary of Tyler's brain hemorrhage came and went and we were filled with profound gratitude. I still haven't written that blog post and it is still hard to talk about. We are grateful every single day for Tyler's continued health and not a day goes by that is taken for granted. We have loved and served and shown up for others this year in ways that we didn't before. Our family loves deeply and we are fiercely loyal. There has been beauty that has come from such a difficult experience. November is here and our beautiful Indian summer has faded. The holidays are just around the corner and I am filled with gratitude for this beautiful life.
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