Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving week was full of family gatherings for us. The Sunday before Thanksgiving we went to our niece Abbie's blessing. Since my brother's family is currently living in an apartment, family all came over to our house afterward to eat and visit.

Allan, Katie, and Abbie with my parents

Allan, Katie, and Abbie with Katie's dad and brother

Here are a lot of people who came to the blessing, but a lot of people had
already left at this point too.

We spent Thanksgiving with my family this year. Originally we had planned to spend it in California with all of Nate's siblings, but then a number of them canceled and we found out that my family was doing a special 90th birthday lunch for my grandpa the day after Thanksgiving. Plus, Nate sang with Utah Voices Saturday in the Tabernacle to open the Christmas season of concerts there. It was an excellent concert and helped me feel like the Christmas season was actually starting.

For my grandpa's 90th birthday, we had a nice lunch in a private room of the Lion House. It was a really nice meal, and it was fun to be all together. We enjoyed seeing old pictures and listening to some old memories.

Ben holding Abbie - it was difficult to get Ben to do this

After the lunch, we stopped by the Macy's candy windows on the way back to our car.

It is kind of crazy to think that my grandpa, who we call Gramp, is ninety years old. Gramp has always been a special part of my life. I think that perhaps I have become closer to my maternal grandparents in many respects than many people become to their grandparents due to the fact that me and my brothers were their only grandchildren.

As a kid, I always looked forward to seeing Gramp. He perplexed me with tricks like pulling coins out from behind my ear, and he persistently teased me and my brothers. Of course, we did our best to tease him back. We used to comb his hair for him, trying to make it look as wonky as we possibly could. And when it came time to hide Easter eggs, we worked hard to hide eggs for Gram, Gramp, our parents, and our aunts in the most impossible-to-find places we could think of. When Gram and Gramp were staying at our house, they would sleep on the sofa bed in our front room. Every morning, we would get up early and go crawl in bed with them. We were full of energy and hardly just laid still once in bed with them. Eventually Gramp would turn on the TV so we could watch a few cartoons before breakfast. At the time, I never appreciated how patient they were with us, but now I appreciate it much more.

Gramp loved to take pictures of us and video us. He is the reason why we now have hours of home video from when I was a kid. He took a bunch of pictures that my grandparents then put in nice photo/scrape books that they gave me and my brothers one year. These books also contained pictures and articles about other relatives, like great grandparents and great-great grandparents. In any case, he seemed to nearly always be holding his camera or video camera, or at least he would have it nearby. Sometimes he would even let us try recording video. I remember how heavy his old video camera was, and how cool we thought it was to see ourselves on video. As I got older though, I grew camera shy and often went to a lot of effort to avoid Gramp's cameras.

When I turned eight and was ready to get baptized, I had a hard time deciding for sure who should baptize me. I was torn between having my dad do it, or Gramp. Ultimately I decided on having Gramp baptize me and my dad confirm me.

As I have grown, Gramp has continued to be an important part of my life. He is almost always there at family events and other important things - birthdays, graduations, baby blessings, holiday celebrations, concerts, etc. It is nice to live closer to my grandparents now than when I was growing up so that we can see them more often. I have been so blessed to have a grandpa like Gramp!

Gramp with his great grandchildren

Weekend Reunion With Friends

Last weekend we had the opportunity to stay at a large cabin with some good friends I met when I was first at BYU. Most of us lived together in the same apartment complex, and I have been friends with them since.

We spent our time there eating, playing games, relaxing, walking, eating, and talking. Especially talking. It was so fun to see everyone there. Some of these friends we see fairly frequently, but it has been years since I saw some others.

The cabin had a number activities there that we enjoyed. There was a hot tub, pool table, foosball table, and air hockey table. Nate and I especially enjoyed the pool table. There was also a playground out back that Austin really liked. In fact, Austin had a great time there playing both by himself and with other kids.

Austin sliding into a pile of leaves

Playing air hockey

Saturday we all headed to Dairy Keen in Heber for lunch. Austin loved all the trains there, and had fun on the one they have outside.

Monday morning after our time at the cabin was up, we drove up to the Provo River Falls while we were relatively close to it before heading home. It was a good time to go since it wasn't very crowded, and the falls were beautiful.

Apollo

On October 13, my family's dog Apollo passed away. That was five weeks ago from today. He just turned twelve years old in August. I have been wanting to write something in memory of Apollo for awhile now, but have had a hard time actually doing it. The end of his life came so abruptly and unexpectedly. It started with what everyone thought was an eye infection that Monday. Soon it became clear that it was much worse than that...he had cancer. Apollo went downhill incredibly fast. He wouldn't eat anything, and he hardly drank anything either. He was obviously miserable, and my parents took him into the vet to have him put down that Thursday afternoon. It makes me so sad every time I think about it.

He has been greatly missed, most acutely by my mom, but also by the rest of my family. He was really a great dog. He was incredibly patient, and he was so obedient. I was quite excited when my parents finally got him as a puppy...having a dog was something I had been longing for every since I can remember. I was also frustrated that my parents had waited until I was gone and attending college to finally get a dog.

Apollo in November 2004 - shortly after my parents brought him home

Apollo was a cute puppy. I enjoyed watching his antics, like how he went wild barking at the vacuum whenever we were cleaning.

On Christmas Day 2004

My brother Ben was particularly close to Apollo since he still lived at home when my parents decided to get a dog.

New Years Day 2005

Apollo became a usual and pleasantly anticipated part of all my visits home. As I sorted through my pictures of him, I found that most of my images came from holiday celebrations, especially Halloween and Christmas.

Christmas 2005

Family Halloween Party 2006

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2010

Family Halloween Party 2014

In fact, Apollo played a huge roll when deciding what dog we would get. My experience with Apollo helped me to conclude that we should also get a Sheltie.

Apollo was such a beautiful dog. It was hard to not have him around this year at our family's annual Halloween party. It is strange to not see him when I am at my parents' house. I know I will continue to miss him.

December 2008

Halloween Festivities

October was a month full of Halloween festivities, as usual. For example, we took Austin to the city's Halloween Carnival one Friday evening. He dressed as a magician. He loved playing the games there, getting his face painted, and picking up plenty of treats.

We also attended our ward's Halloween Carnival, where Austin also participated in various Halloween activities and games.

The Friday before Halloween we went to our family's annual party where we enjoyed eating dinner, carving jack-o-lanterns, dressing in our costumes, eating doughnuts, listening to Halloween stories, and watching a movie.

This last year we grew white pumpkins in our garden, so we thought we would carve one of them on this occasion. As it turned out, that was easier said than done. I think that the top of the pumpkin was about two inches thick and very difficult to get through. Nate finally got the top off using a drill. We decided to go with a very simple design...

We had fun trick-or-treating with Austin on Halloween night too. Unfortunately, someone decided to steal our treats we left out for trick-or-treaters while we were gone though. Not only did they take all the candy, but they also took our bowl. I am just grateful it wasn't my favorite bowl, but we were still very irritated. We have left candy out like that for years without any issues, but it doesn't look like we will be doing that again.