Lots of Halloween fun

at the ward Trunk or Treat and at home with Natalie.   She is wearing her Steam Punk costume from last year.  She put lots of details into it, too.

Now it's working . . .

Notice the details.

These decorations are a work of art!

Way to go, Natalie and Trent.

 

 

 

Harry Potter Mania

at Natalie's.  The pictures really don't do it justice.  

And I guess the pictures won't go up tonight because I keep getting errors when I try to load them.

Maybe a spell has been put on my computer . . .

I'm really

tired today.  Not sure why.  But I'm going to bed as soon as the the World Series game is over.  Right now it's Boston 3, Cardinals 1.  Of course I'm rooting for the Cardinals.

Gary went to his

first doctor's visit in 5 years.   

 He came home with only one prescription.

I think my brother, Tom, must have gotten the same prescription years ago.

It was a beautiful

autumn day here in Utah, and I had lots of adventures.

It started with meeting Gary and Richard for breakfast at Magleby's.

Then I went to a bridal shower for the Roylance's grandson, Shawn.

Then I drove up to Natalie's to see her Harry Potter party decor.  They were amazing.  I took lots of pictures, which I'll post later.  (I told her that now she has all of them that she has to host one for the grand kids when we are all together.)

  Since I was that far North, I went to the outlet mall and walked through it.  It was such a nice day that I didn't even wear a jacket.

Since I was even further North, I went to Ikea and browsed around.

By that time I figured Gary would be coming home from his conference in Salt Lake, so I headed South instead of North.  Here was the view as I sat at the light on University Ave.

I love autumn here in Utah.

We had a Hall family party

today in Springville.  We went to the Daughter's of the Utah Pioneers Museum in Springville.  There is a lot of Hall, Averett, and Weight Family History in there.  

Here is Richard, Me, Gary (husband), Mark Twain, and Gary (brother)

 These are not great pictures, but I waned to give a feel of some of the 

family items shown in the museum.

 

 Then we went to Prestwich Farms in Spanish Fork Canyon.

I want to go to the museum sometime and really look at and photograph more family items.  My cousin, Diane, did a great job planning it and gave us a book with some histories and also showing the headstones of our ancestors.   I'll share those later.

We got a phone call

from Geniel a couple of nights ago telling us that Gary's sister, Janice, was in the hospital in Murray.  She had been life-flighted there on Saturday after a fall down the stairs.  At the time, it sounded like maybe she had suffered a stroke before the fall, as she was having memory and cognitive problems.   It did not sound very positive.

We went up there to visit the next day (Tuesday)  Gary talked to Frank beforehand and he said they were feeling a little better about things.  They had figured out that she had a brain bleed after the fall, which was what was causing the problem  (It definitely helped that their son, Steve, is a Dr. and he called and demanded that they do more tests to see what was causing the problems).

When we went up, she knew us and was talkative, but was searching for the words and was mixing up names and people and events.   But, they feel that will all come back as she heals.  We felt much more hopeful after visiting with her.  

Gary and I discussed that we really don't like being the youngest in our families.  We may very well pass away before any of our older brothers and sisters, but in the meantime, we hate to see them go through health and age issues.  Add that to the fact that we had our parents with us for a much shorter time than they did.  Our oldest siblings are 16 years older than we are.  

I'm not complaining, really.  It just makes me sad.  But, to my siblings who read this blog, I don't want to hear any more about how the youngest in the family are spoiled!    

Another kitchen

mess, but this time I'm not the culprit.  Natalie and Trent are getting ready for their Harry Potter Party.

Our beautiful

Lydia, turns 15 today.   

Misty sent pictures from her party on Sunday.

Seeing this picture all decked out (in what I assume are her gifts)

 took me back a few years to 2001 when she was decked

out in the dress-ups we gave her.

And then the year she matched her American Girl doll.

We love this girl so much!

(And I love that she can always  

 get the best of Grandpa in a "discussion.")  

HAPPY 15TH LYDIA!

Funerals

always cause me to make an inventory of my life and priorities.  Today I went to the funeral of our friend Gordon's mother, Mavis.  She was always very interested in and supportive of me and Gary and of our family.  And that was the message that was brought out today by many different people at the funeral.  Once again I was reminded that it isn't the large and grand things in life, but rather the small, steady, and consistent acts of love and loyalty that make a difference in our lives.      

Got a text

from Tiffany saying "You'll be interested to know that Ashton had to write a 'What got stolen?' story for school.  His story was about a bag of popcorn getting stolen from him at a baseball game.  Guess who the culprit was?  Grandpa!"  

His reputation for stealing food has spread far and wide.

It was 9:55 a.m. when the doorbell

rang this morning.  I was still in my mu-mu cleaning up from making the rolls.  I told Natalie not to dare answer it until I got upstairs.

One of these days I'll have it all done before the last minute.