It's great to be 8!

 Andrew was finally baptized! He has been excited about it for months and counting down the days. It was a perfect day. We had lots of family and friends there to support us. Ben did a great job on the baptism and confirmation, especially for his first time doing it! Andrew felt so special having a big day all about him. He said it was the best day of his life.

In August, we went up to the Idaho Falls temple and took these pictures for the invitation and the program at the baptism. 

 Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Andrew and Ben before the baptism. The stake primary presidency did a great job of organizing all the baptisms that day and making it special for each one. After the baptism and confirmation, we went to our church for a luncheon.  We had a pasta bar, rolls, salads, and cookies. Everything was delicious. We showed a slideshow of Andrew, which turned out really cute. 

Our good friends from Logan, the Aumans, made Andrew this adorable candy picture. He got lots of sweet cards and little gifts from everyone.

Group picture. We were so grateful that everyone drove all the way up here to come. It meant a lot to us and made the day all the better. 

Road Trip!

Two weeks ago, Ben had to go up to Challis, Idaho to deliver a proposal for work and he took us along for the ride. Challis is about 2 1/2 hours northwest of here and none of us had been over that way before, so it was a fun adventure. The kids got to skip school, so they were thrilled of course.

On the way to Challis, we stopped in Arco. It was quite an ugly little town in my opinion. They had spray painted the mountain behind them with high school dates, which made it look trashy.

We survived riding in the company car with all children able to touch one another!

There were long stretches of desert until we reached Mackay.

Once in Challis, we stopped at a super cute restaurant... The Tea Cup Cafe.

We dropped off the proposal and drove up the canyon north of Challis. Ben has decided we need to live there. Middle of nowhere of course.

Challis was a cute little town... population 1,085.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Challis visitor's center. I took pictures while Ben and the kids mined for gold and explored the museum.

Our next stop was to see a giant fault line from a 7.3 earthquake in the 1980s. The inner geologist in me found it pretty interesting. :)

Our last stop was Mackay, Idaho. My grandparents lived there before they moved to Duchesne. My mom went to grade school for a few years there. There are only about 500 people, but it's definitely gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of Tabiona, Utah.

I'm convinced we need to move to Mackay to live in this house...

Or this one...

Mackay Elementary School

Gorgeous mountains by Mackay.

As we drove home, we ran into a crazy thunderstorm. I was able to get some cool shots of the lightning on my phone. After the storm was the most gorgeous rainbow we've ever seen. Pictures don't do it justice.

Canning

Fall always gets crazy around here. There's an urgency to enjoy whatever warm weather we have, to get Halloween costumes done, pumpkins carved, and preserve everything I can find. This year I went a little crazy considering Ben wasn't able to help me with most of it. I preserved 7 quarts peaches, 17 pints salsa, 8 pints chili sauce, 25 quarts spaghetti sauce, 8 quart bags freezer corn, peach freezer jam, raspberry freezer jam, cinnamon pear jam, and froze several bags of nectarines and raspberries. I love canning, but I was a little burnt out after all of that. Thankfully it won't have to be done for another year!

My little helper.

A day at the park

 We are trying to enjoy the last few bits of warm weather outside. Here are a few pictures of our adventures in the park around the corner from us.

Liv is becoming an expert on the monkey bars. 

Ben plays basketball three times a week with the guys at church and Andrew just got signed up for basketball starting next month.