Thanksgiving

We had such a great Thanksgiving! We drove out to California and stayed at my sister, Lanea's house. We had fun playing games, doing puzzles, visiting, watching Christmas movies, playing with nieces and nephews etc.

Here are the sisters: Tamra and I with our bellies and Lanea with her 6 week old.

Tamra, Roy and family

Matt playing with the kids.

And of course singing around the piano.

I should have taken more pictures of the grandkids...they are so cute and were so fun to play with! I was so grateful to spend the holiday with family!

Temple Square

This weekend we got to see Tamra's song, "Rejoice!" performed on Temple Square. This is the second year in a row that one of her songs was selected to be performed at the Relief Society Music Night. It was all wonderful music and it was very special to listen to a song my sister wrote, I'm very proud of her! Plus it was so so great to see family, I confess I have been feeling a little homesick lately! Before the performance Roy took us to The Roof Restaurant where we had a gorgeous view of Temple Square, live piano music, delicious food, and super fun company! It was so much fun, thanks Roy!

Sisters! Ester, Tamra, Me. Tamra is due just over a month after me! (Roy is also on the right)Aunt Denise, Tam, Aunt Shirlene (Nate and Ester are to the right in the background)

Grandma Stephenson and Tamra (the McCauley's are to the right)

I had to include this picture, Grandma kept talking right when we took the picture so here they are giggling because we had to take so many before Grandma finally smiled! They are just too cute.

As far as Halloween goes, nothing too exciting this year. We got to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters and we didn't dress up...sorry to disappoint. There's always next year!

What We've Been Up To

Last Saturday we took a hike to Big Springs (5 miles there). It was beautiful and we met a nice family along the way. This is near where we went snow shoeing last Christmas Eve so it was fun to see what it looks like in the Fall.

A couple weeks ago my cousin Tammy was in town! So she and Amy came over for lunch and we had fun just hangin' out and playing with this cute boy.

The adventures of Cub Scouts continue...we took our two cubs to the BYU Planetarium. It was great. We got there early so we could look at the fish in the downstairs of the Widstoe building and played with the cool science experiments in the lobby of the Eyering Science Center.

And lastly, the baby continues to grow! Two weeks ago Matt could even feel her kicking! That was the neatest feeling ever! I am so excited!

Other exciting news in the family:
Matt's brother, Graham, was recently called as Stake President in San Diego!
My sister, Lanea, had her little boy! Trevor Scott, #6 for their family and the fifteenth grandchild (which will make ours #16).
My other sister, Tamra, wrote a song titled Rejoice! that was selected to be performed this coming Friday night at Temple Square.

Oktoberfest

Each year my cousin's husband (Joe) plays polka music at the Oktoberfest at Snowbird so this year we thought we'd go check it out! It was really fun music! There are also booths set up and several activities such as a rockwall, Alpine Slides, a zip-line, face painting etc. Oh, and lots and lots of beer apparently. Still, we had a good time with cousins and the mountains were absolutely beautiful!

The boys. Here is Matt and Joe (in costume)

The girls. Amy, Brittany, and Emily.

Matt and I showing off our baby bellies.

Matt and I

Joe and AmyAmy and Joe again.

Dancing! I had to convince Matt to polka with me but we had a good time trying once we got out there.

The girls in front of the band. There was an amazing girl on the accordion, Joe plays the tuba, a guy on the trumpet, and one on the clarinet.

We had so much fun! I love hanging out with cousins!

Other stuff we've been up to...

Matt is continuing his woodworking hobby and is learning more cool tricks. Here is our baby bassinet he designed and built!

We LOVE our garden! Here are our first carrots. I'd never seen a fresh-pulled carrot before!

Matt got to go boating with some co-workers and went wake surfing for the first time.

My first belly shot! We can both tell it's bigger but it's still not very noticeable without my help.

AND...this just in: My sister Tamra JUST told me that she is also expecting! How exciting! My other sister Lanea is due in three weeks so all three of us will have babies within a year of each other! So fun!

Three More Weeks...

...until we find out if it's a boy or a girl! So exciting! Any guesses? Matt constantly refers to it as a he, and I'm always saying she so I guess so far it's a tie.

Mitchell Family Beach Trip

Yesterday we got back from a great vacation to Nags Head, North Carolina with most of Matt's family. The water was perfect and we had so much fun hanging out with the family!

The beach on the last day

Brandon Skim Boarding. We had two toe injuries from this activity! Watch out for those skim boards!

The Lost Colony. This was the very first colony settlement in North America but mysteriously all of the people disappeared! Matt is standing in front of some ruins with an English flag in the center.

The outdoor stage at the Lost Colony. It reminded me of a small scale version of Tuacahn, it'd be fun to see a play there or the reenactment of the colony's history.

Hanging out in the beach house.

This is how close Matt--completely unknowingly--parked our rental car to this stand! Scary!

We did lots of this...

At the Wright Brothers Monument. I really loved going here and listening to a presentation that taught me more about the Wright Brothers. It truly was inspirational!

The white markers are the distances from my camera to the first 4 flights! The first was up for only 12 seconds and the last was (I think) 59 seconds. Only about 60 years later would man land on the moon! Incredible.

Bowling night!

Megan, Jesse, Shannon

Megan and Brandon

Jason, Brandon, and Aaron

Matt, Aaron, and Dad

Mini Golf!

Jockey's Ridge

Lounging at the beach.

First day there. Brittany, Dad, Mom, Megan, Brandon, Jason

The first and last day had thunder storms come and go but it was still pretty.

We had a great time! Among other things we played games, tossed the frisbee, Brandon had a very cool controlled kite, ate seafood (I ate my first crab legs where I even had to break it open etc, very cool and yummy too!), read, shopped, etc. Thanks Mitchell's for letting us join in on the fun!

Sailing

Our friends took us sailing out on Utah Lake recently. So much fun! Plus we got to try out our new camera which, by the way, is water proof! I also learned all sorts of fun sailing lingo such as sheeting in the jib, which side is starboard and port etc. We're pretty much pros now.

Marybeth and Mike