Abundant Recompense Copy

The weekend before last we up and went to Idaho to see some kinfolk. It's nice to have some spontaneity in the house every once in awhile. We drove up Friday night, had a blast in the hotel, and spent all day Saturday at Megan and Sam's house with them, Natalie and Jenna. It was a lot of fun. A lot of cold, snowy fun. Nate and Sam went and played some football with the Elder's Quorum, and the rest of us just hung out and filled the house with a nice dose of chaos for the day. Anytime, Meg and Sam, anytime. We ate some mean chili and soup (and paid for it later), and just enjoyed being together.  Headed to the hotel pool.  Asa made a friend in the mirror at the hotel. That night Nate ran to the store to get a few things we needed for the soup we were going to make the next day, including frozen chicken and frozen peas. He just left them in the car all night and they were still frozen solid the next morning, along with one of our sliding doors on the van. Ace and Natalie  ...

Addison: Yesterday Addison and Bryn were all about Caldecott Medals, looking at our books to see which had won an award. Add called them badges. Michelle was explaining that plenty of great books don't win any awards, and Addison said, "I want to be an award give-badger!" Bryn: Bryn was pretending to teach a family night lesson, and she held up the Arnold Friberg painting of Captain Moroni. You know the one: the guy is ripped like Thor. I say, "Who is that?" And she says, "Abinadi?" I prompt her with, "Captain..." And with a confident smile, she answers, "Captain Sparkles!" (This was a name in a book she and Addison read, about Minecraft.) I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Leah: This one was a few weeks ago. Leah LOVES washing herself in the bath and went through a phase where it was a real fight to get her to let me wash her. So one evening, I was tugging on ther washrag, singing, "Let it go, let it go!" She...

We are blessed with company more often than we deserve around here! It's wonderful! Here are a few visitors we had the pleasure to host during October. Great Grandma, Great Grandpa and Aunt Jana! Great Grandma let the kids each choose from a bag full of beautiful hats she made.  They took us to dinner at Union Grill. Grandma and I stayed inside to wait for our table (I'd had foot surgery the day before) while everyone else headed out to see the cool trains. Dinner was great. I love being around all these guys. Great Grandma and Grandpa consistently make you feel like you are the best, most wonderful, smartest, kindest person in the world. And all the kids latched onto Aunt Jana within about 30 seconds of her arrival. She's so fun and energetic! Grandpa! We had a great time seeing Nate's Dad for a few days while he was up in our neck of the woods for some work training. He packs a lot of fun and spoiling into a little time, I tell you what. First thing after he arrived, ...