The Giving Machines and Happy 20th birthday Sarah!

For the past couple of years I've had the opportunity to volunteer at the Herriman Columbus Adult Education Center. It's a wonderful place where immigrants from around the world can come and learn English. The classes utilize the church's English Connect Program along with Reading Horizons. I work in the childcare area where I watch kids while their parents take classes. This year our school was lucky enough to be included in the Church's Light the World Giving Machines holiday program. Mike and I went downtown for the unveiling, since we were signed up to volunteer. 

We weren't able to see Sarah for her birthday, so we decided to do some service in her honor. We volunteered for a few hours refilling the machines and guiding traffic. We then stayed the night at a nearby Marriott while my parents watched the kids. It was a nice getaway with a touch of service. I loved to see how all of the people were choosing to give. 

Sarah was thankfully celebrated in the field, which warmed my momma heart. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 Sarah forbade us from taking down her poster while she is at college and on a mission, so we turned her into the Thankful Tree. She looks quite lovely if you ask me. 

It looks like I didn't take any family pictures, but we had my parents over for a delicious feast. (I need to do better about documenting holidays) 

We did get to see pictures of Sarah's Thanksgiving. They obviously don't get to celebrate, since it's not a holiday in Brazil, but she did get to call home after their day ended. I love being able to talk to her as much as we do. 

Dirtsgiving Baby!

 A couple years ago my sister Ashley told me about Dirtsgiving. A few families get together to ride motorcycles, shoot guns, and then have a Thanksgiving feast... in the dirt. (okay, they had plates) Since we recently got Surrons, and enjoy riding, we decided to join them. Everyone had a blast, and I think we'll make it a tradition. We only went down for two nights and next year Mike wants to go for longer, although we don't know if we'll skip dinner. I like having a stove and home comforts for the big day. 

Audrey didn't have a motorcycle, so we stopped at Walmart and got her a Razor brand. It had just the right amount of umph for her first time. She and Jonny had a blast riding. Ashley's kids became adept riders quickly and enjoyed going off jumps. 

I thought our boys would spend their time on the bikes, but they spent it shooting guns. Lots of ammo was used during our trip. Mike and Dave even went to town for bike breaks and game back with explosive that we all enjoyed blowing up. 

I learned a lesson in patience. I had been irritated that the boys hadn't done something, so I jumped on a bike and took off, not realizing it was in sport mode. I didn't expect the kick and very quickly laid it down along with myself. I hit my hip and popped open the skin. Chesley's husband did a great job with some butterfly bandages, but I went into instacare when we got home and got six stitches. (My frowny face was so I could add it to the "sad for Sarah" album) 

Getting our Glow on

 Audrey's school did a glow party as a reward for doing well on the fall fundraiser, so I signed Mike and myself up as volunteers. It was fun to see Audrey having fun with her classmates. Mike didn't do much dancing, or glowing, but he was a good bouncer. ;) 

Digging for geodes

 Audrey has asked about geodes, so we decided to take her to the Dugway Geode Beds. It's a pretty cool place with tons of geodes. It's maintained by the BLM and every so often they'll stir up the dirt to bring more to the surface. We got really lucky and found a random spot with a lot of small geodes. Most people seemed to go to the same area, but I went to a small hill, dug around, and they kept popping out. There was an older couple hunting as well, but they didn't find many, so Audrey shared some of ours. Audrey was super bored until we started to find them. It kind of reminded me of fishing. Some people might not mind the monotony of the hunt, but it's more fun when you start catching. 

Audrey got a special treat on the way home; we ran into a herd of wild horses. It was pretty amazing! We sat and watched them for a while. Audrey was bummed we didn't have anything to feed them. She wanted to lure them over and ride one of them. (She's still very much obsessed with horses. 

School pictures

 Here are the kiddos school pictures for the year

Steven is a Senior at Mountain Ridge High School (Crazy, I know. He may not have known it was picture day) 

Adam is a Sophomore at Providence Hall High School 

Audrey is in Mrs Daphne Miller's First Grade Class (Does it get any cuter than this?!) 

Drive up Butterfield

 Mike and I took the Surrons to the top of Butterfield and it was a lot more enjoyable than driving it. I might have fallen over once, but it wasn't bad. (Sport Mode is not my friend) They'd already closed Butterfield so we didn't have to worry about getting hit by cars. It was fun, and I think we'll make it a tradition.