A fall mix!

Here's just a little bit of what we've been doing lately ...

no exciting adventures ... but lots of time at home! Jonathan did take one of his board exams yesterday ... only 4 more days of testing to go - spread between now and March! We are excited for fall ... and ESPECIALLY the holidays!

We celebrated my birthday last Sunday - Jonathan and Benjamin made me breakfast in bed and a yummy cake!

If Benjamin could do ANYTHING in a days time - he would play little people almost all day long! Most mornings he will wake up, turn on his light, and just start playing! These are his best friends ... he often lines them all up - like seen below, probably kind of quirky- but I'm sure there's a reason behind it!

Here is a picture of Benjamin and I when we went on a REALLY fun picnic with the Nixons! The fall weather has been so wonderful this year ... and the leaves are just beginning to fall and change colors!

Jonathan and Benjamin carved our pumpkin this morning ... Benjamin wanted a scarey face ... does this look scarey or WHAT!

We are hoping to make it to trick-or-treat with Benjamin's cousins and younger aunts and uncles this weekend ... all depending on our car situation! Our Avalon at 154,000 miles is having a few transmission problems ... the cost will be roughly somewhere between $2000 and $3500 -- if only MCG wasn't SO far away - we'd probably just finish the year with one car!! We pretty much have to fix it though - because if not, we can only get $2500 for it! YUCK ... fixed - we will be able to re-coop what we had to spend plus hopefully a little when it comes time to sell it!

On a lighter note ... we are thrilled to do some fun FALL activities this week!!

A Special Weekend away...

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of our AMAZING weekend in Utah. Jonathan's mom and brother, Albert, came to keep Benjamin - which was WONDERFUL! He went to the park pretty much everyday, they played toys all day, watched Conference, and even went on a picnic...He had a blast ... and we did too!

We flew out Friday - grabbed our rental car and headed up to Logan to the BYU game - which was LOTS of fun ... especially sneaking our Cafe Rio into the game - which was not too difficult! Did I mention that Jonathan hit some sort of coyote (medium-sized animal in the canyon after the game... luckily not really any major damage to the rental car!)

Then on to our hotel in downtown Salt Lake, a block from Temple Square and the MOST amazing view of the Salt Lake Temple ... not too sure why I didn't get a picture! (Although we did get a picture of the Logan Temple: see above.) Jonathan probably said a hundred times ... isn't this view better than our view in Boston - and of course I did ALWAYS agree that it definitely was - we even saw them turn the lights off on the temple early the next morning.

The weather for the Saturday session was RAINY ... but I did get in to the afternoon session, and Jonathan got into the Priesthood session. Conference was amazing, and I probably cried more during the Saturday afternoon than any other - thank goodness for Jonathan's step-mom who was there with a full supply of tissues for me! It is always such a great feeling to be in the presence of President Monson and the apostles ... and the children's choir was so touching!

We did get to see a good bit of friends and family (including Jonathan's grandparents who actually live in Florida: see below) ... missed some, but excited to hopefully visit them when we are out for skiing in JANUARY -- it will come so fast!

The Sunday sessions were just as good! A few quick visists Sunday evening, then to the hotel for a night's rest - then back on the plane by 6:50 am Monday morning! A HUGE thanks again to Cheri and Albert for keeping Benjamin ... just was I needed for sure!