Zach’s Birthday and Tennessee

Happy Birthday to my Sweetie!  He requested doughnuts for his birthday.  

We made a big decision to take steps towards a dream and purchased 69 acres in Tennessee.  Of course we had to visit it so in November, Zach and I flew out to that gorgeous part of the country.  

We spent almost the entire 3 days hiking all over our property.  It has quite the topography and it’s oh-so-beautiful!  

While in Tennessee, Ned was asked to speak in church last minute.  Thanks goodness for YouTube which allowed us to catch his talk.  He’s such an impressive young man!  

Zach couldny resist..he rented a convertible and we pretty much had the top down the entire time.  

Some amazing neighbors offered to take us on a boat ride to view the neighborhood from the lake and drive us around Watt’s Bar Lake.  It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride and we loved seeing our property from the lake.  

Showing off some of the beautiful colors

We found where the Knoxville temple will be built and had to visit it on our way out to our property…this was all there was of it at the time, but I have since heard that they recently broke ground.  

Love this covered bridge-type entrance to our neighborhood.  

We decided to create and bury a time capsule on our property…Book of Mormon style.  It contains a family history book (golden plates) , some old glasses (urim and thymine), and a shovel (sword of Laban).  

Stopped a cool nearby park.

We found this cool stream down in a lower portion of our property.  

 

Halloween 2023

Nyle’s egg drop project- it survived!.

West’s egg drop project- it also survived!

I believe Gwen snapped this when she observed me making soup on Halloween after work. She thought I looked like a proper witch!  

Halloween 2023- Gwen cowgirl, Emma-50’s girl, Ned- black panther, Nyle- ghost and West- Halo soldier

 

October 2023

 

Visiting a slot canyon in St. George on our way to tour the St. George temple

Nyle was recognized for receiving the Super Star Award for Manners

West was also recognized as the Super Star award winner for Manners.  I love that my boys have Manners!

Zach finally purchased a new bike for himself.  Now Ned can ride my bike as it fits him perfectly!  

Apple Pressing and an Eclipse

 

We headed up to Annabella to visit Jodi and Chris for some Apple pressing and to view the Annular Eclipse in October.  The Fall is such a busy time of year with soccer games, tennis matches and cross country meets all the time, not to mention the other crazy busy obligations in our life right now.  We decided to sluff all of that to go enjoy one of my kids happiest places.  They always have so much fun with cousins, the animals, outdoor games of baseball and jumping on the trampoline.  We picked  large truckload of apples and then pressed them into juice.  It was a great way to escape the stress of our busy-ness.  It was a quick trip,  but we sure loved it!

Gleaning the raspberry bush for unpicked treasures.  My kids were in heaven with this bush.  

Gwen enjoying Sally

The eclipse left some pretty cool shadows.

Lined up to view the annular solar eclipse

In the Apple orchard 

Fall 2023

My buddies at work-West and Nyle

Nyle and West in action

This Fall Nyle and West were able to be on the same team.  It was so fun to watch them play together.  West was pretty scrappy for being 2 years younger than the other players.  He loved to run and his coach called him just a “little bunny that loves to run”!  They worked together so well and the games were so fun to watch!!

Enjoying the hot tub at the end of the season

Gwen ran Cross Country for SECTA.  It was her first time doing a sport, and she was such a trooper.  Running is really not the funnest sport to participate in, but she gave a great effort and we really saw some

Impressive improvement over the course of the season.

Train rides in the pool.  Zach would drag them all along around the pool as if they are on a train.