T&J's Halloween Party

We love going to Tony and Jenny's Halloween party! Justine just made her camera available to us, so our post is a little late. Late or not, we had a blast dressing up, eating great food and having fun with each other!

A nut in the apple tree

Last Saturday was the PERFECT fall day here in Utah. Temperature was in the high sixties, no wind, no clouds. The sky was a brilliant cerulean. We had stuff to do, but not too much. Becky and I went to breakfast on a date, then did some grocery shopping. About noon, we went home and picked up the kids, then headed out to Days Farm to buy some pumpkins. After unloading the pumpkins at home, we headed down to Opa's house to do some harvesting. We had fun with Grandpa D. while we picked a box of apples and a box of grapes. Nathaniel did some climbing in the apple tree.



After that, I bought an Albatros DV at Game Night Games, then we went to McD's to get Monopoly pieces and to keep Aly from getting hungry/cranky. Then we went to Harmon's to pick up some groceries for Justine. Harmon's has the BEST Cheesemongery anywhere on the Wasatch Front. We bought an imported salami, crostini, some mimollette, some wensleydale and some havarti.

When we got home, we had some Abendbrot, eating our freshly harvested fruit with the cheese, crostini and salami. Justine said it was like a party on her tongue. Then the we put up 18 bottles of grape juice as the Utes beat UNLV on TV.

What a great day!

Fall

Fall is my favorite season of all. I love everything about it.

I love that the leaves change colors and a single leaf can be just as beautiful as a mountain side of fall leaves.

I love that the weather starts to cool off. I like it when the nights are cold and force you to cuddle up together. I love to start the furnace and except for that smell of burnt... "what is that smell", when you first turn it on I love the way it smells. I like to stand over the furnace on cold mornings and let the warm air blow up my pajama pants. I love cold weather clothing, from sweaters and jeans to sweats and/or flannel jammies.

I love that football starts and I love to hear the music from the pep band and the cheers from the high school when the game is in full swing. I love that it brings my kids and their dad and our extended family together to talk about football even when they are cheering for opposite teams. I love the promise of football playoffs at thanksgiving time as well as the promise of a coming basketball season.

I love fall food, soups, stews, chili etc. There is emotional satisfaction to be enjoyed from a hardy, steaming hot bowl of anything that can just not be had from a salad (and I don't care how good the salad tastes). I look forward to hot spiced cidar and carmel apples.

There is no better time of year to clean out a closet or start a good book or review your life and decide what should stay and what should go.

I LOVE FALL!!!!

Confirmation

With the first session of conference beginning tomorrow I find myself thinking about the reasons for my belief. Although there have been many pivotal moments in my spiritual journey, at this time of year this one stands out the most.

Spencer W. Kimball was not the first prophet that I remember, but he was the prophet during most of my formative years. He was small and soft spoken and because of earlier throat surgery his voice was raspy and quiet and he had to speak with the aid of a special microphone attached to his glasses... and his spirit could fill a basketball arena. Many of the questions that I had were answered by him as I listened at conference.

He passed away while I was serving my mission and in fact, I was informed of his death on the doorstep of a home in a neighborhood where I was tracting. The gentleman at the door said I needed to stop what I was doing and quickly return home because my prophet had pass away.

I will not say that my testimony faltered because it didn't, but I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to feel the same spirit from another prophet. I prayed that I would be able to know for myself that Ezra Taft Benson was a prophet of my Heavenly Father.

At our very next Zone conference President Ludlow had a video tape of the most recent General Conference, the one in which the membership of the church has an opportunity to stand and sustain the new prophet, and he wisely decided that he would share this session with the missionaries. As a missionary I had the opportunity to stand with other missionaries and sustain and recognize Ezra Taft Benson as the new Prophet, Seer and Revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

Just as it might have been if he had been standing in that very chapel. I could feel the spirit and I knew that my Heavenly loved me because he not only grant me through confirmation of the spirit, that Ezra Taft Benson was the new prophet, but at the same time I knew that he knew the desires of my heart and my spiritual well being was important to him. Since then three other men have served as Presidents of the Church, and in each situation I have had the same confirmation of the spirit.

More importantly, as I have faced difficult situations in my life, in those times especially, I have had the knowledge that I did not stand alone. This knowledge of my importance to my Heavenly Father along with an increase of the spirit, has seen me through every difficulty.

Princess Alyson's new crib...

Alyson, excuse me, Princess Alyson has informed me that we will be moving from our "cottage" to a castle, probably before Christmas. When I asked her which castle, she showed me on the way to school...we will be moving into Castlebrook, a local reception center.

Every morning when we take the boys to school, Alyson give us a guided tour, thusly:
"Here we are leaving our royal cottage. You can see the other lovely royal cottages on this lovely street." As we turn onto Antelope Drive, she continues "Here are the local nobles and princes, on their way to the royal academy for learning." And as we pass Quail Cove Apartments..."Oh, and of course, those are the peasant towers."

Princess Alyson has promised my mom a place in our new castle, as the maid. Becky's brothers will apparently be the cooks. Hey folks, this isn't my call. I'm only the king.

Disneyland/SoCal pics

Did we mention we went on a trip to California in June? Becky posted the pics on facebook, but I've been lazy. Here are some pics:

The Tea Cups

Visiting Mickey at his house

Goofing off with Chip (Or Dale - I can't ever keep them straight)

Mustard?! Don't let's be silly.

Groman's Chinese Theater (Comparing hand size with Julie Andrews)

The Disney Soda Fountain with the Westenskows

All about the Bling!

Exploring Tom Sawyer's Island

She must be REALLY thirst to use two straws like that...

Relaxing at the Taste Pilot Grill

Brad Smith - airplane geek

Okay, you all know that I'm a geek. I revel in it. There are so many neat things out there to geek out about...comics, books, cars, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.

One of my oldest obsessions has to do with airplanes. I think I got my first model airplane around the time I was nine or ten, and I'm more in love with airplanes now than I've ever been. This is fairly incomprehensible to most people, as the public tends to think "If you've seen one airshow/museum/flight sim, you've seen them all". Even Becky gets exasperated with me sometimes, but mostly she tolerates my affliction.

Not surprisingly, I tend to gravitate towards people and events that feed this nonsense. There are (believe it or not) people out there whose obsessions are far deeper than mine. Here are a few:

John Altmann decided that someone should record the sounds of airplanes. So he did. He has used top-notch recording equipment to capture the sounds of some of the most captivating airplanes in existence. His website is here complete with lots of samples (turn up the volume!), and his blog is here.

For those of you who like video, youtube is okay, but the best stuff I've found is at Air Show Buzz
and ClipWings.com.