Winter to Summer to Fall in 10 days

My sweet Grandad passed away on October 13, so Abbie, Noah and I had the chance to fly to Dallas for 3 days to be with my family. When we left, Minnesota looked like this:(please note the exceptional WT quality of this picture. ie....Landon's tissue in his nose, and Abbie's entire ensemble. I'm quite proud of this one!)

Upon arriving in Dallas, it was very apparent that we had gone back in time three months, as we were sweating to death. (The locals thought it was "cold"). This is Abbie riding with my uncle Chris on his Vespa. This was her favorite part of the trip.

Uncle Dan got Noah to sleep right as we were sitting down for breakfast one of the mornings. (I have to admit for as much as I love my nephews, it was really nice to have my brothers there w/o kids......extra help for me!)
After driving for 22 hours straight from Dallas to SLC with my dad and my brothers, and after a much needed nap for me, we met up with Amy and the boys. Are these the cutest kids ever? And they totally love hanging out......see.....
They pretty much did this for like 3 straight hours.

Halfway through our trip, we went up to Park City to stay at a condo for a few nights. While we were there we celebrated a belated birthday for Jord, and an early birthday for Noah.

Oh, he got right into it! Sandra and I did rock, paper, scissors for who had to clean him up afterwards and she lost. I ended up cleaning the kichen instead. (I'll go ahead and let her think she got the better end of the deal!)
We also went to the BYU/TCU game while we were there. I don't really have much to say about it.....oh wait, yes I do.....we tailgated before hand and that was a lot of fun! Cute picture of Mike and Annie.
Jord with his less than attractive beanie.

If you didn't watch the game, this picture will tell you how it went.

Laura and I still managed to have fun though!! Love you Laura!!

I know, I know, I don't have pictures of my Grandads funeral, Abbie with her girl cousins, swimming at the condo, my cutest niece Lucy, and I'm sure there's something else I'm missing. I pretty much suck at remembering to take pictures! Since marrying into the Hale family, however, I have gotten much better. (Jen and Sandra put up lots of other pictures on their Blogs). We can't wait to go back at Christmas!

Words of Encouragment

So, being the Primary president means that I have to serve in some fashion with the Scouts. (i'm still learning which fashion)The Scouting director is our ward came to me and was telling some of my responsibilities and then asked me if I had any special talents or hobbies that I could potentialy teach the scouts. Silence. "Um not really. I think at one point in my life I did." He thought that was pretty funny, but the truth is, I was serious.

I've been thinking over the past week since our conversation that I really don't have anything that I'm really good at that I could teach someone else. I was beginning to feel really bad for myself and wondering what happened to my life when my sweet son gave me a compliment to lift my spirits. He had just fininshed his "business" in the bathroom and called for me to come help him. During the process he says "Mom, you're a really good wiper." Sigh. "Thanks buddy."

(I don't think the scouts need to learn that skill)