Idaho in October

The children had 2 days off of school this week, so we took the chance to have a long-awaited trip to Idaho! We drove up after Brian's court Thursday morning, and got to Dad & Kathy's in time to go "gleaning" for free potatoes!! (after the Ruth and Naomi story, gleaning sounded so romantic!) Todd had been driving spudtrucks, so he clued us in with where to go, and we quickly loaded up 2 big boxes in BEAUTIFUL weather and BREATHTAKING landscape.  Spencer had stayed back playing with Cousins Aiden and Landon, so we took another mini-trip back to the farm later for them to see all the fun.

We (OF COURSE!) played cards after the children fell asleep that night, and Friday morning, I went to the temple before we all dropped into Grandma and Grandpa Stewart's.  Sweet Grandma had been busy recovering from stitches on her head AND stitching (crocheting) Christmas slippers for EVERYone!! They've also kept busy cleaning out every corner of their home.  Grandpa brought out his amazing scout neckerchief collection to give some to the boys--most of them homemade--I only regret not having gotten a picture of the full set! The weather was just right while we were there, so the children had a blast playing in the leaves while Brian and I took Grandma to a quick Dr.'s appt for a cough she'd been having.

We went back that night to enjoy a huge feast with all of the nearby family, and to celebrate my birthday.  I think this was the first time I'd been in Idaho during October, but it was BEAUTIFUL!! Brian had secretly gotten a bunch of candybars with the children to make a big poster card for me as well! A bit more cardplaying that night, and then we left right after breakfast Saturday morning to be back for piano lessons, merit badges, and Stake Conference, where we got to hear--in a rather cozy setting from Elder M. Russell Ballard! He really focused on the need to follow the Spirit, and told story after story of following those promptings (or not!) to help another, and how in his season of life, THOSE are the moments most remembered and most meaningful.  Emily enjoyed her first babysitting job last night (as Maddie got sick and offered to have her help) for another couple going to the adult session!--Brent moved up to 1st Class at a Court of Honor this week (thanks to GREAT scout leaders!!), I made great strides in my closet cleaning efforts (pictures still to come!), spent one morning at the cannery (another version of a temple), and things continue to hum along.  We all enjoyed Elder Ballard again this morning at Conference, though Anne and Lucy kept wondering when we were going to SEE Elder Ballard (they wondered if he couldn't come over for dinner for my birthday!).  As we got up to leave, Anne resolutely walked toward the stage and said, "I want to see Elder Ballard up close," so we did all get a chance to shake his hand as he was leaving :)--though he nearly fell down the stairs as Brian mentioned having met him on his mission (Brian just has the effect on people :) ). 

Fall and Funeral

Dear Family,

Our fall time started out normally enough--with a neighborhood 5K (3 children biked, Maddie manned the water station at our house, Brent was on a campout, Brian walked, and I jogged), piano, violin, school, library, park days and all of the normal things:

modeling Grandma's halloween socks!!

We were excited for a visit from Mom, and enjoyed celebrating Brent's birthday while she was here, including Mom treating us to Red Iguana for a delicious dinner!! Brent was quite thrilled (if not surprised) to finally acquire his own iPod Touch (refurbished, and partly paid for with his lawnmowing).  BIG 13!! HOORAY FOR TEENAGERS!!

you'd be amazed how much Emily can do while reading!

Lunch @ Subway to support Aunt Laurie's awesome graphic art!

What we did not expect was a visit up to Grandma Mildenhall's turning into a goodbye! She became unwell while Mom was here, so the two of us ended up spending one night with her, since no one knew how much longer she had--that was a unique blessing I was glad for! Dad flew in--right from Korea, stopping in Atlanta just long enough to do laundry on Saturday night, so Mom met him at the airport on our way home from Cousin Kristen's wedding to Paul Moss that we enjoyed with Priday's that day:

 

Grandma did pass away Tuesday morning--right before Mom and Dad were scheduled to fly out, so arrangements were made for the funeral to be Friday, and Mom and Dad extended their visit.  They were kind to fit in a family picnic with us between all of the MUCH funeral planning/ arranging.  AND, due to the funeral, Taylor and Kristen's family came to stay with us! We were SO excited to have SO MUCH family!! That was the best part of the funeral--to be able to see so many of us gathered together--and it now seems unreal that NONE of my grandparents are alive anymore!

Grandma always did a great job making us feel so special, and besides summer visits growing up, I loved riding the bus over to their house all through college, for lunch, introducing boyfriends, or watching fireworks.

We enjoyed a little bit of time with visitors overlapping, and then reveled in our time with a COUSIN visiting (Clark had quite an entourage everywhere he went in this house!, and the cutest thing EVER was Lucy and Clark holding hands in the van right after they got here! :)

 We had a marvelous Conference Weekend--it always feels better enjoying it with family!--and saw the TJ Mildenhall's off Tuesday morning. That Clark was one HAPPY BOY!! I came home to a picture card from Briant and Katie that was so beautiful it made me cry my eyes out!!--so grateful to have such great family, and so sad to not have them all closer!! There is SO much to love in life! I've since taken to cleaning out all of the closets that I started before our excitement (just wait for all of those exciting before and after shots)!!, and meanwhile am trying out that daily praying to find some way to serve each day (Elder Ballard), and be like Pres. Monson's example! Much love to you all!-Love, the Duncan's

NEW BEDS!

Anne and Lucy both got new beds this week!--but we're only keeping Lucy's! After putting in print Lucy's sleeping problems last week, I finally took action to correcting things, and found this toddler bed on KSL Classifieds just 5 minutes away.  I found it, picked it up, and had Lucy sleeping in it, in a matter of minutes last Saturday (thanks to Emily and other family help).  We've never had a toddler bed before, and it IS SO CUTE, so that everyone loves to clean up Lucy's room now and make her bed.  Sunday morning, I kid you not, ALL 6 KIDS were playing in Lucy's room for HOURS--some sort of stuffed animal market value trading game.  Lucy still likes to open her door and turn on multiple lights, but at least she's not sleeping on the floor, or changing her pajamas quite as often!

Anne, on the other hand, traded her bed for a hospital room this week! She had just started a cough, so when she woke up in the night, my first thought was to wait things out, but by morning, her breathing was so labored and quick, that I called the Dr. to bring her in.  Tender Mercy that Maddie was home sick that day w/ a fever, so I left Lucy with her, and after a couple of breathing treatments and an X-ray (where incidentally, we sat next to a "cousin"--fellow descendent of Harriet Decker Young, who he was sure had asthma (aka " 'tissis") ), her oxygen levels were still under 90%, so the Dr. sent us next door to the hospital! It was never TOO panicky--no gasping, passing out, or turning blue, but it was still our longest hospital stay with her! They kept her on Oxygen (we told her it was just like her Grandmas'), an oral steroid, and regular breathing treatments for about 24 hours until she turned around.  The whole time, she just wanted to come home, but was a good sport, and once she regained her energy, she would have nothing to do with staying in the bed.  We had huge help from Stacey bringing dinner to the family, treats to Anne, and watching Lucy all day Wednesday.  Brian was able to spend a lot of time in the hospital as well, thank goodness, and our ward had dinner waiting for us when we got home.  We were both SO ready to leave by the time we got out, that I was actually craving dishes and laundry! We got back just in time to eat before Pack Mtg and Youth Volleyball.  She's felt better ever since, and though they treated it as asthma, they didn't diagnose her yet, because there ARE viruses that can cause similar lung distress.  We're just glad to have her home and okay (again!).

Otherwise, the children are humming along in school, and started piano with their 3rd teacher this week.  Maddie is loving having friends in so many classes this year (she actually registered for more honors classes to be with them--hooray for good influences :).  She also joined FBLA with a friend this week (such peer pressure she deals with), and came home ELATED that they have a competition in Disneyland, where she has been lately trying to get us to travel.  She is now dedicated to becoming the best business leader in America.  Brent is conquering Jr High with VIGOR! He checks his grades online regularly (with Maddie, I never really knew you could do that), has started playing clarinet notes, gotten sore from Fitness, and has a few great friends to walk home with.  Emily has a really fun teacher this year--pulling out great science experiments every day (she keeps saying Spencer HAS to get Mr. Spatig), and keeping everything lively.  She has JUST finished the Harry Potter series, after a huge hiatus between books 5 & 6.  Spencer says every day, "I really ENJOY school Mom! I really do!--Who cares if my teacher is strict?!--I just love being there!" Anne was so glad to be better in time for the Primary Program this week, and the fun pizza party practice they had Friday afternoon.
Lucy loves to pretend to be scared of monsters a lot lately, and also regularly tries out her engineering skills.  She doesn't just turn her night light off and on; she unplugs and disassembles the whole thing.  She is a little TOO expert at taking off lids--and when she successfully emptied 3 brand new bottles of "KidsNPets" odor neutralizing solution,--I will admit I was not too grateful for her abilities.  She has also mastered the hose faucet, and LOVES to turn it on, and keep all of us at bay with the spray nozzle.  It's quite a role reversal to her to have so much power that we are all literally screaming and running from her (I risked our camera and my clothes bit catching these photos!), so it's nice to hear later, when I say, "I LOVE you Lucy!" her more endearing reply, "I LOVE YOU ALL THE DAY MOM!"

Brian and I have enjoyed some good outings lately too. We joined Nate and Stacey in taking out his parents for their anniversary/birthdays to our FAVORITE Red Iguana. Nate introduced us to an AWESOME Italian market, Tony Caputo's, where they offer CHOCOLATE classes, and sell real truffles (the mushroom kind). We brought home a bar of the “World's Best Chocolate” and a cannoli for the kids to try (Spencer keeps saying he's going to make me a cannoli as soon as I get him a recipe, but I wasn't sure he even knew what one was!)

this guy is showing Bri and Stacey a real cacao pod 

 We also got to see Little Women this week with our theater tickets, and it was PHENOMENAL!!! I very nearly took Maddie and Emily the next night so they could see it! And if all of that isn't reason enough to visit, we have an I-Fly place in Ogden! The children and I checked it out one afternoon while we were up at the Treehouse Museum, and it was pretty crazy! There's also a surfing place next door!

We were glad to have Briant with us a few days--such a tender time, attending the funeral for Ben Thomas's little girl--and look forward to Mom coming in a couple of weeks.  It's a great time of year! I made fruit leather and granola yesterday, and finished things off with vegetable soup for dinner, after we worked in the garden.  Anne, in her prayers a while ago, said, "Grateful we have so many weekends."  I asked her after what weekends were, and she said, "Oh, they're the days when you get to have all the fun things." :)  By that definition, we DO have a LOT of weekends :).

Grandma & Grandpa Visit

As summer's winding down, we keep trying to ready ourselves for fall w/ earlier bedtimes, and more of a routine, but we're inevitably reminded it's STILL summer! We loved our latest reminder, in the form of a fun visit from G&G Mildenhall.  We started with an actionpacked trip to the Golden Spike rodeo, including a hair-raising ferris wheel ride (only hair raising for me, as I was sure it would be no big deal, but then became convinced our cart could flip over w/ all of the "DANGER:  DO NOT ROCK THE BASKETS!!"!), farmrange burgers, and pie ala mode.  It was our first rodeo, and I had a blast!!--SUCH a cultural event!!--even the prayer was cowboy!! Spencer came home where he and Anne plotted to do mutton busting ASAP. (Brian and Brent took the "easy" route staying home w/ the little ones, which for such a late night, was a great help!).

Brian finally got to take a few days off before summer's over, and we all went hiking up Holbrook Canyon Trail Friday morning.

I love this image of Dad carrying his daughter w/ the temple in the horizon :).

That night, we got to visit with even more family at Sweet Kara Priday's wedding Reception in Draper.  Anne and Lucy saw her in line, and nearly ran everyone down, "to see the PRINCESS!!" It was so good to see Tom and Marva's family, that we once saw more regularly, and catch up with a lot of other cousins and family :).  It was a beautiful evening, w/ a gorgeous view!

Monday, we enjoyed the new Brigham City Temple Open House w/ Great Grandma Mildenhall, and then a pretty drive and lunch with her.  Dad treated us to a succulent Indian dinner for FHE that night before they got ready to leave. 

In other news, Spencer lost his 2 front teeth---ON THE SAME DAY!!

Anne had her first dentist trip, which she loved, but then had a filling, which she loved not.  (Once the drill started, and the laughing gas mask came in, I think it all felt too much like her ENT surgery earlier this year).  She cried before anything even touched her, and just said meekly, "I want to go home right now."  I held her hand though, and the gentle dentist was quick, so she survived (hopefully to brush vigilantly :) ). 

 

Lucy has learned to open doors!!--and has been a bit of a sleep bandit all summer! She climbs out of her crib, onto her window sill (via the changing table), into her clothes drawers, onto her crib to reach the lightswitch, and will often strip out of whatever pajamas we find acceptable, only to don her own favorite apparel, leave her light on, and even lately, to sleep on the floor! Now that she can open her door, we're hoping she'll stop flinging her diaper off across her room, which has been the last (and my personal favorite!) hangup in her potty training :).

Brian harvested our peaches from our tree--which has been our best year yet, and made a delicious pie! We're enjoying bits and pieces now from our garden, even after its late start. 

 We've done a little back to school shopping (Anne tries on the most, though she needs the least!), and Brent's tried out his classes route and locker combination for Jr High!! We got a few more swimming days in, and Brian joined us Thursday so we could all finally go together, after which, he and Brent enjoyed BYU's football opener, thanks to some extra tickets at work! The boys enjoyed the Fathers and Sons Campout this weekend, where Brian made a full set of marshmallow guns, while we girls bought "crackle" nailpolish, played on the mall playground, had Zupa's dinner w/ some friends, and came home for milkshakes and a movie! :) We've had a no-regrets summer, Emily was telling me last night.  Usually right before school starts, there are those fits of nervousness that something else needs to be crammed into those last moments of freedom before they're gone, but (maybe due to our "extended" summer), we've actually had enough fun, that we don't feel like we've missed anything--which I would classify as remarkable.  The main loss was for Brian, who calls this his "Lost Summer"--due to his big trial starting in August, as well as time-sensitive City Council business, he has only begun to think of any vacation time, so we'll hope to get a few 3day weekends in this fall to make up for it (hooray!).