Apology

For those of you who have become frequenters to our blog, I am sorry. I've been reprimanded by Kristen who is very consistent with updates, please forgive me. I'm not very good at this yet. Well our month has gone as follows:

We had some friends from So Cal drive through for a night on the way to a funeral. It was great fun to see the Jutila's, we enjoyed a nice sushi dinner and they came with us to the dedication of our new chapel. It is a beautiful building and we are so excited to get to have it.

Jarron, Rosalyn, Joshua, & Noah Jutila at our new chapel

We were able to go to Chicago over the last weekend in October. We met up with Riley and Jill (Chris' brother and wife). We stayed at her parents place in downtown Chicago. SO FUN. It is a spectacular location with a fabulous view, Oprah lives in the same building, we didn't see her though. We enjoyed shopping, a comedy club, a taping of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" (NPR Sat 10:00am), and lots of food (Giordano's deep dish pizza, classy North Pond, Garrett's popcorn, Walker Bros. apple pancake) just to name few of the delectiable eats. We had a great time together. On Sunday evening Chris and Riley drove me out to New Lenox (suburb about 45 min from downtown) to stay with my old roommate Whitney. I stayed until Wednesday morning. We had so much fun together. The last time we saw each other was at my wedding 4 1/2 years ago. I had never met her little Ivy who is now 2 1/2. I loved the late night chats, shopping, eating, sewing. It was a much needed vacation. Thanks Whit for the good times. Thanks Justin for letting me take your wife for a day or two. I truly enjoyed seeing Ivy dress up for Halloween as a "wion". Kids are so cute. I highly recommend a trip to Chicago for anyone that can. Great city.

Riley & Jill on the bridge in Chicago

Chris and I checking out the fall Leaves

The view from our room downtown

Ivy Fredin as a lion

It is so nice to visit with friends and family. Unfortunately, while in Chicago my grandfather got really sick. I was so grateful to be able to reroute and go to Oakland to see him. It is hard to see your grandparents age. He is doing better now, which we are so blessed for. It encourages me to make the effort to spend more time with my family. When I got home from all the travels, back to work as usual. I've enjoyed two Saturdays off in a row to throw 2 baby showers for friends. It was fun. Love all the little baby things. We are now gearing up for the holidays which seems to be approaching more rapidly than expected. We are excited to be going to So. Pasadena for Thanksgiving and can't wait to see everyone. Lots to get organized before we go though. I have to teach in RS this Sunday so I need to plan my lesson before anything else. Well it is a semi brief update, but brings you up to speed. I will be better. I think I get impatient with the computer, but I am figuring this thing out. Thanks for your patience.

I Miss Summer

The weather today has included sunshine, clouds, rain, thunder, lightning, hail, wind, and snow. That's right, snow. I'm not ready to pull out the winter clothes yet. I'm not ready to be cold. I was just thinking yesterday how beautiful the fall has been, pleasantly warm. I'm not giving up on the nice weather yet, the sun is back out again so maybe it was just a little teaser. I'm not laughing. The bad weather also seems to drive people away from looking at homes. Needless-to-say it has been a slow day. Hope your day is full of warm fall sunshine.

Won't You Be My Neighbor

Our Cul de Sac

Grandma & Grandpa's New House (Our Guest House)
The View of Mt. Rose


Our Cute House

Our life seems a little mundane at this point, but I know how much I enjoy updates from my friends, maybe someone out there wants to know what is happening with us. We enjoyed a fabulous general conference weekend. I did have to work on Sat, but I was glad to have slow traffic allowing me to watch conference on the internet. We are so excited because my grandparents closed on their house that happens to be right next door. They won't be staying too frequently, but it is fun to think of them next door when they do come. We are calling it our guest house. We have also benefitted from their new satellite dish. We are more than willing to make sure the new flat screen and cable are working well. Since we don't have cable, it has been nice but a little distracting. It came in handy for conference because my parents dish network went out on Saturday morning. Good thing for neighbors. Their house turned out really cute and we hope they come and visit frequently. A week full of tests for Chris this week, so not a lot of extra activities planned. I'm trying to stay motivated after conference. It is always so nice to get that extra boost. Let's all try and be a little better.

Wings to Adventure

September in Reno brings cooler weather and the Air Races. The Air Races brought Chris' family. What a delightful weekend to be together. We enjoyed a Saturday full of airplanes doing acrobatics, wing walkers, planes racing, Air Force Tunderbirds, and funnel cakes. The highlight for all was the Thunderbirds. Very impressive how precise they manuveur. They were plenty loud to make things more exciting. The nephews loved all the action and even learned a thing or two "Eric why is it called a biplane? Because it has two sets of wings." We had our first cool weather day last Thursday, luckily the weather held for saturday. The wind died down and it was a perfect 65 to 70 degrees. It sure feels like fall now. I love any excuse that we can come up with to be with family. Thanks for everyone making the effort to come all that way. Fun memories.

The Wave of the Future

We've put it off long enough. Blogging is the wave of the future and we don't want to be left behind. I've been motivated by friends and family who diligently post (Whitney, Kristen, Rachel, Whitney) that this could be fun. It is so fun checking in daily to see the latest from friends and family around the country, I have to be a part of it. It is questionable if our life is exciting enough to blog, but what the heck, maybe it will become more exciting because we blog. We look forward to blogging adventures ahead.