November

On November 5th my cousin Rick Safsten (Uncle Bob's son) sent me this message:

 Rick wrote:
 “This is Rick Safsten.  I received a remarkable Message via Facebook from a person in Dubai.  Believe it, or not, it is from a Samoan whose grandfather was baptized by your father.  It was a very nice message.  It brought tears to my eyes.  I would like to forward it to you.”

Then this is what Rick forwarded:
 ”He baptized my grandpa...I have heard a lot of good stories about your uncle, I just wanna thank him for everything, You know...how blessed we are as a family?! I can’t explain the words, I am truly blessed that your uncle baptized my grandpa, if it weren’t for him. I wouldn’t be here talking to you. If you ever see your uncle, tell him I send my love and gratitude 🙏🏽😊   Amazing huh!!"

So interesting it came the same month as Dad's passing, which was almost a year ago.  It was so cool to read this about Dad!  Amazing it has almost been a year.

 Here we are at Classic skating.  It was family skate night for Draper Elementary.  Jacob was practicing a flip.  The kids had a lot of fun!

 I went to Pine Needles, a shop at Gardner Village, and saw this tree skirt.  This is an OK shot from the Internet, but it is darling!  I had a coupon and bought it.  That will be my 2018 project.  The material in it just makes me happy!

Jacob lounging!

Brad, Jason, Jennifer and Gina

We had our annual friends Thanksgiving dinner at Jen Fisher's home.  The first picture is of them taking a "Jason smile" shot.  The second is smiling as normal.  Jason didn't even do his own non-smile picture like he normally does!  :)

 South Town Shopping Center had a Harry Potter exhibit open in December.  We went with Jared and Stephanie.  Then went and hung out by these rolly chairs.

Thanksgiving was a Wong's.  Here the kids are playing outside after dinner.
Josh and Irina flew to Alaska that afternoon for their 25th anniversary.  The kids stayed between Karen and Grandpa for the next 5 days.
Thanksgiving night Daniel came and slept over with Jacob.  He loved having him, but poor Daniel started getting a cold Friday afternoon.

Friday we went on a hike with Nefs and Catheys to Bear Canyon Bridge and Daniel came with us.
Afterward we then took him to Grandpa's and we went over to Cathey's for pizza and games.  It was very fun.
After dinner and games we took Jacob to Grandpa's so he could sleep over with Janette, Daniel and Sarah. 

Jacob having breakfast at Grandpa's

Hike to Bear Canyon bridge

Pack meeting in November  was the pine wood derby.  It went pretty well.

On to December!

October

 October began with State golf finals for Ryan.  I met Joy and Matthew in Saratoga Springs and walked 18 holes watching him.  He didn't do as well as he would have liked, but he did much better than I would have. 

At hole 9 Kristina and Heidi joined us for the fun!

 Each year they hold a STEM Festival at the Expo Center.  We go with Catheys and walk around seeing the demos etc.  This year one of the session presenters was the "What's Inside" father and son team from Youtube.  Jacob loves watching them so it was a highlight for him to meet them in person.  They are from Utah and about 4 years ago, when the son had a science project, they did it on what is inside things.  They put it on Youtube and it took off. 

Space flight simulator

I am trying to teach Jacob some different life skills.  So he helped me put together one of his favorite meals--Poppy seed Chicken.

In October, for fall break, we met Debbie Kirby and her kids and went to Blackhills Farm.  It was (in my opinion) kind of the poor man's version of Cornbellys. 

Waiting for the turkey races

 While it wasn't as large as Cornbellys the kids still had fun. 

Megan, Tyler Jacob and Emily

This was the corn box. Still loved it. 

The next day we met at Gardner Village.  The amazing thing is the first day it was 70 degrees.  The next day, at Gardener Village we needed coats. 

 For October's Scout Pack Meeting we did a Rain gutter Regatta.  It was really fun!

  The weather had been so un-winter like we were able to take a Sunday afternoon walk at the end of the month. 

Dabbing

 Our new neighbor came over to play darts.

Nice aim!!

Halloween day!  First the morning parade and then the afternoon class party!