And a Little More September Fun

I've done a little canning... or a lot of canning.  Two batches of applesauce, two pints apple butter, 7 quarts of apple pie filling, 20 quarts of nectarines and maybe almost fifty quarts of grape juice... I love having  a full pantry!

 Maama is the professional applesaucer- and the kids love to grind the apples up.  (Hyrum calls the apple torture chamber).

 We took a little field trip to the Sons of the Utah Pioneers party at the Pioneer village in Provo where the kids played games, learned Deseret letters, ate hot dogs, played the dulcimer and were fascinated by the blacksmith.

He made dinner bells by bending crow bars into triangles.

Hyrum and Weston ran the BYU Cross Country Triple Crown Race- it's a whole mile!  Weston did awesomely and finished 32nd in his race- right in the middle of the pack.  His time was 10:17!  The kids that won ran it in 7:50- crazy fast for a first grader!

 Hyrum started out pretty consistent but pretty soon his stomach started to ache... maybe from the two big hot dogs and the snow cone he ate just before.  He finished strong though, and beat his previous time by doing the whole mile in 9:47.   Then he puked out his guts at Grammie's house.  Lesson learned.  The winner of the fourth graders ran it in an amazing 6:19.  Seriously.

                                                      I was proud of them for doing so well!
On the weekend of the 22nd, we headed south... all the way to Spanish Fork!  We went with Maama and Kristi's fam to the Harvest Moon festival- mostly because our very favorite Piano Guys were playing!  We were planning on going to play for a bit, going back to Mom's for dinner and then going back for the show. BUT the Popularity of the Piano Guys caused the seats to start filling up fast so Zach and the kids sat there for two hours saving seats (and they were good seats!) while we ran home to get the dinner, bring it back and then eat dinner in our seats before the show started.   It was so worth it.  Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson are two great entertainers and performers but it just wouldn't have been the same if we couldn't see their faces.  We laughed all night long!  The boys are once again inspired to do more piano practicing- though Hyrum says I need to practice the cello and get as good as Steven.  Pretty sure that's never going to happen (not the practicing part, just the 'good as' part!).  Anyway, here's the pics:

 Sadly, the only picture that half way worked out in the dark... Oh well.

We then stayed the night at Mom and Dad's so we could get up in the morning and go together to the Brigham City Temple dedication which was streamed to all the Utah stake centers.  We dropped Afton and Weston off at Kristi's and picked up Bryson- it was fun to take two handsome boys in suits to their first temple experience!

Then, we came back for a fancy lunch of Meatloaf, zuke casserole, rolls, corn on the cob and strawberry cake in honor of Robby's 28th birthday.  Happy Birthday Uncle Bobby! 

 Then, just yesterday, Weston and Liesel had an audition with in infamous Kid History brothers- of Youtube fame!  If you don't know who they are, go look them up... You will laugh.  Anyway, they needed some kids to come tell some stories, act out scenarios and just be kids so we signed up Weston and Liesel to do what they do- talk!  Of course they were a little shy to start but I'm hoping they warmed up enough to actually get some good footage.  Anyway, it was a cool experience to meet them and see their studio!