Autumn Time

The first half of October was filled with lots of autumn fun (in addition to apple orchards and theater life). The boys found lots of leaves on our walk around the neighborhood loop. 

Our trees had gorgeous red leaves, but didn't fall on the ground until after Halloween, so it was nice to borrow leaves from the neighbors.

Jeremy did some winter prep work in the garden and discovered these carrots!

The boys love to watch their morning shows. It was cute to find them like this one day.

Tanner loves school and is working hard on his writing.

Our cousin from California is serving a fulltime church mission in Minnesota and is currently stationed in southern Minnesota. He was visiting our town to do some work with other missionaries, and he came to our house! He's the one on the left. 

Renton (aka Elder Bryan) taught our boys a lesson about how we believe that Jesus Christ has called prophets and apostles on earth today in the same way that He called prophets and apostles when He lived on earth. I was at rehearsals during Renton's visit, but Jeremy got some of the lesson on video. I was really excited about the visit bcause it's a rare opprtunity to see any family members on their mission, let alone in your own hose! I thought that Grandma Davidson must have smiled on her two grandsons as they taught about Jesus Christ in the special roles of father and missionary to her great-grandsons.

The guys had some fun in Jeremy's man cave, too. 

Tanner had a play date with one of his best friends. They collected rocks together. The weather was so nice almost the whole month of October!

Dallin got his first professional haircut. We've had trouble cutting his hair by ourselves lately. Tanner didn't get his haircut because his hair doesn't grow as fast as Dallin's. 

Dallin was really excited when I told him where we were going. (He has seen both Jeremy and Tanner get their haircut here). He kept saying "that tickles" and he smiled a lot. He loved choosing his sucker when he was done and stomped and danced around so proudly. 

At the Nature Center, the boys were very excited about the new parking lot getting built.

Four or five tractors were working at once, so we watched for awhile.

We enjoyed a beautiful walk on the trails. It was actually my birthday this day! It feels great to be 32, with so much to live for! After the Nature Center, we made some Halloween Boo-baskets as my birthday project and delivered them to several friends. It was my first time ever doing those since I was a kid, and it was really fun.

Later that day, we ate cake. I used the candles from Tanner's 2nd and 3rd birthdays to make my age, haha. Jeremy was out of town, so that's why I only have selfies of me with my sweet boys.

I figured out how to use my baby carrier that I got in Guatemala. Dallin fit really well!

Jeremy had a great time at his marketing convention in Orlando. 

There was a special performance with one of the Jonas brothers and his new band.

Jeremy learned a lot from all the different businesses that presented. It was a very cool trip for him, very grateful he could go!

Meanwhile, my life was pretty comfortable cuddling with my little Love Bug.

One day, these wonderful people were at my house all at the same time! They were each there for different reasons, and it ended up being a fun afternoon with them.

We ate out at Chinese buffet, I think the day that Jeremy got back from his trip.

Jeremy had his 32nd birthday six days after me. For his birthday project, he went above the normal "bring doughnuts to work on your birthday" tradition. He brought his top favorite treats: dark chocolate, apples with caramel (which happened to be on fruit pizza), gummy bears and beef jerky. Talk about having a sweet tooth!

He's one HOT 32 year old!

We ate at a Pho Restaurant for Jeremy's birthday dinner. 

 Then we went to stake conference at church. We let the boys play in the primary room while we listened to the talks through the speaker system from the chapel.

 We found Renton at the conference! (This was actually one of the main reasons we came to Rochester. We could have watched the conference on TV at our church building in Austin).

Tanner was really excited to see Renton. You can't see him in this shot, but Renton is looking down talking to Tanner.

 

 We had a little suprise for Renton and his companion. It's a t-shirt with Paul Bunyan carrying an armful of Spam.

Dallin was so adorable to play with out in the sand one morning. He was really excited about wearing this penguin hat in the cooler weather. It quickly became his favorite winter hat.

Theatre Life

I had the opportunity to live the theatre life in September and October when I played Jack's Mother in the show "Into the Woods" at a community college in our town. It was my first time being in a full-length play in years, and I had a blast!!

Jeremy is the one who encouraged me to audition. He randomly found out about the show from a work email, and sent me a text: "hey there's auditions for Into the woods tomorrow. do you know that show? you should do it." I've been wanting to audition for a musical ever since we moved here, so I decided to try with the expectation it would be good practice for a future time when I might actually have a chance of getting cast.

(First night of dress rehearsal. Can you see my aged makeup and body mic? So exciting!!)

I was really surprised when I got a part! Jack's mom has a few short solos and more speaking parts than I anticipated. She also got to be in a lot of group numbers. My character was one of several to die in the story, and the only character to die on stage in front of the audience.

(My spot in the dressing room! This was my second home for about 2 weeks)

My entire experience doing this show was extremely positive. The cast and crew were super fun to work with, very dedicated and passionate people. It was awesome to make so many new friends.

Rehearsals started the beginning of September, almost every evening M-F. Jeremy picked up the slack with the boys and housework. It was funny on the weekends when I would try putting the kids to bed. Jeremy would remind me in joking, "Umm, hate to break it to you, Honey, but we have a good bedtime routine going on, and you are kind of messing it up." Haha. 

It was really fun to do a show after 5 years of directing shows as an elementary and junior high music teacher. I think the experience of directing helped me a lot in the auditions. And it was refreshing during rehearsals to work with college students and adults. Simple things like everyone keeping track of their props and hanging up their costumes without being nagged, was all a breath of fresh air, haha. I also learned a lot from the directors and seasoned performers.

(Garrin played my son in the play. We were both new to performing at this theatre)

I took Tanner and Dallin to see the green room and theatre one day before rehersals. Tanner felt very comfortable there, haha. He asked lots of good questions. Dallin was more timid, especially when we entered the theatre. The forest set made him afraid. "I skeered."

We had 5 days of performances from Oct 7-11. It was so much FUN!! I was impressed that we pulled off such an incredible show with just 5 weeks of rehearsal. Our cast was awesome! 

(Emily McAlister was Little Red and she sat on my left in the dressing room)

Show week was super fun in the green room. A couple of us made sure we had something to eat almost every night. Peanut butter party and salsa night were my favorites. Here we are toasting with some sparkling cider.

(Lindsey McAlister and Jen Bute sat on my right in the dressing room)

Here are pictures from the actual show! Can you find me in each one?

During all my practicing at home, Tanner would get really annoyed hearing the same lines and music over and over again. Sometimes he would tell me "you said it wrong that time" and try to correct me. I really wanted him to come see the show to understand what all my practice was about. Tanner came with Jeremy on opening night to see Act I, which is 1.5 hours long. Tanner sat through the whole act really well. The only times he was disruptive was when he was excited about something happening on stage. He liked it a lot and thought that all of the special effects were real. We talked about the show for about a week after because he had lots questions. I told him how everything was done to look real, but assured him that it was all pretend.

This is my death scene. 

(It was in Act II, so Tanner didn't see it)

The cast and crew! 

I felt honored to work with all of these great people.

Meanwhile, Jeremy was not left out of the spotlight. He worked hard writing and starring in a film for his canned chicken brands. He filmed with a professional crew on this local farm. Jeremy dressed up in overalls, flannel shirt and straw hat. The finished video was only 4 minutes, but it was hilarious and made a big hit at the sales conference in Pheonix! He doesn't see himself as an actor, but Jeremy has quite a few theatrical skills.

I could not have done this show without Jeremy's help! He got me to audition and cheered me on every step of the way. September had a lot going on between teaching, rehearsals, Tanner starting school and Guatemala. I think we made it through pretty well, thanks to my better half! In addition to all the help at home, Jeremy also spent a lot of our Guatemala trip listening to me recite lines and memorize songs, which I know got annoying. Oh yeah, and when we did karaoke with the cast one night, Jeremy got up and impressed everyone with his rapping skills. I love this guy!

Apple Picking

We went apple picking on Saturday, October 3 in a beautiful little valley near Lake City. This was the same orchard that we found last year!

One of the horses neighed, and so Dallin kept his hands over his ears the rest of the time we watched the horses.

Most of the trees with apples were at the top of the hill.

We sang all the apple songs we could think of and did lots of test tasting. Tanner assigned us all our appropriate buckets, and then kept track of who had the most.

Dallin kept eating his apples. He took at least one bite of every apple he picked, haha.

I didn't know Jeremy took these pictures!

My favorite part of the day was sitting with my little family on the orchard hill and enjoying the pretty view. The boys liked throwing rotten apples down the hill.

 

Tanner drew this picture of an apple tree in the car!!

We really enjoyed the apple orchards this year. Simple, peaceful, enriching, and fun!