A Family Weekend

During General Conference I was struck by the many talks devoted to the family. I particularly loved Elder Wirthlin's talk about having fun with your family, and choosing to make happy, wonderful memories together. (I laughed my head off at his story about his daughter and the babysitter mixup!!!) This sparked the conversation with Brad that we need to do more things together as a family. The time with our kids is just slipping by too quickly and I don't want to regret anything about this time when the kids are grown in just a few short years. We often ask in our family prayers that we can "live without regret" so I'm really trying to do that.

Saturday there were the usual 1001 things to be done around the house and yard, and I needed to run over to the church for a RS Super Saturday activity, so Brad put Jack and Kate on the lawn mower with him and they cruised around the yard mowing and picking up leaves. The kids thought it was the greatest thing! Todd dumped flower pots, swept leaves off the cement, etc. so by the time I got home the yard was looking great. We ate some lunch, went to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkins, then decided to take a drive to Albion to look at the old Normal School Campus which has recently been transformed into a hotel/convention/reunion site. (You should definitely browse their website or come up and take a tour -- it is an awesome spot. They two couples that bought it have done a fantastic job thusfar.) It was so fun to spend the day talking, laughing, playing I-Spy, and just being together.

Once home, we baked a chocolate pumpkin tart (I'll post the recipe later), painted pumpkins, and made cheesecloth ghosts. Todd also painted a paper mache mask like an alien for a scout project. We were TIRED by bedtime -- but it was a great kind of tired.