October 2026

November 1, 2026

Happy November! Hard to believe we are in the twilight of 2026. We had a full, fun Halloween week with Halloween parades, ward fall festival, multiple school parties, and the Lehi rec center Halloween bash. Kassie led the charge in organizing Greyson's class party, which sounded like it went really well. Addie is having complicated feelings about this being her final Halloween in elementary school. She was very excited to get together with cousins for the big day. She had a lot of fun with her friend Brooke at the ward fall festival. Kassie and Desi had a lot of fun early this week at the Children's Museum at Thanksgiving Point, where they have a Thomas the Train exhibit - that was a hit!

Addie's love pumpkin (before pink paint)

Halloween carving with Matthews and Barsons

Ward fall festival friends

Cheeky Engine 

 

On Halloween, Desi really loved going to some of his favorite decorated houses to trick-or-treat and was a very cute dino shouting out "Happy Halloween!" and other things. He and I visited Trent and Natalee when dropping off Addie there, and he loved Milo and running around as we watched parts of BYU's subpar performance. Greyson went trick-or-treating with two friends in the neighborhood with supervision from Kassie, me, and another parent at various times. He brought in a big load and then decided in the 11th hour to sacrifice to the Great Pumpkin (of who was not prepared for this last-minute decision). Desi seemed open to the mandatory sacrifice when we mentioned it might involve cars or monster trucks, but Sunday morning he was momentarily crushed that it was a car (not a monster truck) the Great Pumpkin had brought. He seems ok now. With Addie gone with Kate and Sadie, and Hinckley out with Jr High friends, and Desi in bed, we had a quiet night watching Rear Window with Greyson. He stayed awake and attentive. That was after the mandatory viewing of Thriller and a massive sugar cookie fit from Desi before he went down. After Hinckley came home from watching a movie with friends, I slept through Ant-Man 3 with him before turning in.

Dino ready to watch the Halloween Parade

Addie Quola in the parade

Desi and mom with mummy dogs

Greyson Skelington parade

Boy ready for trick-or-treating

Addie and cousin animals

Greyson and friend Ajax

Trick or treat! Dino

All done for the night

Now for the recovery and on into the final two holiday months of the year!

 

October 25, 2026

I missed last week but am back. We had a quick trip to Idaho to try the Lava Hot Springs and visit the Tiecherts (and their hot springs too haha). I went with the three older kids on a small hike in Lava Hot Springs, which was magical at the top. In Rexburg, Desi had so much fun running around with Katie and Peter while Kendall and I took the older kids to watch BYU defeat Notre Dame at the student center at BYUI (wish I could say the same for this week's loss to UCF) . We also went to Bear World, which felt like a required trip once Desi learned they had dinosaur statues there.

Halloween in Daybreak

Lava hot springs

Lava hot springs

Eating hot dogs at Lava Hot springs

Lava hike

Bear World

Hiese hot springs with Tiecherts

Watching BYU football game at BYUI

Bear world rides

This week Kassie took the kids to the pumpkin patch and they enjoyed a variety of festivities there. Hinckley had a Halloween orchestra concert at Lehi High that was combined with the high school kids and another middle school. The three younger kids stuck through it to be rewarded with trick-or-treating around the auditorium when the concert was done. They pulled in a big load from all the students passing out candy, and Desi has been in a fit of candy rage ever since. I'm a little nervous about the coming months. Hinckley had another great swim meet up in Salt Lake this week and broke some more of his records. He seems to be feeling great about the progress he's making, and it was fun to have Dad there on the second day of the meet to see him fly.

Spider decorations finally up!

Pumpkin patch fun

Orchestra concert complete

Scary dino

Swimming boy (first swimmer is H)

GG bug

Looking at bugs at Butterfly Biosphere

Scary butterfly

Tattoo boy

Nana and Gpa time at Milli's homecoming

On Saturday everyone minus Addie went to the Thanksgiving Point Butterfly Museum and Desi was most excited about a slight incline to run up and down, and a metal square. He was a little scared of the butterflies! We enjoyed hearing Mille's talk and musical number, she's had such a great experience there in Nauvoo and California.

October 11, 2026

This week was Kassie's last as a medical assistant at Sundwall Family Medicine and my first at SentiLink. I flew out to LA late Monday night to meet some of the people I'll be working with and came home Thursday afternoon. They seem like really good people and there is a lot of things they'd like me to help on so that is energizing. Kassie and Greyson had a fun date going to a Halloween event at Traverse Mountain, and later she took Hinckley out to get a Halloween costume at DI, which he seems excited about. Desi is overcome with obsession about Halloween decorations, constantly begging to stop and see them at every house. When I was gone, Kassie took the kids to see the huge Halloween display a few minutes' drive from our house, and he was both scared and interested. He continues bursting into various songs at random moments, gives big hugs, is quick to say "I sorry", and also gives kisses where other people are hurting.

Greyson's Baseball Lego creation

Greg and SentiLink team in Malibu

Chalk boys

Halloween baby

Halloween boy

Addie's piano is really coming along, and it sounded like she enjoyed practicing with Nana when she came to help out one day after school when I was gone. She seems to practice a lot, on her own motivation, which is pretty incredible to me. She's excited about her Koala costume and making many plans with Sadie and Kate for Halloween.


We are enjoying some cooler temps now and rain, it is finally starting to feel like October!