Finally, Fall!

Taylor, my sister, Joan's, youngest, married Brittany in the Meridian Temple on October 15. 

They both have their Masters of Accountancy from BYU and met at church, 

while working for different firms in San Francisco. 

They moved to Boise (both are originally from there) and they can now work from home. 

It's such a beautiful temple, they're a darling couple and all of our siblings and spouses were thrilled to be there!

Ahh! All together again! After the beautiful marriage ceremony, we all enjoyed delicious Italian food 

at a wedding luncheon, then, that evening, the reception was held at Two Rivers Clubhouse, 

where some favorite foods of the bride and groom were served (mini Cinnabon rolls, Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, 

banana pudding, etc.) and Taylor's sister, Whitney, entertained us with jazz, 

singing and playing the piano. She's amazing!

Roger and I got to stay with Missy, Jedd and kids for a couple of days. Just 3 kids are left at home, 

with Jared and Sam on their Church missions. All of us drove to downtown Boise Saturday morning, 

thinking the weekly street festival was still on (it said so on line). 

No festival, but as we walked around the streets, we walked down a graffiti alley set aside for artists 

to express themselves with paint and we took this pic of Ellie, Anders and Claire. 

Right after this, a heart-warming (for this grandma) thing happened!

As we passed in front of a bookstore with enticing window displays, all three kids got excited (Claire jumped up and down) to go in. We spent almost an hour in there with each of us perusing through books.

These Smith kids have each checked out books from the public library since they could read - 

I think even before that.

We then enjoyed a tasty lunch at Westside Drive-in, featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

After church next day and a delicious meal, we drove to stay at Rick's. Roger met with his siblings about his mom's estate and selling her home before we returned home to St. George.

Roger's mom's home

Fall is glorious this year and Roger went on a gorgeous hike in Zion National Park with some branch members with "professional" hiker, Scott Morgan, as their guide.

Here is some of the glorious beauty they saw:

Now I'll skip ahead to yet another trip up north for Roger to meet with his siblings about his mom's estate and to go to a Jazz game. Rick has 4 tickets for 5 games this year with great seats, and they include buffet dinner at Vivint Arena. He was so nice to invite Roger and me.

Roger took a pic of the view out their home's side window - 

the autumn leaves look so pretty! In the lot visible next to their house, 

they are building a pool house and putting in a swimming pool and pickle ball court.

It was a close game, exciting until the end, and the Jazz beat the Sacramento Kings. 

Sooo noisy and sooo fun!

On the drive back to St George, our Mercedes' odometer hit 300,000 miles!

Well done, good and faithful servant! We love this car! 

It has kept us traveling comfortably on countless road trips!

A couple of fun get-togethers lately - our "Come Follow Me" group met for dinner at The Ledges restaurant . . .

. . . and Jim and Kathy invited us to see Kristin Chenoweth perform at Tuacahn, having gotten tickets months ago. 

We took them for dinner at Wood, Rye and Ash before the concert.

She is one. amazing. performer! We absolutely loved her and her show! She is so darned likeable! 

She was engaged a week ago and did a duet with her fiancee (he plays guitar beautifully!). 

The musicians with her were superb, especially her two back-up singers, one a Black woman wailer. 

Blew our socks off!

Sunday was our stake conference and we watched on Zoom and enjoyed a big brunch 

with my newly-discovered recipe for pancakes, egg, bacon cooked on our grill, potato rounds 

in our air fryer and raspberries and strawberries. Yum! 

We never have big breakfasts - I know, way too much food and it tasted so good!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner!