Family, Friends and Sports in October

Great-Grandkids

You know that life has been extra good to you when you get great-grandkids! We have been blessed with 6 of them and there is 1 on the way, due in February. I am beginning my post for October with some pics of these precious little creatures!

Our daughter, Stacy (and Tom, when his work schedule permits), visit Watercolor, Fla. every chance they get, where her daughter, Syd, and son-in-law, Jake, live with 4 of them.

"Grandma" Stacy with Henry and Jake

Henry

Jake

Twins Poppy and Rosie

Poppy and Rosie in their Frozen costumes, with brother, Henry

Stacy and Tom's twins, Max and Luke (with friend, Otto, in the middle), visiting sister, Sydney, in Florida. 

Our other 2 adorable great-grands are Caleb and Lydia, and they are living near Ithica, New York, with their daddy, Josh, and mommy, Jaylene, while Josh studies for his MBA at Cornell.

Students from Cornell come from all over the world, and Caleb has made lots of new buddies. 

Our ward received as move-in members, a wonderfully musically-gifted couple about a year ago.  Nancy directs, Lieto Voices, as well as is the major accompanist all over St. George and her husband, Steve, is an excellent organist. Roger and I attended Lieto's Fall Concert, and it was wonderful! Good music adds so much to life! 

St. George has been so excited about having the PGA bring a tournament here at Black Desert Golf Course. Roger followed the golfers around for a day and he especially appreciated the Veterans Association sponsoring a rest stop/lunch tent with misters in the almost 100 degrees, unusually hot for October, weather!

Two members of our ward, Randy and Steve, got to be volunteers.

The winner, Matt McCarty

Roger was invited by a fraternity brother at USU last year, to play in the Huntsman World Games, on a softball team from up north that he coached, which Roger did, though he had had no batting practice. He did a lot of pinch running. This year, about a month out, he got hooked up to play and practice with 4 teams from down here to get ready. He got some good hits in the Huntsman Games, they won a couple of games, and he had a lot of fun.

Coincidentally, Danny Gibson, Roger's buddy from high school, and another fraternity brother from college, are also on the team.

Their coach, Larry Hendricks, is in the center, and he and our friend, Bob Brady, were best friends when Bob lived in Bountiful.

Our son, Rick, Jodie and Blake came and stayed with us over Blake's Fall Break, and I just attended one game, but it was fun to watch those old 80 year olds play ball!

Rick, Jodie and Blake Visit

We took a quick pic on our driveway on our way to go to Tuacahn to see, a "sanitized" Jersey Boys, on the evening Rick, Jodie and Blake arrived. Note the harvest moon in the background.

Next day, we all went to watch Roger play ball.

Blake loves doughnuts - thumbs up for Pink Box!

On the second night we all went to see, Frozen. Disney helps put their shows together at Tuacahn and they are always amazing!

On the 3rd night, Anastasia was rained out. We had an Oktoberfest dinner. I found out Jodie is half German and she said she's never been to an Oktoberfest. I made Beef Rouladen with mustard sauce, Rotkohl, green peas and apple streudel with ice cream.

Blake loves music and he loves to dance!

Jodie and Rick take Blake on a, "Temple walk," in Bountiful almost every night. The play-offs for the World Series were on, Rick's beloved Dodgers playing the Mets, so Jodie took Blake on a Temple walk at the newly-renovated St. George Temple.

They left Saturday morning after a big breakfast. We love it when they come visit us!

Pretty sunset in St. George

Jane Stevenson, a dear high school classmate of Roger's, passed away after a long illness October 13, in Ogden, and we drove up north for her funeral. They were good friends in high school, and I have gotten to know her through the many years of the WHS Class of '62 trips to Lake Powell and Christmas parties at Jerry's ski home in Deer Valley. She was one of my favorites and I treasure the many chats we had about books we had both read, cooking and education. After she was widowed with 3 children at age 26 - her  high school classmate sweetheart was killed in action in the war in Vietnam - she finished her Bachelor's Degree and went on to get her PHD, marry a second time a Utah state senator, Darrell Renstrom, and was widowed again at age 48 with 3 more children. She married a third time a widower, dear Wayne Stevenson, with 4 kids. She was so smart and so creative and delightful to know.

Many of Roger's classmates were at her beautiful funeral.

On the weekend we drove up and stayed at Rick's, their daughter, Katie, flew to NYC to be with her new husband, who is graduated from BYU and there a few weeks for a entrepreneur opportunity.

When Katie was in New York on her mission, she baptized this girl in the picture's daughter, and now this is the daughter at her own baptism in Provo. Jodie knows Katie's convert (the mother) well and she and Blake drove to BYU for the baptism, since Katie was in New York and couldn't be there.

Cuddle time with Grandpa Roger

AND on this same weekend, Rick took son-in-law Joe to the 2nd Dodger game in the World Series in Los Angeles. As you can see, Joe is an avid Yankee fan, but Rick said he was a good sport when the Dodgers won!

Halloween

Blake was a minion

Claire was Vector in Despicable Me

Daughter, Mindy, was Little Red Riding Hood, Jeff was one of the 3 Pigs and their new dog, Kevin, was The Big Bad Wolf.

Josh, Jaylene, Caleb and Lydia

The Harry Potter Walker family

Our Visit to Stacy and Tom's in Gilbert

Roger and I haven't visited our kids in Az. for a while, and we wanted to see Max and Luke play football for their new high school, Highland High, in Gilbert. Max is the starting left defensive tackle and Luke is the starting quarterback for the JV team. This was their last game of the season and it was on Halloween night. They won by one touchdown, 2o-13, and they both were amazing, like their dad, Tom, and their uncle, Steve. Their record for the season is 7 wins 2 losses.

Happy mom/son

We are so proud of these two cute boys and are so glad we got to see them play.

Stacy treated us to lunch at one of their favorite lunch spots, Flower Child. They also took us to Temari's, our favorite sushi place, and to Bocca's for Mexican food while we were there.

We got to see Sarah, Ryan and Emily's daughter, play soccer the night after Halloween. She had a big rooting section with Paul and Susan Gilbert, her other grandparents, and mom Emily and brother, Ben! She was so tickled! Ryan was in Michigan on a biking event with his college buddy, Craig Rogers. 

Though we had record-breaking heat for most of the month, it was a great October with friends and family!