I imagine, because the oppressive heat of the summer finally breaks by October, St. George has scheduled a couple of big events, through the years - The St. George Marathon and The Senior Huntsman World Games. This year, some of our family members participated in both events.
Our granddaughter, Anna, called a month early, asking us if she, her husband, Jack, and baby Charlotte, could stay with us for a couple of nights because she was going to run in the marathon. What a treat it was to have them and this little great-granddaughter cutie stay with us! They said they don't even attempt to put a bib on her, but let her go at it each morning while she's learning to feed herself, smearing yogurt all over herself!
It was the 50th anniversary milestone this year, and over 10,000 runners representing 50 states, Washington, D C, and 20 countries, ran in the event.
Anna did great, she ran so fast she qualified for the Boston Marathon!
We celebrated at Aubergine, Anna's favorite health food restaurant.
Parents, Ryan and Emily and sister, Sarah, drove from Mesa late, to stay with us the night before. (they ordered black beans for Charlotte, and forgetting a bib, she smeared the beans all over her clothes, hence, she is sporting only a diaper!)
Charlotte turned one year old a couple of weeks later. You know where that cake is going to end up!
Our monthly Gamer Party for September was postponed until October, and we enjoyed a fun night at Whitmer's on the Friday night before General Conference.
On October 3rd and 4th, the Semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was held in SLC, and Roger and I look forward to the inspiring talks and music, which are broadcast from the Conference Center. So much of Christ's love is felt and shared. We are always left with the desire to want to do, be and become better. It always charges our batteries!
Next up was the Huntsman World Senior Games, held in St. George, Utah, since 1987. 12,200 + age 50 + senior athletes compete in 40 different sports in more than 160 events across 52 athletic venues in this multi-week competition. Roger got involved playing slow pitch softball 4 years ago with a team from up north in Bountiful, Utah, coached by his fraternity brother from USU, Larry Hendricks, and coincidentally, one of Roger's best buddies from high school, Danny Gibson, is also on the team. Larry and Danny knew that Roger could still run, which becomes a valued commodity in your late 70s. Rog hadn't played baseball or softball for 40 years before that first time he played on their team, and after that first year, after the games were over, he decided to get some batting practice before the next year, and he found out that St. George has 4 teams (now 5) who played each other twice a week year-round. Now, 4 years later, he continues to play year-round and loves it!
Last year, the team took bronze in their age 79-84 category, and this year, they were determined to take the gold!
They always schedule a meal with spouses together. This year it was at Rib and Chop House.
This week in October, the weather was in the mid-90s, but I managed to find some shade to watch Roger and the team play. He hit many singles, and I was tickled to be at the game where he hit a triple!
Goal met for 2026 - Silvertime won the gold!
(Old Bones was their previous name, which I think is way cuter!)
Larry, Roger and Danny
We have shared many summers with Danny and Carol on Jerry's houseboats and at Jerry's Montana dude ranch. We love these guys!
I had to include a pic of these 4 little great-grand-kid cuties, Sydney and Jake's kids, huddled together during Hurricane Isaisas in their Inlet Beach, Florida, home. They lost a tree in their front yard and some siding trim off their house. The howling wind was really scary!
The mother of these grandkids, our beautiful granddaughter, Sydney, was chosen to play Sandy, in Panama City Theater Company's production of Grease at the St. Augustine Green outdoor theater in Rosemary Beach in September/October.
She blew us and everyone else away with her singing, dancing and acting! She is our oldest granddaughter and she is as beautiful inside as she is out!
I include this video clip taken by our daughter, Stacy, of her singing, "Hopelessly Devoted." Her little Henry's head makes a couple of appearances on the video! Listen until the very end, as she just sounds better and better!
Coincidentally, Tuacahn, our wonderful outdoor amphitheater put on Grease in October, too, and Rick, Jodie and Blake came from SLC and stayed with us during fall break. Rick treated us to tickets to go with them to Grease and Les Miserables the next night. Of course, Tuacahn's Sandy didn't hold a candle to our Sydney's Sandy! Grease is kind of cotton candy and Les Mis is beaf steak, but they were both performed so very well!
Blake loves musicals and he will stay in his seat night after night to watch them, holding our hands and bouncing to the musical beats. He's a fun little theater companion!
Jodie brings fun things for Blake to play with when they come and they always go to the All Abilities Park and he rides the train.
I cooked some meals, and Rick treated us to a couple of meals out.
Granddaughter, Abby, joined us that evening in time for dinner and Les Mis, then stayed overnight with us. The man who played Javert, had the finest voice of any Javert we've heard, including the one we heard on Broadway and the one in the traveling Broadway cast!
Rick treated us to breakfast at First Watch before they left to go back up north. Next evening, we watched on TV and they attended the BYU/Notre Dame game. SOO exciting BYU won and moved up to #3 in the football rankings.
Grandson twins, Max and Luke, celebrated HHS Football Senior Night with their parents. Max made the All Region Offense team and Luke, quarterback, was injured in the first game and broke his collarbone, and missed the season. He was a good sport about it, but he's been so sad! Our daughter, standing between them, is 5'6''.
We have been with both Roger's family and my family on many vacations together through the years, many of them cruises. We mostly don't live in the same towns or states, and we have had so much fun getting together with our siblings and spouses, and our Moms and Dads, when they were alive. After my family's memorable trip through Norway and Sweden and cruise to Norwegian fjords (back to our roots) in 2023, we haven't been all together. It was past time for another reunion, and we picked St. George. One factor was Patty's son, Evan, owns a large condo in Dessert Color, a new development area in St. George. Here's 3 pics of past cruises.
This was our first cruise together on the Island Princess. Many followed, but we all agreed, looking back, that this was our very favorite one! We had so much fun winning trivia games, swimming and beaching, dancing at the discos (back in the day) through the night, eating and laughing. Some of us were even in an on-board fashion show, including Mom and Dad!
Another fun cruise together
Joan and Tom came later in the day, but the rest of us met at our sister, Kay's, Keynote practice. They are a beautifully-blending group who perform all over the area, in the St George Tabernacle for Christmas and Easter programs, assisted living and nursing homes, as well as for group parties and gatherings. Kay has been their musical and program director for many years, and rehearsal is run like a well-oiled machine. We were so impressed, and they sounded beautiful! All of their music is memorized and they each have solos throughout the program.
I was so tickled to see my brother, John, and wife, Cindy, whom we haven't seen forever, and we've seen sister, Patty, and husband, Hal, more recently, but we haven't been all together for so long! Wish we had taken pictures of everything - it is so hard to remember to do that when you're having fun! Next morning we had brunch at a great, local breakfast/lunch restaurant, The Bear Paw.
We told them it was Hal's birthday (actually, I think Hal told them!), and they brought a yummy ice cream sundae and many spoons!
We went to visit our cousin, Randy, at a care center, and, as luck would have it, our cousin, Todd and his wife, Liz, were there, to visit, also. Randy was on a little excursion with a friend that afternoon, but we enjoyed catching up with Todd and Liz.
We had an Asian dinner together at Lotus.
The guys golfed (Ken was at his grandson's bike race) on Friday. Roger had made reservations at 2 other golf courses for Wednesday and Thursday, but, so very unusually, it rained for 3 straight days!
The silver lining of that is the guys came back to the condo on the rainy days and we all visited. When do guys usually want to sit around and chat, right? It was a bit chaotic, but we shared lots of memories from our childhood, and laughed a lot!
One of the highlights was going to the Red Cliffs Temple, where Ken is a sealer and Kay takes care of the records, and we did proxy sealings for our ancestors. We know we are so very blessed to all still be alive, gather together and remember our dead and perform this ordinance for them. I can't describe it in words, but it was very emotional, and we could feel their gratitude.
Afterwards, we went to Menchie's for frozen yogurt treats and we all found room to sit in the kiddie room.
Kay sent this in a text after we all had headed for home. It says it all!
Game Night for October was the night before Halloween and the Vaughans and the Triptows hosted us at the Vaughan's home. We enjoyed yummy soups and salads and pumpkin pie, then played Mexican Train with dominoes. We just got a pic of the ladies. In my life, and I'm 81, I have never played with dominoes!
On Halloween, this cute resident of Sunbrook made over 100 doughnuts for the residents. She sent out a text. None of us ever get any trick or treaters, I guess, because we're a retirement community. She's made doughnuts on Halloween her whole life and she wasn't about to stop now!
Phew! Long post for October! I Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!
