November 2024

 Mostly -- as you would expect -- Thanksgiving stuff this month.

We hosted Group Dinner: beef strogonoff -- all

that was left were flowers

Thanksgiving warm-up with Kreg and Dorothy, SKT, AW, Millie,

H. B. and Norma, and Kristina

Always a delight to be with the Hansen cousins

Lemmon, cranberry, and pumpkin pie!

Family Sunday dinner with the kiddos

New burger spot in Orem

La Casita with some Boyntons: Matt, Brig, Kim, Kris and Rod

The actual day at Emily's

Anders made a rare appearance from Fort Collins

Dickie actually made a cameo appearance

The whole group

Turkey soup

We leave 8 December for a week in Paris and a week in London, so there will more posts from there.

OXO

D.

October 2024

With just four days until the 2024 election, I am anxious, nauseated, and hopeful. We will know by the November blog post if we survived. October was filled with good stuff. Debby Gibbs came for conference weekend and we went leaf peeping. We met with The Group, ate with SKT and Annie, traveled to Arizona, and flew from Phoenix to TX for a visit with Debra Sue. There was good food, visiting, and movies. We had a day trip to Waco to see Chip and Joanna Gaines' stuff with a stop at Buc-ee's on the way back to Houston. Returning to AZ, we had a three-day reunion with Kris's brothers. Again: visiting, a movie, and plenty of food. Following a couple of days with Maren and family, with whom we celebrated Kris's birthday, home was calling. We arrived back in Utah just in time for Cousins' Breakfast. Poof! October was gone.

Nebo Loop

Family Dinner with Debby

Alpine Loop

Group Dinner at the Millers

Post-dinner drive with SKT and AW

"Real American" at breakfast in Henderson

Texas-bound

Mexican nosh with Debby

Saturday Night at a posh dine-in theater

Fall in Texas

Dickie did dinner

Biscuits and gravy in Waco

At the Gaines' Magnolia

Waco's Silo District preserved and redeveloped

by Chip and Joanna Gaines

Joanna refused to paint the silos so as not

to destroy their character

Small chapel for weddings

Buc-ee's

Tacos in Mesa with the Boynton gang

Excited to see Conclave

Best onion rings anywhere at Waldo's

Art show in Scotsdale; Utah artist

Steamed muscles at Alessia's in Mesa

Alessia's

The Marlpit-Hill Boyntons

Magic at the Cornish Pasty Company

Birthday dinner for Kris with the Youngs

Cousins's Breakfast at Little America -- we missed

Market Street Grill

May we survive November 2024!

OXO

D.

September 2924

It was slim pickins in September with only minimal photos. Meagan brought Ollie and Meg back to school and spent a couple of weeks working furiously on her dissertation locked away in our home office and her bedroom. We met, as we do, with the Group for dinner at the Boynton home, and we traveled to Vernal to celebrate his sixth birthday with young Arthur. Cousins breakfast as usual (no photo), but with a disappointing change of menu at Market Street Grill. We have to find a new place -- booo! And fall fell.

Meagan and Ollie met Moe

We celebrated Phil and Rod's birthdays

Arthur received his first two monster drawings

Birthday dinner at Denny's

Birthday cake back at the house

Colors were spectacular this year

I believe October will yield more activities and photos, so there will be more later.

OXO

D.

August 2024

Time flies and summer is coming to an end. August was full of all the usual stuff, but it also included a trip to Vernal for Evelyn's ninth birthday. Arthur sent me home with drawings to flesh out into fabulous monsters. The HI Taylors prepared for their kiddos to retrurn to BYU and that included storing a mountain of boxes shipped to our house to outfit Oliver David, recently returned from Brazil. And it also included a visit from Meagan, Oliver, and Meg. Meagan touched my heart by carefully carrying a custard pie from Lee's bakery in Honolulu for me! What a treat! We met Millie Kay in SLC for breakfast; the other cousins were all out of town. SKT unearthed some old photos that made me smile.

Dinner out with AW and SKT: Mexican sea food

My hair doesn't mix with leather when watching TV:

Kris calls my hairdo a "chicken butt"

Evy and Grammy

Evy and Arthur making tiny sculptures with modeling clay

All this good stuff made it into Ollies new apartment room

Click to see more clearly: "lava rock monster"

Now, that's a happy grandpa with a custard pie

Our favorite time of the month

Post-mission SKT and high-school DAT at the Timp summit

DAT and SKT (pre-mission) at our cousin 

Connie's (we think)

That's a wrap. More next month.

OXO

D.