A Warm Fall

It's been an unseasonably warm fall. That means the dozens of soccer games we attended were mostly pleasant weather wise and often with spectacular mountain backdrops. Given a rearrangement of soccer team ages, both Joel and Will ended up having to move to new teams based on their birth year. That put December born Will as the youngest on his team. He has had to work hard to prove his worth to his new coach.

 Coming in for a goal.

Maple Mountain


Oquirrh Mountains

 Joel celebrated his 16th birthday with donuts for the team after a game. We then picked up Sarah and enjoyed a birthday dinner at Brick Oven.

In September, Marie's hard work as Primary President resulted in an exceptional Primary sacrament meeting program. It was Will's last program--an end of an era for the Emmetts. I practiced hard and played as best I could in my calling as Primary pianist--a great calling.

Joel is now able to play hymns on the piano in seminary and priesthood meeting so his days of taking piano lessons are numbered. He and Will reluctantly practice most days.The rule is once they can play more than ten hymns they can stop with lessons.




On the last Sunday of September we took an afternoon drive up and over Alpine Loop.

Will used my Canon camera to take photos for the Reflections contest at school. We went on a short hike and he ventured off trail into a grove of aspens.

He looked and took this photo which won him honorable mention (second place) in the photography category.

Award day.
 


Photography winners.

 Always happy to skip out of work early.



A trip to Lagoon this past summer did not happen as planned so I took the boys to Frightmares last week. We got there right at 11:00 am opening and stayed until 9:30 pm. Our first ride was on the new-last-year ride Cannibal. It was forty-five minute wait, but so worth it. One of the best roller coasters ever. Here is how Lagoon describes it: "Cannibal – new for 2015 – lifts riders 208 feet and plunges them into a 116° beyond vertical free-fall into an underground tunnel. Cannibal is Lagoon’s most thrilling ride- including a 140 foot tall inverted loop and water feature. Riders travel up to 70 mph over 2,735 feet and through 3 inversions. The custom mega-coaster is unlike anything in the world and will eat other coasters in their tracks."

Next up was Samurai. Also a first for me. The unpredictable and circular movement was too much for my stomach resulting in my first ever case of motion sickness at an amusement park. I skipped lunch and a few rides, drank a Mr. Pibb, took an Excedrin and was good for another round of roller coasters including the Spider, Colossus and Wicked.

We did this classic twice. Back when I was a kid it was the only roller coaster.

At 5:00 the spook allies opened up. Long lines so we only went through two. They were OK.

I'm sorry but dancing with chain saws is not Halloween to me.

The least enjoyable of the two.

 A fun day.

Cave man and soccer player (Joel had just come from his first indoor soccer game) at the ward Halloween festival and chili cook off. (My vegetarian chili didn't win, but was very tasty)

While the boys carved pumpkins Sunday night, Sarah and cousin Lucy baked cookies for their BYU Family Home Evening group to decorate on Halloween.

Will is a big Calvin and Hobbes fan. He decided he wanted to be Calvin for Halloween so Marie made him a Hobbes--her first (and perhaps last) homemade stuffed animal.

Pretty impressive.

Calvin joined the other sixth graders in two performances that day of Thriller. Will has some good dance moves.

Watch the performance here (Will in on the front row, right side): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTd8f9Hs8NA&feature=youtu.be

 To hang out with friends tonight, Joel resurrected a Jedi tunic (also made by Marie) from his 7th birthday party.

This has happened every night since Hobbes joined our family. Checking in on sleeping kids is still one of the best parts of the day.