Stuck Floss

Courtney is having a hard time flossing her teeth with the new fake teeth in her mouth.  She has the braces flossers to make it easier but quite a few times she has gotten the floss stuck.  She has to take the scissors and cut the floss in order to get it out of her mouth.  Hahaha!

Ethan went to the Temple!!

This is the entry from Ethan's mission blog.  I didn't want to write it all again, so I just copied it here for our family history.

Hey everyone!

This is Michelle.  You get me this week because Ethan didn't write a letter home because...he was in the Fort Collins Temple taking out his own endowments...and we were there!  So he was a bit busy to write home so I thought I would give you an update on him.

Ethan is doing really well.  When the Fort Collins Temple went to Phase 2 we were told we would be able to go through with him and we were so excited.  After a couple months of waiting for our turn, we were on a plane early Tuesday morning on our way to Colorado.  

Their zone had Zone Conference Tuesday so the rest of their Zone had p-day Monday, but since Ethan was going through the temple, they did regular work on Monday then took Tuesday as p-day and will attend a different Zone's conference on Wednesday.  Kind of crazy but the temple takes priority.

We were given permission to spend one hour with Ethan so we decided it would be easiest to take him and Elder Unruh to lunch before the session.  So we flew out of Vegas at 6 am, drove to Fort Collins and met them at Smashburger (Ethan's choice) for lunch.  It was so good to get to hug Ethan!!  Elder Unruh said Ethan was so excited to see us.  They had spent the morning doing laundry, shopping, and getting things done that they needed to so they would be ready to go through the temple.  It was nice that the companion was allowed to go too because Elder Unruh only has 3 more weeks left in his mission.  So we met them and got to eat with them for an hour.  They told us all about their area, the mission, and stories that we hadn't heard before.  (They got to help teach an MTC class, which I thought was really cool!)

When it was time, we followed them to the temple.  There were 3 elders going through for the first time.  We waited outside the temple until everyone was there and then we went in.  Since there have been so many fires, the temple grounds had ash all over.  They asked us to clean our shoes really well as we walked into the temple and I was amazed at how much ash was on my shoes that I didn't realize.  

The session was amazing and it was so good to be with Ethan in the temple, finally.

After the session, we took pictures outside the temple.  Then we said a really tough goodbye, but it was so great to see him as a missionary and so happy.  He is doing really great and happy to have finally gone through the temple.

So that's why he didn't email anyone this week.

-Michelle

Pictures from the temple:

Ethan and Courtney

You can see the ash on the sidewalk.

Halloween

Despite the pandemic, we still had the neighborhood Halloween party.  It was toned down (just dinner and chatting with neighbors) but we were able to see people which was really nice!  We went around the block to eat soups (it's always potluck so each street has an assignment to bring a particular food), hotdogs, rolls, chips, etc.  Then we chatted with people before going back home to meet the trick-or-treaters.

We didn't have as many kids come to our house as we usually do but we still went through a bunch of candy.  Courtney decided to go with a couple of friends to some houses to get candy.  It seems like everyone (including us) went for the good candy - chocolate.

Courtney came home with a nice haul and the Halloween Fairy the next day brought her cash for her candy (because the Halloween Fairy wasn't aware that Courtney would be trick-or-treating).

Soccer End of the Year Banquet

They made it through the season!!  This was amazing because of all the Covid cancellations going on.  But the SCHS soccer team made it and they wanted to celebrate.  The team mom decided to have a little dessert get together outside one night so the girls could have closure.

It was really cold and windy that night but we got together at the park by the little league field.  The girls ate the desserts brought by the families (store-bought) and then the coaches gave out gifts to their wives and also the other coaches.

Then the head coach made an announcement we didn't see coming - he is going to retire from coaching.  So next year there will be a new coaching staff.  It will be an interesting year next year but we are excited to see what is going to happen.

Our Missionary

 Here are some pictures of Ethan on his mission.

Ethan needs a haircut.

Frisbee golf in the snow (and shorts).

This is a pic of his area with the smoke from the fires in the background.

Ethan in the mountain bike gear we sent to him.

Mountain Biking State Championships

The Mountain Biking State Championships were being held in St George this year so we decided to run out to see the course.  Bryan and Ethan have ridden the course before but this was going to be a longer race so we weren't sure how it was going to be going.

They did a great job with the course.  You could watch a bunch of the trail and see the riders start and also come through the finish line. We stayed long enough to watch the start of the Varsity Boys race.  It was so dusty but it was fun to watch them start the race.

The Snow Canyon team didn't end up winning State, which is a bummer, but they will work on it and see what they can do next season.

Beautiful Ivins

 I saw this picture on my friend's Facebook page and make a copy.  We live in such a beautiful place.