Birds of a Feather: Family Journal

I've decided I want to use this as a way to document my family's experiences and growth. I'm going to try and record something at least weekly that in ten or fifty years my family members will be glad I recorded. So here it goes.

This week was a beautiful fall week. On Monday we went out to a little U-Pick pumpkin farm to pick up a few more pumpkins to decorate the front stoop with. It was windy and chilly and quick, but we had fun. Then we went over to the Smith Property to pick up Mabel (my trailer) and bring her back home.

We were also able to spend time at Riverside Park on Wednesday afternoon. Eric came home from class and we all went. Ella wore us out, swinging, sliding, climbing. It was fun and a beautiful afternoon.

Thursday night we welcome the missionaries into our home for white chicken and cheese enchiladas. They also began teaching us the first part of the first missionary discussions - God is Our Loving Heavenly Father. It was a nice discussion. I enjoyed it as I've not served a mission, nor have I had the pleasure of being taught or sitting in the missionary lessons. Then Elder Mang (sp?) offered to give Eric a priesthood blessing. It was out of the blue, but Eric accepted and the Spirit was very strong during it. I could tell that Heavenly Father was sharing things with Eric that he needed to hear. After the Elders left and Ella went to bed, I could still feel the spirit strongly in our home - just as much as if I'd just had a wonderful experience in the temple. I loved it.

Friday afternoon, Eric's mom and his sister Anna came for a visit. That afternoon we went to Riverside park again. We played with Ella on the equipment, but then we also went and walked across the newly constructed bridge over the river. Then we spent a while throwing and skipping rocks in the river. It was another gorgeous fall afternoon.

After putting Ella to bed that night, Eric and I were able to slip away for a little date, leaving Grandma and Anna in charge. We went and got some desert. The whole time we were yawning and tired, but we enjoyed each other's company. We were only out about an hour before we decided to come back home. It wasn't even 9pm yet.

Saturday morning we went out to Cove. The Cove FFA put on a little fall festival. There was a petting zoo, a corn "maze," pumpkin patch and hay pyramid. The corn maze was nothing more than a few rows of corn and Ella was more interested in the school playground across the way than anything else, but she did seem into the petting zoo. She didn't do much petting (I'm sure those animals seem pretty intimidating when you're so little), but she did like watching the horse. And a llama petted Ella with it's head. She also got a bit nervous when the miniature goat ate grass out of her hand. Then we obliged her and played on the playground. My favorite part was the teeter totter. It was a fun morning and we were glad we got to share it with Grandma Lougee and Anna.