Will + Claire's Wedding (Professional Photos)

Ribbon Cutting for the Fine Arts Building

We had the ribbon cutting for the Fine Arts building during Homecoming Week in September. I was voluntold to be in charge, which was challenging for me, but I did my best and I had lots of help (committee members taking over the food, people helping with setup, and the construction company pitching in with several things including balloonists).

It turned out quite well, though of course there were definitely some things that could have (should have?) been better. I'm most proud that we started on time and the people who needed to be there were there. And even with the last-minute hiccup of needing to omit my co-chair from the program (written and spoken), it was okay.

The pictures from our photographer, London, turned out well. Special shout-out to Suz, whose idea it was to use confetti poppers during the cutting itself.

I only took a few pictures that night, as I was mostly trying to get things set up correctly and we also had a hired photographer. But I did get this, a picture of members of our original committee from 2022-2023, when we were brand new.

Me, JoAnna, Sarah, Laura, and Darci

One of the post-event tasks I assigned myself was to print out photos of the donors and participants in the event and send most of them a handwritten thank you note along with one or more photos of themselves. I decided to include myself. This came in the mail over the weekend:

It's a little mind-boggling that we've gone from dreaming of building an auditorium to finishing it in less than 4 years. JoAnna and Steve probably did the bulk of the work, and $2M+ in grants from The Fritz B. Burns Foundation really made it possible, but I'm glad to have made my small contribution.

The addition is beautiful, with an 850-seat auditorium, large choir room and orchestra room, several practice rooms, and additional classrooms for art and other subjects upstairs. It's connected to the original building on the south end.

Halloweening

 We definitely don't do as much Halloween-ing now that the kids are older, but we stil had some fun!

We made our traditional Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin-shaped Pizzas...

Luke was the only one interested in carving a pumpkin...

I insisted on a scary stories by the campfire night, and everyone kindly went along with it...

The night before Halloween, I realized that in her fake glasses,

Liza looked exactly like my cousin. And Brooke agreed...

The kids wore costumes to school on Halloween

and I didn't a terrible job of documenting (oh how things have changed)...

Liza as Adam Sandler (before she rushed off to school)

Jack as Jason Bourne and Luke as a Utah Mammoth player

Luke went trick-or-treating with Sawyer (F1 Driver).

And a few pictures to highlight our seasonal decor in the new house...

Fifth Water Hot Springs Hike

Shortly after our Fall Break trip to Moab, we finally tackled a hike closer to home: Fifth Water Hot Springs. We'd been trying to find a day that worked for all of us for weeks (months?) so I was really excited when the day finally arrived. The rest of the family was slightly less excited, but had good attitudes anyway, which was great.

We tried to park in the main parking area below the springs but the lot was full, so we drove around to the upper trailhead, which was entertaining because it was the end of deer season so there were dozens of trucks and groups of hunters out trying their luck. We only heard a few shots though.

The grass and trees were pretty barren, and the weather was cool without being too cold. When we got down to the springs, the kids didn't want to get in - who could have guessed that they wouldn't want to jump into a natural hot tub?? - but Ben and I enjoyed it. The pool we got into was too hot to just sit down right away, but after easing in for a few minutes, it was absolutely wonderful. Check out how steamy the springs were in the pictures below, and in some pictures the cloudy-blue water shows up really well too. And the sulphur smell wasn't too bad!