October Occurrences

It occurred to me that the Hassell's journey is still ongoing into this month. Danica's birthday was celebrated in Ecuador. She had a cake made for her and the group sang. Happy Birthday Danica! 

They were able to see some pretty cool sights: Cathedrals, different cities where Jason served his mission, ana a cool bird sanctuary.

I'd say Jason won't ever top this birthday! Looks like they made some great memories helping those in need and seeing some pretty cool sights.

We also started out the month by listening to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-

day Saints General Conference. Two days of great talks from our Prophet, his counselors, his Apostles, and other Church leaders. Our Prophet, Russell M. Nelson, who is 100 yrs. old gave the last talk in person and announced that 17 new temples would be built. The areas that temples would be built are as follows: 

Juchitán de Zaragoza, Mexico - Santa Ana, El Salvador - Medellín, Colombia -  Santiago, Dominican Republic - 

Puerto Montt, Chile - Dublin, Ireland -  Milan, Italy -  Abuja, Nigeria -  Kampala, Uganda - Maputo, Mozambique -

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho -  Queen Creek, Arizona -  El Paso, Texas -  Huntsville, Alabama - Milwaukee, Wisconsin -

Summit, New Jersey -  Price, Utah

Then he went on to say, "My dear brothers and sisters, do you see what is happening right before our eyes? I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment! The Lord is indeed hastening His work.

Why are we building temples at such an unprecedented pace? Why? Because the Lord has instructed us to do so. The blessings of the temple help to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. These blessings also help to prepare a people who will help prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord!  Wow, huh! He gave another talk earlier that had been pre-recorded. His health isn't as good as it used to be since he fell and hurt his back last year, Oh how I love and adore this man. He truly does have the Spirit of the Lord with him.

It also occurred to me that Dale's mom, Emma VerNae Hansen would of had her birthday this month. Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom Hansen. <3 <3 <3

With the Hassell's still in Ecuador, a few days into the month, Amie and I were still helping watch June and Brooks. As I was doing that, Andrew was helping Dale put up some lights on our house that you can keep up year round and use for different holidays. So this month, we were lit up for Halloween fun. 

I also helped others get into the Halloween spirit by donning a new look as one of the witches at North Logan's Pumpkin Walk. Danica had only been home from their trip a week and she came and did my make-up. I've never been a purple faced witch, but I was a hit! Thanks Danica! She and the kids joined up with the Mallory's and came and checked out the Pumpkin Walk as well as the purple faced witch. 

 

We ended up making the visit to the Pumpkin Walk part of our annual "Hansen Halloween Howl" activity due to it being the only weekend that we could pull some family that didn't live out of the state together for a night and morning. After attending the Pumpkin Walk the group went to the Mallory's and had pumpkin shaped pizza, monster fingers (aka breadsticks), bat juice (aka apple juice w/sprite), lizard tongue (aka sliced apples) and then watched the movie "The Adams Family". The next day we hosted a breakfast of Monster Mush (aka German pancakes with strawberries, bananas, whipped cream & chocolate syrup), and ghost milk. Sometimes you just do what you have to do, when you can. We didn't get many pictures, but we had fun. We missed Andrew and Garrett's family due to work & sickness or other obligations. Maybe next year we can all get together.

I had the opportunity (I guess that's what you can call it) to speak in the Leadership part of our Hyde Park Stake Conference with Elder R. Pepper Murray, in the 12th Quorum of the Seventy, as the visiting authority. He is a tall man, who's occupation is a orthopedic surgeon. He was a great speaker and did it with such ease. Someday maybe I'll feel comfortable talking in front of people. This assignment really stretched me!

Dale and I had the opportunity to watch the Four Seasons Theaters production of "Joseph and the Amazing Dreamcoat" on the stage of Sky View HIgh Schools auditorium. The scenery, costumes, vocals, and dancing were all wonderful. It was a fun show to attend.

We were also able to go watch a USU Exhibition Men's basketball game that was also a fundraiser for CAPSA. They played Weber St. and boy did they show up to win. They took it with a score of 85-66. They looked great! I'm hoping this is a sign for a good season again, but with the new coach, Jerrod Calhoun at the realm. We even had Big Blue stop by for a visit.

I took Titan our on a "date" to see the production of "Uptown: The Music of Motown" at the Eccles Theater. They played favorite hits from the Temptations, Bill Withers, Michael Jackson and more. They were full of energy with song and dance and had the crowd on their feet rocking to their tunes. It was a fun show. I think Titan liked it and I know he loved the guy on the bass guitar, piano and drums because he plays those instruments.

We ended the month by going to Danica's Pirate Halloween Party. Danica, along with Jasons Aunt Jill have been throwing a Halloween Party for the last 4 years or so. This is the second one we've been to. Some of the costumes were over the top and a cash prize is given for the best costume. They fed us a BBQ meat and potato meal and also had a hypnotist. Then we all played the game Left, Right, Center with $5 bills. The last one in won the cash in the middle. It was crazy fun.

The Hansen Foot & Ankle Office got together with their staff at the Thomas Family Farm by going to the farms family fling event. Their new doctor in the office, Dr. Simrit Kaur,  is working out great and fitting right in too. We wish them both the best with this new partnership.

Where the Mallory's have another driver in the family, that means they have another child of dating age. Kennlyn didn't go on a date, but did go with a group of friends to the Ridgeline High Schools Homecoming Dance.  Kennlyn was able to wear the same dress that her mom wore to her first Homecoming Dance too. What a fun way to start out the school year, right?

They've been busy with basketball and indoor soccer, but have found time to have some fun too. Matt loaded up their little utility trailer with Mazin and Langstons friends and took them around trick or treating. It was pretty cold out too. What a good sport, I hope they gave their Dad 1st pick on some of the candy they collected as a way of saying thank you.

 Elder Mallory has been honing his artistic talents, going to zone meetings, Stake Conference, watching/listening to General Conference, seeing more of the area, teaching people and getting better at speaking Spanish. He's still working with his same companion and Elder Cook at times. 

Mexico celebrates Halloween and Di de muertos (Day of the Dead) as a 3 day celebration. They have a parade, people wear costumes, and they have a lot of set ups. They had to be in their apartments by 7:00pm due to this celebration. Who knows what goes on at night during those celebrations?

Andrew & Lindsay's kids are staying busy. Titan's been learning new tunes on a guitar he built from a kit and practices his drums. 

The girls are taking a gymnastics class and loving it. 

Lindsay's had some health challenges and they've been good to help around the house as needed with Andrew being in Arkansas for work. Dale and I were able to help out as we could, so I was able to take the girls to gymnastics. They're loving it!

They also got into the Halloween spirit. Those cute smash pillows love to ham it up too!

Garrett & Zandra have a 9yr. old! Jorie had a friend party and also had family that could come, over for a birthday dinner. Happy Birthday Jorie!!

The family dressed up and did some trick-or-treating around their neighborhood as well as created a fun atmosphere for those that came to their house on Halloween. I love the skeleton playing the piano and their pumpkin carvings.

The Hassell's donned the Adam's family costumes for their neighborhood Trunk or Treat event. I'd say they killed it, that little Wendy (aka June) was perfect. They LOVE the month of October. 

For local news: We got a glimpse of the Northern Lights from our backyard. It was just a pink mass, but still that's something, right?

We also got a dusting of snow towards the end of the month when we had a few colder days.

Winter is around the corner..

Danica got to see the famous comet over the big "D" in St. George when they had stayed there and someone else got one from St. George. We tried, but the sky was cloudy. Some people in the state got some pretty impressive pictures though.

In national news: The east coast got hit pretty good with two hurricanes just weeks apart. Hurricane Helene hit along the North and South Carolina coast, and Hurricane Milton hit on the west coast of Florida. Both caused some significant damage to the area, and there were some deaths that were attributed to both of them, but Helene was the worst of the two because of higher winds.

Hurricane Milton

And in more national news: Pres. Trump had a possible attack thwarted at a rally he was to attend. Makes you wonder if he'll be alive to continue his campaign, and Space X, a private company owned by Elon Musk, made a pretty cool thing happen with their Space X rocket. It can land back at the same spot it launched from.

So October was pretty full of different occurrences: some good and some not so good. My heart goes out to those effected by the hurricanes though. So much to do to clean up for so many people. We can all be grateful we lived through another day and have a roof over our heads.