What happened to September? I blinked and it was over. Here is what transpired in September:
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| Collecting miniatures for this years gingerbread house, so excited! |
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| I've been sculpting and collecting, and this month start the gingerbread panels, hopefully done by Nov 1. Huge project! |
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| Weston had a labor day sleep over with his T.C. cousins |
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| Cookie and I making faces at the cabin |
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| We had lots of fun Sunday before Labor day with Schauers family in Timberlakes, we feel blessed to have this home. |
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| Jared and I going on a bike ride Labor day morning, all the way to Utah Lake! |
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| Beautiful ride on a beautiful morning! |
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| The Carpenters and Schauers and my parents, grandma and sister Kynsie enjoying Ashton Gardens |
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| Feeding the fish at Ashton Garden |
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| Beautiful day and beautiful flowers everywhere |
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| Next to purple flowers that look like heather flowers |
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| The Carpenters at the Koi pond |
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| Grandma Rappleye at the waterfall garden |
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| Three sisters beneath the women's bronze statue |
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| I love this family of mine! So blessed. |
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| Pretty Suzette |
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| Pretty mamma |
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| Kynsie and Heidi, my beautiful smart sisters. We spent three hours enjoying these gardens |
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| Silly dad teasing poor grandma |
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| Love my boys |
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| Me trying to ride Ranger. Squeezing in time to take care of a horse! |
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| I have a lot to learn but its fun! |
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| Fiora getting ready for Homecoming Dance |
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| I did her hair and was pretty proud of it, pic doesn't quite capture the elegance. |
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| Cade doing the corsage |
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| Happy couple ready to go! Fiora said she had fun |
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| These smiles were before the unfortunate accident, Fiora backed into my car, hopefully it didn't completely ruin the night. |
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| Jared got new cowboy boots, I like them and thought he looked good with his truck. :) |
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| My mom and sisters and I got to see Joseph Dreamcoat musical, and bonus Bailey Schauers was in the cast! |
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| Proud of our niece Bailey, she does a great job! |
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| Getting the office ready for my big sleepover with Karli Sue's kids |
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| They played with my toys for hours! |
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| Alan wasn't feeling well but still managed to smile and have fun for the most part. |
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| Cuties ready for a walk to the park |
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| Katy Sue almost 5 |
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| Alan 18 months |
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| Robbie age 3 and didn't want to hold still haha |
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| What is about to happen in this pic to this dog of ours did happen, lesson learned I hope |
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| Weston helped me decorate for Grant's surprise party, Jared was in Gunnison with his dad |
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| Grant came to pick up his kids and we were all there to surprise him! |
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| He suspected nothing! Success! |
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| Singing and eating and toasting Grant on his 30th! |
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| Savanna has been thriving and working hard in Ecuador. She did an excursion to the Banos. |
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| A rough 9 hour bus ride to the jungle for mango, ziplining, boating, bunji jumping, and animals |
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| Baños was absolutely AMAZING! My literal paradise! It was the most amazing trip I’ve ever been on and a very needed vacation. We sat in hot springs, took a jungle tour, visited a native village and got our faces painted, i held a snake, i held a monkey, i swung into the abyss of the Amazon forest, i jumped off of a bridge, went crazy zip lining, hiked through the jungle to get to a gorgeous waterfall, swung some more and i loved every second! Except for the 9 hour bus ride and throwing up on the bus and the bus and i hated the motion sickness on the bus and the bus was the worst and i hated the bus. I hope you understand how much i hated the bus. |
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| Looks like paradise to me! |
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| At the end of this post I will copy her email update of her time in Cuenca. |
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| Went to visit Knightly Bourne and Everlight one morning, cuties! |
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| At the end of September I got to spend time with my aunties and Terry cousins at Johny's wedding. |
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| The Payson Temple is so beautiful. The wedding luncheon was beautiful too. And I got lots of address updates for the family directory, jackpot! |
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| Another drive up to the mountain home, beautiful colors! This time with parents and aunt Betty Ann and the Johnsons. |
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| Aunt Betty Ann's mother in law Marilyn Curtis also joined us! |
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| Norman and Jayne Johnson from England visiting, they are great people! |
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| Picture of the whole happy party! |
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| Soul sisters. |
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| I got these beauties out of storage and put them up in my hall bathroom, nostalgia! |
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| These are the 1970 folk art that was hanging in my grandma Rappleyes house when I was young. Mom said they remind her of me as a child. |
Savanna's report:
HELLO FAMILY 
i love you guys and i miss you everyday, I’m serious! This is an email to update you on my life here in Ecuador, if you’re interested. Which, you better be because i hand-picked who i wanted this email to go to.Life is amazing here! It has been the most rewarding, joy filled, adventure filled, heart warming 4 weeks of my life! WOW four weeks! That’s crazy, I’m 1/3 of the way through! Time goes by so fast here. We’re working almost all day, almost every day.WARNING: boring work schedule coming-Monday 7:30-12:30 & 2:30-7:30Tuesday 7:30-12:30 & 2:30-6:30Wednesday DAY OFF WHOOOThursday 7:30-12:30 & 2:30-6:30Friday 7:30-12:30 & 2:30-6:30Saturday 9:30-12:30 & AFTERNOON OFFSunday CHURCH 9:00-11:00 & work 2:30-7:00So very packed schedule! The days go by fast for the most part.While this has been such an amazing experience, I’m sure you can guess that it has also been filled with trials, heart ache, exhaustion and homesickness. It has been very hard at times but i feel my self growing and getting stronger everyday. Mentally and physically! I play wheelchair soccer with the kids almost every day and i push them in their wheel chairs up a giant hill every day because they love the view at the top. My legs and arms have gotten BUFF! Because they’re full-grown adults for the most part. Which makes changing their diapers a.... an adventure. Big boy poops. That’s all i have to say.I get peed on, sneezed on, spit on, coughed on and punched in the face on a daily basis but i wouldn’t trade it for the world! Because i ALSO get hugged, danced with, and smiled at every day. oh my gosh guys, these kids (they’re not kids, they’re special needs adults for the most part, it’s just easier to call them kids) have the best smiles in the world! I love making them laugh, singing to them, squishing their faces and loving them so much.There is one little kid at the orphanage that i work at most days. he’s seven years old. His name is Little Bryan Poma, and he has taken to calling me “mama.” These kids are very particular about who they call “mama.” Lot’s of volunteers come and go so the kids try not to get attached unless they really bond with a volunteer. So, of course, it makes my heart melt every time i walk down to shift and i see my Little Bryan clap his hands and yell “mama!” Btw, it’s not like a negative thing, he knows I’m not actually his mom, it’s just a term of endearment the kids use for their favorite volunteers. He’s mostly deaf and he has the squishiest little face in the world and he is to die for so cute! I love him.I am going to miss these kids so much when i leave :’(Some more quick information:All of the kids here are special needsMost of them are adults with cerebral palsy or polioWe feed them, bathe them, dress them and change their diapers every dayI don’t have any friends here really so i mostly just play with the kids heheI can’t take pictures of the orphans :’(My Spanish is getting WAY better! I can form way more sentences now and have conversations and I’m a pro at haggling!i REALLY appreciate FaceTime calls from my family when I’m not working :)I love you guys! Thanks for reading this! I’ll send another email about my AMAZING trip to Baños this weekend with some amazing pictures.My lunch is pretty much this amazing everyday!Ecuadorian kids play ROUGHPrettyI love you all! :’)Sav
