Catching Back Up

I’m ashamed to admit my blog has been empty for eleven months. I wish I could think of some good excuses for it. Maybe something will come to me as I write my post. Anyway, I’m back.

This is by far the best time of year because there’s a different, exciting feeling that enters the air. It could just be that the air is colder, who knows…but Percy Bysshe Shelley once wrote that “There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!”

Of course, since Halloween is only a few days away I’ve noticed the television is featuring a lot more shows about ghost hunters. It’s not a big deal really, except sometimes they do find some real ghosts and when you live in a house by yourself—like I do—it can be terrifying to watch. I mean, you all know that I don’t get scared, right? I’m just saying that maybe some other people could get scared.

While I’m relishing the fall season I should probably touch a bit on last summer too…since I made no record of it before.

Over the summer I went to New York City and New Jersey to visit my dear sister, Shellie, and her husband, Nathan. They’ve been living back east for about five years now and enjoy it there a lot. Nathan was recently called to serve as the branch president in church and is finishing his school at Rutgers University, and my sister was pregnant at the time with her first little baby, which she just gave birth to a few days ago… a very cute baby girl. Also along for the trip were my parents and younger brother, Jeff, which made it even more fun.

I think the main points to remember about this trip are that my sister and Nathan are doing really great, and also that I conquered the family bowling tournament (in New Jersey) with a high score of 188. Basically, big time players rise up under any conditions and even though all of the bowling balls in New Jersey have awkward finger-holes in them, I still bowled a “turkey” (three strikes in a row for the layman).

Side Note: Correct me if I’m wrong Nate, but I think the “Little Heads” are up on the “Big Heads” by about three or four scores now.

The top highlight of the trip, without question, was attending the Manhattan Temple as a family. It was a great experience since I don’t get to see my sister and her husband that much. The temple was very beautiful, sitting square in the middle of skyscrapers. I loved seeing it and I’m glad we were able to spend an evening there.

Oh, while in New York we also attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant and I happened to run into Lisa Magnusson, a local and famous actress from Henderson, NV and also the relief society president of my ward. I didn’t realize she was going to be the star of the entire show, but she was! Her job was to wear the Viking helmet and carry the banner, not an easy assignment by anyone’s standards but she pulled it off with no trouble.

Other than that, I took a couple of trips for work, which included stays at Incline Village, NV (right on the shores of Lake Tahoe—which was absolutely beautiful, and my first time ever being up there), and another to Steamboat Springs, CO (which was my first time to Colorado since serving there as a missionary). Both places were gorgeous. The photo above is a shot looking down at Steamboat Springs from atop the mountain.

But now that the summer is ended and the luster is back in the sky, it’s time to build some jack-o-lanterns.