The agony of defeat.....

Our last regular season game was against Colorado.  All we had to do was win this game, have Cal beat ASU and USC beat UCLA and we would be the southern division champs and play Oregon for the PAC 12 title.  Colorado has only one conference win and had not won on the road in 25 games.  That all came to an end....we lost 17-14.  We had a chance with three field goal attempts, one being with 14 seconds left in the game and we missed everyone of them.  What made it even harder was Cal beat ASU and

USC beat UCLA.....I feel so bad for the players and coaches. 

The positives in the game was that Griff had a 29 yard punt return and a 7 yard return.  And we do get to go to a bowl game......so glad we didn't have to end on this note.  Still love those "UTES".

It was so fun to have Jessica, Jennifer, Michael, Mike and Natalie at the game.

We are ThaNkFul....

       "Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are."

I love this quote and we have so much joy!  We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  We have a wonderful family, two beautiful grandchildren, and the Gospel which makes sense out of everything we do. 

We went to Griff and Whit's again this year.  Utah played on Friday so Griff had to go to film at 2:30 pm on Thanksgiving and then to the Hotel.  So we had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night.  Whitney is so kind to invite us and do the majority of the cooking.  It was so so good!  We just ate, hung out together and watched a movie and just relaxed.  It was wonderful!

 This is our Thanksgiving feast....doesn't it look good?

 Erin, Whit, Bill, Austin, Josh, Jordan and Griff.....

 Jordan showing us his gangster moves...

 The after dinner nap...Roxy was lying by Austin and moved when I went to take the picture.

 Luke, Erin, Kenneth and Dexter.

On Thursday, the boys went to grandma Cindy's to spend the night.  The team had a dinner at 5:30 and they invited the families to it.  It was fun to be there with Griff and his friends.  Erin was so excited to see all the receivers that came to our home this summer.  They are all so kind to her and take time to talk to her and give her a little squeeze.  We are so blessed and so very, very Thankful!

GAme 11....Utah vs Washington St.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....this is the 2nd game with snow.  We are getting to be pros at dressing for it though so no worries!  Since Austin's team lost last week and weren't in the State Championship game, we left Friday morning for Spokane.  We had to leave Poky at 2:30 am to catch our flight in Boise.  We hit a hugh snow storm right outside of Poky and it lasted until Jerome.  At times we were going 30 miles an hour.  We left home with only 4 hours until our plane left.  I didn't think there was any way we were going to make our flight.  We drove into the airport with 45 minutes until our plane left and we made it.  Whew....I'm sure glad we did because we had a wonderful time.

Friday we did a little shopping....I know hard to believe!  We also got to go see Nathan in his high school play "Oliver".  He did such a good job.  He was a natural on stage. 

Saturday, Brian came with us to the game.  We knew it was going to be snowy.  At the start of the game, they had plowed all of the snow off of the field.  We didn't get much snow the first half.  The team went into the looker room for half time and boy did it start to snow.  By the time they returned to the field, we had 1 1/2 to 2 inches of snow.  It was crazy.  It was good for us.....we won by 3 points in overtime.  Whew...we dodged that bullet.  And the funny thing.....after losing our first 4 conference games, we actually could go to the PAC 12 championship game.  We need to win this weekend, Cal needs to beat ASU and USC needs to beat UCLA.  Don't have to guess who I will be cheering for....GO UTES, CAL and USC!

Kathleen, Nate (the Artful Dodger) and Brian.

Grandma Seppi is staying with Brian....it was so good to see her.

Yes,  we do look like it was cold, don't we!

Go Griff!

This picture was in the Salt Lake Tribune...so grateful that Sister in the red hat was in front of me!

The half time snow storm....

Happy and warm....

Hey grandpa....where's Mindy????

After we won, some of the pkayers were making snow angels in the snow.

Another great win for the UTES!

There is a "Wrastler" among us......

We have done gymnastics, trampoline, football, basketball and track for years.  Who would have thought that we had a "wrastler" among us!  Josh decided to go our for wrestling this year.  He started a couple of weeks into the season so this week was his first match.  I was so PROUD of him.  He had only practiced 4 days before the match.  He fought so hard.  He lost the match  but never let his opponent pin him.  He really likes it. 

GO JOSH!

Nervously waiting his turn....

Boo to YOU......Happy Halloween!

This was the first year that we had no one in our family age eligible to trick-or-treat.  Let me explain.....my mom ingrained in me that trick-or-treating was for little children and when you reached Jr. High you were too old.  A little hard for our children to grasp so we decided to have a "Family" Halloween party....especially since Halloween fell on Monday, Family Home Evening. 

Everyone was so excited! :) Okay, maybe not that excited but we did have fun.  First of all we carved pumpkins, then we bobbed for gummy worms in whipped cream, then we played "eyeball" toss with ping ping balls into a basket of candy, and then last but certainly not least, we decorated cookies. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Carving Time

Jordan made this hand at school......he thought he would scare his dad!

Hummmm....what does the knife mean????

Do you think we believe you carved this.....NOT!  Go Utes!

Jordan thought this up all by himself....

The knife again?

Moe snuck in for the party...

A happy pumpkin...and a knife...

 Never dreamed I kiss someone so ???? (cute).

 Finding those worms...

 Austin refused to participate and you see what happens!

Everyone loves to decorate

Our only Trick-or-Treaters......Princess Kira and her friend Neleah.

Kalli, are you sure you want HIM to hold you? Caitlin, Ryan and Kalli, the cutest bumblebee ever!

Game 10....Utah vs UCLA

Our first cold game of the year.  I pulled out the "old" sweaters for Whit and I to wear.  Seriously, these are the warmest sweaters ever.  The one I wore was one that my mom knitted for Kurt 44 years ago when he was in the 8th grade.  When Austin saw us, he asked us if we were going to an ugly sweater party.  Whatever....we were warm and we didn't care!

The game was awesome.  UCLA came out for warm-ups in polo shirts and no under armour under their jersey's.  I thought to myself, "Are you kidding me!  Didn't  you get the  memo that it was suppose to snow?"  And snow is what it did.  By half time they were all bundled up in coats and gloves.  Maybe they were just trying to intimidate the Utes.....didn't happen.  The Utes had control through the whole game and another "W".  WOOHOO!  GO UTES!

Here is our "cute" sweaters.  We actually had someone tell us that when we went to lunch!

Let it snow....Let it snow....Let it snow!

There's Griff warming up....maybe warm isn't the right word here....

Griff serves in the Young Men's in his ward and he invited some of the boys.  They love it!

It's Hard to Believe.......

This had been a magical season for the Rams.  They were undefeated in the regular season.  They won their first playoff game against Meridian.  It all came to an end Friday night when they lost to Eagle in the semifinals.  We had to play at Eagle even though we were undefeated and they had one loss.  I never can understand how Boise always gets home field advantage but nonetheless it wasn't a good night for the Rams.  We didn't play our best game and Eagle played really well.  The final score was 42-14.  That wasn't the hardest part for me as a mom....it was watching Austin hang his head in the final minutes knowing how sad he was that they lost and that this was his last high school football game ever.  He has been so much fun to watch and we are so proud of him! 

                  That's our boy #20.....We love you Aust!

Game 9...Utah vs Arizona

The weather had turned cold in Idaho....we were so excited to go to sunny, warm Arizona to play the University of Arizona.  Not to be, the temperature was in the 60's and very windy.  But, we won't complain because we came away with our second PAC 12 win.  It was so fun to see the Utes put an offense together.  Griff had another great punt return that set up a score right before half that gave us the momentum going into the second half.  

Gary and Jan Johanson and their daughter Jyll and her husband Nate came to the game. Also David and Roxanne came so we had a great cheering section.  It was fun to be all together rooting for the Utes! 

Hummm...somebody caught up on their zzzzzzz's on the plane (:

The University of Arizona Stadium

Whit's roommate McKenzie who lived is Arizona came to the game with us.

Gary and Jan......the typical Gary look!

Everyone's happy with a win!