House O' Sullivans

Here are a few November highlights: Casey took the girls to do baptisms at the Bountiful Temple and then out to breakfast. I was sick (and coughing for a couple of weeks) so I got to stay home with the younger kids. November marks our traditional family lantern walk. We make lanterns and then walk through the neighborhood with our lights shining in the dark of night. The symbolism is that just as the days get darker as we near the Winter Solstice we can bring our light (literal and figurative) out into the darkening world.  This year, we patterned our lanterns after the one that Sean made in preschool--mason jars covered with different colors of tissue paper and a handle strung with wooden beads. We left one of these lanterns on our neighbor, Linda Arbon's doorstep, filled with notes for her family after she passed away. Light. Sharing it feels right and good. This year, after our lantern walk, we gathered around our new fire pit for some more light. Poor Bear needed to wear the ...

In early October, wanting to soak up the fall colors in the mountains and the last of the warmer weather, I took the kids and Bear (plus our neighbor, Hazel) on a hike up Millcreek Canyon to Lamb's Canyon pass to see the leaves. We all had an assignment to collect every color of leaf with the promise of a worthwhile prize--a package of organic gummy bears. The intrepid (and speedy) hiking team near Lamb's Canyon Pass. Our voluminous and colorful mountain spoils: Lindy, posing with her formidable collection of splendorous autumnal beauty! Zeke, Sophie, Hazel, Lindy, Sean, Hallee and Bear Sean, with his little leaf collection Lindy had an assignment, given by her teacher, Miss Katie, to find some "Michaemas daisies," which she did near Elbow Fork. Having previously fished out and returned a shopping cart as a Family Home Evening activity, when Sean and I found this one on our regular morning walks in the Nature Park near the Waldorf school, we knew that we needed (and w...