November 2025!

On Saturday, November 1st, Casey took Zeke and joined several Abstract Masonry Restoration employees at the Trinity AME Church on 600 South in downtown Salt Lake to replace 9 window sills. They volunteered their time and Casey donated the materials. The old original sandstone sills were deteriorating and every time that Casey passed the church, he wanted to do something about it. He arranged to do the work with Pastor Jackson and this was the day.

The old Trinity AME Church, built in 1909, with her new stone window sills.

Casey with Kevin, a member of the Trinity AME Church congregation. Kevin, a member of three choir, helped them all day long.

Kevin with Zeke at the AME Church. They have 3 more window sills to replace along with the cornerstone, which Casey will hand carve and install next year. Pastor Jackson invited our family to attend church services and we did in mid-November. We all loved being there with them!

Newel and Maya came over on November 1st and we took the kids on a spontaneous outing up to Paka's penthouse mausoleum at the Wasatch Lawn Cemetery where Newel and I shared stories about our dad with our kids. It was a sweet experience.

That night we met up with the extended Sullivan family clan at the South Jordan homestead for a Dia de los Muertos celebration. We had a Mexican-themed dinner, an ofrenda, a piñata, and, of course, a family "Halloween" dance complete with Ilean's fog machine.

Ready to party it up at the Sullivan family Dia de los Muertos party. Zeke gets the prize for looking the most excited to be there!

Casey, making us all nervous, stringing up the piñata.

Lindy, dressed in her Air Force costume, taking a swing at the giant taco (because you need more candy the day after Halloween when the Switch Witch has hauled all of yours away already). 

Sunday, November 2nd, Sean got to be one of the witnesses at his friend, Barrett's, baptism. He took the invitation seriously. That was really cool!

Another Mountain Monday hike with Carlynn, Sheleen, Shannon, Kirsten and Jen.

Lindy on her first day of school back at Wasatch Charter. After our other carpool driver, Katie, decided that the commute was too much up to Park City, I was overwhelmed with getting the kids back and forth to Volo on the daily with all of the other things going on. I realized that every dream that I could remember over the past few weeks had been an anxiety dream. Not good. We decided to put Lindy back at her old school but they didn't have a spot for Sean so he gets to be homeschooled for a while. All things are as they should be. Sean is improving so much with his reading, writing and math and actually loves homeschooling.

Sean on a Mom field trip to the Hogle Zoo.

Sean, checking out his wingspan.

Sean, wrangling a rhino at the Hogle Zoo.

Homeschooling is the best!

I dropped Sophie Gene off at the SLC airport on November 6th for her 6 day trip to the NJCAA Nationals in Fort Dodge, Iowa. She travelled with the SLCC XC team and had a blast!

Lola, Sophie and Amerika in the SLC airport.

The girls SLCC XC team in Iowa with Coach Griffin Humphrey's wife, Courtney Frerichs (a 2020 Olympics silver medalist).

Sophie and Nicole, making headlines on the SLCC XC Instagram page.

On Friday, November 7th, Casey and I took Lindy and Sean up to the Garff Ranches schoolhouse for the Volo lantern walk. It was lovely. We shared a potluck meal, walked down into the aspen grove with our lanterns along a candle lit trail and listened to the songs the children had prepared. The imagery is of us bringing our lights into an ever darkening world (as the winter solstice nears). So many good people. 

Lindy and Sean, singing songs of light with their Volo classmates.

Arthur Morris asked Lindy to engineer some steps for the little schoolhouse, which she and Casey (and Sean) did. We installed them that night before driving back to Salt Lake.

Sophie's first race was the 5K on Saturday, November 8th. It was snowing in Fort Dodge, but Sophie raced well, placed 30th and was named an NJCAA, Division I All-American. 

Nicole and Sophie after the snowy 5K championship race in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

On November 11th, Sophie competed in the NJCAA, Division I Half Marathon Championship race in Fort Dodge, Iowa. She came in 25th. It was her first ever half marathon race and we are so proud of her!

The SLCC XC team half marathoners.

Casey with his business partners, Jamie and Kevin, and most of their employees at the annual holiday dinner party, this year at the Gathering Palace at Gardener Village. It was a fun night!

Sean joined the ladies for a Mountain Monday hike to the Bear Canyon suspension bridge with Bear.

Sean, posing after a 100% accurate spelling test.

Mountain Monday with Kimberly, Carlynn, Sheleen, Kirsten and Lauri.

Our annual "Friendsgiving" dinner at Lauri's house. Natalie, Sheleen, Erin, Lauri, Jen, Carlynn, Shannon, Sarah, Kirsten and me.

Casey, Sophie and I got to go to Girard Bellezatin's sealing at the Orem Temple. We loved being there for that and being with the Bellezatin family. It is such a beautiful temple. I love the art, the rich colors inside the temple and the cherry blossom motif with the faceted cherries incorporated into the stain glass designs. It is stunning.

Doug and Casey on a morning trail ride with Russell and Oskar.

Mountain Monday on the front of Grandeur Peak.

Hallee and Sophie, giving Zeke a "warrior" cut while referencing a YouTube instructional video. They did a great job and Zeke looks hip and handsome, as usual.

On November 26th, Sean, Lindy, friend TJ and I hiked Frary Peak (elevation 6,596 feet) out on Antelope Island. There were hundreds of black beetles on the first part of the trail.

Besides hordes of beetles, we saw a bighorn sheep and a large herd of bison in the distance on our way up to the summit.

It was a magnificent day for hiking. The biting bugs have all died off, the sun was warm and the views from Antelope Island are incredible.

Lindy, TJ and Sean on Antelope Island.

The kids loved looking at the reflection of the mountains in what's left of the Great Salt Lake. The views are surreal out there.

Lindy, writing our names into the summit log book at the top of Frary Peak.

"We have made it!" We are keeping up on our hike-a-week training plan to get ready for our family trip up Mount Kilimanjaro next month.

To make hiking more enjoyable for the little people, I cast the hike as an adventure, promising that we'd scout out the bison herd, use our binoculars to scan for animals and collect some brine shrimp to take home with us.

The kids got in the zone on the way down the trail and ran most of the way back to the car. To make it even more fun, I threw in a trip to the movie theater after the hike. We watched the new Zootopia 2 movie at a theater in Layton on our way back to Salt Lake.

On our drive out to the main road from the Frary Peak Trailhead, we got to witness the herd up close.

We drove to another larger herd that we'd seen while descending the last part of the trail. TJ took these pictures.

Dinner at a Thai restaurant after the movie.

The next morning we met up with our Sullivan family and my cousin Craig to run the Human Race, a Thanksgiving morning 5K benefitting the Utah Food Bank.

Craig with Sophie and Hallee near the starting line, ready to run it like they mean it.

Doug, Ilean, Sean, me, Eisley, Casey, Meg and Lindy before the 5K started.

I ran with Meg and Lindy. They cooked!

Sophie and Hallee paced Craig to his new 5K PR.

Hallee in flight on the home stretch! This girl was born to run!

Hallee was the first female across the finish line. I heard the announcer call her name and ask her to describe the race as Lindy, Meg and I passed the start line partway through our race. Hallee crossed, then Craig, then Sophie. They are all so fast!

The whole team after the race.

One of the highlights of this year's turkey trot--a showing by Craig Aagard Anderson!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at the Sullivan homestead in South Jordan. Roy got out his giant potato guns and I brought the one that I built 25 years ago (Roy revived it with a new sparking component). That was a fun was to spend the afternoon--blasting potatoes into the vacant lot across the street. 

Casey, showcasing my vintage "Spudzooka 2000."

Some of the many things we're thankful for this year!

The day after Thanksgiving, we had planned to go harvest a tree up in the Uintas but the permit that the Millers gave us was for a location about 2.5 hours drive away. We weren't feeling it and opted to walk to the Cummings tree lot, located in the Big Cottonwood Regional Park. Sean was hobbling, still sore from the 5K the day before, running like an old man down the street. He made us all laugh. Zeke brought a football and we threw that back and forth along the 1.5 mile walk to the park, stopping to run through a giant pit in a vacant lot and play on the new playground in the park. Zeke was hobbling too because of the inflamed growth plates in his knees. We dubbed him the Unified QB for the family football  team. We cross-fitted the tree home, carrying it in 2-person, half-mile shifts with a short stop at the McDonald's on the way home. It was a blast. Simple, but so fun to all be together and the morning sun was warm even though it was chilly. 

We made all of Friday a family day, decorating the tree and the house for Christmas. Sophie and Hallee made several kinds of Christmas cookies and we ended the day with two back-to-back Christmas movies--It's a Wonderful Life and Home Alone. We will be in Africa for Christmas so we need to live it up now. We've even staged a faux, early Christmas for the weekend before we fly to Tanzania.

Our day-after-Thanksgiving Christmas cookie fest!