a bunch of random things

 Ashley told me a few weeks ago, about an hour before school started, that she needed some salt dough that day. After telling her, "sorry, you should have told me yesterday," I decided to make some since it only takes a few minutes. It turns out, I was one of only three parents who sent in the dough. The class used my whole wheat dough to make the mountains. They thought the texture was great. I was glad they appreciated it since it was expensive flour :)

Here's the view of our walk to the elementary school in the morning. So beautiful, and even though I miss The Swamp like crazy, the huge open skies and the majestic mountains make up for our lack of beaches in the Rocky Mountains. 

 Like I said, I can't get enough of these mountains! Every day they look different. The other day they were floating in the clouds. Today they are speckled with red and yellow and orange.

When the clouds finally went away, there was SNOW on top of them! That's when I started to slightly long for The Swamp again.

Really bad cell phone picture of Ashley and I before heading to the General Women's Meeting. I love going to this meeting with her. Having the younger girls in the room with their moms really brings a warm, loving spirit into the room as we listen to life-affirming, uplifting talks together. 

 A few weeks ago Chris surprised us with tickets to a Jazz concert. Josh LOVES big band and music in general. Music moves him and speaks to him in a major way, so we thought he'd enjoy it. And Ethan is taking Saxophone in middle school, and thought he'd have fun watching talented people play his instrument in interesting ways. Unfortunately, it was on a school night and we didn't get home until about 10pm. Josh wiggled in his seat, moving to the rhythm, even when he put his head on my lap to close his eyes and take a small nap. It was great :)