Beautiful Fall

Dear Family,
We have been enjoying beautiful fall weather.  Our temperatures in the daytime have consistently been in the 70's with only a few cloudy/rainy days now and then.  Almost every day I check the weather in all of your cities on my phone and it seems like everyone has had wonderful weather.  As I speak, I just checked my phone and it is already dark and cloudy in Erie and 52 degrees!  I am always surprised when I see sometimes our temperatures are close to that in Roseville and other times closer to Calgary and Erie.  I understand our temperature is going to plummet this weekend so our cold weather may be just around the corner.
We had such a fun trip to St. George over what Utahns call UEA weekend when the kids were out of school September 16 and 17.  Greg had to travel for work so Kristin and their children drove down with Scott, Dad and me.  We all stayed between Amy and Zach's, Magleby's and a hotel they are affiliated with.  We saw the "Little Mermaid" at Tuachan - a beautiful outdoor theater at the base of the mountains just outside of St. George.  I have always wanted to see a production there and it was amazing!  It was incredible what they were able to accomplish with their scenery, sound effects, etc., not to mention the talent of the performers.  We look forward to going back...Zach had to work and so Amy took us to get acquainted with the city: we toured the old tabernacle and Brigham Young's home, walked around the temple grounds, visited a children's museum and cooled off at the city splash park.  We also took time to visit a large pumpkin farm on our way out of town.  We returned on Friday so we could make it to the BYU Homecoming game on Saturday.  Sadly, BYU isn't doing their best at football, but we still enjoy going to the games.  We "tailgated" - had dinner from the back of Kristin and Greg's car before the Homecoming game.  While we were eating Tom and Karen Fife along with Julie and her new husband parked close to where we were.  It was fun to see them...As you probably know, Tom and Karen moved to Provo the beginning of Sept. just after Julie's reception at their home.  Chad and Christy Rowan bought their home...It is fun to have them here.
Well, I have to bring all of you up-to-date on the latest "happening" in our home.  A week ago last Monday in the late afternoon while we were preparing for our "Empty Nesters" group to come for a family home evening,  I went downstairs in the basement and just happened to walk by the bedroom where the king bed is.  I heard water dripping and went in to see what it was.  Water was dripping from the ceiling over the crib and in the corner under the window.  I could see where there was water damage in the ceiling.  I called Dad to come and look and he found that the carpet between the bed and the closet was also soaked.  Come to find out, water had frozen in an outside pipe leading to an exterior water faucet and the pipe had burst causing a leak.  Also, it seems when the brick was laid a pipe had been shoved to such an angle that the water couldn't drain anyway.  Dad could probably give you a better explanation, but the "long and short" of everything is that we had to move all the furniture out and have a restoration company come and take up the carpet and pad, tear out one wall, part of the ceiling around the edges and some baseboards.  They placed fans in the room to dry everything out.  It seems the pad will need to be replaced but the carpet will be alright.  Everything is dry now and a company is coming tomorrow to replace the wall and ceiling.  We are hoping to everything in place when Jenny, Todd and family come for Thanksgiving....we will see.  It seems there is damage to the headboard and two nightstands.  So, we may need to replace some furniture....I am just grateful we found the leak when we did and that we have been able to get things taken care of.  It seems that our insurance will pay for most of it....Thankfully, we only had to have the water turned off for a short time and it came back on just in time for our guests to arrive for our family home evening.  We were blessed - we had a lovely evening and no one knew what had happened!
We are busy....I take Grandma to an institute class every Wed. morning and I'm working with Aunt Becky on some family history and  going through  a lot of Grandma's boxes, trying to organize things while she is still with us and can help. Dad still works as a sealer in the temple on Wed. and Saturdays. We love being close to Kristin and Greg and being able to help out with Jacob and Eliza.  They both keep us laughing!
We love all of you soooo much.  I loved reading Kevin's last post...What a trooper you are, Lizzy!...Tyler, too!  Keep up the good work.  You will both be good hikers like your parents!  We will watch for Emily on TV! 
Come and see us!  We look forward to having Jenny & Todd and their family for Thanksgiving and maybe Amy and Zach if they can come.  Any of you are welcome whenever you can come...
                                                                       Love, Mom