Northern Peaks and November

A few things we need to cover:

• Peaks- We have been so blessed to be a part of Northern Peaks these last several years. When it started, it seemed like a great deal vs paying for other clubs. Then we were lucky to get Darin as a coach and he has been so amazing, kind, generous, and impactful for all the boys. McCoy and Ben are the only 2 boys left from when we started several years ago. Many new faces have since joined, but they have become friends and it will be fun and sad to play against them next spring in high school soccer. Cass has been the team manager this year and has spent a lot of time with Darin scheduling games and talking through issues. She is co-running things with Megan Black. The 2 of them wanted to have an end of year party after the final practice of the season. It has been a great season. I smoked some pork butts, and they brought a bunch of treats. Darin had awards for all the boys and it was an awesome night. 
• Sun Set Hills 2nd Ward- We love our ward. We've been here for 14 years and have become great friends with so many people. Recently, we learned that our Stake was going to reorganize. All the wards were going to have some change. A new ward was being formed. and all the bishops would remain in place. We've been nervously speculating as to what would happen. Our ward is shaped weird and there were MANY scenarios that would move us to another ward. We were SO relieved when we all got pulled together for the Stake meeting to learn that our ward was almost untouched. We just picked up 10 additional houses in our ward at the top. It was an amazing and happy night to learn that we got to still be with all our friends. Having the Stake President in our ward sure came in Handy!
• I wanted to comment on Quaid and how big he is getting. He is so smart and funny. He tested the highest in the 1st grade on this last round of standard testing. He is crazy smart and an amazing reader. He is getting great at figuring things out, so he is great at Lego. He has a huge heart and often wants to give gifts to others. He makes awesome perler bead creations. He gave one to everyone that came to his birthday. He also made one for everyone in his class and decided that he wanted to sneak into the classroom during lunch and surprise everyone with one on their desks. We love you Quaid!
• Cass and Marshall had a little date night. There is a guy in Lehi named Shawn Johnson that we follow on Instagram. He was doing a stand up comedy night and the 2 of them went. Marsh had a great time!

Moab

 What an amazing trip to Moab! Tylers family wanted to go down and test Tayts new 4 runner. We made a great trip out of it with Mike and Dylan, and Stee and the Roses. It was the 1st time all 4 of my boys came with me and it was awesome. 

We headed down on Friday night. Because we had a bunch of cousins with us, we traded places in the cars the whole way down. Saturday morning we grabbed breakfast and did Hurrah Pass and Chicken corners. We had a fun time at the wind caves and hanging out on the trail. Bridger drove a lot on the way out there and McCoy drove some on the way back. We had recorded the BYU game that day, so we went back to the hotel ate Pizza and watched BYU get wrecked by Texas Tech. 

Sunday morning, we checked out and headed near Arches for Klondike Bluffs trail. We had all seen a video of someone doing it and thought it was an easy trail, that ended up being a LOT bigger and funner than we had thought it would be. There were several nerve wracking parts, but we all made it out with no injuries and some great stories. Maybe we should just move to Moab...

Halloween

We had a busy Halloween Season. 

• We rode the Halloween Cruise in Provo. which was pretty fun. They ramped up the lights and decor this year and it was really warm. 
• Our church did the Day of the Dead, chili cookoff again. the kids did a lot of activities around the church, Cass and I hung out with the Parents. Bridger and a couple of his buddies were the judges for the Chili and McCoy helped out at the Haunted Maze. 
• Cass went to the class parties for the little guys on Halloween.
• Bridger hung out with his buddies on Halloween night.
• McCoy and his friends went trick or treating then hung out at our house and watched a movie.
• Marshall and his buddies were all Gatorade bottles and went out together. They joined me for the 2nd shift.
• Quaid and I went with Tyler and Quinn and Quinn Jenson. It was a great night and we got a TON of candy. 

In October

•  The 4th grade had the Mountain Man Rendezvous. Cass went and helped. Marsh won the rope pull contest
• BYU played Utah. For some reason, I got it in my head that everyone in the ward would want to get together last minute, even though it was a home game, for a BBQ and to watch the game. It was a HORRIBLE idea. The roses came for a bit and Tyler and his boys came. In the end, we had a great time watching the game in the drive way. 
• Cass and Andrea and their cousins got together for dinner. They don't get together often, so it was great for them to hang out and catch up.
• Cass and I went to the Eric Church concert with Bryan and Shawna. Brian sometimes gets KILLER pricing on tickets and got all 4 seats for $20.  We weren't close, but we were in the building!

Fall Break

 We split our family up for Fall Break this year. Bridger had the ACT on the Saturday of Fall break, come on, who scheduled that???? (Edit- he got a 24. great job B!) So Cass took the other boys down to St. George for the week. They went to Vegas and saw the M&M Store and the Coke Store. The Leifson's rented a condo down there that had a WATER PARK as a part of it! It was awesome and they had a great time going down the slides and surfing on the flow rider. 

Bridger and I did get out on an adventure, we went to Antelope Island. It was super cool. We hiked around, went to the old ranch, climbed to the tallest point, and saw lots of bison. Then we came back down to Utah county and had dinner at PF Changs.

On Sunday we took family pictures with Betty Tollman, then on Monday, I took the day off and we all went to SLC. We went to the church history museum, which was awesome. after TONS of years, they are taking out the hall of the prophets, so that was good to see. It was a good intro and prep for our church history trip next year. We had lunch at the Pie, which we all liked, and then we went to the cemetery to find the graves of most of the prophets. President Neilsons stone was already set. 

Fall Sports

Fall sports are always a fun time.

• Quaid played soccer. He had a lot of fun, but did miss many games because he kept getting sick this fall. He's come a long way and wants to play like his older brothers. 
• Marshall played NUCS Soccer with a new team called the "Warrior Panguins." Coached by ParkerColtrain's dad, Dave. They had a great season and are a great team. We're excited to see where that goes. Marsh also played flag football and was coached by Nick Sorenson and had a lot of buddies on his team. They were a great team and he had a lot of touchdowns and pick 6's. He was awarded 'Can't stop dancin Hansen' at the end of the season. 
• McCoy's peaks team had an amazing season and moved up to P1, which is as high as they can go. He played center mid and had a good season despite getting over his sickness. He also played flag football with his biddies. Theey won all the games they were able to get most of the team there, but there were several games where only 4 boys could come becuase of other fall sports.
• Bridger played Tennis in the fall with his friends and entered a few UTR torunaments. He is having a great time plating tennis. He also reffed a lot of soccer games and it was fun to see him at Marshalls game. 

The rest of a busy September

 In addition to fall sports and fall break, we had a busy September. 

• We went to a walk with Christ at Heber Valley camp. Bridger had already been so he stayed home and watched a sick Quaid. It was so awesome to experience. We all had headphones on to block out noise and play the audio with music and excerpts from talks. Favorite parts were reading all the notes people had written that Christ would say to them if he were with them and seeing all the amazing pictures of Christ as we walked. 
• Cass ran all the way up to Brigham City to surprise Raquel for her birthday at the temple- amazing gesture- par for the course for Cass
• We had the Hansen Ice Cream Challenge for Labor Day. Derek hosted. I'm happy to say that we brought the trophy back home where it belongs. This year we had an awesome Biscoff custard that was killer.
• Cass had her Birthday. We were planning on celebrating at her favorite place- Park City, but we still tried to make the day great, we failed. She went to lunch with Shawna. Quaid got sick again and threw up a lot, Landon was in town and we went to my parents house and ate with them instead of going out to eat...I'm sorry, Cass, I'm glad we got to make it up to you with Park City!
• Tyler had bought tickets for his family for the Ohana festival. I was super jealous having wanted to see Eddie Vedder my entire life. We had tired in the past but the show got canceled during covid, then again in Vegas when someone in the band was sick. Even though he wasn't with Pearl Jam, it was still awesome. I didn't know a lot of the songs he played with The Earthlings. still great show and great time with Tyler, Tayt, and Derek.
• Bridger, McCoy, and I went with Derek to a Real soccer game.