Wendy

Hi Lingos,

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We are finally living in Utah and are thrilled to be home. It's so nice to have family nearby. We love our neighborhood. Living within walking distance to school, church, the temple, and shopping has been so nice (although having a Target so close is breaking my budget!). It's a very active community with miles and miles of paths for biking, running, roller blading, and walking. I went to DI and bought all my kids roller blades for 5 bucks and we've been having a great time! There's a beautiful lake to go boating, and we keep discovering all sorts of parks. We love it!

Uprooting our family from the South and moving across the country was definitely daring, but we feel like it was the right thing and the right time for our family. We enjoyed stopping in Nauvoo on the drive out and seeing the historical sites. Our kids have made friends quickly at school. My kids are in year-round school, so they had most of October off. We filled our time going on mini field trips with my mom. We visited Sweet's Candy Factory, Thanksgiving Point, candy shop in Alpine, Cabela's, visited a rare coin store, aquarium, Gateway children's museum, etc. My kids really enjoyed visiting Grandma and picking grapes, apples, plums, and raspberries. Lucy taught us how to make grape juice and applesauce, while Grandma made a plum kuchen.

Emilie is about to turn 12 and enter the Young Women's program. I'm so excited for her--I loved YW. Elisabeth had a big birthday party where the girls decorated cakes and did manicures. She and Alexander are signed up for the Junior Jazz basketball program. They're also going to take ice skating lessons. They're very excited about the snow, although I have not missed the snow one bit these past 13 years in Georgia. Benjamin is busy collecting pennies on the ground to put in his penguin purse. He loves riding his bike and I'm glad to have him as my side kick. Justin is doing well and is in India this week on business. With this uncertain economy and his company's restructuring, we are very thankful he still has his job, and that they didn't mind us moving.

Love, Wendy and family