Punkin'

Maize Maze

Topher's one Fall goal was to visit a corn maze. On Friday, we made his dream come true.

Costumes and Candy

We attended our first Halloween event of the year last night. We went to the annual Boo Bash at Bryan's work. Then, instead of grabbing Wendy's to eat on the 45 minute drive home, we stopped and had fancy Italian food from a restaurant that had an impressive gluten free menu. It was a late night, but a really fun one.

I think the costumes turned out quite well this year. Phoebe curated hers and helped with Sophie's. I made Topher's out of unused pizza boxes, duct tape, a dryer vent, and glow sticks. Oh, and an Amazon box for his hat and tissue boxes for his feet. Those came off quickly, I'll need to tinker with my design.

Feeding a Small Army

Before he started his mission, Cooper asked if we could hold an open house so people from church could gather to say goodbye to him. I've never done something like that (Peter's missionary experience has been very different, so we've experienced a lot of firsts with both of them) and felt a little daunted by the request.  But I told him I'd think about it. His buddy Spencer was set to go into the MTC the week before Cooper. Since we would largely be inviting the same people, we decided to combine our efforts and hold a joint open house. She provided the German food (Spencer was called to Berlin) and we brought the Brazilian food. It was an interesting culinary juxtaposition.

I cooked for two days to be ready. I now can successfully make pineapple-upside cupcakes, sequilhos, and Pao de Queijo. I made so many batches of that last one that I memorized the recipe. We also took a veggie tray and a fruit tray. Bryan cooked a big batch of Brazilian steak and cut it into bite-sized pieces. He also made all the food signs in German and Portuguese.

We had nearly 100 people RSVP.

I would guess that about 75 actually came.

I didn't take a single picture of the people because I was on my feet chatting with people for over two hours and didn't even think of it.

But I did  take pictures of all the food before anyone arrived!

Even though they went in a week apart, they still found each other at the MTC and took a picture to send to their moms!

Into the Unknown

On Wednesday morning, Cooper enjoyed a pancake breakfast at Nana Shari and Papa Ron's house,

repacked to include all the white shirts and the white pants he'd gotten the day before,

stopped by The Missionary Mall to buy a few ties (not pictured), drove to Provo for lunch at the new Creamery on Ninth at BYU,

drove to the MTC drop-off spot in the parking garage,

said one more round of goodbyes,

and went on his way.

We miss him, and I've cried a few times since he left on Tuesday morning, but we're so glad that he's chosen to serve a mission.

The Day Before

Cooper and Bryan spent most of Tuesday traveling to Utah. I think the best part of that long day was getting to hug family once they arrived.