Utah Fall

The past few years we have made it out to Utah for Halloween. There is something just so magical about Autumn in Utah. The leaves, the festivities, the crisp air and the list goes on and on. The main reason we flew out was for the Johnson's Pirate house that they put on every year. I'll blog about that next. Thankfully, in between rehearsals (ha), we were able to do some fun fall activities. 

Corn Maze at Thanksgiving Point

Niece & Nephew time

Clark was about to come out of school. I wish I would have filmed the look on his face when he saw his Uncle Shaun. He was BEAMING and then came sprinting down the sidewalk into his arms. 

One thing they don't do here in Florida is a Halloween parade at school. I had the best memories growing up doing these.
Thankfully they are still thriving in Utah. Cute little Pirate. 

Frolicked in the trees every chance I got!!

Did a lot of Fall Vignette's with Mom

Met up with one of my Photographer Idols. She is such a rockstar!

Shaun's college friends always go above and beyond with their themed parties. It's usually around Halloween. They are known for their mystery dinners where they dress up into character. Nobody will EVER top their Alice and Wonderland dinner. Their costumes that year still have me in awe. This year was a Haunted Mansion dinner. I kept scrolling through pinterest and saw a lot of options. I kept coming back to one costume though that just had SJ all over it. I knew that if we could pull it off, it would be EPIC.

THE TALKING, SINGING BUSTS!

 Two days of prep, but it paid off!

 It's always very hectic trying to juggle two families in one visit. We don't get to sit and talk as much as we like one-on-one with family members. We always try to make an effort to get together with Shaun's brother and his wife with no distractions. When Shaun is with his brother, it's just a night full of laughs the whole time. 

I just had to document this. After a semester full of feeling like a major failure in my Statistics class, I finally got an A on the final and I was in completely shock. I couldn't say anything. (Thanks Kristine, for being the smarter sister & being my tutor)

Gorgeous walks with Dad

 One last breakfast date with my favorite boys. Following that breakfast, they drove me to a few of my favorite boutiques and let me shop. They are the best! I remember we laughed a lot that morning.

October BFF Visit

Before Jenny had even made it to Indiana, we made her commit to a trip back to see us. How did we do that? We made her buy a ticket to see Tim & Faith in Tampa. It was a perfect (fast) weekend. It was a very hard October and having her smile back with us was therapeutic.  

They are SO perfect. 

See the couple sitting behind us? They yelled at us every time we would stand up to shake our tail feathers (everybody else in the theater was standing). It was like they thought we were at a symphony or something! 

IRMA

When we think of fall 2017 we will now think of one word: IRMA. 

It's crazy to look back at how it all played out. At the time it was such an emotional, scary (weird) thing. Now when I look back on it, I see us counting our blessings, praying, and serving friends and strangers. 

A week before the madness broke out, we were at dinner with a bunch of friends. We were talking about the path of the hurricane (which at the time was very far from even thinking about hitting us) and what we would do if it ever came over our way. That was all hypothetically speaking of course. Just days after that dinner, we were hauling hurricane shudders up our stairs and preparing to leave. 

Props to SJ who did it all by himself with no complaints.
This is definitely a 2-3 man job and took him hours to cover our sliding door.

Leaving the state was scary. Part of me thinks Shaun kind of liked it. He was living the scenes from the 'end of the world zombie' movies that he loves (haha)

So many feelings:

First, a weird humbling feeling going through all the belongings you have fortunately been blessed with. Trying to decide what means the most to you or how much of it can fit in your car. Planning and positioning the belongings that you are leaving in the house and hope the way you positioned them can take a potential hurricane. 

Next, a devastating feeling seeing countless car accidents containing totaled cars that were full of people's sentimental treasures. Twice we witnessed someone rear ending someone else and just keep driving on, not caring to stop. It was mayhem.

Then, feelings of fear seeing sold out signs at gas stations or hearing people plead with others to take only what they need. So many cars were stranded on the side of the road with no gas. 

 BUT most importantly, the feeling of happiness and gratitude receiving texts and calls from friends and family offering their homes to us all across the country. As we approached our hotel that first night at midnight, (8 hour drive turned 14) we were singing one of our favorite hymn lyrics:

"By day and by night, His presence is near." 

We felt watched over and had made it safely to our hotel in Georgia. 

Before our time in Florida, we lived in Alpharetta Georgia. It is a city just 20 minutes north of Atlanta. I have a few cousins and an aunt that lives in Georgia as well. Shaun and I were blessed with the kindness of some former ward members. They took us in so that we could let some of our friends go stay with my cousins. I don't think they realize just how grateful we were to be under a roof with people that we love.

How did I not get a picture with the Miskin family?!
Their cute son Sam will have to do..

We tried to keep ourselves away from the news as much as possible by doing some of our favorite Georgia things that we used to do. We joined up with some fellow evacuees and showed them our old stomping grounds. Stone Mountain, Roswell Mill, Pepperonis & naps under our favorite tree.

After a few sleepless nights of watching the news, IRMA finally hit. We gave a prayer of thanks that it wasn't as bad as people were saying and then we were on our way back home to serve. Unfortunately everybody else had the same game plan and the traffic was HORRENDOUS. It was probably worse going home than it was driving to GA. We decided to stop in Orlando and let the traffic die down a little bit.

Gast stations were still closed so we were able to use our gallons that we had stored on top of our car. 

Since we were in Orlando waiting in Limbo, we decided to hop over to Disney World. 

We finally made it home to assess the damage. Our apartment building didn't have power so our kind friends took us in for a few days. 

A lot of delays to our new build. 

 The next few weeks, church was cancelled so we could all go out and help our community. It was an amazing opportunity to bond with some fellow ward family members and meet some new amazing friends in need.

A septic tank had overflowed in the debris we were cleaning up.
We tried to make some tongs...

My most favorite friend I met was a guy named Jim. He has been an artist his whole life and runs an art studio above his garage. He constantly was offering us chairs, water, and even his air conditioned home to take breaks in. When he was showing me his art studio for a second, he asked me to tell him about the "Latter-day Saints." I was able to share my testimony of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ (which we had in common). As we were leaving his garage he said "I am so glad God sent you guys to my home." That sentence kept me going the rest of the day.

September was such an insane month. However, as I opened up my camera roll of pictures, the good came pouring in. It consisted of friend reunions, a safe evacuation, disaster relief efforts and strangers becoming friends. This disaster brought so many people closer.