Richardson Report

Blogger drives me crazy by putting things out of the order I select them. grrrrr We have had a lovely month.  Kenna turned 13. We had a small party with a handful of friends.  We mailed Brynne’s Christmas packages.  We made a million loaves of pumpkin bread and went out to meet neighbors we haven’t spoke to before. It was so fun.  We took pumpkin bread or peppermint popcorn to ward friends.  I made things for Primary and the girls helped me hit up all our families with Primary kids.  We served a family who’s father had surgery for a brain tumor - so childcare, meals, and cleaning....plus arranging more of that from others since I’m the ministering sister.  We sent Brynne more presents because the first two boxes didn’t show up. The mission home brought them on Christmas Eve. Hallelujah.  Josh went to Idaho to marry his cousin.  Wait - to perform the marriage of his cousin.   😂. We got to watch online.  The Sants came for Christmas ...

 I think we're all ready to say good-bye to the chaos of 2020.  But I'd like to share a few of the good things that we've experienced this year. 1.  Nova.   No other comments necessary but 2020 started off with a beauty of a baby.  I'm so excited for everyone to get to meet that darling girl - and some of you to meet Keaton for the first time too. 2. Brynne's intermission.  While this was challenging for her in the beginning, it was really cool to have her in our home still in missionary mode.  Plus, it has made the entire experience feel that much shorter. 3.  Home Church and family time.  We had like a two month vacation where virtually no one wanted the Bishop.  It was a really precious time for our family to get to be together in a way we haven't been in a really long time.  No callings, school, sports, etc to interrupt.  I know there have been downsides and difficulties, but family time has been majorly upped.  Plus w...

 We had back-to-school photos taken...senior pictures for Logan.  Here are some of my favorites.  I loved our photographer.

For our birthdays this year we decided to sneak away for one night and do something we've been wanting to do since we moved to Grants Pass...explore some of the Oregon coastline. We miss the ocean so much, so it was really fun to soak up the sunshine and the beauty. I think the most fun we had was the dune buggy ride we did.  It was wild...like a roller coaster on the sand!  Definitely something we want to do with the kids someday. In Yachats we got lucky with a super low tide and cool rocks covered with anemones, mussels, and starfish just outside our hotel room. It was gorgeous! Happy Birthday to us....   Recently we discovered a new meatless meal.  Kenna read this is a cookbook and insisted on trying it.  Potato slices that are roasted in the oven and topped with a meatless taco filling (it's pecans!!), cilantro, and green onions - followed by the salsa of your choice.  It was AMAZING!  Poor Kenna made them for herself for lunch one day and we all g...

 There are two reasons I like to travel.  One, I like to see things; and two, I like to get away from normal life.  I'm always planning a road trip in my mind or contemplating possible places I'd love to visit, checking flights, looking at maps - this is what I do for fun.  But in spite of my passion for a good vacation, I also LOVE to come home and after a bit of time away it's something I desire.   Always, I want to come back home.  Is that analogous to our mortal journey?  Maybe!  I'll leave that to you. Recently our family was gone for 16 days.  That's a long time, especially considering we spent the bulk of the days in the car together driving somewhere (and the non-driving days were spent surrounded by lots of other people). Here are some thoughts from this particular trip: 1.  Water views trump all.  We rented a little house on a lake so we could play better (Bryan's idea) and the Robison's went in on that with us.  Waki...