NeverBored in October

October 2021 was another memorable month, filled with activities to keep us busy, just the same as every other month! Some family, some church, some nature, some food, some service, some learning, and even some frustration. Fortunately, we enjoy our opportunity to be on earth at this time, and are grateful we get to share it with you. Here's the recap of memory making moments from this month.

Jonathan Dickinson State Park - We have now "finished" exploring this wonderful state park. On to the next one - Atlantic Ridge Preserve. 

Juno Dunes Natural Area - A beautiful area with access to the Atlantic Ocean

Vivian A. Ferrin Memorial Park - Because this park is next to an elementary school, and uses the same parking lot, it's not available during the day. We visited when it "opened" at 5 PM, walked around the ball fields, and left as kids were coming for baseball practice.

Golf - I played my first-ever "real" golf at the three-hole practice course at John Prince Park. We did it three times for a total of nine holes. Does that count as a real round of golf? Whether or not it does, it was an absolutely gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun, even if we lost track of how many strokes we took. (Although we tied each other on one hole at only two over par, on all the rest there were too many to count.)

DuPuis - We hiked the bike trail, and while we had a nice time, I don't know that I'd recommend it for bikers!

General Conference - While we thoroughly enjoy watching general conference in the comfort of our family room, our home ward had an ice cream social before the Saturday evening session, and the decision to get dressed up and attend was worth it. Hooray for ice cream, friends and creativity!

Branch Conference - We enjoyed having our stake leaders visit our little branch, and Wayne gave a great talk using thoughts from President Monson, Elder Bednar and Elder Renlund, and his own example of forgiving his roommate's girlfriend 490 times.

Temple Visits - Three more Friday trips to the temple allowed us to complete 12 endowments, 14 initiatories, and 16 sealing ordinances of our own, in addition to helping others with some of their sealings.

Sophie's Wedding Open House - So much fun catching up with friends we haven't seen in a while!

La Fogata - We've been here before, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but this visit was because it came up as the next restaurant on our Wellington list. For some reason, it's listed twice, so we'll be back sooner rather than later. That's okay, because the food is delicious!

China Dragon - This month we had teriyaki chicken sticks and plain fried rice for our take-out dinner, which we augmented with some leftover vegetables to make the meal more balanced. A half-gallon of rice is a lot for two people! We added salmon and mixed vegetables for another dinner or two, it took the place of Mexican rice for our burrito bar, and the last bit turned into a pork casserole. Good thing it's so versatile.

Kaluz - Elizabeth was intrigued as she passed this restaurant on the way to church. We've been wondering about it since it opened over three years ago, so we finally decided to stop imagining and just go inside. The food was delicious, albeit not inexpensive, and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner.

Steak Meatballs, Shrimp and Goat Cheese Flatbread, Scallops Pomegranate, Ahi Tuna with Quinoa Medley, Cedar Plank Salmon, and Chilean Sea Bass. Can you guess who ordered what?

Basiico's - We finished the pizza creations and so started on the sandwiches. One (with a side of fries) provides plenty of food for two people.

Home Repairs - We started the month with the truck in the shop because it's air conditioning wasn't working properly. Third time was the charm, but now the brakes need to be serviced. Then we had some water issues - an obnoxious noise when dispensing water from the refrigerator, a leaky kitchen faucet, and a sprinkler station that wouldn't turn itself off. So annoying! Unfortunately, round one of diagnosing and trying to fix each of these problems wasn't super successful, so these tasks will continue into November. Not our favorite way to spend our time, but at least it keeps us from being bored!

Adding a turn-off valve behind the fridge was successful, although not without multiple trips to the store, and some grumbling over why the builder didn't do it in the first place.

An additional October chore - trimming the palm trees.

Sam's Birthday - We were invited to Sam's 9th birthday party, with pizza, s'mores, and knight-themed activities. Lots of fun!!

David's family's visit - Family visits provide the very best memory making moments - at the pool, the beach, and around the house.

And Happy Halloween! We hope you get to enjoy some yummy treats!!