October in Vermont

We are still enjoying the fall leaves. Don't you think these leaves look like flowers? Our Bishop and his family just made a quick trip to Utah for their daughter's wedding and back. They said the fall leaves were beautiful in Utah and along the way, and they wondered why Vermont is SO famous for its leaves. When they got home and saw the brilliant RED leaves they remembered why. In Utah and surrounding states, they saw beautiful yellow, gold, and orange leaves, but they didn't see red leaves (like these) until they got back home to Vermont.

We are just beginning to put up Christmas lights. The tree just to the left of the lift is the one we are decorating first. We spent all morning working on this tree, and then took these pictures right after lunch. We spent the entire day and were only half finished with it. (Of course we are still learning)


Elder Charchenko works the lift from inside the basket. In this picture he is standing right behind the controls. He enjoys working with all kinds of machinery and has had a lot of fun with this one. I guess you could say HE IS LOVING IT! It was fun to spend the day working together. The lift works like an arm. From this basket he can drive the machine around down on the ground, raise the arm, extend the arm, bend at the elbow and wrist, swivel right and left, and rotate the bucket. It's amazing how well he can operate it. Can you imagine what Suzy and Alan could do if they had one of these?

This is what we look like at work. You can see a bit of the shop behind us. It has been getting a bit cold (especially up in the air) so I am wearing thermals. We just went shopping yesterday and bought new thermals, Smart Wool Sox, gloves for Mike and an insulated sweatshirt with a hood. THE SOX ARE GREAT. Thanks Jeremy and Erin for telling us about them.

Hope everyone who reads this is well and happy, and doing great. WE ARE! Love you all.