Fall Break 2026

 This year for fall break, we opted to stay close to home. The kids have been so busy with school plus we were gone most of the summer so it was a nice break. U had the first week off which was wonderful. We enjoyed some family time. We played pickleball and Terraria, watched movies and shows and ate muffins and pancakes. Matthew started driving on highways and clocked a lot of hours including 5 hours on the day we drove to Tucson. A favorite drive was going by three airports on one drive (Phoenix Sky Harbor, Mesa Gateway and Chandler Regional). Megan and Matthew enjoyed playing Napoleon in Europe with some friends.

We did the UK Yum box. Overall, it was a win!

Matthew, Me, Megan and U at the Tucson Temple. Matthew baptized all of us which was cool.

We went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch after the Tucson Temple.

The next day, we went to the Mesa Temple where Matthew again did the baptisms. Megan and Matthew went to the Gilbert Temple a couple days later so they visited 3 temples in one week!

We ate lunch at Kneaders afterwards.

We finished our Pandemic Legacy game. We started it in January 2018!

We did well!

We went to some friends' housewarming party where we had a nice time visiting and playing some games.

Megan playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Megan won Rock, Paper Scissors and U won the spelling bee (which was a mix of easy words, hard words and slang).

We put together a magic puzzle.

With the magical rearrangement.

We built Sherlock Holmes Legos together using the Lego Builder app. It was quite enjoyable. We had anticipated each having our own part of the Legos to build. However, in practice, it had us build a little and then pass what we were working on to someone else so there was a decent bit of interaction.

U was the king, Matthew was the astronaut, Me was the robot and Megan was the cat.

Finished set

There's the villain!

Sherlock's office

The Legos fold up like a book. This is the cover.

We were given lights to go with it. Here the set is with the lights on in book form.

Opened up with the lights on.

Matthew made pumpkin pie.

We went to AZCEND on Thursdays.

Matthew helping to unload food.

Cheryl, Matthew and Megan

Megan and Matthew had band camp for 8 hours the second week of break on Thursday and Friday and then had their first competition on Saturday.

Collage from the competition. Megan is upper left and Matthew is lower left.

U and Me were prop holders during the competition due to the wind. It was an interesting experience to be a part of the show, especially once the prop moved forward and the marchers were playing right in front of the props. This is a picture of Me as seen from U's prop.

Matthew demonstrating that he can still read in interesting positions.

Me, Megan and Matthew on a walk.