After a smoky and brutal summer, we are glad that Autumn is finally here. Almost instantaneously, the temperatures during the day struggle to climb past the mid 80s, and at night the temperature dips into the low 50s. Although a bit later compared to last year—I assume from the severe drought—the trees in the canyon are finally changing to their fall colors. Oklahoma football, fly fishing, and gumbo are all in store for the season, and we are ready for it.
Like most of this year, with the difficult adjustments to our new home during the COVID pandemic, life has been even more of a challenge over the past few months. Nat and I vastly underestimated how much our lives would change with our new puppy, Bixby. And for a while, there was serious debate as to who was the true master of our home. Nevertheless, persistence appears to be prevailing, as we have made great efforts to be more obstinate than the little puppy. He bites far less, rarely piddles on the floor, and can now join us on the sofa with his bone or chew toy. We have also learned that Bixby loves playing in water, and will lounge lazily in the river when taken there. As the picture shows, he is growing to become a big dog. He is slowly mellowing out but is also hitting his "teenage phase", where he uses all 18 muscles in his ears to actively ignore us when we command him to do something.
We visited Logan over the Labor Day weekend and plan to visit again in October. It is cooler there, and even with school in session, the town wasn't nearly as busy compared to where we currently live in the Utah Valley. Nat and I have mutually decided that we will move to Logan, and are making plans to move there next year. It's a quiet college town and a bit more "our speed". The plan is for me to attend USU as a full-time student and for Nat to work as a fully licensed therapist. Please continue to keep us in your prayers, as we want to buy a house in Logan. However, due to the absurd housing market, it will be very difficult for us to seriously consider purchasing a home if the market doesn't cool off dramatically.
Nat's dad and bonus-mom visited us for a week this month and we enjoyed their visit a great deal. We took them to Communal, one of our favorite local restaurants, and we went up the canyon to fly fish a couple of times. We were skunked each time, but with the views we had, there were few complaints. Some complaints, yes, but few.
Yesterday, Nat and I put Bixby into doggy daycare for a few hours while we had a date in the canyon. We went fly fishing—which is quickly becoming our favorite hobby together—and had a picnic. We're trying to create some semblance of normalcy in our lives, and a date was long overdue for us.
As I wrote earlier, this year has been a challenge for us. But we're learning to lean on each other and lean into God during the midst of it. We're very excited for our move to Logan, and feel this year has been a "stepping stone" of sorts to get us there.
With Love,
Ben
