September 2025

September has been a lovely month, with great weather as usual this time of the year. Here are all the photos and videos.

We stuck around for Labor Day Weekend. On the holiday, we took a little trip to Sterling Forest State Park, where we haven't been in a couple years. It has a really nice visitors center overlooking a beautiful lake and some remnants of 19th-century  iron forges scattered around the forest. We did a partial walk around the lake (Alex didn't have 4 miles in him for the whole thing).

The weekend after Labor Day, we had a mini vacation planned to a nice beach on the NewJersey Shore called Ocean Grove, about a 2 hour drive away. Part family vacation, and part 10-year anniversary celebration. We stayed at an AirBnB  just a short walk from the beach. This town is known for its Victorian houses and Methodist history. Incidentally, the restaurants don't serve alcohol, which makes it a family-friendly destination. We enjoyed just hanging out at the beach, walking along the boardwalk, and eating at the local restaurants. It's been several years since Alex has been to a real beach (the last time was Jones Beach on Long Island). So he just loved standing close to the shore and watching the waves come in, although he didn't want to get more than his feet wet. On the boardwalk, we found an arcade museum that was really interesting. It had old pinball and arcade games from the 1920s and up.  They all worked and you could play them. We stayed there for 3 nights and it was a nice little getaway.

Other weekends this this month, we visited Lake Minnewaska for a short hike, where we saw a porcupine and early signs of Fall. And as per annual tradition, all the farms around here open up for corn mazes, hay rides, and other harvest events. So this year, we went back to Pearson Farm where they have  lots of fun stuff, including some slides that Alex likes. A good time as usual. 

Rob: Toward the end of the month, I had a work trip planned in Houston. I decided to visit family in Salt Lake on my way out that direction. So Friday I arrived in Salt Lake and stayed with my dad at my parents house in Murray until Monday, when I continued on to Houston. I had a really nice time mostly just visiting and hanging out with family, including eating at Cafe Rio, hiking to Primrose Overlook near Timpanogos to be immersed in peak autumn colors, going to the neighborhood/ward chili potluck, watching the BYU game, hanging out and my sister's new house in Heber while celebrating some birthdays, and checking out my brother's home renovations on his house in Salt Lake. It was all time well spent. Then I spent a couple days in Houston with my colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine for our annual lab retreat. This is the fourth time I've attended. I work for 2 professors there, who are married and both have big active research programs, with a total of about 20 students, postdocs, physician-researchers, and other research staff. I stayed at the home of the professors I work for in their guest room this time, and they welcomed me with a nice dinner and conversation. We've dealt with a lot of changes with research funding and visas this year because of the federal government, and the worst may be yet to come, so there was a lot to talk about. And as always, we have a lot of projects ongoing and planned to discuss. They have a new puppy that became my best friend, it just followed me everywhere when I was at the house. For those two days, all the lab members got together to give presentations on their research or workshops, including me. So it was a good chance to catch up on what everyone is working on and exchange some ideas. I always have a good time going to these, I like all my colleagues and enjoyed time with them, including going out for dinner. They are all incredibly smart and hard working people, who will go on to great things. I took a late night flight home, and it was good to be back.

Becky:  Fall is my favorite time.  As mentioned, we like to fit in hikes, visits to the farms, and lots of apple cider donuts.  Alex and I enjoyed this last week with just the two of us (Rob was in Utah/Houston).  I always enjoy time with my buddy.  I figured out the secret to getting him to hike/scooter with me.  I first have to find a playground with a merry go round.  Alex can literally spin forever without getting dizzy.  I let Alex spin for a while, then hit a nearby rail trail in Goshen, which he is reluctant to leave the playground for.  But when we start heading back, he has no problem zooming on his scooter to get back to the merry go round.  I get winded trying to keep up, but it's a good workout. 

Alex and I especially enjoyed going to Bear Mountain State Park.  I can get him to scoot around Bear Mountain because there's a lake with a paved trail around it, and rocks to climb on nearby.  I also got him to help me pedal on the paddleboat.  When Alex was first diagnosed, he and I had to live away from Rob 5 days a week so he could attend his ABA program in the Hudson Valley.  It was definitely hard at times, but I also enjoyed exploring the Hudson Valley with my little buddy.  So any alone time I spend with him reminds me of those days, which were tough, but also special.

The other notable events this month were that Rob and I have been taking classes to do foster care respite.  We're not sure what that will look like and will tell you more about that later.  That's kept us busy and top of that, we just found out Alex's ABA program won't accept our UHC insurance starting January.  So we'll be dealing with some big changes.  Once we figure out where Alex will continue to go to get ABA, we may start providing occasional respite for kids in foster care- so lots of new things on the horizon.  I've also got Alex doing homeschool ABA on Fridays, which is going well so far and am trying to stay involved with canvassing, protesting or any forms of activism that might make a difference during these very troubling times.  More on all of that next month:)