Halloween

Happy Halloween. We enjoyed a beautiful, WARM Halloween this year. It was awesome. Plenty of leaves on the ground to crunch and no need for coats or gloves. Yeah! For some reason Halloween is my worst holiday in terms of picture taking. We had tons of activities - school parade and parties, Fusion party, Hawker family party, actual trick-or-treating. You'd think I'd have a few more pics than this. Maybe I just haven't checked enough cameras (we have a whole slew of cameras floating around this house) Suffices to say, they all had a great Halloween weekend full of lots of treats and a few magician tricks.

Sailor Girl

Self-made Peacock. This picture doesn't do it much justice.

Pink Fairy with her glow-in-the-dark mask. It wasn't dark enough to light up until about half way through trick-or-treating.

Lindz was Dorthy with Toto and Emi was a rockin' 50's girl. They did the double neighborhood trick-or-treating with their friends Ellie and Mia.

Pre-Halloween

There are a few pre-halloween traditions that we have in our family.

A visit to see the witches at Gardner Village - usually a few times

Making pumpkin or pumpkin chocolate chip bread, lots of loaves of that. Oh, so good.

And stomping through our neighborhood crunching through the leaves.  We love Autumn!

Batting Cages

Kayla chose to go miniature golfing and to the batting cages on her 'Date withe Dad' this month.

She has quite the swing.

And good follow through.  Aunt Ally would be proud.  The girls always love their 'Dates with Dad' and I love my dates with him too!

The Special Olympics and Bocce Ball

My dad and I went up to the U of U to help participate in the Special Olympics Fall Games and were stationed to work with Bocce Ball.  We were referees there and were able to experience what it was like to be around people who were happy all of the time.  No matter what happened in the game or whatever, the participants were always smiling and having a great time!  The two youngest players we reffed were really into the game and the boy got a little bit worked up when he got a penalty for stepping on the line, but he turned right back to normal after a couple of turns and was as cheerful as ever.  It was a very valuable experience for me and I will always remember the feelings that were there that day. It was a lot of fun and I was glad I got to do it with my dad.

Opening Ceremonies

TD Ameritrade is the main sponsor of the Special Olympics. This has given our family an opportunity to serve and participate in this awesome event. Tonight was the Opening Ceremony at Olympic Cauldron Park at the U of U. The girls were part of the High 5 Line to welcomed the Athletes as they marched in as teams.

Brenna and Gonzo, the Official Mascot of the Special Olympics. The Jazz Bear, Jazz Dancers, ReAl Lion, and U of U Band were also there.

The lighting of the Special Olympic Cauldron was a great moment. All of the athletes are so happy and excited. It just warms your heart and we were so glad we could be there representing TD. I had a woman come up to me after, with tears in her eyes, as she asked me to thank my husband and his company for all they do for these kids. She said Special Olympics has changed her son's life and is so important to all the participants. I echo her heartfelt gratitude and appreciate all the TD and their employees do to make these Games possible.

We leave you with a picture of Miss B with her new found friends, of course.

Reality Town

Welcome to 'Real Life'. Reality Town is a special program that helps 9th graders learn about Personal Finance and being successful in life after high school/college. The students were given a job interest test several weeks ago to identify some professions they may be drawn to. Jobs were then broken up into tiers and you were able to chose jobs within your GPA tier. Aubrey chose to be a Forensic Anthropologist. Doesn't she look great!

Each of the students were given a job, monthly salary, and family situation. They then spent the day creating 'their life'. Finding housing, transportation, health/dental insurance, child care if necessary, utilities, food/clothing and those infamous 'just my luck' experiences that just pop up in life. It was fun to see the choices they made, especially the kids I know personally. It gives you a little insight into their thinking and maturity. Aubrey was quite successful with her money management and ended the month with $900 left in her account, which she then donated to a charity. She will be a great money manager and it was fun to see her and friends in action.

This is the Place w/ Cousins

We literally had 'The Place' to ourselves. Here the girls are out plowing a field behind one of the houses. Em looks to be dancing more than plowing.

They also attended class in a one-room school house. Look at all those smart girls raising their hands.

Megan and Brenna writing down answers on the blackboards, no Ipads or smartboards here.

Anna, Em, and Lindz in fromt of the church.

Valient Saints, willing to make the journey West.

Temple Square

Barb and her girls came up to visit for their Fall Break.  We soooo love having them come!!!  Each day at lunchtime the younger girls got checked out of school for an afternoon adventure with their cousins.

Today we hit the Nauvoo Cafe (highly recommend), Temple Square and This is the Place.

Love this replica of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple

Emi, Megan, Brenna, and Lindz  in front of a Mother/Son statue and gardening cart as they were planting Fall flowers on Temple Square.  I wish those gardeners would come to our house.

Ice Skating

October 8, 2011


Brenna on the ice.   All of the girls had a great time ice skating with our cousins.

Kayla tumbling

Oct 6, 2011 Kayla roundoff double back handspring full

Aubrey Tumbling

Aubrey roundoff back handspring full October 6, 2011

Conference in Logan

Each year we drive to Logan during October Conference. The drive takes about 1:45 so we drive up listening to the morning session and drive home listening to the afternoon session. If we drive up on Saturday, we eat lunch at the Bluebird Restaurant on Main Street. If we drive up on Sunday, we have a picnic lunch next to the temple. This year it was Sunday - picnic drive.

We have always had this grass section next to the temple all to ourselves. The girls love to run and tumble and enjoy to view of the temple and valley below.

Oh, and eat lots of yummy food.

The Logan Temple has a castle like look to it, and the girls always ask why is doesn't have an Angel Moroni on top. As we drove up to Logan today, we were also able to stop in Brigham City, about 20 miles south of Logan, and see the new temple that is currently under construction there. The exterior was near completion and it reminded us of a small version of the Salt Lake Temple, though completely white in color. Many latter day Prophets and Apostles have prophesied that one day "temples would dot the Earth." We can literally see this prophesy coming to pass right before our very eyes. This morning during conference, President Monson announced the building of 5 new temples throughout the Earth - including the Democratic Republic of Congo; Paris, France; Durban, South Africa; and Barranquilla, Columbia...... The work of the Lord continues and will one day fill the entire Earth.

This is a plaque placed near a bench in our picnic area. Aubrey found it especially meaningful to her right now. It is a great quote and creed to live by.

Lunch is done and we now head to the Logan Cemetery.

Visiting Gram

One of the main reasons we drive up to Logan during Conference is to visit Great Grandma Zelda's grave. 'Gram' - my paternal grandma lived just a few miles from where we grew up. She was an extension of our immediate family and played a very big role in raising me and my sisters. She passed away just a few months after Emi was born. I was always very close to her and look forward to visiting her final resting place each year.

I don't know how unusual it is, but our family visits different cemeteries several times a year, and we feel very comfortable there. We tend to just wander and read all of the gravestones, trying to figure out how old people were when they died and putting all of the different family members together. Everyone has a 'story' to tell, and as a obituary reading, funeral attending, cemetery visiting person, I hope to honor those who have passed on, by knowing some of 'their life story'. I am excited about the new QR codes that are now being placed on grave markers and the ability that gives us to continue to learn from and about others.

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Our final Fall views as we part from Logan for one more year.

K Family Party

Present time. This was a cool puzzle of London with many of the sights she visited this summer.

Brenna was so excited for K to open her gift - a rubber duck for her 'big sister'

Kayla is now the proud owner of her very own Snuggie. Comfy and cozy she shall be.

Aubrey made one of her fanatastic cake creations for K, complete with 12 large marshmellows to match her party theme. It's been a good day.