Halloween Fun!

It's Halloween time! Our crew this year consisted of a Hippie (Aubrey); Alice in Wonderland (Kayla); Purple Princess (Lindsay); Minnie Mouse (Emily) and a giraffe (Brenna). Click on the picture to see how happy that giraffe is. This is the warmest Halloween we have had in our 10 years in Utah. It was 72 degrees when we headed out to go trick-or-treating. Robert wore shorts and no one needed to worry about a coat. We had our crew and Emma & Kenley with us, and we went all through our neighborhood. Brenna understood the concept a little better this year. Last year, she wanted to stop, sit down, and eat each piece of candy when she received it. This year she didn't sit down on any porches to eat her candy, but she did still try to go inside some of the houses she was familiar with. We just had to get a picture of her from the back. She was a very padded and wide giraffe and drew many laughs as she walked away from doors. It was fun to see all the girls have such a good time together.

Autumn Sunrise

So we are not really nature photographers, but we do try to appreciate the great outdoors. We don't see the sunrise as a family very often, but we were all able to enjoy this one out on our driveway in our pajamas. Our house sits in a good location to see the sun rise in the East and set in the West. This was a great pre-Halloween orange/black sunrise, and the beginning of a beautiful day. The beauties of this Earth God has created for us are awe-inspiring.

Grandpa's Funeral

Today was my Grandpa's funeral. It has been an emotional time. He was 89 years old and had been living in a care center in Fallbrook for about a year now. Ten days ago he had a major stroke which left the right side of his body paralyzed. His health continued to decline and he passed away on Friday. His wife, Jeannette, (who is pictured with me below) was with him, as well as his 3 children and some of their children. I flew down 'solo' Sunday morning to be with the family. We spent the days leading up to the funeral reminiscing, remembering, and reflecting on how he had touched so many lives. Because I was doing his eulogy, I did some reading on his family's history and listened to countless stories about his life prior to my first memories of him. I was so grateful that I could be there, and spend this time with my family. There was a spirit of unity within us, and I rarely get to spend that type of one-on-one time with my parents and Barb. That aspect of the trip was just the best! A very big thank-you to Robert and my neighbors, for holding down the fort in South Jordan, and also to Ally who held down the Holt & Williams forts in Arizona, allowing Barb to travel out early. Though it was hard to see Grandpa go, I feel peace and comfort knowing that there is a God, and that He does have an eternal plan for all of His children. "God Be With You Til We Meet Again".

Hawker's Party

Our family loves going to the Hawker's annual Halloween party. Rachelle always has the house all decked out, games, prizes, trick-or-treating areas, good food, and great company. The kids kept asking, "When are we going to Hawkers, is it time to go to Hawkers"? Six o'clock did eventually come and we were off. The bottom picture has our family photo. Brenna wasn't to sure about the giraffe head. It seemed to be limiting her vision. We had a potato and nacho bar and headed outside for backyard trick-or-treating. The picture below shows our favorite station. It was a table with a box on top. You can see Aubrey's reaction (& Rachelle's in the back) when the hand reached out of the box. We're not too into scary stuff around here, but we made it through. The girls also liked the cupcakes Becca made for decorating. Pile all the green frosting and toppings you want on your cupcake, that's their kind of decorating. We had such a fun night with the Cains, and the Hawkers, and their extended family. We love you guys, and can't imagine Halloween without you.

$9.99 Dinner Deal

Today I went to the store (Macey's) and got a sweet dinner deal. It's a 6 lb. Stouffer's Meat Lasagna, a loaf of french bread, Dole salad mix, and a half gallon of chocolate chip ice cream for $9.99. I thought it was quite a gonga ('deal') so I thought I'd share. Here's my picture before ripping everything open. Sorry, I don't do those fancy dinner pictures like the food blogs. Bon apetit!

Part II
Okay, we've finished dinner. I'm just wondering if we're the only family that spills a drink at pretty much every meal. Tonight it was B with her milk. I know my Dad had a problem with that when he was a kid, so maybe it's hereditary.

Forever Strong

Robert and I aren't big movie buffs, but we do see a movie here and there. We've probably posted about every movie we've seen in the theater in 2008, and I think this would be #2 or #3, so we do try to choose carefully. This movie did not disappoint. It is a true story, based on a high school rugby team here in Salt Lake. I'm definitely a non-fiction type of person who likes movies that are REAL, so this was a good fit for me. All of the experiences in this movie DID happen, just not in one season. I liked it, and I think the group of friends we went with liked it too. Let us know what you thought of it.

Witches Day Out

Every fall we like to go to Gardner Village to see the 'witches'. They display tons of unique witches throughout the village and it's so fun to go out and see them. This time we did a 'witch hunt' where we wrote down the location of each witch we found. It was fun to find then and much, much easier than Itty Bitty Salt Lake City. The weather was just perfect for an afternoon stroll with the
Hawkers, hunting for witches. The girls really like the witches playing baseball, the witch riding her bike over the pond, and the purple witch that lifts the bottom of her dress and three cats are running in circles around her legs. With 7 kids and a stroller, keeping tabs on everyone through the crowds was sometimes a challenge. Cade and Brenna were good little buddies and usually stayed together, which made it easier. Rachelle and some of the kids made their way through Sweet Afton's Candy Shop with yummy treats for everyone. She's a braver woman than I am. We even found some cool witches hats of our own. It's a tradition we love and a fun way to celebrate Fall.

October 12th = Snow ?

We love living in Utah. We love real seasons where you have a spring and a fall and a summer and a winter. But, this may be a little much. We woke up this morning to a couple of inches of snow on our grass. Wasn't the official end of summer less than three weeks ago? The leaves haven't even fallen off the trees yet. But with snow, comes happy and excited children, and that we had. They all have new snow gear this season
(your sister's snow gear from last year is NEW to you this year, right?) and they were ready to go. I was quickly reminded how long it takes to bundle them up. Those of you who live in the snow can relate. In fact, Emi has a book about a boy who puts on one piece of snow gear per page, and on the last page, the bell rings to come in from recess. It's kinda like that. But we did it! Here's B - finally headed out the door.

Leven Thumps

Are any of you familiar with the Leven Thumps book series? It was a series I had heard about, but was not familiar with until recently. Our school reading specialist, who is very passionate and dedicated to her work, arranged for the author of this series, Obert Skye, to do an assembly for our 3rd - 6th graders. It was such a great assembly. He had an amazing ability to connect with the kids and they were fully engaged in what he had to say. He taught them about the writing process and about doing your very best at whatever you chose to do. He talked about his characters, and his life, and about believing. Here we had a gym full of hundreds of students all dressed in their pajamas, due to a Red Ribbon Week activity that day, and you could here a pin drop during his presentation. They were so drawn in to learn about writing from a person who's writings they've read. It was neat for the students to be able to meet and really see the person behind the books. After school, he stayed to sign books for anyone that had brought them. I think the kids will always remember that they've now met the author of the Leven Thumps series.

Annual Logan Trip

We have a lot of traditions in our family. One of those traditions is to drive up to Logan (near the Idaho border) on the first Saturday in October to visit Grandma Zelda's grave. It is a beautiful drive as you go through canyons covered in trees with fall colors. It also provides a good opportunity for us to listen to the messages of our church leaders during General Conference without all the distractions of a Saturday at home.

This was the first year we have made the trip in the rain, so our visit to the cemetery was a little shorter than normal. The girls enjoyed walking around and looking at the different headstones and thinking about the lives of the people buried there. We can't believe Grandma Zelda died over four years ago. We can still hear her gentle voice and see her loving eyes in our minds. She was an amazing women of unusual strength who was a wonderful example to us.

As is also tradition, we ate lunch at the Bluebird Restaurant in Logan (the picture is from the back of the restaurant which is not as inviting as the front on Main street). Over 80 years ago, Zelda used to go to the soda fountain in the Bluebird with her friends as it was the 'local hangout' in town. Even after all these years, it has still retained it's charm and we enjoy going there and picturing what it must have been like 80 years ago when Gram used to go there. We are glad that the Bluebird is still around and we can experience it with our girls.

Emi wins the Race!

This morning was the Fun Run at school. It is an annual tradition where each grade level has a mile or half-mile race on the road in front of the school. The older girls, who you know like to run, have been looking forward to this event for some time. Emi mentioned to me a day or two before the race that she hadn't been training, and the only running she'd done was between our house and a neighbor's house. I reminded her it was just a 'Fun Run' and she could just run for fun. Mom likes to run for fun.

Well, she ran and she had fun and she came in 1st place for Kindergarten girls, with a time of 4:22 (4 minutes and 22 seconds). In fact, she almost beat Zach, who won the boys division. You should have seen her go. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the police were not able to shut down the road in front of the school until after the Kindergarten race, so they ran twice around the perimeter of the school, most likely more than half a mile. She was, and still is, elated about her win. It looks like we have another runner in the family.

The other girls also ran in the Fun Run. I was working at the event, so I didn't get any pictures of them. A very nice Mom emailed me the cute picture of Em. Lindsay came in 2nd Place for 2nd grade girls with a time of 4:00 even in the half mile. You go Lindz! Kayla had an amazing come from behind victory TIE for 1st place with her very good friend Gracie. They finished the mile in 7:11. Those of you who have seen Kay race know how she takes off like lightening at the end. I honestly can not keep up with her final sprint. Aubrey also ran the mile in lightening speed with a time of 7:22. One of her close friends, who beat her for 1st last year, finished this year in 6:45 and did not place in the top 3, so there are some very fast 6th graders out there. As always, I'm proud of the girls for running and doing their best, but I'm especially proud of who they are and how they carry themselves in competition.