Bryson's Fall Festival

Bryson's last day of school before Halloween they did a fall festival and invited Mom's and Dad's to join them.  So Connor and I went to hang out with Bryson for the day.  We got there just in time for popcorn and hot chocolate.  

 After our snack we headed outside to see the firetruck and Bryson was able to climb up on it.  Next we were off to the wagon ride, which was Bryson's favorite part.  Connor and I got to ride along too.  After the wagon ride it was off to the scavenger hunt where we hunted for different Halloween items.  Then they were off to play different carnival games.

After the carnival games they did some leaf rubbings and then were off to the playground.  Bryson loves riding the bikes on the playground.  He knows the rules and went straight over to the helmets and got in line to ride a bike.  Once he was on there was no slowing him down.  He went really fast and I was amazed that he didn't have any accidents with the other drivers.  They also had a little "gas station" where he would stop and pretend to fill up his "car" and then continued driving.  It was fun to spend the day with Bryson to get a glimpse of what he does while he is at school.  I wish that he would act more like he does at school at home. 

Halloween Party

We have a very fun halloween party that we have gone to for 3 years now and we LOVE it.  I haven't dressed up for halloween since high school until we started going to the party.  Now we can't stop thinking about what we can dress up as, and you will soon find out why.

Okay so totally random, but this was the beautiful sunset on our way over to the party.  Just had to share.

After eating some dinner and socializing we split up into teams and headed out on our "Road Ralley"/ scavenger hunt.  This was our team...

 On our hunt we had to find 10 items, get 10 different pieces of information and get 10 photos of our team and certain things.  Here are a few of our photos that we had to take...

Our team on a surveillance monitor.

At the cemetary behind the "Valley of Rest" gates trying to get out. 

 sitting on a speed bump

 and in front of the "casket house" in a certain neighborhood.

While trying to collect all of our items/pictures/information we had to "Road Blocks" where our whole team had to go in and participate in an activity taking away minutes of our precious time.

We had to stop and play bingo until a member of your team got a bingo.

 And we had 2 minutes to put this puzzle together as fast as we could.

The other 2 years we took first place, but this year we ended up coming in 3rd.  That just leaves room to improve for next year!!

A big thanks to our amazing hosts...

 Along with the Scavenger Hunt there is a costume contest.  Everyone gets to vote for their 3 favorite boy costumes and 3 favorite girl costumes.  Josh and I were really hoping to place this year and we did!  We took 3rd place!  And we don't get judged as couples either, but all the winners this year ended up being couples.  This is what we lost to...

  1st place

 2nd place

We had a great time and we can't wait for next year.  We are already trying to figure out what we want to be... any suggestions? 

Spooktacular

With Halloween being on a Sunday this year we tried to do as many things for the kids this year so that they didn't feel jipped for not being able to walk around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat.  So we went to the zoo twice (posted previously).  We went to our gym's fall festival event that I only got a couple pictures at when we went on the hay ride, but neither of them were good.  On Halloween Eve we took them to an event hosted by the library and other businesses around the community which ended with a comedy/ juggling/ ventriloquist show.  Everyone enjoyed it.  After the show he made balloon animals and swords for all who wanted them.

Trunk or Treat

That night we went to our wards Trunk or Treat and chili cook-off.  It was fun to dress up again all together as a family.  The kids enjoyed circling the lot of cars again and again until they were tired or the people ran out of candy.  It was a fun night.

Halloween Day

On Halloween we carved pumpkins with the kids.  We had a couple over for dinner too who helped out as well.

Bryson carving his pumpkin... I mean Josh carving Bryson's pumpkin with the design that he picked out while he watches.

Megan always enjoys drawing her own picture on her pumpkin instead of finding one out of a book.  This year her pumpkin was a princess.  She carved big hoop earrings that once she went to pull it out the whole thing came out.  So instead the pumpkin had ears.  She was sad at first, but in the end liked her creation.

This is what everyone else did... Connor enjoyed eating the pumpkin.  He threw a fit when I tried to take it away from him, so I figured what could it hurt eating a pumpkin? 

In between carving their pumpkins they would go hand out treats to the trick-or-treaters, which this year wasn't too many.  Either they all went somewhere else or they decided to keep the Sabbath day holy too.

We hope that everyone else enjoyed their Halloween events.

Since we all coordinated our costumes this year Megan was thinking about what we could be next year, she came up with Josh and I being a Farmer and his wife and then all the kids could be animals on the farm.  Cute, but I don't think that that costume will win us first place out our Halloween party.  So we are taking ideas, what should we be next year?  Something that is easy to make or create but is very clever... or out there.

Grandma & Grandpa

I took a long shot a few months back and invited my parents to come out for my Birthday... to my surprise and much appreciation they said YES!  They were only with us for a few days, but we will take what we can.  We spent our first day at the farm and then this is what we did the rest of the time.



Nature Walk

We went to a park around here and walked around in the beautiful fall colored trees.  We ended by playing on the swings.  It was really weird watching my parents swing, since I don't know if I ever have seen them swing.  There is a first for everything.

Abraham Lincoln

We took an adventure down to Abraham's birthplace and boyhood home.  We stopped at the library before we drove down to get childrens books about Abraham.  We read about him as a child being born in Kentucky and then when he was 7 years old he moved to Indiana.  We first stopped at his birthplace and saw a replica log cabin that they believe is made from the same logs as Abraham's birthplace home.  Then went and saw sinking springs which is always dripping water, which was pretty amazing to see since we have been in a drought.  Where does the water come from when it hasn't rained for months?

 Boyhood Home

Next we went to see Lincoln's boyhood home and were able to walk in the small cabin. It's amazing how small the houses were back then. So much less to clean. We also walked in the river that Lincoln almost drowned in when he was a boy. Yes, walked in since there was no water in it. I don't know if it is from the drought or something else.


The last day my parents were here we spent it at soccer games. Unfortunately they both played at the same time that they had to split their time between games and ended up not seeing Bryson play, but it was fun having them there cheering for the kids on the sideline.

Thank you Mom & Dad for coming out for my birthday to spend time with me and my family. It really means A LOT to me and we won't forget all the memories that we made!



A fun day!

The day started with breakfast in bed... not every day starts like that.  My parent's got in town the night before and my Mom was already up and trying to make the day special.  After breakfast we got ready to go to the farm.  This would be the one day that my sister and her family would be here and my parents and they both wanted to go to the farm, so to the farm we went... and we can't go to the farm without taking a couple hundred pictures.  So I will spare you from looking at ALL of them and only share the ones that I like.

Playing around

How do you get the apples at the top of the tree without a ladder?  We know.

Tasting the product. 

Connor LOVED eating the apples and would throw a fit if you tried to take the apple away from him.  We had to make sure that he had a good apple in his hand and not a yucky one picked up from the ground.  Megan and Bryson did a great job picking apples and loved getting the ones at the top of the trees.  Well Megan kinda freaked out, but enjoyed it.

 All of our visitors...

Trying to get a picture of my parents with all the grand kids... almost impossible, but I think that we got one.

After a day at the farm we went to BJ's to get my favorite meal, parmasean crusted chicken... Yummy!  We had a great waiter who surprised me with a pizookie!

After a delicious dinner we went home for some cake...

(better then you know what cake)

and pictures so I could remember everyone that was here for my birthday.  I don't remember the last time I had pictures of me celebrating my birthday.

It really means a lot that they all came all the way from Utah to visit us and celebrate my birthday!  Thank You for making it one to remember.

I also want to thank Josh's Mom for our birthday present.  It came a little after my birthday, but I was so excited.  I have been wanting a sofa table since we moved in, I just hope that I can decorate it and that the kids don't climb on it.   Thanks Mom!