October Recap

How is it the middle of November already? Where did the last two months go? How is Thanksgiving just a week and a half away. Good news is Black Friday is almost here and we can't wait for that! But before November is gone I thought I'd recap October.

We started the month in our favorite way. General Conference weekend we spent at a cabin above Sundance Resort. My mom's employer owes a couple of cabins and is generous enough to let us stay a couple of times each year. Because all my siblings are out of state we got to invite Mark's family to join us this time. We were able to catch the last of the fall colors. How would you like this to be your backyard?

Saturday morning we found a surprise.  Our little niece was getting ready and turned around to find this in the bathroom.

So Mark's Dad came to the rescue

And we released Mr. Bat back to his normal habitat

These three ladies were the lucky ones to share a bedroom with Mr. Bat

Paige, Carole, and JaCee were much braver than I would have been.

The rest of the weekend was not so exciting.  Just wonderful food, lots of family and sitting by this

watching General Conference.  It doesn't get much better than that!

The next big event of the month was the Stake Road Shows.  They had the youth in each Ward in the Stake perform a 12 minute skit.  Jessica was one of the sheep and delivered her line wonderfully!

We found some time during Fall Break to squeeze in our annual trip to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point

And even had Mark join us for a picnic lunch!

The girls were brave and concurred The Beast!

I was happy to stay outside and wait with John.





The kids had a blast on all the rides and I spent a lot of time watching them play. I'm still dreaming of the day when I can walk and stand without being in any pain.  Hopefully that day will come soon!

But the kids still had a blast even though we didn't go through the main corn maze this year.  Sorry we missed Larry Miller's head.

And of course we finished the month off with some pumpkin carving.

Our friend Lori came over and joined us one night.

And we got them carved in time for Halloween!

Here is our crazy bunch getting ready to head to school for some parties!

Happy October!!  Thanks for a fun month.

Happy Halloween

Mark was busy at work one day and created this.

Happy Halloween!  Love Us!

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The Pumpkin Patch

Grandma Pat has started planting pumpkins every year in her garden.  For the last several years we've been able to get pumpkins from her patch.

She had a good crop this year, even if they are small.

Ashley and John were our official pickers.

And we had enough for her, us and several others.  Thanks Mom!

Rocket Launcher

We have an amazing Primary Presidency.  They decided to have a Primary Carnival and the kids were able to earn tickets by saying their prayers, having Family Home Evening, etc.  They were very generous and my kids averaged about 50 tickets a week.  Our kids looked forward to it for weeks.  The day finally arrived and they were not disappointed.

The snow cones were a huge success, especially since it was a warm afternoon.  I was grateful my kids earned so many tickets so I could "borrow" tickets to get a snow cone myself.

But the biggest hit in our family was the rocket launcher.

Powered by the children's force.  They got to step on the 2 liter bottle which forced air through the tubing and launched the paper rockets they made.  Even Mark got into this event.  I've never seen him so excited about a project.  They determined we had to have our own.  So the next morning they headed to Home Depot to get the supplies and came home and started building.

All the kids got to help make it.

And the loved constructing it with Dad.

Somehow I don't have a completed picture (I'll post later)  But it is just as much success at our house as it was at the Primary Carnival.  Thanks Christensens for the great project!

Jessica's Birthday Party

Jessica fell in love with the movie Hairspray, so she decided that would be her birthday party theme this year.  We bought cans of hairspray and wrapped these invites around them.

I've never been very good at back combing hair, but we tried our best to get some lift in the girls hair dos.

We gathered all the makings for a really good movie night

And added a few friends

And I think the girls had a great time!

Hopefully we didn't annoy the neighbors too much.  This is what Mark thought of all the noise of a house full of tweens!

And that his oldest is turning 12 in a few days.

The next day we stopped by the mall for her birthday present from us.

Pierced Ears!!!  She barely even flinched when they did them.

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Jessica!

Costco

Dear Costco,

Normally you are one of my favorite places to go to.  But since I have becoming walking impaired I cringe at the thought of visiting.  Seriously, you only have 3 electric carts and 1 of them was broken today.  Macey's has 4 carts and they are 1/4 of the size of your store with much fewer people wanting to use the electric carts.  The only thing that made me continue on my voyage into your store today was the fact I had to pick up the birthday cake. And must they be in the farthest spot in the whole store.  I may have purchased more items if I could have been without pain in your store.  But no, as long as the Boot is on I will have to avoid your store.

All I can say is thank goodness Mr. Lortab was waiting for me at home.

Sincerely,
Walking Impaired.

Singing In The Rain

Last Sunday we had an awesome thunder storm.  We had sent the kids outside because they wanted to bounce a ball and it was driving us crazy.  About 15 minutes later we heard the thunder and rain come.  When we went out front we found the kids playing in the rain storm in their PJs

But we could not stop them from having fun.

Mark decided to teach them "Murder in the Dark" how he played growing up.

When a car came down the street they would yell murder and drop to the ground.  If you get caught in the headlights of the car you are out.

The next day I found out the neighbors behind us could hear our kids out front.  It was one of those magical nights you could not take away from the kids.

Farmers Market

I had been wanting to go out to the Farmers Market at Thanksgiving Point for the last several weeks, but with my foot surgery I hadn't been able to do much walking.  Last Friday we finally made it, with a little help from a wheelchair.  It was a bonus week because the En Plein Air festival was going on.  En Plein Air means "in the open air" used to mainly describe painting.  They have artists of all kinds come and paint all week all over Thanksgiving Point and they display what they have painted and sell some of their work.

Mark said to have the kids wear shorts because there was a water feature they would love.  Jessica didn't believe me, but in the end she loved it as much as the other two.

They were all dripping wet after playing.  They got to pull levers and it squirted water out of different spots.  They loved hiding on one side and waiting for a sibling to walk by and soak them on the other side.

It was a challenge to try and stay on him after getting wet.

But in the end I've decided taking children to the Farmers Market is not beneficial to me.  They got wooden swords (which I'll probably regret) and birthday gifts for friends and in the end all that was left was enough money for a cupcake to share.  I really wanted some of the jewelery, but I guess that will have to wait for another time.

Saturday night Mark and I went to Salt Lake.  Okay, I wanted to go to a friends get together in Salt Lake and I needed a designated driver since I'm still taking some strong meds at time.  On our drive up past the Point of the Mountain we saw this

There must have been at least 50 hang gliders.  In all the years we have lived here we have never seen that many at once.  This picture doesn't even begin to show how many there were.  It was awesome to watch.

And to thank Mark for being my designated driver we stopped at Cheesecake Factory before coming home, yum!

Labor Day

Labor Day started out with a parade in Payson for Onion Days

Mark and the kids met up with his family.  Paige was chilling with the kids while Carole is kicking back with the adults.

They even found a relative's house to sit in front of.  Here is Mark's Mom and her cousin, Joanne.

After the parade it was time to party!  It was Mark's Mom's birthday

So we met back at the homestead in Santaquin for some good food and fun.

Tim and Terra were there along with Sophie.  Mom's brother and sisters came over too.  And of course Mark's siblings were there to enjoy the fun.

And the grandkids had to help blow out the candles.

She was even crowned Queen for the Day.  Just don't let it go to her head!