St. George

After doing the TOU 1/2 several months ago we decided to sign up for another race to help us stay motivated to keep running.  (It worked for Luke but not so much for me.)  We looked around online and registered for the Butch Cassidy 10K just outside of Zions National Park.  Yep, Zions is kind of far to go for a 10K but we were looking for a good excuse to get out of town too and since a few of our favorite people are down south going to school that is where decided to go.  We had a great weekend!!  Luke and I had a date night while the kids went and played with Abbey and Callie, we did a little shopping, ran our race, went up to the red rocks, played away at an arcade, took the kids to the temple grounds, visited with Callie and Sam, and just had a great weekend. 

 

The race was in Springdale which is just outside of Zions and I must say it was absolutely beautiful running there. 

Me, Luke, and Abbey just before the race.

 We tried to go on a hike with the kids but soon gave up.  And why did we give up....this little boy is obsessed with rocks and wanted to pick up EVERY rock he saw along the way and when he couldn't pick up anymore rocks he would just plop down next to them and refuse to leave them.  It was actually quite entertaining. 

 

Here he is sitting with his rocks.  Refusing any help and not wanting to leave them.  He just make me laugh. 

 

Claire loved climbing on the rocks.

 

It was so beautiful and the weather was perfect.

 

My favorite part of the trip was when we came here.

The Saint George temple is so amazing and the kids loved the visitor center. 

 

Claire was so worried about Crue falling down the stairs and refused to let go of his hand.  She is such a good sis.   

Leaves are falling all around...

 

'Leaves are falling all around,

on the rooftops, on the ground...' 

Lately everytime we happen to be playing in the backyard this song just pops into my head and I end up singing it over and over again. I don't even know where I have heard the song before.  Is it a primary song?  I don't know.  But some how the lyrics and melody got stuck in my head and as long as it is fall outside I think they are just going to be staying there.  For weeks and weeks Claire has been anticipating leaves all over the ground, raking them up, jumping in them, and who knows what else.  So lets just say it was a very happy day around our house when the leaves finally fell.  Her and Crue and all the cousins spent hours outside.  At one point Luke was putting the leaves on the trampoline for them and they thought that was the coolest thing ever.     

 

 

 

It's not just outside that we have leaves (or in Crue's diaper)...we have them inside too but these ones this mama really likes.  We put together a Thankful Tree for Family Home Evening.  Each evening until Thanksgiving we all write on a leaf something we are grateful for and then place it on our tree.  It has been so fun hearing the things that Claire is grateful for and coming up with things for Crue.  Can't wait to see how full our tree gets before Thanksgiving. 

Let the fun begin

Here are the last of our Halloween pictures.  What can I say...we had a blast this year!!  Each year Claire gets more excited about it and Crue was even getting into it this year.

 

Even though we grew pumpkins in our garden we still decided to head out to the pumpkin patch in town to get a few more.  Picking out pumpkins and then going out for icecream has evolved into a tradition for Family Home Evening.

 

Then this last week for FHE we carved our pumpkins. 

(lol...ignore Claire's out of control hair.  It was teacher work day so she didn't have school and she told me that morning she didn't want her hair done at all.  All she wanted to do was play with her cousin Sydney all day long and that is exactly what they did.)

 

 

Claire had her Halloween parade and party at school.  She was so excited for it.  She got to pick who her partner was so of course she picked her best friend, Alabama. 

 

Earlier in the month the kids decorated a pumpkin for Miss Janet's Pumpkin Patch and then on Halloween they brought them home. 

 

 

Claire and Alabama

 

After the parade all the kids sang us some Halloween songs that they had been learning.

 

 

Our awesome neighbors brought us a pumpkin pizza for dinner.  We seriously have the best neighbors ever.

 

Then we all got ready and headed out.  We have never had more than 10 kids stop by on Halloween so now we don't even bother making sure one of us is home to give out candy.  I must say it is really kind of nice. 

 

Claire loved her pink and purple owl costume and insisted on wearing it all day and I must admit that Crue was the cutest little Mr. T ever.

 

 

 

I seriously can't get enough of this cute face.  And his hair just makes me laugh every time I see it.  We grew his hair out for two months just for Halloween and in the morning it will be cut short again. 

 

Crue had the whole Halloween thing perfected in no time.  He would walk right up to the doors with Claire and instantly start pounding on it, grab candy when they offered it to them, say thank you, grab a little more if they weren't paying attention, say thank you again, and then go back and sit in his seat and wait to be pushed to the next house.  At one point he had a sucker in his mouth, another unwrapped sucker in his hand, and he was trying to hold onto his bucket while unwrapping another piece of candy.  And if you even came close to touching his bucket he would YELL at you until you backed away. 

 

Our little fam on Halloween. 

 

 

Halloween Party

Today was the annual Halloween party and as always we had so much fun.  I love seeing everyone in their costumes, eating yummy soup and treats, and playing fun games.  We really had a great time.

 

All the cousins

 

Our little Mr. T

 

Claire kept changing her mind on what she wanted to be but finally settled on a pink and purple owl.

 

Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein

 

 

How awesome are these costumes!!  My brother is Captain Hook, my mom as Peter Pan, and Ron as Tinker Bell.

 

Ron definately won best costume!!  He went all out...fake lashes and all.

 

We had a race to see who could make a mummy first.

 

The youngest ones ended up winning.

We bowled with pumpkins.

 

Played a little bit of piano

 

Crue taking advantage of all eyes on the games being played.  He just sat himself down in front of all the carmel apple toppings and started eating away.

Autumn

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is just to go on walks.  Whether it is to the store, to get ice cream, the library, around the block, or just down the street while we wait for daddy to get home,  it really doesn't matter.  Today it was around the block so Claire and Sydney could collect leaves.  Claire really wants to be able to rake up the leaves and jump in them but our trees just aren't cooperating.  In another week or so the leaves will be on the ground but that just isn't fast enough for Claire.  She has resorted to gathering leaves elsewhere and then putting them in our yard. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PuMpKiN WaLk

 Yesterday it rained all day and we spent most of the day in the house so today we were all bored and ready to go out and do something fun.  We headed over to the Pumpkin Walk and it was a big hit with the kids. 

 

Bounce House

Crafts

Cinnamon Almonds

Games

Trick or Treating

and...

the kids can dress up if they want, which of course Claire was so excited to do.

 

She looked in the costume box/dress-up box and after trying on several things she finally decided on her halloween costume from last year. 

 

 Crue buddy was a little bit harder to dress up since we don't have his costume yet for this year.  We ended up making him into a little scarecrow and he looked oh so cute.

 

 

Claire headed straight for the bounce house and once Crue saw what she was doing he decided that he was big enough to do it as well.  The guy working it was really great and wouldn't let other kids go on it until we were almost to the end.