SOME FALL FUN

These are not in order, but some glimpses of things we have done in November.


THANKSGIVING was fun to host at our house again.
The past two years, we have had Susan to visit and hiked on Thanksgiving day then did our big meal another day.
It was fun to do the big meal with family!!  THANK YOU FOR COMING!

ADDIE thought she was invited.

Got Daniel getting ready to eat his whipped cream.  He was pretty excited about it.

 The spoonful was much bigger than his mouth!

Meanwhile, Nathan was upstairs building something amazing with Victoria.  The boys enjoy playing with new stuff at our house when they get the chance.

Scott and I had walked the Provo River Trail down by the lake last Saturday and it was so pretty!

 We saw lots of birds.  It is hard to see, but that is a WOODPECKER on the left side of the pole.

And now he has hopped up on top!

We were enthralled with the CLOUDS OF BIRDS that were all over the fields near where we walked. They would billow up and turn every which way as they flew.  So pretty to watch!

Here, they are in a field eating something.

Picked up Bre on Sunday.  Here is our selfie shot to welcome her home!

The neighborhood birds like us.  We feed them so they come.
We have had sparrows, junko, finches, pigeons, and even a scrub jay comes often.  We love to watch them.

We have been making PUFFLES by the hundreds for Breanna's classroom...you can see Addie here with a packet of Puffles...what do you call a group of Puffles Breanna...you know...gaggle of geese...

Bre took the train up to Ogden with me when I went to a sealing there and she met up with Gma Taylor/Olsen.  They had a great time going for breakfast and SHOPPING!  Good girl fun!  It was so good to be able to do that.
We love the train and wish it went all the way to Pleasant View more than early AM and later PM.

Had to get one more selfie shot of the 3 girls together!

HAPPY FALL TO YOU ALL!  WE LOVE YOU!

We loved having Bre visit and we kept busy with projects and shopping and shows.  We can't wait to have her back in only 3 weeks!!

NIGHT HIKE!!

 SOMEONE had the bright idea to hike up to a HOT SPRINGS in the middle of the night in the freezing cold...(not saying who:)


Let's just say that we were invited and thought it sounded interesting.
2 of our RM Sisters; Sam Stanley and Alisa Baumgartner, Breanna, Cheryl and Scott were up for the challenge.

 We drove up Spanish Fork Canyon and up Diamond Fork towards the trailhead...about 8PM.
The trouble was, the road was closed about 4 miles from the trailhead which meant a 4  mile walk on the paved road before even starting the hike.

Wouldn't have been so bad but it got snowy and icy after a while and it was cold without tree cover to block the wind!

 We kept a really good pace just to keep warm!

One of the main reasons we came was to enjoy the night sky and it did not disappoint!
The sky was BEAUTIFUL!  We would stop every once and a while just to admire it and look for where Orion was then.

 Once we hit the trail (after walking FOREVER!!)
we then enjoyed the night trail.

We were walking uphill most of the time, not extreme, but near hillsides where snow had rolled down all on its own to create some really interesting formations.

This one was just laying there after rolling down the hill.  YUP, its a SNOW HAT!!
Sam tries it on for size!







  


I saw this little spiral snow roll and it looked just like a ROSE...so Alisa added a stem and a couple dry leaves and this is how it turned out.
AMAZING!

After hiking FOREVER once again...we smelled the strong sulfur smell and knew we were getting close.

We finally arrived at the hot springs and somehow got out of our hiking clothes and into the warm water...it was slimy but wonderfully WARM!

    We had some adventures with what we thought was someone's lost shirt or sock scaring us in the water...
...and when we finally pulled it out to toss it, we realized it was plugging the pool and all our warm water was now draining to the pool below!  Ooops!

 Our next adventure was trying to change clothes in the dark without freezing to death.



 We all got changed and it was time to head back down.

I think the main thing that kept us going was thoughts of going for hot cocoa when we got down to the valley!

But it WAS beautiful!  We enjoyed the company and had such fun chatting as we walked...trying to warn each other of icy spots and helping others each time someone fell.
The night sky was AMAZING too!

At the bottom of the trail I tried to place my camera on a post and do a timer shot...but we could not see at all, pitch dark, so it turned out really funny!  We could not see where the camera was pointing at all!
We booked it the next 4 miles to the car, getting spooked once by a large animal apparently sneezing?? near the road.  Scary!
After what seemed like an eternity, we made it to the car, got the heater going and drove our stiff little bodies...stiff from 13 miles in the freezing cold!!!   Got to Flying J and went in for hot cocoa...and as soon as we were in the warm store, we all started shaking uncontrollably.  It was pretty funny!  I think this was about 3:00 AM so we were exhausted but satisfied we had done something tough and beautiful.
Can't wait to hike this one once the road opens to the trailhead.  It will be amazing in the spring, but we are ready to let it rest for the winter!  THANKS ALISA AND SAM!!!  Happy Trails!! 

Play Date in the Leaves

 I got to  have Daniel and Nathan over to play while Jenny got her hair done this week.

It was such a nice day, we decided to spend part of it outside.

 When I asked the boys to sit in the leaves...it ended up looking more like they were on a train ride. 




And when I asked Nathan to smile like his pumpkin this is the face I got.  Apparently that is a smile.

I did get a few real smiles.

And a few more of what Nathan THINKS are smiles.  So cute!

Then I let Nathan hold my large camera and he was THRILLED!!!  He was now in charge of taking photos of everything in sight beginning with me... (I had fallen that morning on my run and had a fat lip)

...the play pumpkin from in the house that he insisted on bringing outside...

...a pretty nice shot of Addie...

...and his FIRST SELFIE!

I got the camera back to take one of him.

I actually caught him smiling when he did not know it.

 And again when he DID know it and did the large fake smile.

We read some Halloween stories and it reminded me of the fake teeth I had for my students.  I did not think the boys would really put them in, but they did and it was hysterical.  We were laughing so hard.

You can see that by this point, I had found a smaller camera for Nathan to use.  I guess I better download those at some point.


Anyways,  It was so fun to have the boys over to play!  We did FACETIME with Brooklyn and then with Carter and Bennett, so it was just fun getting the little ones in our family together even over chat.

THE EAST COAST PART OF OUR TRIP

 This is what greeted us Saturday night when we arrived in Newark!  Most handsome boys ever!

 And this is how they look when we spoil them with "Lollipops" (I was corrected if I ever tried to call them "suckers!")
We had a wonderful 6 days with the Jensen family in New Jersey!

The weather cooperated beautifully so we were out and about a lot!  Carter had school 3 days, but we made trips to parks and went on walks every day we were there.

 We brought some activities for the boys including this chalk set which was a hit both outside on the cement, and then later inside on colored paper when it was rainy!  They loved that!

 One of our days when Carter was in school, we stopped to run/walk at a park and Bennett had an accident and no dry pants to change into...so with just unders on, we got out the bubbles and he chased them all over the parking lot!  It was really pretty to watch!


















We spent a day at LONGWOOD GARDENS in Pennsylvania.  We had always wanted to go there and this fall seemed just right!



It was a lovely day, just perfect temperature, and we spent much of the day there.

 This is Bennett on the "Whispering Bench."

If you go to one of the corners ( it is a curved half circle) you can whisper into the corner and be heard at the other corner by your friend.  We tried it.

 We found some Canadian geese who were not afraid of us...(this is important to know as we had just terrified a whole gaggle of them the day before at a park!  If I can find the video I will post it.)

We also learned that they rest on one foot, much like a flamingo!

 There are several cool "Treehouses" in the park where you can climb through and see interesting features.  This one had some neat horns to talk into...or yell as in Bennetts case.


Yes, and Grandpa had trained him well for this...the first day we went grocery shopping and left him alone with Scott, we could hear him throughout the store shouting loudly "HELLO LADIES!!!"   Over and over and over...


Yup.

 One of the boys favorite stops was the train exhibit in the garden.  Here comes THOMAS the tank engine!!!

 And on another track is JAMES from the same series!

 The other favorite stop for the boys was the WATER SECTION of the indoor conservatory.  There were very fun stations for them to play in water.

 This spot had a series of flanges that could be turned to divert the water.

 The outdoor lily pad ponds were amazing!

These were just freakishly cool!

They look like serving trays and the outside are covered in spikes!!

 There was even a PUMPKINLAND section of the park where the kids could pick up and play with pumpkins.

Or sit on them as in the case of the enormous one!

We climbed the big bell tower and rang a bell...then came back down and got some cute photos of the boys.

 And the monsters.

 And the Mommy and daughter.












And more of the boys.
Great day at Longwood Gardens!


And pizza for dinner that night, so it was all in all great.

 Here are our little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles having a bedtime bowl of cereal.  They have neat accessories to make these PJs into costumes for Halloween!

We made some "Torn Paper Pumpkins" like I do with my preschoolers.   They are good at art projects!

and another day we stopped at a local garden center to get some small pumpkins to paint.  Those turned out really cute as well.



We had a wonderful trip to Jensens!  We watched Ty play city basketball...Carter at his YMCA basketball class, lots of walks and runs and playing at parks...some shopping and lots of reading books.

Carter even sat through me reading him the entire first book in the MAGIC TREE HOUSE SERIES.  He is learning to read already!


We love all our family!  They are just good, down to earth, Christian people devoted to family and to following Christ and his example.  THANK YOU ALL FOR WHO YOU ARE!

This last shot is what the Draper Frontrunner station looked like the morning we took the train home (after missing the last train at the airport due to a delayed flight and having to be rescued by Aaron and put up by Lori...
If you say deserted, you are right.  We missed this train connection by 2 minutes as well and waited an hour for the next. 

But, it was a BEAUTIFUL MORNING and we got in a walk and run...I got all my preschooler letters written and Scott was able to work with his laptop. 

We came home refreshed and renewed and in love even more with our family!