October

It seems strange to be posting about Halloween when we've just finished our Christmas celebrations...but here we are anyway!

Here is a dad's way of serving up ice cream.

Straight out of the carton, on the carpet.  At least he put the blanket underneath to catch spills (or maybe that was me?).

Stockton set up a game of school for Brynn and me one morning.  He even made us place mats just like he has in Kindergarten.  When we finished one of our centers, we got a number crossed out.  He was a very good teacher.

We went to hike Stewart Falls in Provo Canyon one Friday night after school.  The weather had been gorgeous and so the hike did not disappoint.  It was really pretty.

There was a waterfall at the end but we missed the turn off on the trail to go down to it.  We were quickly running out of daylight so we settled for seeing it from up above.

We met Camille and her boys at Hee-Haw Farms in Pleasant Grove.  We thought it was slightly overpriced for admission but the kids didn't care and they had a blast.  It was fun to get together with the Tanner's-we don't do that often enough.

 

The corn pit was by far the favorite activity of the night.

Stockton, Brynn, Riley, and Molly

Brynn and I had fun at the park one afternoon for our plan.  She calls this particular park the "rock park."

 

My kids played at a friend's house and loved the kitchen they had so we decided to pull ours out of the attic for a couple of weeks.  It was like having a new toy!  All 3 kids played with it and made up fun new games for it.

Once I noticed it being ignored again, I put it back in the attic.  It's great to have that extra space.

We met up with my family at Gardner's Village to see the witches, something the kids always look forward to.  The older kids love the scavenger hunt and the younger just love being outside and running around.

Brynn, Stockton, Molly, Ben, and Abby

Tessa, Molly, Abby, Grace, Stockton, Brynn, Chloe, Ben, Spencer, Harper

There was a new area this year so we went over to explore what it was like.  My kids would have been happy with just the witches and a cookie, but this was a definite bonus!

Molly, Tessa, Chloe, Stockton, and Abby

 

We went to Plain City for the Moyes Halloween Party.  We started at a corn maze in West Haven where we went down the big slide a lot, explored the maze, rode the train, went on a hay ride, bounced in the bouncy house, and picked out a pumpkin before heading to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the party.

Stockton, Tessa, Chloe, Brynn

Chloe, Molly, Gavin, Ben, Brynn, Tessa

Grant and Stockton

 

At grandma and grandpa's we had dinner, decorated pumpkins, and went through the homemade spook alley.

Our Goodrich vacation took place in October this year...at Arches down in Moab.  I had never been there even though I've lived in Utah my entire life so I was excited to get to visit a new, but fairly close, place.  Eric and Heidi reserved our campsite early in January and they really picked a great one.  The kids didn't even need to leave the camp to get out and explore.  Not to mention the sand all over...like a great big sandbox!  We stayed for two nights.

Grandpa with Luke, Jake, Tiana, and Molly

Brynn and Jake

We took a little hike one morning to one of the arches and then the dads and kids older than 5 went on a more difficult hike in the afternoon.

 

Then before we headed home we visited another arch that just had a short hike to it.

Grandpa and Grandma in back, Heidi, Jake, Tiana, Megan, Stockton, Molly, Evie and Eric in middle, Luke, Justin, Brynn, Brett in front (missing: Tanners)

Gene, Jake, Brynn, April, Tiana, Brett, Luke, Molly, Stockton with Evie in front

Molly, Brynn, Tiana

 

Molly met all the requirements to become a junior park ranger so before we left the park we took her to the visitor's center to get her badge and get sworn in. 

Light saber duels happen often around here.

We carved pumpkins.  Stocky wanted a scary face, Brynn wanted a princess, and Molly just designed her own.

 

They turned out great!

Halloween day highlights-

Molly dressed as Hermione again.  Stockton, Brynn, and I got to go see her at the parade and then stay and help with her classroom party.  We were in charge of decorating sugar cookies.

 

Stockton was a skeleton and he had a good time being able to dress up and go to school on Halloween this year.

Brynn dressed up as "fancy Cinderella" and stayed home with me to get prepared for dinner and trick-or-treating (our traditional fare is taco soup and a pumpkin roll).

When dad got home (early even, on a Friday night!) we went out trick-or-treating.  Brynn insisted on pushing Bitty Baby in the stroller everywhere.  The kids brought in a load of treats...we still have some left over that I will probably be throwing out now that the Christmas candy has been coming in.