It's raining leaves

Our multiple trees are shedding their leaves. We had so many in the backyard that we had to dig a path from the garage to the house. We spent an afternoon raking and leafblowing and then playing in it. The kids put in under the tree swing and would jump off the swing into the leaf. What a fun fall activity. Next task - stick em in the tub and de-leaf them.

Halloween

So this year for halloween we had a vampire queen, cheerleader, Belle, magician and a pirate. For the trunk or treat our ward did Emma was a cheerleader, but that night she was Belle from Beauty and the Beat. Jenni stayed a dead vampire queen (thanks Marc for the costume - it's gorgeous), and James was a magician for the carnival the honor society put on and a pirate for trick or treating. They whined a little when they got rained on, but the weather was fantastic otherwise and it only rained half the time. We got boatloads of candy and the kids are on rations (3-5 a day). ha ha - like that'll happen. Dirk stayed home to pass out candy - go figure.

Pumpkin Carving

The Wednesday before Halloween we carved our pumpkins. Nona and Papa Dayley came over and we carved them all up. James made a Frankenstein, Emma made a moon with stars, Jenni made a vampire queen, and Nona and Papa made a skeleton head with a scar like papa's from his surgery. It was loads of fun and made loads of messes, but it was fun to just relax and have fun as a family. Dirk and Athena didn't make a pumpkin - we were too busy helping out the kidlets.

Choir Concert

James is part of the Central Singers for Central Davis Junior High. That is the madrigals/honors type of choir. He has a lot of fun and really enjoys singing. At this past concert, between the central singers and regular choir, he had about 8 songs. One of my favorite songs was when the boys sang "Next to Lovin' I like fighting" from the musical Shenandoah. They also did a medley from Mama Mia the musical.

Flag Football

James decided to play flag football in the church's intramural league. Their team went to the playoffs, but unfortunately, they lost. He had a lot of fun the six weeks he played. He realized how much he missed football in Virginia. One of these days we'll actually get to a college game with the kids so they can really see the fun of football. He's the short one with a white t-shirt and blue flags around his waist. Sorry it's grainy.

My creative side

Well, with all else I have to do, I have been really loving making cards. I have a section in my house devoted to scrapbooking and card making. It is my solace in the crazy life we lead. I have recently been focusing on my Christmas cards since at that time I'll be in the middle of finals. So here's my showing off the cards I've made. The first card is Emma's party invitation. So leave a comment and let me know which one is your favorite.

The road less traveled

So we went back up to the cabin over the fall break at school. We thought it would be really cold and stocked up on the cold weather gear and it was actually very nice - about 60 degrees. We had a lot of fun. It was just me, Dirk and the kids. Gretta and Kyle came up and spent the night Friday night, but other than that it was very quiet and peaceful. We had a resident bald eagle across from the cabin. Nobody was really vacationing up there so we had the whole area to ourselves. We loved it. We went into Yellowstone on Saturday and then on Sunday we went home through the park. Normally we go back through Idaho to go home and it's about 4 hours. This time we wanted to go through Yellowstone, down through Jackson Hole, and back into Utah through back roads in Wyoming. It took us about 10 hours, but was a ton of fun. We saw things in Yellowstone we hadn't seen before (Moose Falls, Lewis Falls, a mountain goat up close, lots of elk and bison, and new and different geysers, etc.), We loved the drive through the Tetons (Athena reminisced about the time she hiked the Tetons (25 miles over the ridge in two days). We stopped at Jenny Lake and were amazed at the peaceful quietness of the lake. Then we went back roads through Wyoming. We passed over into Utah in the dark. Our trip over the Rockies was on a two-lane, pitch black, multiple switchbacks, 7-9% grade, 51 miles of no pull-outs, stores, gas stations, nothing. It was a little nervewracking to say the least. We were disappointed we weren't able to enjoy the scenery through this quaint area, but at that point, with fists clenched through the terrorific ride, we just wanted to get home. It was really nice taking the road less traveled and for once the kids never fought the whole ten hours. This is a trip to remember.

I lost my front tooth

Emma has lost her third tooth. This time it was a top front tooth and it wiggled for 2 months. The last week it was barely hanging on, but she wouldn't let anybody pull it out. She couldn't eatch much with her front teeth because it was so loose, but finally I bribed her and we pulled it out together. She's been singing the song "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" ever since. Funny, it's been two weeks and no sign of another tooth coming in, so we may have that song come true.

A trip to the Pumpkin Farm

So we decided to take the kids to the nearby pumpkin patch to pick out their pumpkins, go on a hayride, enjoy the fun games, and go through the corn maze. There were three cornmazes and they were fairly difficult. One we got through without the map, the others we needed to use the map to get through. I'm glad we went through in the daytime, we would have been totally lost at night. It was a lot of fun and we got some great pumpkins.