Pumpkin Carving

This was the first Halloween ever that we had to carve pumpkins without Daddy.  He's away for the week on business (we have only seen him for 5 minutes for the last week and a half when we passed on the highway - we were coming back from UT and he was going on his business trip and we met at a gas station to get a quick Daddy fix).  Hopefully, we won't have to do that again.  But, all things considered, they still turned out pretty well.

I decided it was time to let the kids do their own carving.  I'm a big believer in letting them do things themselves.  How else will they learn?  It makes a little bigger mess, but it's worth it.  They turned out great.  And we didn't even have to go to the Emergency Room.

Painting pumpkins is fun for the little ones.  Matt's is all paint, and Grace carved hers and painted it.  We sprayed polyurethane on it when we were done so the rain doesn't wipe it all away.

Utah Trip Pictures

Although we're still recovering from our trip last week, and Ben's been gone for a week and a half, and I'm having a great big fun party tomorrow, I've decided it's time to stop procrastinating and get back to my blog.  So, please enjoy our pictures from the trip:

This was our hotel room in Layton.  It was actually called a "suite", I think.  It was awesome to have two separate bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room.  The kids wished we could live there.  Emma thought it was too small.

This is out of order, but I can't figure out how to move it.  This is at a gas station in Ashton, ID.  We had to get out to use the bathroom and rearrange ourselves.  Matt thought this wildflower looked like a dandelion, so he tried to blow it.  It didn't work.

Our first activity was the zoo.  It was pretty much deserted on a rainy, Thursday morning.  We rode the train first, then made our rounds to see the animals.  My favorite was the baby elephant.

This picture requires some explanation.  There is this big statue of an African Elephant.  The kids all jumped on the trunk to get a picture, with Joey right in front of the trunk.  The elephant makes noises, but what we didn't know was that he is getting ready to sneeze.  All of the sudden, he sneezed a huge puff of air and water right onto Joey.  I wish I would have snapped this picture 5 seconds earlier, because you would have seen a face on Joey that I've never seen before.  That kid can jump fast!  After his heart rate slowed down, he laughed about it.  We were already laughing.  His jacket got a little wet from the sneeze, but it dried.  So funny.

I thought it was so cute that the girls held hands all weekend.  These next pictures are from the Dinosaur Park in Ogden.  Joey loved the animatronic dinosaurs.  We had to visit them twice.

The next day, we rode the train into SLC to go to the Children's Museum and do some shopping.  The kids were excited to ride a real train.  It was nice because it was cheap, and we didn't have to worry about parking or traffic.  But public transportation is, well, public.  And sometimes the public is, well, gross.  And kind of scary.  But we made it, and the Children's Museum was the best!  I wish we had one like that here.  We spent a good 1 1/2 to 2 hours there, and we could have stayed longer.  It was awesome.

 (Matt refused to wear his orange admittance band.  So he tore it off and I wore two.)

Zach has never liked Matt.  He always cries when Matt gets close.  But by the end of this trip (the last night, of course) they finally tolerated each other.  This was their first hug ever.

We got a visit from my fun aunt Jill, who was on her way to a costume party.  It was great to get and sit and visit.  Can't wait to see all you Utahrds again soon!



Coolest Bikes Ever!

Everybody check out these awesome bikes by clicking on the link to the left!  Put that on my Christmas list!

Annual Pumpkin Patch Escapades

Matt has been enjoying piggy back rides from big brother.  This started on the trampoline, and has spilled over into the hallway.

For FHE, we made our annual pilgrimage to the J&K Farms pumpkin patch.  They are the nicest people out there!  And you can't beat the prices.  We got all 7 pumpkins plus some decorative ones for $14.  Totally worth the drive out past Laurel.  If you go, it is on the road between Laurel and Red Lodge (but it is just outside Laurel -- turn left after mile marker 50).  Our tradition is:  Pick your pumpkin, then go to Pizza Hut!  The people at Pizza Hut always get really big eyes when we walk in and tell them there will be 7 people dining all at once, and most of them are under age 9.  It was 6:30 by the time we got to the restaurant, so the kids were ready to revolt if we didn't get some food inside them, and quick.  So we did, then they went into a carb coma, and everybody was fine!

Here are some pics from our adventures:

Andrew tried to hide, but I found him.

Walking was not easy in the patch.  Matt tripped just about every other step.  He became very familiar with he ground.  Here is one of Joey's (Matt went tumbling down right after this):

Matt carried his load several feet before dropping it!

Matt found several that he scattered around the patch.  He didn't quite know what to think of this activity, but he definitely liked it.  The pumpkin patch was in disarray after he left.

I told the kids to go look around, and stand by a pumpkin with their hand up when they found one they liked.  This was for crowd control, mostly.  Grace was (again) the only one who listened:

Joey cutting his pick:

Joey was happy with his final decision:

Andrew found a small one, but traded it for a larger one from the greenhouse:

Andrew added to the load, but Dad was able to handle it.  Andrew was hungry:

Can you tell who this Batman is?

Matt had to get in on the action.  Whatever big brothers do, Matt does, too:

Andrew looked dazed and confused.  Not sure why:

Joey fit very nicely in the "cockroach":

Grace fit very nicely in the "witch":

First try for a family pic was the best, but...

I thought this one was hilarious:

This one is cute.  He sat still very nicely for Daddy.

See you again next year, J&K!