Pre Halloween

During the past few years, Jeff has made friends with the Passey's from Midway. He has done braces on three of their kids, and they really hit it off. Justin and Liz invited our family to their house for dinner and to hang out. They recently had 9 lab puppies, and our kids were so excited to play with them. We had a great night with them (Liz made homemade marshmallows, which were quite the hit!).

The BYU volleyball team is currently ranked #10 in the nation, and we took time out of a Saturday to cheer them on. The kids always love finding Cosmo, no matter how many times they have seen him. 

Colleen and Tyler invited Jeff and me to go on a road rally with them. It was a costume event, with a Wizard of Oz theme. Since we aren't too big on costumes, we decided to go as people of Oz. Easy peasy. I thought the Wicked shirt added a bit of fun, too. 

. 

We didn't get any pictures of the actual race, but we had a blast. After a slow start, we got on track and blazed through the race. There were six locations we had to find, with some challenges along the way. We started and ended at a church in Riverton, which was decked out like a scene from the movie. 

At each location, we were given a clue and we had to figure out where our next destination was. We ended up finishing in 6th place out of 24, and we easily could have done better. We were only 6 minutes behind the winner, and we had some mistakes that cost us. Now that we got our feet wet, we can really compete to win next year!

I have been helping out with the Take Home Library at school every week, and the boys love coming to play with all the toys. I love watching them play together. They are such good buddies.

A couple months ago, McKay fell out of Allie's bed during the middle of the night and knocked his tooth loose. After watching it for several weeks, Jeff decided it was time to pull it. McKay was constantly knocking it, making it bleed, and wouldn't bite any food with it. It just was going to be a nuisance for the next three years. So, it came out.

My cute little jack-o-lantern, just in time for Halloween. 

Fall Break

We usually go to Moab for Fall Break, but decided to switch it up a little this year. We decided to go to Zion instead. Haha, big change, huh? Chris and Sheri, Laurie, and Greg and Noel all made the trip with us, and we had quite the group!

Because hotel rooms are super expensivee, we only had one small room at the Hampton, which means we had to get creative with our sleeping arrangements. There was a small bench in the room, and McKay thought it would make a perfect bed. He stayed there until 5 am, when he came and got in bed with us. Ah, to be small.

The best part about the Hampton is the breakfast in the morning. We always get more than our fair share of food (and hot chocolate), which is a dream come true for the kids. Adults too, to be honest. 

 

With our huge group, we didn't end up doing that much hiking. We did a lot of riding around on shuttles to and from the visitors center (Zion was so busy that shuttles were the only way to travel around). Our group easily took up half a shuttle on our own!

Boy cousins hanging out

Our longest hike was a 3 miler, to the Emerald Pools. The little boys cried a lot on the way down, but they made it. The scenery was absolutely stunning. It looked like we were standing by a backdrop!

We did manage to get together for one family photo after our day of hiking. 

After two days (just one night) at Zion, the rest of Jeff's family headed home and we spent the rest of the weekend in St. George. We loved going to visit Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Don. The hat the boys are wearing was their great-great grandpa Esplin's. Super cool.