Boo!

Halloween this year was really relaxed and fun. Emma is our only "legal" trick or treater. Josh is too old, but I suspect that he has a stash of candy down in his room from going house to house last night with his buddies. I used to really enforce the "No Trick or Treating if you are over 12" rule, but I am getting old and tired and figure there are bigger battles to fight.

Emma was a cute little ladybug this year. I was really happy that Jenni found this costume last summer for a deal. I think that it looks really cute and I am happy that she decided to be something adorable and not disgusting-ha!

Emma's school has a parade every year of all the Halloween costumes. Halloween has certainly changed from when I was a kid. We just threw something on the night of the event and went out in search of candy. It is now a major holiday. What ever happened to the simple things? At any rate, Mr. Bezzant (Emma's teacher) made a great Shrek and was a good sport dressing up with all the kids.
This is after the parade with Tara outside her classroom.
Jenni dropped by for lunch and walked in the door with this all over her face. I told her she looked like a clown that escaped the asylum. Freaky. She told me that she did not wear it to work, but her and the guy next to her got bored and he had some face paint in his car. So...they retrieved it and went to work on each other's faces.
This is from the night of Halloween. This is Curtis, Marja and their boys, Braige and Brogan. Curtis looked so stunning in his yellow tights that I had to grab my camera. I told him that I was going to email it straight to Christopher. I am surprised that this picture was not blurry because I was cracking up when I took it. Marja was looking pretty stunning too.
These are our neighbors, the Flicks. Holli braved trick or treating with the kids while John was away at work. Ella was so cute as a lion and I love how Eli is totally snoozing through the whole thing. I wonder who ate his candy...HMMMMMMM.

Young Living Farm Fall Festival

We had the opportunity to go to the Young Living Farm Fall Festival last Saturday and had a great time. We had never gone before and did not know what to expect. However, we were all pleasantly surprised. Even Josh and Tara had fun!
The festival is run by BYU students and at one station they were passing out these masks. They had all sorts of activities ranging from trick or treating, hay rides, rock wall climbing, paddle boats, gunny sack races, fishing ponds, ball pits, and many more that I can't think of right now.
This is at the gunny sack races. I am not sure how we did not manage to get any pictures of Josh in this event, but he pretty much smoked everyone on the field. He must be half Kangaroo.
Emma was like a Spider "Girl" climbing up the rock wall. She was incredible. Even the BYU students manning the event were amazed.
Josh tried the rock wall too and did a pretty good job.
Greg decided to give the wall a whirl, but was not quite as successful as Josh and Emma. But he gave a great try :) You can see in the picture below that Emma is schooling him.
This is were Josh's fairy tale dreams came true...he met Cinderella-ha! ( I did not know that Cinderella was a brunette.)
The paddle boats were by far the funnest. Tara and Emma floated around the small pond with ease...
Greg and Josh convinced me to get in back of their boat and lets just say they struggled. I was not sure they would ever get me back to shore. They got away from the dock and then it was all down hill from there. I did not ever think they would be able to get us back. I am not sure what was so difficult about the whole thing, but they really had a hard time. I think that having the weight dispersed unevenly may have been the problem. At any rate, we probably spent about 5 minutes under the bridge with both of them trying to figure out how to get through. I was laughing so hard. Emma finally got on top of the bridge and step by step guided them through and back to the safety of the dock. Maybe she should be a Bar Pilot on the Columbia River!


This is a great picture looking out from the porch where we had dinner. If you look close you can see the barn way in the background. It was really pretty and peaceful there.
They had bronzes of wildlife all around. Tara could not resist jumping on this poor Buck and having me take a picture.
More games...
And finally the trick or treating. It was really a fun afternoon and everyone wants to return next year for a repeat and bring Christopher and Jenni with us.

Emma's Pumpkin Patch

We had a lot of pumpkins and cornstalks this year so we decided that Emma should set up shop and make some dough :) This is just a sampling of her inventory. The rest she kept in the back yard and would go grab them as needed. She did pretty good and had almost everything gone within 45 minutes. I love how she is sitting there reading a book...not that into it.

Halloween Flashback

I found this picture the other day and could not resist posting it. This was from Halloween in 1997. I cannot believe how quickly time has passed and how little all of them look. Emma was not even born yet! This picture was taken at a ward Halloween party and one of the members of our ward was a photographer and took pictures of all the kids. Josh won best costume that year. I thought he made a pretty cute little Elmo. I also love how the photographer (Brother Honey) posed Christopher (aka Robin from Batman) in the background. It really fit his personality. It is kind of sad that I only have one child that still goes trick or treating. Time goes by fast.

Haunted Heber Creeper

A couple of weeks ago my friend, Marja and her husband, Curtis and two boys invited Emma to go ride the "Haunted Heber Creeper" up Provo Canyon. They had gone with Emma a previous year and really had a good time. Emma was very excited to go again. She was hoping that now that she is "grown up" that it would not be so scary. She came home only a little freaked out...not completely. Greg was at work and I had a conflict and couldn't go. So, I asked Marja to take a few pictures for me. The one above is Emma and Braige. They really get along great and have been good friends for a long time.
This is Emma playing dead in the little graveyard they had.
Emma and Braige again laughing it up. I had to bundle her up pretty good because it was such a cold night.
This is on the train with Curtis, Brogan (who I understand was under the blanket scared most of the time), Braige, and Emma.
On the train all bundled in blankets, gloves, coats and warm hats. Thank you Marja for the invite and the pictures! They turned out great :)

Cascade Springs

Our family went up the American Fork canyon a couple of weeks ago to Cascade Springs for Family Home Evening. We were hoping to catch the fall colors up there before it was too late. The drive up was breathtaking. I could not believe how beautiful all of the colors on the leaves were as we were ascending the mountain. We are so blessed here along the Wasatch Front to have the opportunity to experience a beautiful fall season each year. When we reached Cascade Springs, we were a little disappointed and surprised that a lot of the colors had already reached their peak. Greg's parents came with us as well and we really had a fun drive up all together. It was a little chilly way up in those mountains, but it was so worth the drive.

More Vanilla Joy Great Giveaways

Kelsey just keeps coming up with more amazing items to give away on her website. This week she has some beautiful jewelry that is very unique. I love things that are different and this jewelry is just that. Check out her giveaway by simply going to vanillajoy.com It is one of my favorite sites and I am always intrigued by what I find there.