Halloween Dance

Kayla popped the question on Friday:

Justin cleverly responded on Sunday: (which was quite to his advantage, thanks to Uncle Vernon)

While she was at church he left the sorting hat pumpkin on her doorstep.  Inside were bobbles with clues that she had to sort to know where to go next to find the question, "Do you know what's so great about Sunday, Kayla?" That led her to the howler in the mailbox.


The superhero couple met up with Batman (Kendall in Bret's suit) before heading off to the dance.

Each couple in their group represented a superhero; Justin and Kayla were The Flash.

The elementary school playground was the perfect location for hero pictures!

There was a little concern about breaking the monkey bars though.

It bowed quite deeply with all of them hanging on it.


The jungle gym fit these monkeys perfectly.

Such a fun group of energetic heroes!

Justin, Kayla, Cole, Claire, Rilee, Hannah, Isaac, Brita, Cameron, Reagan

October

Nathan, Hyrum and I put together some Booing kits to surprise our neighbors with. We specifically chose one family with children with extreme food allergies and another family that has a child on a specific diet due to epilepsy. It was a challenge coming up with items that could be fun and tasty.  

Apple juice mummies, mandarin pumpkins, and homemade salt dough monsters.

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Charlie jumped up on the seat and whimpered his request to go with me as I was loading my bags for a personal trip to Utah.  Sorry Bud, it's a sisters weekend.

(Witch nose editing compliments of Mike.)

Kara, Kate, Kathy and I spent a fun night at Witchapalooza music dinner theater dressed up as witches; eating a delicious dinner and laughing through the hilariously entertaining musical production of the The Lyin', The Witch and The Warlock.

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The fruits of last year's explosive Thanksgiving labors were in full bloom by July. While killing weeds along the ditch bank we found 7 pumpkins plants, one of which had enough blossoms to provide us with Halloween jack-o-lanterns for this year, which we will most likely blow up to perpetuate the pumpkin cycle. Redneck farming at its best.

With a few tips from Levi and a drill added to our carving tools we came up with some pretty sweet designs.

My personal favorite was Erika's pregnant pumpkin.

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Erika made a a very mummy dinner for us!

She went all out with her makeup skills trying to win the costume contest at work. The picture looks gross but in real life it looks like real wounds! I don't think I would have recognized my zombie daughter if I had seen her on the street.

Her other costume for work was our favorite. Again, with amazing makeup talent.

The pregnant zebra!


Hyrum was so excited to be Batman just like Bret.

Nathan combined several costumes into one and was very satisfied with the result.

Daymia and Levi dressed up as . . . themselves?

The beautiful angel and the handsome devil.

The best part about Levi's costume is that he found those pants at DI. They look like they were made just for that costume.

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Nathan: "Do you notice anything different? I cut my mole hair."

Hyrum: "When I have a good idea, my brain actually says 'blink'."

Hyrum: "Sometimes when I'm supposed to be sleeping I'm just thinking of things to build."

Kimber: "The weekend is always my weak end."

Erika: "This baby girl likes to do gymnastics when I'm supposed to be sleeping."

Charlie will go out 8-10 times a day to sit on the back porch, facing the neighbors house, looking for his girlfriend, Roxie.  One day I heard him whining and went looking for him to see what trouble he was in.  He was actually on the neighbors back porch whining for Roxie to come out. Another day, Roxie was sitting near our back door barking for Charlie to come out and play. Hyrum informed me that he has married them. He even held a ceremony, "but they wouldn't hold still and they didn't kiss at the end".

Smoke Jumpers

Nathan's fourth grade class went on a field trip to Yellowstone Park to see the Smoke Jumpers (parachuting fire fighters) last training jump of the season. After a surprisingly calm hour long bus ride, we arrived at the Yellowstone Nature Connection to meet our guides and pledge to protect nature.

We were split into two groups and taken to mini-classes. One class taught about fire safety and how fires spread depending on fuel and wind. The other class taught about the parachute, the plane and the jumpers.

The students also had to pass a fitness test similar to the one the rookie jumpers have to pass. They breezed through jumping jacks and push ups but the pull up bar is where they met their limits.

Our next stop was about ten miles away at the practice drop zone. After a short hike from the bus we found ourselves in a beautiful field looking over the mountains with the plane flying overhead. The plane did a few passes to drop ribbons to test the wind and by the third pass, we had jumpers.

We watched eight jumpers glide through the sky as they directed their parachutes in perfect form to land within feet of the target drop.  Once all jumpers were down, the kids ran into the field to gather the test ribbons and to chat with the rookie jumper.

We met the jumpers back at the Yellowstone Airport to learn more about the planes and to see where they make the parachutes, packs and stock all the equipment that they use to fight the fires.

It was impressive to see the pattern, fabric and industrial sewing machines that are used to make everything and even more impressive that the fire fighters do all the cutting and sewing themselves.

To complete our trip, the rangers back at the station swore in our newest little rangers.

My favorite part of the trip came as we were pulling into Hibbard. All twenty-one kids on the bus were singing at the top of their lungs with arms pumping in a cheer as they belted out "this is my fight song, take back my life song, prove I'm alright song". It was a perfect way to end our day long field trip. I was honored to spend the day with such respectful and kind young people. Nathan is part of a great class and has a wonderful teacher.

Labor Day Hike to Darby Wind Caves

Derek and LeRoy missed out on our first hike to the Darby Wind Caves and both have wanted to go for the last two years. We realized that it wasn't going to work out with everyone's schedules so had to pick a day that most of us could be there. That meant Levi would miss out, and we missed him.

We started with our usual stop at the Spud Drive-In.

It's unusual to find something that makes Derek look so tiny but the screen structure of the theatre accomplished that. Justin was really wanting to do a flip off the lowest beam but once he got up there he realized that is was a much further drop than he expected.

After miles of hiking, multiple needed rests, and a few stops at the edge of the cliffs we made it to the base of the cave. We stopped for a brief snack at the monument honoring the five women and girls who were killed by lighting in 1951 during their hike down from the caves. While there we read a little about the camp and the girls and looked for the trees struck by lightning.

The hike into the cave is slippery and steep but well worth the effort.

Once inside, Justin decided to scale the rock walls. The height and grandeur of the cave is spectacular!

After carefully maneuvering over wet, loose rock we got to the small entrance of the cave and wriggled our way through. The suffocating darkness can get pretty creepy and the breeze sweeping through the cave is extremely cold. We learned the last time we visited the cave to come with plenty of light, layers of clothing and gloves.

Justin asked LeRoy to take a picture of the two of us. When he saw the picture he said in a flirty voice, "just me and my best girl hanging out in a cave".

Coming out of the cave is like crossing winter and summer seasons in a matter of minutes and our bodies took a bit to adjust as we carefully crossed the terrain with numb fingers and shaky legs.

As the last one out of the cave I had the opportunity to watch my children work together and protect each other from harm.

The water that runs out of the cave provides a waterfall that runs wide and fast during the spring but during the late fall months it runs in a trickle. We hiked down to the bottom of the falls where Bret, Aaron, Kristin and Nathan were crazy brave enough to stand under the bitter cold water.

The hike out is always the hardest because we have already experienced the best of the trip - the cave. That's when silliness comes in. The silly songs, funny jokes and goofy faces keep us going through the final tiring miles and solidify our memories.

At one of our stops Erika informed us, "growing a human while hiking is exhausting".

When Hyrum gets tired he gets very quiet and then he gets his second wind and it's all poses and theatrics from there on out.

Derek and Justin kept busy noticing the finer details of nature and capturing them with phone cameras.

Spiders and flowers were aplenty.

Daymia kept us at a quick pace coming down the trail declaring, "the faster we get down this mountain the fast we get burgers!" And once we were finally on the road again Justin begged, "drive faster! I'm so hungry my socks look good".  Our traditional stop at Basin Burger filled all our bellies and our final hike of the summer was complete.

September

School took over our weekdays and soccer dominated every Saturday morning. Gradually, we settled into our new schedule and before we new it, October had come.

Fourth grade has brought four times the homework. Instead of one math worksheet each night, Nathan has up to 30 math problems to figure out with spelling and reading on top of that.

Brock joins us many afternoons for the after-school snack.

Justin goes all out for his after cheer-school-coaching snack.

We wind our evenings down with reading and pet snuggles.

Getting the boys moving for soccer every Saturday was my weekend chore. I'd finally get them out of their beds (usually with tickle torture and promises of hot cocoa) to find them cuddled up with Charlie on the kitchen floor.

Hyrum is all bundled up for another sunny, yet chilly, soccer morning.

After soccer we get our chores done, which Brock usually helps with so that the boys will be free to play faster. The photo albums were quite the dusting distraction.

Nathan volunteered himself to clean the bathroom the moment he posted this on the door.


When Derek came for a weekend visit, Hyrum was thrilled to have someone understand his design plans (which were only stored in his head). The two of them spent the afternoon cutting, drilling and building a clubhouse.

His plans required a front door, back door, a sun light, shelf and soft floor.

When they finished, Hyrum gave us personal invitations to join him for some hangout time. He also had great plans to spend the night in it, which I allowed, but he never made is past full dark.  Still, he has completely enjoyed his "own apartment".

The following weekend he used up the leftover paint and, with Nathan's help, gave his home a splash of color.

He then made an "OPEN" sign ( with black electrical tape) to hang when he was open to visitors.