Happy Halloween

Such a fun time with the kids this year. Luke was thrilled to be a pirate, because of the sword he was wielding, and Ethan was not so thrilled to be a viking, but I loved it. It was one of the easiest costumes I've made, but I thought it was so cute on him. (I used to call him "viking" when he was little and his eyes would wander all over, it reminded me of the viking dude on Lord of the Rings.) Luke had so much fun going door to door this year too, we went with our neighbors so he wasn't scared to go up to the doors with them, or else D and I would've been doing it all for him.

and a First Birthday

The big first birthday for Mr. E, however no big celebration, we don't live close to family and he doesn't know any better! (How terrible is that.) So when D came home for lunch we let him open his present, with the help of big brother, and let him eat cake!

Not a huge fan of the cake, but ate some. No throwing of the cake though like Mr. L.

Birthday photoshoot. :)

First haircut

BEFORE


DURING

AFTER


So cute! Thanks Mollie! And thanks to Liz and Luke for being my photographer. :) I'm not going to lie though, I liked his long fuzzy hair, but it was time and it always grows back eh?

Baptist Draw

A few weeks ago we took the 15-18 year old girls in our stake on a hike as part of camp certification down to baptist draw, well it was more than just a hike, it involved rappelling, swimming, bouldering and some serious moxy. So, basically it was a blast! Super amazing slot canyon and views.

Heading into the draw.




Those are trees above our heads, can you imagine the water flow during a storm?


Waiting for our first rappel, we are laughing because just as soon as the "let-down" started, Kim comes over and says let me take your picture...but I wasn't about to move my arms! (She had no idea, guess she will now!)



From the bottom of our second rappel, which was about 80 feet. These are our trusty guides. We were so glad they were there. I love the light and darks of this picture.



The FIRST swim! That's my head sticking out...and don't think for a second that the water didn't stink.





I love this picture too, the rocks look like chess pieces, you can even see a face in the center of the picture at the back.



One the way out. We made it, I think there were times when we all wondered if we would ever get out of the water! Of course once you do make it, it's all worth it!

Runnin' the Green

As part of our holiday weekend, we were invited to head down to the Green River for an overnight trip runnin' the Green and camping on the beach with some friends. (I know, pretty sweet to have friends that run rivers. We feel pretty fortunate to know them, and they are such a great family in every sense of the word!) This is the part of the river that I used to guide on back when I was at BYU and it's been 12 years since I had been there. So I was super excited to go! Not much has changed, although the water was super low, but it was still fun, and slow enough that I got to take L with me on one of the rafts. E did really well, for a wee one. He finally figured out that putting the sand in his mouth wasn't the most comforting thing he could do, but didn't really get it that throwing the sand up in the air wasn't such a great idea. It was constantly in his eyes! I didn't even get video of him playing in it, so bummed!

Yellowstone

Yellowstone was great as usual and Ethan did much better than I expected, I guess. He slept in the bathtub in G&G Summers trailer. We could put him to bed at 7:00 pm, turn the fan on and still be in the trailer, it worked out great. (We figured this out when G&G Summers camped just down the lane from me while I was at girls camp and had Luke and Ethan with them. It was so great of them!) Danny's sister was there for the first two days at Colter Bay in Teton National Park and then it was just us and G&G in Yellowstone. We wondered if it would be hard for Luke to not have his cousins to play with, but he put us all to work playing with him. Probably Grandpa the most.

We all took turns staying at the trailer in the evening while Ethan slept, and everyone else went out looking for aminals (as Luke still says), but on the nights that Grandpa stayed at the trailer, Luke decided that he would rather stay at the trailer too! Grandpa was his little buddy all week, it was pretty cute. On the last night, back at Colter Bay, I stayed and Luke decided to stay with me. We played "Grandpa" games. We "teased" each other, i.e. "hey that's my coat, give me back my coat!" We "be funny" with each other, i.e. "hey you hambone," "hey you moose face!" and we looked at train magazines. We also played hide-and-seek every day in Yellowstone which he loved. Needless to say there is always a bit of crying when we tell him it's time to go home. Luckily this year we had my nephew's wedding to go to so that was a bit of a buffer for him to see his other cousins and there weren't as many tears this time. As usual too many pictures, but we just can't help ourselves.