Spooky Dinner III

Tonight’s snake calzone and Jack o lantern acorn squash tasted even better than they looked!!  It was mind blowingly delicious and we all over ate!  Kyle is so amazing in the kitchen!

Happy Halloween!!!

We were on the pop culture side of costumes this year with Ben rocking the Gizmo blowup and the girls and Kyle representing David S. Pumpkins from SNL.  We are our second round of mummy dogs this week, got dressed and snapped this photo.  Kyle had been at a tournament all day with Jack, but made it home just in time.

Jack wasn’t feeling great after the two day tourney and couldn’t fit into any of Kyle’s old costumes so he stayed home and played video games while the rest of us went trick or treating. Ben’s blow up was a fail and he struggled all night with being able to see in the dark. He carried a flashlight he had just gotten from Grammy, but he was still needing major assistance and even tripped over a sidewalk crack and went down. 

It was so fun to have everyone together one more year, minus Jack, love all the costumes and especially loved watching the Burbs as a family after all the kids’ ditched them last minute. Family is forever, friends are just not that cool!!

UVA vs. BYU

Today is the UVA vs. BYU football game in Provo. Most of the people around here are for BYU or U of U, we are definitely in the minority having gone to school out of state. Over the years I have collected some cute UVA swag and the girls both wore one of my sweatshirts today!  It was so cute to see them together, after picking Norah up from her friend’s house that I asked them to stop for me to take a picture!  So cute!

Nana & Papa

 

It was such a good visit!  We didn’t see Kristine or her kids, but we saw everyone else and it was so fun!  Saturday was Wrigley and Beckett’s birthdays, so we met at a park and had pizza and root beer floats!  Sunday everyone pitched in and made a spooky dinner!  The kids loved all the fun food and our family contributed some mummy dogs, witch hat cookies and all the signage!!  We all slept great, can’t wait to come back again!

Haunted House Winners!

We were lucky enough to be in town for a spooky Sunday dinner and a scary haunted house hosted by Mary Ann. Kyle won the award for scariest scared, but we all agreed Mary laying lifeless on her bed was way scarier than Kyle flapping around saying, “I’m a bat!”  

Families Can Be Forever!

When Kyle and I were sealed in the temple in 2001 we had no idea what spirits would be joining our family along the way.  It all started here!

Somehow we ended up with this amazing crew and are sealed together forever!  Through our obedience to God’s commandments and our sealing through the proper priesthood authority in the House of The Lord, we can be together in the eternities!!

Mini Christus

The Mesa Temple had been renovated as well as the surrounding blocks of Mesa, the temple grounds and the Visitor’s Center. Everything felt different, but was mostly just an updated version of what it was previously. The biggest change at the Visitor’s Center is the absence of the Christus statue. The new center is not big enough to hold the massive statue, so it is currently in storage. After some looking around we were able to find this smaller version of the statue. 

Temple Open House

About a month ago we planned this trip to visit the Mesa AZ Temple open house with the kids. We planned to visit IL and MI during fall break, so we were home for 4 days before jumping on another crappy Frontier flight. We have enjoyed the time we’ve spent with Aunts and Uncles and have loved seeing cousins and staying with Nana and Papa. 

Coming to the open house was the reason for the trip, but our appointment was on the very last day of our trip. We wanted to go earlier in the morning to avoid the crowds and try to have a spiritual experience with the kids.  The sister missionaries snapped this picture for us right after we finished up. 

Pumpkin Pretzels

We got creative at Mike and Jen’s house and whipped up a batch of these pretzels topped with melted hugs and pumpkins!  Everyone enjoyed our efforts. 

Rental Car Woes

Two trips in a week might have made sense when we booked them, but after being stuck in the airport for 2+ hours waiting for our rental car, some doubts started to creep in!  Ava made the best of her down time with some stickering.  The rest of us watched her and took turns on the IPad while Kyle stood in line and battled with the Budget.  We might only be using Turo from now on!!

 

Cutie!

Ulli could not be cuter!  He is overdue for a bath, but still looks shiny and fluffy!!  I snapped this picture on my way back up our neighbor’s driveway after taking their trash bin in for them. Ulli waited for me the whole time and didn’t run off!  Way to go!!

Gizmo!

 After a memorable trip to IL and a fun viewing of the movie Gremlins with fun Aunts-Ben was all in on the Gizmo blow up costume!  We had him try it on today and planned to have him sneak in and wake Norah up while wearing it, but she was too quick and we missed out on an awesome scare!

Cherry Cupcakes!

Ben has been pumped about making these maraschino cherry cupcakes from our cake mix cookbook and today was the day!  They had almond frosting, making it super delicious and sophisticated in spite of the the cherry on top!

 

No Snow!

We’ve had no snow, but lots of rain and fun clouds to make the valley look moody and beautiful!  Snow is definitely preferred though!

 

Bountiful Temple

We got back last night and went to the temple this afternoon. We scheduled an appointment about a month ago at the closest temple-Bountiful. It is an hour away, and Kyle has zero time during the day right now, but he also is in serious need of blessings!  The 3 inches of snow we got last night prevented us from combining our temple trip with a boat winterization trip-you can’t win them all!!  Hoping things will be dry by Thursday and we will be able to pull the boat up the driveway!!

Miss Him

Kyle has been drowning in end of quarter law work and  spice issues that keep him up late at night. I get up at 6:30 with the kids most mornings making our evenings together non existent. I hope we can figure out a meet up soon!!

Christmas Card Photo Potential!

With all the rush and limited packing space, it was beyond amazing when I looked around and noticed we were all wearing coordinating clothes and the backdrop could not have been more perfect for some photos!!  The Merricks are pro at all things visual and snapped this beauty.  I love it and if it goes to print, I will only have to tweak Norah’s black hoodie!!

Idared!

This apple tasted as amazing as it looked!  Norah found the perfect apple and when we ate it for lunch the following day, we all agreed it was the best one of the bunch!

Apple Time!

We got to Michigan super late last night after losing an hour at the state line, so we met the Merricks for brunch and then headed to an apple orchard for some sweet apple picking!  We grabbed way too many, but the kids loved pulling the delicious fruit off the trees!!

Friends!!

These girls are buddies!  They love to be together and are both such sweet Spirits!  So glad we have been able to stay close to the Merricks in spite of living so far away!!

Winner & The Rest

In spite of never practicing, I somehow beat everyone to the build eye on our backyard shoot around!  Jack should have definitely taken 1st with all his shooting practice, but somehow I pulled out the win and couldn’t stop gloating about it!!

 

Darly’s Angels

This picture is so funny!!  Grammy is holding a bee bee gun while the rest of the Angels are sporting random made up weapons!  So fun to see these amazing women and catch up after way too long!!

Grandparent Time!

We haven’t seen these guys since June, so everyone was super pumped to stay at Grammy’s house for a couple nights before making the drive up to Michigan with Kyle. We played with all the gifts from Grammy, watched Gremlins, shot bee bee guns, ate our favorite Chicago food, went to the park, played a family history scavenger hunt, walked the dogs, played basketball and got to know Grammy’s two new dogs really well!  It was a short visit, but splitting a 4 day break between two states will do that to you!!

Fall Break Bound!

With Kyle out of town all week, I have been getting ready for our fall break trip to IL/MI by myself. Shuttling the kids around at night is always tiresome, but with no adult back home to take care of the kids, it’s extra stressful! We managed ok, thanks to some helpful big kids!  Today was the most interesting with Ben having a field trip and me having signed up to chaperone!  It all worked out and we used our 45 minute delay to eat dinner at the airport!!  Look at those excited faces!!

He’s Happy!

Ulli had an extra spring in his step, aka I wasn’t dragging him around, during his walk. He actually walked almost as fast as me and seemed to be wagging his tail the whole time!  I swept about 2.5 inches off the boat cover and with so many leaves still on the trees, there is some amazing flocking going on!!

First Snow!

We’ve had a lot of moisture this week, but temps have been so high so long, nothing has really turned to snow or stuck to the ground. Last night, things changed!!  It was such a beautiful sight to wake up to!  The kids couldn’t believe it!  The only downside, was Kyle is in MI and we needed to bring our boat to Ogden where it’s warmer. I swept all the snow off the cover, hopefully none of the fluids inside will freeze!!

Snow At The Top!!

We finally got some snow on the peaks after all the rain this week!  Looks so pretty and kind of mind blowing to think Kyle and Ava hiked up there last week with no snow in sight!  It’s a good thing they didn’t wait another week to do the hike!!

Tournament Rainbow!!

This weekend Jack was scheduled to play a tournament in American Fork, and with Kyle and Ava’s volleyball game the night of Jack’s first games, I decided to drive him down.  

We left early enough to check in to the hotel and grab some dinner and dessert before driving the rest of the way to the tournament.  I snapped this picture of Jack after dinner with the coolest rainbow in the background. All the rain today really made this guy pop right out of the sky!!

Jack played his first game and then hung out with his team while I drove back to Ogden in time to meet Kyle and the rest of the kids at a gas station. We swapped passengers and Kyle drove down to American Fork for the rest of the tournament while the rest of us went to a service project and tried to clean the house while surviving the scheduled 6 hour long power outage. 

Clouds!!

The rain has finally come and being so high up, we’ve seen the clouds producing all the water!  I love how thick the white fluffs look with all the fall colors in the background.  I dropped Ben off at school on Monday and stopped to take the top one on the side of the road.  The bottom one was taken on a walk near Ben’s school today while I waited for my art class to start!!

 

Fall Piano Recital 2021

The girls have started piano lessons with a new teacher who is also on the faculty at Utah State University in Logan.  Both have commented on the new things they are learning and were excited to be able to participate in the recital in spite of only 3 weeks of preparation.  

Norah played the theme from Somewhere in Time while Ava played the song Dawn from Pride and Prejudice.  Both pieces were as beautiful as the performers and were played perfectly!!

Utah State is over an hour away, so we made a fun night out of it by watching Force Awakens on the drive, getting dinner at a fun Mexican restaurant before the recital and even squeezing in a round of Krispy Kreme donuts (that were hot now!).  

We made the boys come with us and then dropped them at basketball practice on our way back while the girls and I celebrated again with a trip to a twisted Sugar!  So proud of our amazing pianists!!

 

Ben Lomond or Bust!

Hiking Ben Lomond has been a bucket list item for these two since we moved across the street from it!  Today was the day!  The set their alarms to get up and at ‘em and tackled the summit in less than 4 hours, enjoying the beautiful fall colors the whole way (with a little General Conference playing in the background).  After lunch at the summit the descended down (avoiding a moose) to meet with us in time for dinner.