October Occasions

We filled October with a variety of fun fall activities. 

Eliza thinks it's funny to cover her hands with chalk at gym and then leave her mark on her parents' clothes. Gee, thanks. Hallie actually loves it! She loves seeing all the fine details in her hand prints.

Eliza did a great job in reading and gymnastics so a trip to Fiiz she earned!

Hallie and Alicia took the girls to Rod Works, In-N-Out and then to Deseret Book for their pre-Conference Family Night.

Speaking of conference, we enjoyed a couple of sessions with the Crossettes next door. Apparently this is how Landon likes to watch.

Mom and Eliza (with a little help from Dad) painted this fun Halloween sign. With Eliza's help mom won the items to make the sign from the Wood Connection. It is okay to play hooky from school sometimes, right?

Landon considered playing violin for his school orchestra. We even went so far as to rent him an instrument. You can tell he was thrilled with the idea. He wanted to do it until he realized what getting to practice at 7:55 a.m. really meant.

He had a regional Future Stars meet in Denver.

We had to have Beau Jo's, of course! Twice!

While he didn't advance to nationals, this was good preparation for the upcoming meet season.

A cool mural right behind Xtreme Altitude in Lafayette, Colorado.

He had fun, and we're definitely glad for that. These two Level 8 buddies make training 20 hours a week so much more enjoyable. Thanks Tami for the pictures!

As part of his birthday celebrations, we all attended a Fantastic Feast at the Wadley Farms castle (not to be confused with a certain wizarding book and movie franchise (cough! Harry Potter.
cough!).

Eliza won the first raffle prize, her very own magic wand!

Landon made friends with our evening's magician, Zane Gray!

He must have partied a bit too hard, because the next day he had to stay home sick. We love how Fergus takes care of us when we are under the weather.

We went to Jaker's pumpkin patch with our old neighbors, the Smith girls.

Hallie and her mom met Kristen Chenowith at a media event at Deseret Book.

Landon celebrated his birthday with presents, cake, and ice cream with Grandpa and Grandma M. Mom and Dad even made him a German Chocolate Cake from scratch.

One of our former ward members does buildings in LEGO. For homecoming/the opening of a new shop in the Wilkinson Center, he built a scale model of the BY Academy.

For one of our date nights, we took out our aggression at Heber Hatchets in Provo.

We also enjoyed some Rockwell Ice Cream!

Landon received several presents for his big day.

We enjoyed an Addams Family-themed meal at IHOP, Landon's choice for his birthday meal.

Eliza has made the hall linen closet into her Harry Potter-esque private nook.

Mike has updated the look of his LEGO mug.

Fergus has discovered catnip.

For Halloween-related events, the kids dressed up in a couple of different costumes.

We got a spell of winter a few days before Halloween. A bit of a surprise. We didn't think ahead and the pumpkins froze. No carving done this year until after the big day.

Fergus may not be ready for it to be cold again.

Eliza has taken to making her own equestrian-themed LEGO sets.

Mike still enjoys the occasional afternoon mate to supplement his morning brew.

Eliza has discovered using the vent and her blanket to make a warm tent. It is going to be a long winter and slow mornings.

She also made cute sugar skull art in school.

On Halloween, the kids dressed up, . . .

had parties, . . .

(with Lily from gym!)

paraded around the school, . . .

and went trick-or-treating.

(Beautiful autumn sunset!)

They took in quite the haul.