Thursday, October 31, 2019

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.


Monday, September 30, 2019

A September to Remember

(It was either rhyme September or December with remember. Anyway. . . .)

For whatever reason, heraldry figured in a lot of this month's photos (in addition to the gym photos we always end up taking). Maybe we need to find additional interests. . . .

We bought some shields at the Renaissance Faire, and Eliza and Dad painted theirs.


Dad got labels and was excited to use them.

Landon and several boys competed to be part of the Utah Statewide Boys Team for his level.


The kids wanted to build a fort in the living room, so they did.



Fergus enjoyed his new digs.

"Hey! Where'd my new home go?!"

In addition to doing different emblazons of his arms, Mike has also worked on a new monogram. Here's one version.

The deacons had an activity at our house and had a Nerf war afterwards.

We were saddened to hear that Grandpa O.'s dog, Shep, passed away suddenly. Such a good boi! :(

Life is good when you have smoothies on the road!

As part of her therapy, Eliza got a family of cats to share her strong emotions.

Our next door neighbor showed us the subtleties of chess.

Our other next door neighbor invited us to a pancake breakfast. We are lucky ducks to have such nice friends nearby!

Coach Marissa surprised girls' team with a visit! We miss you.

Oh, and Dad also got magnets. Now our metal doors have arms.

Speaking of doors, while we don't have photos of the living room, we did paint the trim. We need to keep the momentum going on that. . . .

Eliza went back to Kendall's to brush Dusty the horse and play with the calves.

We love you!

Another deacons activity had the boys learning how to make pizza. The boys got quite creative.

Eliza loves Coach Morgan! 

Another version of Mike's monogram, this one a stylized version of his arms. 


Even one of his LEGO knights got an updated surcoat. 

It may be too little too late considering the forecast for early October, but the garden is finally starting to bear wee fruit.



The tomato plant (not pictured) finally has a bunch of cherry tomatoes. Yay!

Hello, Eliza!