Provo Canyon

I'm going to try to be short on descriptions and mostly just share my favorite photos or I'll be blogging this trip until NEXT September...

We had a great time showing our kids one of our favorite Utah spots- Provo Canyon. We "hiked" up to Bridal Veil Falls and let the kids play, then took a drive up to Sundance to enjoy the fall beauty and a sucker before heading up through the Alpine Loop. It was so gorgeous. Aspen trees have always been a favorite.

We ended the day by meeting up at one of the parks for dinner with the family. We picked up Magleby's Fresh, mmm... the kids roasted hot dogs with Uncle Josh.

Utah...

I had all of these great intentions to blog through our two week (4000+ pictures) trip that we took in September, but it seems that life is gotten away from me once again. But I will try to finish up here and there, while resuming normal posting!

The first night in Utah, we were able to see a couple of old friends-- an old mission companion of Dave's, Ammon, and his family; and also an old friend of mine from high school/ girls' camp- Allison. It was fun to see them.

Thanks, friends, for hanging out with us! Sorry our time was so limited out there, it would have been great to see everyone that we missed! Next time, more of you will have to rearrange your busy lives for me!

When did this happen??

I was going through my recent pictures and found this cuteness...

Seriously, when did my baby become this big boy? He's growing up too fast! Struttin' around in his big boy clothes and sneakers... talking?!

Climbing up the slide (or ladder, whatever strikes his fancy at the moment) up to the clubhouse... all by himself...

Then of course acting so proud of himself, strutting around, then sliding back down- backwards, forwards, or even head first (Superman style)....

Then I saw this one... look at that face, he's such a little angel.

Even though I'm not sure I want him to get any bigger, I absolutely love this age. He is so sweet and funny. He loves to laugh with us and be silly, he loves to say words, he's very good at communicating what he wants! He is an awesome dancer, you should see him boogie! He is all over trying to do anything and everything, but in the midst of it, he will still run to me and give me hugs and kisses and I still get cuddle time.

And that smile... he dazzles people everywhere we go. They look at him, then he catches them off guard when his face just lights up and those dimples show up....

Sigh.

Trick or treat!

Well, here they are- Indiana, Indiana, and Yoda.

Yoda was not very happy, his naptime was severely disrupted today, and it took him a little while to decide that he was going to be a happy camper tonight.

Ben had a lot of costume ideas, but kept coming back to Indiana Jones. He loves to play Lego Indiana Jones on the xBox 360 with Dave, and loves to run around the backyard humming the theme song and having adventures. He wears Dave's "Indiana" hat pretty much every day. We found these awesome (faux) leather jackets at Target and got one for each of them. Besides being able to play Indiana to their hearts' content, they can also wear them to keep warm. Bonus :)

Of course, since Ben wanted to be Indiana, Chris wanted to be Indiana. It's like this a lot. In the mornings, I'll ask what cereal they want and Chris will either wait until Ben answers and then pick the same, or he'll change his mind after Ben has answered. Sometimes he varied his choice- he wanted to be "the son" which is his usual role when they are playing Indiana Jones. We found a hat and whip set for each of them, so now Chris doesn't have to just be the son (since Ben always had the hat), he can be Indiana too if he wants.

We bought the little dude a jacket too (couldn't leave him out, they're just too cute!) but not a hat and whip (those adult sized props don't actually fit well on the bigger boys) and when the day rolled around, we pulled out Ben's first Halloween costume instead, and it was too cute. He loved wearing it, even the hat!

And here is the whole candy crew- all the cousins went together.

The babies were too cute! Just had to share these fun shots...

Jacob


Ethan

Peter

This one is not necessarily one of the "babies" but still, look at that face! He is so good to say cheese for me too, I don't even have to ask!

Oliver

And a few from our adventures earlier in the day at the ward "Trunk or Treat"! I forgot my camera, but Dave got a few with his iPhone.

I love how Jon is just taking off with his little pumpkin.

He was loving just walking around everywhere in his cool costume! The older boys were way excited for the candy. They were so cute. They can be slightly horrendous when it comes to us limiting their treats, but they were pretty great today.

Jon held this sucker in his other hand forever. Sometimes he would stick it in his mouth (wrapper and all) but mostly would just carry it around, it made him happy :)

Pumpkins!

We went to our local pumpkin farm a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. It was a lot colder than we thought it would be (colder than at our house when we left) but the boys still had a blast.

Most people around here go to Tate Farms, which has been around forever I guess, and it's big and crazy packed on Saturdays. Last year, we tried this one- Lyon Family Farms- and loved it. It's got everything the other one has, except the big trailer full of cotton to jump in but I thought that one was gross anyway. The beauty of this one is that it's a bit more spread out and not as crowded, but every bit as fun. The people that run it are really sweet too.

Ben loved this huge tube slide, he kept going up over and over.

And of course they loved this tire swing, they didn't want to get off...

These smarties used planks across the bottom to make it safer for the kids to sit in, so even Jon could go.

We enticed them away from the tire swing finally because next was the CORN.

Jon wasn't sure about it when Dave first put him in the wagon, but he loved it.

These always crack me up...

And then of course, the ride out to the pumpkin patch...

We hadn't brought winter gear, but Jon was getting cold, so I got Ben's hat and mittens from the car for him (we had just bought them that morning or we wouldn't have had anything), he looked kind of funny, but it kept him warm (even though we couldn't keep the mittens on him!)

They loved running around to find the perfect pumpkin, and each picked their favorite.

I wanted one of all of them standing, but we had a shoe mishap in the pumpkin field, but that's a story for another day...

Happy Fall everyone!!!