Ward Halloween Party

Tonight the kids got to give their costumes a practice run at our Ward Halloween Party.

We started off with a yummy chili dinner & then the kids got to play some games & other activities. Lexie was silly in the "spooky room" where they put their hands in cauldrons to feel "eyes, kidneys, brains, intestines, etc." & after each thing she would say, No it's not, that's grapes, eggs, spaghetti, or whatever it was. The only one she didn't recognize was the cauliflower, I guess we don't have that enough at our house.

After the activity the kids went around the church trick-or-treating (it was too cold & snowy outside).

After the party, one of our friends gave us this great bat balloon. (Thanks, Scharlotte!) Andrew got a kick out of flying the bat around the house! He even flew the bat over to Lexie & Joseph to give them good night kisses.

Snow Days

Yesterday the snowstorm began. Rick got an early release from work so we had a fun, relaxing afternoon. I baked cupcakes & a cake with the kids & for dessert we decorated ghost cupcakes. (Or maybe they were snowman cupcakes, you decide.)

We woke up to lots more snow! We got over 2 feet in all. We decided to finish decorating the rest of the cupcakes & the cake.

Then we headed out to brave the cold wind & snow. The grown-ups shoveled the snow while the kids played & "helped" clear the driveway.

Andrew really did not want to come inside. He really enjoyed being out in the snow.

But we finally convinced him to come in for some hot chocolate & cake (which we enjoyed with our neighbors). It's great having fun friends right across the street.

After we got kids down (well, almost-Joseph snuck down & helped, too), Rick helped me make & can some applesauce. It was our first attempt & it went really well. It tasted really good, too.

We're ready for more snow days!

Weekend Roadtrip

We've been wanting to take a trip to Mt. Rushmore for a long time, so this weekend we finally hit the road. It was a really quick trip, but we were able to pack a lot in. Lexie's favorite part was the hotel. Joseph's favorite part was Bear Country. Andrew's favorite part was moo-ing at all of the cows along the way.

Friday morning, Rick left work early & we headed north. Our first attraction of the trip was going to see the sculpture of Crazy Horse. Although it's not finished, & maybe never will be, it was still an impressive site. We thought it was pretty cool that on multiple occasions, Korczak (the sculptor), turned down offers of millions of dollars from the government to help finish the project. He felt it would be more meaningful having it completed with private funds rather than with a government handout.

Saturday morning we started out at Mt. Rushmore. It was a beautiful morning & really neat that there were maybe 10 other people there. It was nice to hike around the trail & appreciate the beautiful scenery.

Bear Country was a fun stop where we could drive through a park with free-roaming animals. The kids were scared because the animals were so close. Lexie had a close encounter with goat, & after that, they weren't quite as scared of the animals.

Then we headed out to the Rapid City area. Our intention was to go to Storybook Island, but they were closed for the season (as were many other things). So we stopped at the park & let the kids play in the leaves & then to the Dinosaur Park that had lots of green dinosaurs to climb on.

The Jewel Cave was our final attraction (until we decided to go to the tourist hot spot, Dewey, SD-but more on that later). It's the 2nd longest cave in the world with more still being mapped out almost daily. We took a brief tour into the main cavern of the cave & got to see the sparkling calcite which gave the cave it's name.

As we began the trip back to Colorado, Rick found on the map a great scenic route for us to take. The thought was to take some back roads & experience some of the small town Americana of rural South Dakota. Little did we know how rural it was. What we expected to be well maintained state highways ended up being washed out dirt roads with ruts so deep we had to drive around many of them. (Boy, was Cheryl glad she was driving...) (Oh & we took the Maxima on this roadtrip, not the Expedition.) This was one of the better roads. We sure thought we'd taken a wrong turn, or two, or three.

It's amazing that 2 tire tracks running through a field would show up as a road on our GPS. This was our view a lot of the time. It was really beautiful & peaceful out in the middle of nowhere.

We saw the town of Dewey, SD on the map & thought we'd drive through that town before heading back out to the main highway. Imagine our surprise when we saw this sign...

We even saw 2 of the 7 people who live there. It's a good thing there was a sign or else we wouldn't have even known that was a town. There were only a few buildings, none of which looked inhabited.

We were happy to see this sign so at least we knew we were going in the right direction (you probably don't have people say they are happy to be in Wyoming too often, but we were).

We crossed a few narrow bridges & when we crossed one of them we scared a herd of antelope. There were about 30 of them. This is some of them running away from us, thus not a great picture. But it was pretty cool to see.

And then our wonderful adventure was over. We made it back to well maintained highways/freeways & stuck to them for the rest of the trip home. We had a great adventure & will definitely take a few more scenic routes in the future.

Fall Wonderland

And we thought it was Fall Break, not Winter Break...

But they sure did have lots of fun!

Fall Break is Here

Today was the first day of Fall Break. We decided to do lots of fun things. The weather was awesome so that made for lots of fun both outside & inside. It's also Monday. And at our house, Mondays have turned into "Muffin Tin Mondays." What are Muffin Tin Mondays you may ask? Well, I found this idea from someones blog "suggested" in Google Reader, Sandy, which she got from a lady named Michelle. And everyone knows how I love to use other peoples great ideas, so we gave it a go. What you do is serve your kids their meal in muffin tins. Since Andrew hardly eats anything at all (especially not on his own), I thought that maybe giving him his food in something more "fun" (muffin tins) would inspire him to eat more & feed himself. It's worked pretty well & as an added bonus, Lexie & Joseph really get a kick out of it & look forward to Mondays.

We also decided to make some warm apples. Lexie & Joseph were great peelers. I'm glad they like to help so much. And they sure were tasty!

Then, for Family Home Evening, we had a fun little activity (same one I did for my Activity Day girls last week). We told the kids that we were going to make ice cream sundaes. We got out a bowl of ice cream & asked who wanted toppings on it. Joseph was so excited & wanted his first. We then proceeded to put on toppings like ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, relish, shredded cheese, & ranch dressing. For some reason Joseph wasn't as excited to eat it anymore, although he started eating it anyway. Yuck, it grossed us out.

We then had a discussion about how those toppings were appropriate for other things (like salads, hamburgers, etc.) but they weren't good toppings for ice cream sundaes. We followed that by talking about how there are a lot of good things we can do during the week, but they aren't good activities for Sundays. After talking about good Sunday activities, we got out good sundae toppings and enjoyed a yummy treat.

Fall Break is certainly off to a good start. Now if we can just get everybody healthy...

Cruise 2009

Rick's parents took us on a 9 day cruise along with his brother, Ryan & his Grandpa. We've been on a couple Caribbean cruises, so it was nice to experience something different with a New England/Canada cruise. This was a great time of year to go so we could see all the leaves changing colors. It really was awesome to see Autumn's many colors on display.

Some of the highlights were getting to see the temples in Halifax, NS & Boston, MA,

visiting some cool lighthouses,

going to the Lexington/Concord area & being reminded of the bravery of those who began the Revolution which founded our Country,

playing lots of miniature golf,

Rick getting 2nd place in the rock climbing wall competition (he got the fastest time overall (12.9 seconds) in 1 heat-but they added the 2 heats together),

seeing all of the ocean side scenery,

the on board Ice Skating show (definitely the best we'd seen yet-Rick's Dad & Grandpa went 3 times),

spending time with family,

& of course the food-& our dinner companions (Bill & Lorraine were great).

Our waiter was from Turkey & he was so nice to bring me some uludag, which is this yummy soda I had on my mission in Germany.

Here are a few other pics from our trip.

Thanks Grant & Joyce for the great cruise! We really enjoyed it & looking forward to the next one. And thanks so much to Janae & my Mom for coming out to watch the kids. They had an awesome time with you! (Joseph was very upset & cried when he woke up & found that you guys were already gone.) We really appreciate everything our families do for us.

Our Sweet Drooly Boy

A Garden Surprise

We severely neglected our poor garden this year. But we did manage to get some tomatoes, beans, lettuce, broccoli, & a few peppers. Today we cleared the garden & as I was pulling weeds, out came a carrot. Sure enough we found 6 all together. Amazing, considering that I didn't think we got any carrots. I was sure the seeds had all washed away with all of the snow we got during the spring here. It was a nice surprise. On a side note, since all the kids have been sick, it was fun to have Joseph feeling so well today. He was such a great helper weeding. I loved to hear him say, "I just love to work outside so much!" He is a great boy to have in our family.

Joy School Halloween Party

Joseph enjoyed another fun Halloween Party with Miss Jen. The kids did an awesome job singing their spooky songs & frosting some yummy cookies. We sure love Joy School.