Halloween happenings

I took the kids to Gardner Villages Witchy festival last week. They got cookies for doing a scavenger hunt of witches. I liked the way the sun was hitting their faces. I only remembered to get one picture of a witch and it was the one in the outhouse with a newspaper over her face. If you haven't bee, they do an amazing job of making it fun for the kids and they have pumpkin fudge!

We went to a pumpkin carving party at the Bishops on Saturday and had chili. It was lots of fun and the kids managed to carve most of their pumpkins by themselves. They needed a little help with the tiny intricate parts of the design but I was amazed how much they did on their own.

Before:

After:

(L to R): Michelles, Nathans, Pauls, Andrews

little hauntings

I asked Andrew the other day to draw me a witch a ghost and a pumpkin. He drew the most adorable turtle the other day. I asked if I could keep it and he said no, it was for his teacher. He did agree to let me copy it, but now no one can find it. He drew me my own, although my turtle looks more like a penguin.

Now that he is in school and spends a great deal of time doing his own thing (rather than what Nathan is doing) his personality is really coming through. The other day at the dinner table, out of the blue he said we should tell the government to put lights on our street. Paul and I looked at each other. I thought it was a rather profound thing for a five year old to say. I asked if he learned about that in school and he said no, but it's dark and there should be lights.

It's deer widow weekend and ironically, even though Paul doesn't hunt, I'm alone. He went to Chicago for some training and the kids and I are enjoying some play time. As much as they love and miss their dad, they like it when he leaves. It means we can go to the salad bar for dinner. They love vegetables. Their a bit weird for kids I guess, but I won't argue. We went to the Spaghetti Factory one night, then they spend a night at Jaja's and got spoiled with brownies and swimming. I picked them up and we made a trip to the library and to a movie. We watched "Up" - the latest Pixar one. That might have set a record for me crying in a movie. I think it took all of five minutes after it started. At least the second time I started crying I heard the kid a few rows back ask his dad why he was crying. We went home and then hung out in the back yard. It was an amazing perfect day. The kids played in the sand box and I read in the hammock -and almost took a nap. Then we picked my brother up, saw his new place now that he's moved back to town and then went to watch him para glide. I hadn't seen him do that before and it was pretty amazing. Almost -almost made me want to try it. Then Aunt Stephanie joined us and we all went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. The kids love their aunt and uncle but don't see them as much, they were in heaven sitting by them.

DIY - what not to do....

I saw cute little napkins holders in a magazine awhile back (probably a few years at least) that were made out of tiny grapevine wreaths with little acorns glued on. They were cute, but we didn't have an oak tree. The weekend I took the boys to the bmx bike track there was scrub oak everywhere. I picked up a whole pocket full of acorns. And since I have so much time on my hands when we got back I threw them into a huge glass jar and added a ribbon until I could do more. As I was cleaning today I noticed little holes in all the acorns. I pushed some aside and figured out that the whole bottom of the jar was filled with squirmy maggot looking bugs. I guess it's a good creepy Halloween decoration, just not quiet the one I was going for. Good thing they couldn't crawl up the sides of the glass. UGH! Ribbon really is much nicer by itself in a bow.

coconuts don't grow in Yellowstone

On the last day we were in Yellowstone we found a coconut. It was under a pine tree by the lower falls. Paul explained to the kids that although it was sorta natural - it is a fruit from a tree, it wouldn't be there normally so it was littering and picked it up and put it in the back of the truck. Some how it made it home with us so Paul chopped it open so the kids could see the layers of green and then the fibrous part and then the hard brown shell. They collected all the juice to taste and grated some of the white pulp. Nathan was so excited he took the various parts to school for show and tell which seemed like a great idea. Not many people know that coconuts are huge green ugly things, not the round brown inside they typically think they are. As he headed out the door he was excitedly exclaiming about how he would tell everyone he brought a coconut from Yellowstone. Paul and I looked at each other and realized none of adults would believe him and the kids are going to be confused the next time they go there and don't see coconuts. I talked to one of his teachers, she admitted she thought it was strange, but at least she did believe he found it there and they talked about where it should would be found normally. It ended up being a good lesson.

Oh give me a home....

The kids were out of school for the deer hunt - uh, I mean UEA. I find it weird they get a three day weekend in October for nothing, but Thanksgiving is only four days and other Holidays are less than that. We don't hunt, but we took advantage of the weekend and headed to Yellowstone. We've talked about going all year. It seemed like a good time to go. All of the forest service campgrounds closed Sept 30th, we didn't arrive until the 1st of October. There were no crowds and lots of animals. Perfect combination. Within minutes of driving through the park gates we had seen 3 eagles and a lone buffalo and 3 deer. The count continued up from there. We saw a total of 5 eagles, 3 osprey (which I hadn't seen before) and herds of elk and buffalo, plus an extra special sighting...



No trip is complete with out visiting Old Faithful. Having been here before it seemed the geyser didn't go off as long as usual and it was a bit late. There was a ranger out there with us answering questions and he had just mentioned that when other geysers in the area go off, it disrupts the schedule a little. A smaller one off in the distance went off while we were waiting and seemed to take some of the show.

On our last day we woke at the unimaginable hour of 4:30 am and headed to the farthest area of the park to be there around sunrise where the best chances of seeing bears and wolves was. We didn't see any bears but we were able to see three of the four wolves from a pack near the LaMar Valley. The alpha male was very large and black. We were able to see him and two of the females. They kept traversing the crest of the peak. It was incredible and worth every minute of lost sleep.

fall colors

I had a feeling we would have an early winter, not sure why. But, I didn't think it would literally happen over night. Wed it was 87 degrees, yesterday it rained and SNOWED. I have a trace accumulated on my car, there is some in the garden and a bit on the patio chairs.

At least we managed to get up the canyon last weekend in the Jeep and see the leaves. It was a beautiful day, warm but not hot, sunny and perfect. Utah really does have beautiful fall colors, when their not white.

I was hoping the kids would be quiet for a bit so I could post this...their a bit too quiet. Better go.