Old friend, practical jokes and more halloween fun!

 







Years ago, in 1987, I became friends with a girl named Amy Respess. We actually became best friends. Then she went to a church fireside with me on Temples and afterwards said that she wanted to be married in a Temple. The rest is history, as they say. She took the missionary discussions, got baptized (along with her mom), married my brother (in the Atlanta Temple ) thus becoming my sister-in-law , produced some dang cute nieces for me and one handsome nephews, and is still one of my bestest friends.
While she was here we got together with one of the missionaries that helped teach her whom she has kept in contact with over the years; Dale Diamond. They were nice enough to invite us all (all 12 of us) over to their house for dinner. We got to meet his sweet wife, Holly, and his 3 kids...whose names (all but Mason's) I have forgotten (that's why I really should keep up with this journaling better).

 



These next few pictures are pictures of a prank the girls played on the boys. They waited till the boys were alseep and then snuck downstairs and put bows in their hair and all over their room.

 


 

 

 

On Halloween morning I got up and make Halloween pancakes for the kids. I had received these cut-outs from Carolyn the year before and used them. Well, I don't remember them being such a pain to use last year but they were! I tried 2 or three different ways of using them and it just was a mess. Each kid only got one halloween pancake and the rest were regular cuz I wan't gunna make any more. Note to self: find another halloween breakfast next year:-)

Which witch is which?

 
Later that same day we went up to Park City we went to a place called Gardner Village. This is a quaint little shopping village that is fun to go with your girlfriends too but is especially poplular around Halloween becuase they put on a huge production. The kids did a scavanger hunt to find all the witches that were there.....and there were alot of cute, fun witches. Here the boys are reading what they need to look for next. The girls had already taken off and so began a contest.

 
Cheatin' on Dave:-)

 

In the end the boys won and the girls weren't very happy (mostly because the boys were rubbing it in) but eeryone still got a free cookie, I found my camera that I had put down somewhere and lost and we found Chase safe and sound after noticing he was missing and looking for about 15 minutes. So, the day ended well:-)

Park City and Olympic Park

 
One day while Nate and Amy and kids were here visiting I thought it would be fun to go up to Park City and the Olympic Park area. I had seen on TV that there was this halloween trail with a bunch of mannequins dressed up to be scarecrows and witches and halloween character kind of stuff and that at the end they had a hay ride or something. They said it was up by "the white barn" which everyone knows where that is if you've ever been up to Park City. Weeeelllll, We get up there and can't find it any where. I mean the mannequins not the trail or barn. I think they shut the "display" down early for some reason which is really weird because it was 2 days before Halloween.
SO, we diecided to take them up to this fun place by one of the ski resorts that has ziplines and roller coaster and other fun things. This picture is of the kids at the outdoor ice skating rink....which was closed.

 
In fact, everything up there was closed. It was like a ghost town practically. The kids were excited still because there was (fake)snow but mom was frustrated and disappointed.

 
I wish I could be more like the kids in this instance. They were disappointed but still made the best. Mom was just annoyed because we had just driven all the way up there to have something to do for the day and it was all closed. Ok, fine. Let's go to the Olympic Park then....

 
Yes! It's open! and free to the public. We like free:-) Here is Nate and his cute family.

 
Bobsledding anyone?

 
They had games the kids could play and displays you could interact with.

 

Upstairs they had a bunch of memorablilia from when the Olympics was here in 2002. It was neat for the kids to be able to see all that.

Peter, peter...pumpkin eater

 
NATE, AMY, CALLIE, CONNOR AND CAYLYN CAME TO VISIT US FROM NORTH CAROLINA!!!!! They were here for nearly a week and it just so happen to be over Halloween so we got to trick or treat with cousins this year! The day that they got here we took the kids to a pumpkin patch and they all picked out a pumkin. Let the carving begin!

 
Chase's

 
Ryan's

 
Bec's/Caylyn's :)

 
Meagan's

 
Callie's

 
Jenna's

 
Tyler's


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Our final destination before heading home.

 
What can I say about this? It speaks for itself.


 
We live in a beautiful country!

 
We had some man take a picture of all of us together so we could prove we actually were all together. I love this pic. He snapped it of all of us trying to get everybody together and ready for the picture.

 
Then here's the after when we were....well, nearly ready for the picture.

 

Goodbye Moab! I'm sure we'll be back again someday. We love you!

3rd day of Moab trip.

 
Just down the road from Dead Horse Point was a trail head for bikers. We were really excited to go biking as a family. We never have. Dave usually goes with a couple of friends and/or Tyler and Ryan. He tried to take me once but it was not my thing (mountian biking). This was an "easy, family friendly" trial so we loaded up all the bikes in the utility trailer and brought them with us.

 
Whenever we go hiking Dave knows he has to pack a water bottle of two for me because I will not drink out of the camel with everyone else. Well...., when you get thristy enough and you forgot to bring one....you will. Dave snapped this as "proof" that miracles do happen.

 
This was a cool look out point about 1/2 a mile into the trail. Beautiful!

 
About 2 1/2 miles in Jenna's tire got a flat. After debating what to do we decided that Dave would carry Meagan on his bike back to get help (Ryan and Chase went back too) and Jenna would take Meagan's bike and continue on with Tyler and me. Right after we split the trail go really hard. I had to get off and walk the bike at least 3 times. Tyler was pretty impressive! Jenna was impressive too but Tyler just zipped down that trail and around corners. The trail that we took was about a 9 mile loop.

 








This is us a little over half way in at the tip of Big Chief Loop.

 







"FIRE POWER"!

 






It was right after this picture was taken that Jenna was just done. She had a hard time the rest of the way back...crying the entire 4 miles. It was a shame because the rest of the way was easy and fun. I was very impressed with her still though. 9 miles for a 10 year olds first time mountain biking isn't bad. It isn't bad at all.

 











Celebration:-)

 

This was Jenna at the very end of the trail. AHHHH, look at that sad face. We got back to camp and Dave and Meagan still weren't there. They came in about 20 minutes after us. It took Dave awhile to ride the 2 1/2 miles back with Meagan on the bike with him and then one of the ranger loaded Dave's bike into the truck and they drove down a service road that ran pretty close to where they left the bike with the flat tire. Sad for Dave cuz I know he would have really enjoyed the trail. He's a good daddy and hubbie.

oops...more of the second day at Moab

 
Oops. Here are more pictures of the second day. Here we are at the Firey Furnace view point. Cool pic:-)

 
Dave, Me, Sara and Quinn.

 

Sign in German telling us to stay on the trail. I am pointing to "boden" which means "floor" or "ground". Know wonder I always feel walked all over;-)

2nd day of Moab trip-Oct. 2011

 
On our second day in Moab we hike two different Arches. This one was about 3 miles round trip and moderate. It is the most popular/well known arch; Delicate arch. The other was a very short hike and it was amazingly busy! In fact, there was a lady there who said she's come several times over the years and had never seen this many people before. There was lots of sand for the kids to play in...I wonder why I didn't take any pics....I could have sworn I did.

 
Here is Delicate Arch in the background and then a picture of our family under the Arch.

 
Stopping for a break under the shadow of the Arch.

 
I think if I were doing Christmas cards this year this would be it:-)


 
Chase....:-P

 

The Diva's; Meagan, Jenna and Tatum.