Funny...

This was Matt's costume for the party.  Inflatable Ostrich..the kids thought it was hilarious! 

Ashlynn tried it on....

 Riding away in the sunset...

Hugging the cute ostrich.  Happy Times!

Pumpkin Carv'n

This is must to totally appreciate the Halloween holiday...Pumpkin Carving.  Ashlynn is still not a fan of the wet gooey stuff inside, but she managed to pull through this year with out giving up.  Carter carved his himself this year which was very proud moment for him.

We didn't have time to go out to the pumpkin patch this year so, Smiths (grocery store) pumpkins had to do.  We only got 4 small pumpkins from our garden this year...so sad.  (Our poor garden just didn't do as well this year and since it snowed a few days ago everything is dead and shriveled up.)

We are ready for the BIG Halloween night!

Kids Halloween Party

 The kids had their annual Halloween party.  This has become a tradition over the last 5 years.  The kid's invite list is getting larger with meeting new friends and you can't leave out the old friends either.  So who do you cut off the list...well we couldn't this year..so all 14 friends came.  Yes, it was a crazy party, but lots of Halloween FUN!!  I was so glad that one of my Young Women could come because we basically had 2 parties going on at the same time.  So, it was nice to have another set of hands.  She even made some fun cupcakes to hand out. (Thanks Taylor!)

Matt set up a scary scene in garage with fog for the boys and the girls were in house.  They liked being separated from the scary and crazy boys.

We made a glow in the dark skeleton, played games, had treats and ended with a scavenger hunt.  It was so fun to see all the costumes and have the kids get together.

 

All the Gang!

Carter is a ninja (he is not wearing his hat) and Ashlynn is a fairy.  She took off her wings (they were bumping into things)

The Mask

We wandered through Halloween City and found this real looking mask.  Check out these two really old people...

Carter in 80 years...

Matt in just a few years.  ha ha!

 

Fall Break-Frightmares

So, the kids headed back on Monday to school from being off track for 3 weeks and then had Fall Break on Thursday and Friday of that week.  More time off from school..Yay..I guess!!  So, we met up with some friends to hang out at Lagoon's Frightmares all day.  It was perfect weather all day until the sun went down then we were putting on our jackets and gloves.

Some of the gang..Gage, Carter, Gavin, Adrian & Ashlynn

 The kids enjoyed the Halloween themed walk throughs.  They got candy & toys.

Fun posing ops. Carter and Ashlynn are on the right side

 This picture is so funny..Ashlynn with her scary face and Gavin not sure where to put his head. Too cute!

 All the gang posing with their goody bags.

These are my co-workers from the hospital Jamie and Kristy. 

We just couldn't resist from this fun photo op.

 Cute Ashlynn...

This picture just doesn't match her sweet and cute personality, but she insisted on me taking this gross picture.  I love her smile as the guts are dripping from the body.

 

We all had a great time being around all the different Halloween characters at Frightmares.  We went through some haunted houses and were sneaked up on by some of the Halloween characters.  There were not so scary ones and very disturbing ones creeping around the park.

 

What a fun way to end the season at Lagoon!

 



Colts Gear

Carter had his end of season football party.  The boys raised enough money that they were surprised with hoodies and embroidered bags with their names on them.  Finally, we have a big enough bag to carry all that sports gear in.  Yay!

 

We can't wait for next year's football season! 

 

Carter is continuing with his tumbling class and doing amazing things like back hand springs and front jumps and will start Basketball in January.  This kid has so much energy that we have to keep him busy or he will just drive us all crazy with all that energy.  Gotta love him!

Final Destination..Las Vegas then home

We arrived to our final destination in the evening to Las Vegas.  The lights were really neat to see at night as we were pulling into the city.  We stayed at the New York New York Hotel.  The Hotel was a cluster of buildings that looked like downtown New York with a Statue of Liberty and a roller coaster.  The kids were bummed that they were not tall enough to ride the coaster, but we had a great view from our room to watch others ride the coaster.    

The kids and I have never been to Vegas so we wandered the strip and saw lots of neat things.  I was fine only spending a night and half a day here because it isn't the most friendly place in world.  There are people everywhere trying to sell or hand out things to you.  I just felt rude telling everybody '"No Thanks" and then they would still try to talk to you as you were walking away from them.  It was hard for me to just ignore these people.  So, we were all ready to leave the place and probably won't return anytime soon. 

 

We did enjoy our visit to the M & M World factory!  It was located across the street of our hotel and it is a 4 story M & M store with everything you can imagine that has a M&M logo on it. Ashlynn had a awesome moment when she got to have a brief one on one moment with the green M&M.  We saw the M&M girl walk by in a back hallway and Ashlynn got so excited that she saw her that we followed the M&M around the corner to see if she was still there... and she was waiting in the stairwell to see if we were coming.  The M&M girl and her bodyguard waved for Ashlynn to come over and Ashlynn got a hug from her favorite M&M.  Ashlynn was so excited and blushing when it was over, she couldn't contain herself. (On a side note: this is huge for Ashlynn to go up to a costumed character because she is so scared of all costumed characters except princesses).  We left M&M World happy and with a green stuffed M&M girl doll and a few M&M's for road trip home. 

 

We ate a early dinner in Vegas at the Rainforest Cafe and headed on the road for our last and final leg back to Utah.  Our drive home was about 5 hours and we were all glad to be home and sleep in our own beds.  I always feel such a big relief when we get home from being away (although, I do like getting away for a few days) There is just something to be said about "There is no place like home". 

 

 

Above is our Map that we attached to the backseat of our car and kept track by placing stars on all the license plates we saw from the different states.  We didn't have Canada on our map so that is why there is a star at the top off the Map.  We found all the Western states and did not find very many from the East Coast area, but the kids had fun finding all the states on the Map.

 

What a fun week we spent while being off track from school.  The kids are now back to school and we are starting to get back into a school routine again. 

HOLLYWOOD...

With a short 15 minute drive from Universal City we made it to Hollywood to spend the afternoon.  This was such a fun place to be!  We parked downtown and wondered the Walk of Fame and read the famous peoples names on the stars.  We ate lunch at a Disney Bistro..they have the yummiest milk shakes!  They have pictures on their walls of all the famous people that have ate at the Bistro.  It was such a fun place to have lunch. 

 

 

We then made our way down Hollywood Blvd and got to see Cee Lo Green walking down the blvd with his bodyguards heading into a clothing store.  He was just dancing along the sidewalk having a great time. 

 

We squeezed in some time to look around at the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.  Very interesting stuff...we all enjoyed looking around the museum.  We could of spent more time there but once again we had to head to our next destination that was a 5 hour drive...Las Vegas..here we come...  

Universal City

Our next leg of our descend home was from Stockton to Universal City which was a 5 hour drive. Back in March when we went to Universal Studios our passes were good for 5 days and we only used 2 of them, so we decided to use them again since we were in the area.  So, we checked in our hotel and headed straight for the park.  The place was decorated so fun for Halloween...it had so much gory stuff from movie scenes..it was amazing and very fun! The park had a seperate Halloween Horror night for people over 13 and since the kids were not of age we headed back to the hotel for swimming and relaxing.

 

Our hotel was right next to the park so it was short shuttle ride or you could take the 5 min walk up the street.  It was great! 

After a good nights rest we headed back to the park for last time horrah before we had to head back on the road. Then, our next destination was a short 20 minute drive to Hollywood Blvd..more to come...

Road Trip to CA

Our little family took a long road trip to see family in California when the kids went off track from school.  Our first leg of the trip was a straight shot of 10 hours to Stockton, CA (that only required one stop..yahoo).  We left Layton at 4:45am and were there by early afternoon.

The kids had lots to do in the back of the car, travel bingo, pipe cleaners to make things, coloring, sticker by number activities and...

....did some sleeping(see picture below)...which took up most of the time...yay!

Poor little Ashlynn was a little car sick when she woke up.  (had to make a quick stop for Dramamine..and then she was cured)

 

We arrived in Stockton and spent two nights with Mike and Laura's family.  Then we headed to SIX FLAGS amusement park with their family (we landed a pretty sweet deal on tickets that we couldn't pass up)...and we all had a BLAST! 

Laura packed a picnic lunch and we have fun memories of eating in the parking lot between our two cars.  Matt and Mike felt like they were at Sonic because the kids would run food to their windows and the dads were being their funny selves.

 

 

We had the best time spending the day with them. All the kids had their brave faces on to try some new rides.  All of us adults got to ride the big roller coasters and that was a thrill too!

 

We were once again sad to say good-bye, but we will see them soon.  We love having them live closer.  Until next time. 

 

Now our little family departed Stockton to head to Universal City and Hollywood..Stay tuned for more... 

2012 Football Season has come to and end..

Carter's first year of tackle football has come to an end.  (Sadness for a few minutes).  Ok, I think we are over it now and we now have our evenings and Saturday afternoons back.

 We all enjoyed the season especially Carter.  He has found once again new talents that he is capable of.  Although, the team didn't win many games and did not make the playoffs. All the players on the team improved in their own ways and they had fun every time they were together.

 

The team's party is next week so they can celebrate all their hard work! 

This is the banner that Matt and I made for the last game for the team to run through after half-time.  (We now have a permanent marking of the 12 of 2012 left on our wood floor from the sharpie pen bleeding through the paper).  In certain lighting you can see it if you know it is there. Oh well, just a little reminder of the fun season Carter had.

Black Apple Doll

This is what I worked on in the car for our 20 hour drive round trip to California and back...My Black Apple Doll from girls camp this summer.  I was unable to finish it at camp and have had no extra time to finish it.  But being secluded to a car..it was the perfect time to spend on it. 

 With a few mishaps...it turned out so cute!

Ashlynn has adopted this cute girl doll.

Matt kept on asking why I was so determined to finish this project.  I was out to prove to myself that I can finish this summer camp project and it feels good to accomplish this!

Happy Birthday..to me..

The 4th of October just came and gone so fast.  The kids were off track from school and we had lots of things to get done before we left for our trip the next day.  So, after a full day that included a fun lunch with Matt and the kids...we finally were able to fit in a quick cupcake to celebrate.  I love a yummy cupcake from the Sweet Tooth Fairy! 

Here is to another year of adventures!