Our Annual Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

I'm a bit late in posting this, but wanted to share some pictures from our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch over a week ago. Our kids look forward to this day every year when Grandma takes them to the pumpkin patch where they get to pick out their very own pumpkin to take home.

One of the favorites at the pumpkin patch we usually head to is the little kids hay maze (they have a corn maze for the older kids and adults) - the kids absolutely love running around in the little maze. This year the popular game was the two younger kids (Hailey and Branson) trying to catch and keep up with the two older kids (Zachary and Ashton).

Despite not being able to keep up with the older boys, Hailey and Branson rarely lost track of each other - most of the time that was done by holding hands.


The older boys loved to climb up and over the bridge and point out where the younger kids were and climb down and take off before they reached them.


This was one of my favorite pictures this year - they had some huge pumpkins and it was so cute to see Hailey and Branson sit on one for a quick picture.


Out looking for pumpkins in the patch - good thing Uncle Taylor was there to help them choose a good one!


And of course a quick picture with Nana before running off to play in the hay maze again!


One of the funniest experiences this year was Hailey being determined to find a purple pumpkin out in the fields. Despite how many times I explained to her that the pumpkins grow to be orange, she was determined she would find a purple one. After looking and looking and looking, she picked out an orange pumpkin and was only ok when Nana told her she could head home and paint her orange pumpkin any color she wanted.

When we made it back to Nana's house, Hailey decided that not only did she want to paint it purple, but pink and red as well. So with her paint brush and paints all ready, she tackled her painting project.


Zach wasn't nearly as picky and decided to paint his blue with white vampire teeth.


After the pumpkins were painted and set aside to dry, it was time to decorate some cookies. With some orange frosting and chocolate chips, off they went decorating their pumpkin cookies.


Zach was very meticulous at getting the right amount of frosting and arranging the chocolate chips just so. He's definitely a perfectionist and take after his mom is that respect!


Later after dinner, it was time for trick-or-treating. Now that Nana and Papa have grandkids all over that can't make it to their house to trick-or-treat every year, they have started up a tradition of trick-or-treating early inside the house. Every adult gets a bag of candy and goes into one of the rooms of the house. The kids get dressed up and go around trick-or-treating to every door.

Zach was a firefighter again this year and Hailey decided on Sleeping Beauty as her Halloween costume. They were so cute, I had to take a picture of them both before the trick-or-treating began.


Here's a picture I caught of them after Jeremiah opened the door as they knocked. They were so cute saying Trick-or-Treat!


And here's the gang in their halloween costumes. They are all so cute and they were darling all dressed up!



We had a great day - thanks Nana and Papa for making the day so much fun and creating such a fun tradition!

Columbus Day

Isn't it sad to realize that normal life is so uneventful that you don't take many pictures? I'm realizing it's been a while since I posted anything and really, there hasn't been much to post. So I'm trying to make a concerted effort to take more pictures when something out of the ordinary is going on.

I had my first chance on Monday (although it's taken me until today to get it posted) when Zach came home from school. As you know, it was Columbus Day and they spent all day at school talking about Columbus, who he was, and what he did. Zach could hardly wait to get home to show me some of the fun things he made. His favorite was the Columbus Hat that he was just certain made him look just like Christopher Columbus.

What do you think????




Looks just like him if you ask me.

Hope you all had a Happy Columbus Day!

Called to Serve

Well, the day has finally come. My "baby" brother, Taylor, is going to serve a mission. Yesterday he got his mission call and we all headed up to be there when he opened it. He will be serving in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma mission and he enters the Missionary Training Center on December 3rd.


We have a tradition in our family that we all put in guesses whenever something major like this happens (don't even ask me about March Madness!). Here's the board with all of our guesses mapped out. Most of us picked out of the country, but there were a few that stayed inside the United States. And funny enough, my little nephew Branson, guessed Oklahoma, so he was right on! I think it was rigged since his Dad travels there for work all the time! :)


My Mom was on pins and needless all day long and I don't think she could hold still for anything. Of course Taylor had to take advantage of her nervousness and took his time opening the envelope, pulling out the papers, and reading it. Finally after we all were about to do something drastic, he finally told us where he was going.


My kids are so excited for him. I don't think they quite understand exactly what's going on, but all they know is that they are going to be able to send Uncle Taylor tons of letters, pictures, and packages. He's probably going to be the missionary with the most mail from home.

Now that Zach is in first grade, he has to write in his journal twice a week. When I asked him what he wanted to write about tonight, he didn't hesitate to tell me he wanted to write about how excited he was that Taylor is going on a mission. Here is his journal entry:


Translation: I have an uncle named Taylor. He is going on a mission. He will go to Oklahoma. I can not wait for him to go on his mission.

He also drew a picture of Taylor as a missionary - isn't it the spitten image of him??? Well, I can see it. Here's a close-up of the drawing. You'll notice the colored in part is his suit and to the right is his name tag.



We are all so excited and proud of you Taylor! Thank you for being an example to us all, especially the kids - they both want to be just like you!

(Thanks to my sister Kylie for taking these great pictures. Since I conveniently forgot my camera yesterday - again - I stole them off of her blog! Thanks Ky!)

At The Big Top

Is anything better than seeing the circus? I remember my parents taking us when I was little and to this day, I still remember specific parts about it. So, it's not a surprise that I really wanted to take our kids to the circus so that they had that experience to remember.

I was more than thrilled when I saw an advertisement that allowed us to get tickets for only $7 a person. How could we not jump on that? Well, needless to say, we did. And after what seemed like forever (ok, it was only a month and a half, but the kids thought it took forever), the big day finally arrived.

The kids were so excited once the show got going. They were pretty much "perma-grin" through the whole thing.


One of Zach's favorite parts was the human cannonballs. He was amazed that they actually shot two ladies out of the huge cannons (or canyons as he calls them).


Hailey was all over the place during the show. She sat next to me, on my lap, on Jeremiah's lap ...


And even spent some time with Nana and Branson.


The tigers were absolutely amazing. Their trainer had them jumping, rolling, and a ton of other things. It was so interesting and made me glad that I wasn't down in the cage with them! Zach, bless his heart, was so worried about the trainer and afraid he was going to get hurt. I kept trying to explain that he was their friend and that they were just playing, but he didn't relax until after the tiger show was done and no one got hurt.


Mine and Hailey's favorite part was the elephants. We loved all the tricks they did and how well they did what they were trained to do.


I couldn't help buy take a little bit of video of some of these huge animals. Even though we up above them quite a distance away, it seemed like they moved so gracefully!



What a fun day we had! We can't wait for the circus to come next year!

Seeing the Animals at the Zoo

Now that the summer is over and school has started, it's the end of our weekly get togethers with our cousins, Aunts, and Nana. It's been sad since we've had so much fun doing so many things this summer. Lucky for us, there were a few things that we still had planned to do, but didn't get around to doing them, so we have been doing a few things on Saturdays. This last Saturday, we finally made it to the zoo. The kids have been looking forward to this all summer long and couldn't wait to go!

It was a big day for the zoo - it was the first day that they were letting people see the new baby elephant born just a month ago. We didn't know about it, but were so excited to see the little elephant. He was so cute and we spent about 15 minutes just watching him play with his mom and with a little ball they had in the pen.


Here's a picture of Zach in front of one of the other elephants - it was really bright, so that picture is pretty dark. That gray blob next to the tree behind him is the elephant.


Here's a picture of all 4 kids in front of the camels - sorry about the dark picture again. It was one of the few times we actually got all 4 kids to hold still long enough for a picture!


The monkeys were definitely a favorite - the kids loved to watch them jump, hop, and swing along the trees and branches.


Zach really loved this wall where he could measure up to a gorilla. He thought it was so funny that his arm span was so much shorter. Hailey of course had to measure herself too!


Hailey and Branson spent most of the day holding hands - those two are hilarious when they get together. Poor Branson is usually pulled along by Hailey, but he's getting wise and did his fair share of pulling Hailey around. One time there was actually a tug-o-war as they both wanted to go in different directions.


One of our favorite things to do at the zoo is see the Bird Show. They have all different types of birds that peform and fly over the heads of the audience. The kids love it and were so excited. Here they all are with Nana - waiting for the show to start.


They also had a baby giraffe out for us to see. Hailey loved all the babies and thought the baby giraffe and baby elephant were really neat.


The kids absolutely loved watching the giraffes eat. Zach, being the brave soul he is, really wanted to pet one.


Here's a picture of Hailey and Branson in front of the zebras. I tried to get a picture of Zach and Ashton, but they were too busy running from animal to animal to get a good picture - the ones I did get were all blurry. Hailey and Brans thought these zebras were really neat with all their stripes.


And lastly, a little family photo in front of the fountains.



We were definitely tired by the time we left, but boy did we have a great time!

Liberty Land

Labor Day was a really fun day for us. After a last minute cancel to got to the zoo, we brainstormed to come up with another idea of something to do that day. Jeremiah reminded me of the Liberty Land Fun Park here in Lehi and after remembering we had a coupon for a free unlimited day pass when you bought another one, we decided that's where we all wanted to go.

Liberty Land is a very small amusement type park hidden away here in Lehi. They don't have a whole ton of rides like Lagoon, but it's still fun and the best part is that the lines are nothing, so there's hardly any waiting time. The kids had a blast riding everything they possibly could.

The rode the airplanes about 5 times while we were there. Half the time there was enough room to ride in their own separate airplanes, but it was really fun to see them ride in the same plane. You could see them talking to each other and it was really fun to see them laugh and smile at each other.


They loved riding the train inside the building. The wouldn't sit anywhere but the front engine since that's where the bell was that they could ring as they were going around - and boy did they ring that thing over and over!


The Merry-go-round was a definite favorite. They loved the fact that they could choose whatever horse they wanted to ride. This was one of my favorite things to watch them do because I could see both of them with their Dad just having a fun time. During this ride they all would make a different funny face at me every time they went around - it was hilarious!


In addition to rides, the passes we bought included unlimited mini golf as well. It was pretty hot standing out in the sun, so we only did 1 round, but the kids had a blast. Zach did great with the golf club - you can tell he's been practicing out in our backyard.


Hailey on the other hand was a completely different story. First of all, she insisted on using the red putter, which was about 6 inches too long for her, but you know what it's like to change her mind after she gets set on something. Jeremiah helped her most of the time since she would either miss completely and hit the ground or actually hit it backwards (this was so funny to watch). But there were a few times where she insisted on doing it all by herself - of course we stood there for 5 minutes before she actually made contact with the ball!


Inside the building they had some blow-up slides, more rides, a rock climbing wall, and even arcade games. We couldn't help but use a few quarters to play a game or two. Hailey chose skeeball which turned into "I'll throw (not roll) it half way up the ramp" ball - it was so funny! And Zach chose a basketball game - big suprise! They both had so much fun.


But there were definitely two rides that were the most fun. The first was the go-carts. At first Zach went by himself.


And then he was gracious enough to take his sister for a ride. You'll notice that he has to slide all the way forward to even reach the pedals - it looks like the seatbelt is almost choking him. They loved every minute of the ride!



The other favorite was the water boat ride. The first time they went, we paid a bit extra so that Jeremiah could take Hailey. I couldn't stop laughing as Zach chased them around the pool trying to spray them with water.



The next time we got brave and let Zach and Hailey go together. It was funny since there was an older grandpa and his granddaughter in the group. He was such a good sport and let our kids continually spray him along with his granddaughter. Our kids laughed the whole time! I have to admit that he was quite drenched by the time the ride was over.



And if you're wondering how much fun they had, just check out these faces!




You can bet we'll be heading back to Liberty Land again really soon. We spent about 5 hours there and the kids had a wonderful time! Jeremiah and I are realizing that once you have kids, you have more fun watching them have fun than doing anything else for yourself. We definitely realized that on Monday as we had a blast just watching the kids get excited and have fun and we wouldn't rather have been any other place than there with our kids.

Where are the Kangaroos?

Well, if you were with us on Saturday, you'd realize that the kangaroos were with us! That's because we spent a few hours at the Kangaroo Zoo and the kids jumped and jumped just like kangaroos. My kids absolutely love the Kangaroo Zoo and get so excited when we tell them we're going. They have a bunch of blow up slides, jumping houses, and anything else you can imagine that's fun to jump on. Look at these faces - are they happy or what?

Hailey

Zachary


Our Cousin Branson


Our cousin Ashton



They sure had fun climbing, jumping ,and sliding for hours!





We can't wait to go back and play some more!