Pumpkin Fests

Bryan was in the mountains enjoying some solitude on his elk hunt. The kids and I passed the time by going to the Neighborhood's and Luke's school's Halloween celebrations. The kids did great. Towards the end, they asked people to grab as many pumpkins as they wanted from the pumpkin patch. We selected a few and then loaded up to head over to Luke's school.
At the school there was a trunk or treat, lots of bounce inflatables, games and more friends that we recognized. Myles thought that the amount of time in the bounce castles wasn't enough. At one point, I had to do the crawl of shame and pull him out. I almost dumped him out of my arms as I was attempting to stumble out of the bounce castle. By some miracle I recovered and remained on my feet.  If anyone witnessed it, I'm sure it gave them a good chuckle.

Hand holding posed brought to you by Emma. 

Luke loved posing in his police costume. It was awesome! His spunky personality was cracking me up. 

I loved that all three were excited to ride the barrel train. I'm not sure how many more years this will be the case! 

Myles climbed up the ginormous slide all by himself and slid down.  His older brother who was suppose to have his back ended up climbing over his back on the way up instead. :) The excitement was just too much for Luke. 

Luke's First Field Trip

Luke was beyond excited to ride the big, yellow buses for his field trip that was an hour away from his school. They visited Anderson Farms. He was nothing but smiles when I picked him up from school that day. He loved telling me all about what he learned at the pumpkin patch.

He was very proud of his pumpkin he picked and carried almost the entire way home from school. His buddies, Charlie and Ethan,  helped him out, too. 

Tickled Pink

I finally got around to painting Emma's dresser. It was a fun project to share with Emma. We went to Home Depot where I let her pick out what color she wanted, shocker, she picked pink. After the paint selections, we headed to Hobby Lobby to pick out new knobs for the dresser. It was quite the face lift! Love having a little side kick with me.

 I never took a pic of the finished project...that pic will be coming!

Also, this handsome boy accompanied us and didn't complain too much, except for when it was time to get off the riding lawn mowers. 

Zoo with Coppins

Last year, I saw Whitney and her kids almost every day because of same schools and similar activities with our kids. This year we're at different schools and I miss seeing her like I use to! While the kids were still on Fall Break, we arranged for a play date at the zoo. The kids were great and the moms were able to enjoy a good visit.

The zoo had a traveling exhibit of " Washed Ashore, Art to Save the Sea." There were15 sea life sculptures made almost completely of debris collected from beaches. 

I know that they say, "don't chase the peacocks..." BUT, how do you take away this smile? He isn't too much of a hunter/threat yet. :)

Nashville

We packed up and headed towards Nashville for our flight that evening. We intended to catch church with John's family, but between traffic and realizing it was Stake Conference ---it didn't happen.

Handsome Sam.

Mr. Myles loved his Uncle John. Maybe because John was the quickest one to help Myles out with his constant runny nose..not quick enough in this pic! :)


Huge thanks to this crew for running the show and putting up with us for a few days! We had a wonderful time!!

We were slightly over dressed for our lunch location. Good thing Emma was in a CREME dress with all of that delicious BBQ...oy vey. Insert my plug for OxyClean and the miracles it can work. Back to the food---the sides were okay, but the meat was incredible. Best ribs I've ever eaten.

The drive to Nashville was beautiful. We were a little early for most of the colors. However, some of the trees were peaking and on fire! We stopped at the Grand Ole Opry and the Parthenon. I wished we had more time to visit more places, but glad we squeezed in the few stops we could.

We weren't as fortunate on the flight home; the flight was packed and no extra seat this time for Myles. Bryan and I passed him back and forth at least 20-30 times. Given the late flight and long day, all of the kids did exceptionally well. Myles was so close to falling asleep several times, but just couldn't find that comfortable position.

A Birthday Girl and Greenbriar Hike

We woke up to the cabin decked out in Happy Birthday decor for sweet Libby's 6th birthday! She is a true beauty, inside and out. She was such a good sport to roll with whatever on her special day. We had a nice morning at the cabin playing games. In the afternoon, John and Jess took us on one of the less traveled hikes. This hike did not disappoint! At our feet, the trail was covered with golden leaves and above our head was a canopy of trees. It smelled and felt like Autumn. The kids did well and we enjoyed visiting along the way.  There was one crossing that made me nervous, but it was worth it.

These two dudes thought they were pretty funny sneaking in a tea party of their own.

Happiest of Birthdays to Libby!

The crossing doesn't look too bad, until you see the raging river below!