Utah Trip

My grandma has been in the hospital and not doing too well.  The whole family was going to trek to Utah for a long weekend, but at the last minute we decided it would be best if I just went with a couple of the kids.  So Lark and Maverick stayed home with Evan and I took Olive, Autumn and Violet to Utah.

We stopped at aunt Deb's house on the way down and had dinner with her.  Then we stayed with my aunt Sandi.  The girls were very excited about all her toys.  The next morning we headed to Provo to meet up with some friends.  We went to the Bean Musuem first and then had lunch with my aunt Traci and her kids who just happened to be in town.

Bean Museum.  This was the first time I had ever been to the museum.  The girls thought it was ok.

We went swimming with two of my friends from high school and their kids.  We each had a baby girl this summer, Olive and Rosie are 2 weeks apart and Olive and Ester are about 5 weeks apart!

We had a brief but fun visit with my grandparents.

Olive and Violet enjoying the hobby horse grandpa built.

I took the girls to the outlet mall to buy me some new pants and to find a winter coat for Autumn.  Then we drove to Salt Lake to meet up with another friend from high school.  We played at a really cool park even though it was quite chilly.  That evening I went out with my girl friends for dinner and my friend's husband watched the girls for me!

Autumn almost 7 and Nixon barely 4!

My gal pals and our babies that are all within a few weeks of each other.

I took the girls to one of my favorite restaurants, JDawgs and they actually ate something off the menu!

After going to sacrament meeting on Sunday we headed home.

Halloween

We dressed as the Teen-aged Mutant Ninja Turtles for Halloween.  The three middle kids have really been into watching a new version of the cartoon, especially Maverick.  It was a harder sale for Violet to get on board with the family theme this year.  Once I told her I'd make her a tutu she was all in.  The kids really wanted Evan and I to dress like April and Casey Jones from the cartoon they watch, but I insisted we go the 80s version so my friends would know who I was.

Shredder!  This costume may be my favorite ever, especially with Olive's naturally spiky hair.

I was trying to get a picture of Lark and her best friend Dixie, but Dixie was having none of that! I love Lark's defeated face.  These two really are good buddies.  One night Lark refused to go to bed because she wanted to go to Dixie's house.  I finally got her to go to bed when I promised I send a message to her mom and ask for a play date.

I sent the defeated picture to my friend, we both laughed and she sent me this one back.  See I told you they were friends.

This year's costumes were some of my favorites.  I got the idea for the camera from my friend Kendra. I just wrapped a syrup bottle with black duct tape.

Lots of my friends do cutesty dinners on Halloween. They have hot dogs that look like mummys, etc.  We had toast and bagels for dinner.

I convinced my in-laws to join our family theme.  They dressed as the pizza delivery guys!  Luckily the weather wasn't too bad.  The kids lasted a long time and we enjoyed lots of candy for several weeks, until I finally made them get rid of it.  I was sick of having kids sneak candy instead of eating meals.

 The kids humored me and let me take a billion pictures and action shots of them as Ninja Turtles.