October

October is in full craziness mode now. 

Here are a few things going on during this mid section of October.

Tanner has had a few Halloween parties with friends. So here is a preview of Halloween

Our stake had a "Scottish Days" Tanner was awesome throwing tree trunks.

And throwing rocks the size of his head.

Andre wins Father of the Year for playing games with his kids. Including this one- made by Alex.

Then it was Fall break. Jaxon went on a marching band trip to California. So we tried to do a lot of fun activities with the other boys.

Swimming

We went to the pumpkin patch near the kid's school. Because every day we drive past this pumpkin patch and see the goats and llamas. The kids wanted to see them close up.

Llamas- or Alpaca's who knows? They named them. One of them is name Shamumafu, and one is Walgrens, and one is Rover.

Other pumpkin patch stuff.

Pumpkins!

The sky was amazing while we were picking our pumpkins- You can not tell from these pictures.

but if I focused on the sky, the picture showed the colors. This is almost the same picture as the one above.

We carved the pumpkins.

Tanner wanted to paint his.

Chase was not too excited about the guts.

Chase made his a character from a video game- a skeleton named Papyrus.

Tanner's creation.

Alex liked this design.

He had a candle in front of his little pumpkin.

Friday Andre took the day off. We went up to Little Cottonwood Canyon and played in a dry creek bed.

They climbed boulders. Can you see them?

Throwing rocks. Always an exciting activity.

We then went to a movie at the dollar theatre- Secret Life of Pets. The kids liked it. 

An activity the kids wanted to do for Halloween was to make sugar cookies.

Tanner had a Harry Potter Party to go to and we played board games.

Saturday was kind of a lazy day until the evening. We went to the corn maze.

Tanner just ran around in circles.

Then, when it got dark, Andre took the boys to the haunted part of the corn maze. The younger two had never been to a really spooky haunted thing before and I was a little bit worried. But they did great! Chase was a trooper during the scary part- but after we were home he said that he thought it was too scary for him. Really- they loved it.

Sunday Jaxon came home! We watched the Face to Face with Studio C. Then we had apple Nachos and watched Studio C episodes.

Andre, Tanner and I played a card game with Tanner. Dominion. He ALWAYS wins that game. This time he blew us away. 

Monday Jaxon had to go back to school but I had the other three home one more day. The morning was wasted. I got nothing done. I had a little pity party about something dumb- but I could not get over it. 

I had wanted to take the boys to Golden Spike Museum. But it was supposed to rain all day and it was a far away drive. So I racked my brain for something else to do. We ended up going downtown- It wasn't raining yet but it was supposed to. I figured there was enough inside things to do down there. 

We went to the Church Office building. Most of the time we go to temple square it is a weekend or after the building is closed. Today we got to take a tour.

They had this cool picture of Jesus. It is really hard to explain. But if you stand at one side of the picture, Jesus' foot is pointing at you (his foot is behind Tanner's head in this picture.) And as you walk along the picture (the entire length of the building), the foot is always pointing at you. It's weird.

We saw other art. One of them was a statue of pioneers digging a shallow grave for their baby as they crossed the plains. I got the message right then. My little crisis that I had that morning was ridiculous. I do not have a hard life. I need to have perspective on what is a real trial. I needed that. 

Then we went up to the observation deck and saw the view. (it still was not raining)

We went over to the Beehive house and went on a tour of that. 

 The other people in our group were not members so the missionaries leading our tour group basically taught them the first discussion during the tour. They would ask my kids questions and they answered them really well. I was sometimes worried how they would answer- but I didn't need to. 

Then we went to the Lion house and got the amazing rolls. 

Fall break was over and it was fun. We did all of the Halloween preparation / traditions over one weekend since we don't have time during the week. 

Then Tuesday we were back to school and enjoying the busy evenings. 

Alex had a Halloween Party for Up With Kids.

 He is Napster Blook (?) I character from a video game. 

Jaxon had a Choir concert.

 And here he is showing off his Tuxedo from Choir.

And then the next day Jaxon had a band concert. Here he is playing the trombone. 

 He is right on the end.

Life is fun!