October

OCTOBER was a BUSY month for us- looking back I don't remember exactly what it was that kept us so busy all month long, but just trust me, we were busy- that's really how life is for our little family. Of course our lives aren't always BUSY & EXCITING, more like BUSY & BORING much of the time, especially if you catch me on a day I'm doing chores around the house or running errands. I consider BUSY & EXCITING to be if we go somewhere fun for the day, like maybe to Thanksgiving Point, the Gateway Children's Discovery Museum, the Aquarium, the Zoo, SHOPPING AT THE MALL (I seem to be the only one in the fam who gets excited about this), seriously- my options are pretty limited living here in Utah- you would think Utah would have more exciting places to take kids since everyone who lives here has at least a kid or two, or three or five... a trip to San Diego, or better yet, a trip to the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH, DISNEYLAND, yep- that's BUSY & EXCITING for us. While we have gone to or done all the fore mentioned places or activities over the last 3 months, we didn't do it all during the month of October... are you kidding me??? we have to space out our exciting activities otherwise my boys would be on perma adrenaline rushes. Anyhow, enough of my rambling... here's a few things that kept us busy the month of October.

BYU Football Games

(yeah that's not me trying to wink at the camera- I was wearing Spencer's hat to keep the sun out of my face and somehow the hat fit a little too small on MY HEAD- it hurt just a bit... good grief, no one knew it was possible, but I happen to have a BIGGER HEAD than Spencer! how did that ever happen?!)

Spencer bought season tickets from his dad this year. Les has had 6 seats to each home game for years now, but this year he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to continue paying for season tickets since he prefers to just watch the games now in the comfort of his own home on the big tele., SO Spencer seized the opportunity to keep his dad's seats and bought the whole season from him. He went to EVERY game with his cousin Cody and between the two of them they always managed to find four other family members or friends willing to buy their other tickets off of them. I only chose to go to one game this last year. I actually enjoy football games, but I HATE the trouble of trying to find sitters for the kids, and well let's just be honest here, I know BYU games are generally sporting events the WHOLE family can usually attend, but seriously, it would be MISERABLE trying to sit through a game with a 3yr old, a 1 yr old and a 4 month old!... especially since usually I'm miserable myself from just the heat ALONE.

JAZZ GAMES
Whether I liked it or not, the Jazz kicked off their season the month of October. Just for the record, I HATE BASKETBALL! The season LASTS WAY TOO LONG!!! I love attending or watching baseball games and soccer matches... I even enjoy watching football- but BASKETBALL! I'd rather watch something like golf on t.v. I'm just not a basketball fan. I'm trying to be, mostly just for Spencer- HE'S a HUGE JAZZ FAN and so are all the rest of his friends and even their wives! I won't ever understand the excitement in the game- back and forth the players just go, shot after shot, hoop after hoop. UgH! Anyhow, Spencer took Noah to one of the preseason games- it was a proud moment for Spencer to be able to share his thrill of the game with his son. Here's the best picture we have from their game experience- apparently Spencer covered the flash so every shot turned out SUPER dark- I had to overexpose all the shots to get something kinda decent like the picture you're looking at. click here if you wish to read what Spencer wrote about the experience...Spencer's been to a lot of games this year due in part to the season tickets he purchased before the beginning of the season. He shares a lot of his tickets with friends; he's asked that I go on a couple of occasions but what would you know, I've only been able to go to one game so far. Ah shucks! Just kidding. I enjoyed my "game night date" with him, but if I'm going to get a sitter to watch the kids, I'd rather go out to a movie or anything but a basketball game. I get woozy walking through the massive crowds, slightly panicky as I climb the stairs to our seats, and well, I'm a always a bit weary of my neighbor, above, below and to my side who's jumping up and down holding a glass of beer- worried he or she may dump it all over me. I'm worthless to take to a basketball game quite honestly- I have no idea who the players are, except for a few like my man Karilinko, Boozer, Ladamien Thomlinson (wait ooops, that's football), Matteee Harpring, Dayron Williams (I know I spelt his first name wrong- I just can't help but say his name how I heard one announcer last season during the playoffs pronounce it, "DAY RONNN"), and who's that hottie look-a-like that resembles Ashton Kutcher, oh yeah, Korver; okay, so I do know most the players names, but I don't have a clue about their game. When I go to a game I like to "people watch"... it's what I do best. I used to do it at the mall in high school or at the beach, it helped me survive the hour or two I had between classes in college, and for my "wandering mind" it's entertaining. I think Spencer's caught onto to the fact I can't focus long during the game, cuz the last game I went to with him, he asked me to find a person in the audience who came dressed to the game like a bee. It didn't take me long before I spotted a man in the lower bowl seated in row 6 beneath the basket wearing a VERY LOUD black and yellow striped sweater! So funny.

REAL SALT LAKE SOCCER GAME
We only went to one game this past season and it happened to be the 2ND to last game; the last time we'd been to a Real game was the summer I was pregnant with Noah; same year the team had just started here in Utah and they weren't very good. WOW how they've IMPROVED over the last 3 years! The new stadium is AMAZING! We went to the evening game with Spencer's sis Megan and her husband John and we also met our friends Clark and Adrianne there. SO MUCH FUN! I regret not having taking at least Noah to the game with us; I know he would have enjoyed it. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE soccer- not only because I used to play for years and years, but also because it reminds me of my mission in Portugal. The Portuguese are HUGE fans of soccer- in one of my areas, Nas Antas, we lived just around the corner from the big soccer stadium- on game nights, the place was like what I imagine the Colosseum would have been like- we had some very interesting encounters with soccer fans there who came from all over Europe to watch a match... anyhow, enough said, I had a great time and only wish we had gone to more soccer games last season. Maybe Spencer will forgo buying Jazz season tickets next year and buy us a pair of REAL soccer season tickets instead.

(p.s. I had some roasted cinnamon glazed cashews there at the game- SO YUMMY!
I almost just want to go back to the soccer matches just so I can buy me some nuts!)

Cornbellys Corn Maze & Pumpkin Fest

The week before Thanksgiving, my sister Tricia and I decided to take our kids during the afternoon over to Thanksgiving point to play at Cornbellys (correction: Trish only took some of her kids; a few were still in school during the time we went). My boys really seemed to enjoy the time we spent there.

Ian found a dried up piece of corn on the ground that he carried with him EVERYWHERE that day; every now and then I'd look over to see him sucking on it, YuCk!, but whatev.- he was happy.

I couldn't get them to leave the water pumping station; racing ducks while pumping water TOTALLY kept them busy for at least a good hour during our visit there. As a group, we tried to all go through the haunted dragon scare house thing a-ma jiggy, but by the time we made it halfway through the belly of the lizard my sister Trish and I had all of our kids hanging onto our ankles BEGGING to leave! Tricia found an emergency exit and took all the younger kids out to wait, while my niece Alana and I pressed forward. We made it only another 5 feet before I'd had enough and I was TOO scared to move any further so WE found another emergency exit and took off! I didn't want to pee my pants in front my niece! (just above the kids are entering through the mouth of the lizard- none of them suspected the scare they got just moments later!)

(below Trish and the kids took a ride in the cow tractor- I think it's AMAZING how Tricia managed to squeeze into such a little cart with two kids! Noah's behind her in his own cart and Alana's in the 3rd cart with Ian.)

(When Noah tried to go onto the inflatable bounce thing-a ma-jiggy he flew around like a rag doll, so I had to give him a helping hand.
Below my niece Alana shows off by doing the splits in mid air.)

(The kids ALL had a blast sliding down the hay bale slide. We tried over and over to get a group shot of all the kids sliding at once, but what would you know- every one of them moved to the beat of their own drum and slid down the slide at different times. This was the best "in action" shot I snapped of a few of them- that's Bella doing the panty shot, Daniel on the right and Ian's up near the top.)

Just before leaving Cornbellys I took a walk through their pumpkin patch and decided to buy a few pumpkins to decorate my front porch with. While I was at it, I also bought two bales of hay and 3 bundles of cornstalks. I HAD NO IDEA HAY WEIGHED SO MUCH- I always thought a bale of hay would be light as a feather... try more like 50 POUNDS! MY GOSH! And I wasn't prepared for how MESSY the stuff would be... I think I got HAY FEVER just on the ride home! I'll definitely think twice next year before buying any hay or perhaps I can convince Spencer to get it for me... it did make the front porch look cute and festive for a few weeks.

Carving Pumpkins
Okay, truth is, Spencer and I did most the pumpkin carving while the boys just ran around on the front lawn; I did however manage to get Noah to help take out some of the pumpkin guts- one scoop and that was it- he freaked out cuz it was too messy! HE DOES NOT LIKE TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY!

(Noah was sporting shorts and flip flops...
YES people it was still that hot here in October!)

(Ian spent most of the time while Spencer and I were carving pumpkins rearranging decorations on my front porch.)

Now the honest truth- I personally HATE carving pumpkins- it's just too much work! I admire those people who have the gift of being able to carve just about whatever out of pumpkins- I just don't have the patience to sit around working with the stinky thing.

Spencer made me promise him that I wouldn't throw away his pumpkin after he was done with it- at least not until after Halloween- so for two weeks this is what sat on our front porch...

Spencer's pumpkin that was throwing up pumpkin guts! GROSS!

"Boo" at the Hogle Zoo
The Saturday before Halloween, I took all three of the boys up to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake to take part in the "BOO AT THE ZOO". I learned about the event through a newsletter the zoo emailed me earlier in the month- I had the impression the activity was for MEMBERS ONLY, like myself, but boy was I wrong; I arrived at the zoo and saw that ALL OF UTAH was there too!!! After seeing the crowd just gathered along the streets in front of the zoo and in the parking lot, I nearly decided to turn around and head back home, but I didn't. Instead I found me a parking spot, loaded the boys into the double stroller and fought my way thru the crowd (just as a note- it sure helps being short and pushing a double stroller around in a crowd- nobody wants me to run them over with the stroller so they immediately move out of the way and by being short, I can see ALL the worm holes in a crowd). My sisters Celeste and Tricia met up with us there- they brought along all of their kids;

(left to right: Alana was a hip pirate maid, she's holding Izzy who was a skeleton, Daniel is the astronaut squatting in front of her, Bella is Minnie Mouse, Tori was Ariel, Luke or Jake? one of the twins, not quite sure who was who cuz they're identical, was Spiderman, Noah was Peter Pan, Christian's in the yellow hoodie, Kirsten is in the pink, Eli was the Jack Sparrow skeleton, the other twin, Luke or Jake was a member of the SWAT TEAM,
Alec is crouching behind Ian who was Donald Duck.)

the kids all collected candy from different sponsors who were stationed there through out the park and we all enjoyed the nice weather while looking at different animals. (Noah & Daniel enjoying their candy.)

(Isn't Ian so stinking CUTE in his costume?! If you squeezed his bill it "quacked". Bella made an adorable Minnie Mouse too; look at those heels! she walked everywhere with them- even up hill!)

A couple of days after our visit to the park, I received another newsletter from the zoo informing me that the zoo had shattered their previous attendance record on the day of the "Trunk or Treat". 23,497 guests attended the Boo at the Zoo! The last time the zoo had ever had an attendance record so high was back in 1983 when the zoo offered free admission- even with free admission they only had 17,696 guests visit that one day. I'm telling you peeps, it was crazy at the zoo- I couldn't help but wonder that day what the animals thought of all the people?!

Having a "SWASH BUCKLIN'" time down at ye ol' PIRATE COVE...

The eve before Halloween, my mother in-law invited myself and the boys over to the Scera to party at the Pirate Cove the Scera Youth Theater created. At first the boys were a bit weary of all that surrounded them- the Youth Theater did an EXCELLENT job turning the outside courtyard of the Scera into a Pirate Cove- complete with rolling fog, hanging skeletons, pirate music, a fortune teller, and games the children could play; every cast member even dressed up and spoke like pirates! The event was totally cool! The boys eventually found their comfort zone- Ian enjoyed eating the free bucket of popcorn grandma gave him and Noah loved the sword fight! ( I think all the little kids, including Noah, were curious to see if the treasure chest really did contain gold.)

Once all the kids were done playing games, everyone was treated to dinner- even the meal was probably one "real" pirates would probably eat- drumsticks, dinner rolls and chocolate chip cookies.

Halloween
Ian woke up sick the morning of Halloween, so we took it easy during the day and hung around the house till it was time to go out and trick or treat. I decided to leave both of the younger boys at home with Spence while Noah and I went trick or treating with my sister Tricia and her family. Before we headed out though to collect our candy, we practiced a little "Halloween etiquette" with Noah- teaching him to say "please" and "thank you" each time he rang the doorbell and was given a piece of candy. The practice helped; he was extremely polite and thanked each person who handed him candy. Although Ian didn't go out on Halloween night, I still decided to get him dressed up in his Donald Duck costume so he wouldn't feel completely left out.It rained a little on us while we were out trick or treating, but the rain didn't dampen the kids spirits or stop them from going house to house- they were eager to fill their bags full of candy. We walked and walked till we all felt as if we couldn't walk any longer; what a RELIEF it was to see Trish's brother in-law Mitch pull up beside us in a motor home and offer us all a ride back to the house- WE NEEDED IT!

Noah didn't really eat much of his candy that evening- if I remember correctly he only had 2 pieces, (Israel, Daniel & Noah raiding their candy stash!)

and now that I'm thinking about it- I think his Halloween candy is still downstairs in the candy cupboard. The highlight of the night had to had been when Noah puked all over ME not just once, but 5 times just after I carried him into our house from the car!!! It was totally disgusting! I think I remember staying home with the boys a whole week after that because everyone was SICK with some stomach bug. YuCk!
(By the way... Cohen dressed up as a skunk during our outing at the zoo; he was sick along with Ian on Halloween so I chose not to dress him up. If you want to see a picture of him in his skunk costume, click here .)