Ghost Town Fun

Today the weather was so beautiful we decided (after Carolyn invited us!) to take a family trip to the ghost town of Grafton, Utah. We had so much fun! When we first arrived we were greeted by all the ghosts:

Actually, we were quite shocked to see all those people there. We were expecting the town to be vacant. Instead, we found all these people there who had just competed in the Butch Cassidy 10K. Luckily, they'd just finished the race and were handing out the medals and so they weren't there for too much longer. We found a nice shady place for a picnic and ate our lunch while the crowd cleared out.

While everyone was finishing eating, my two monkeys, er..I mean BOYS...entertained themselves on the fences and on a tractor.

Here's a picture Chris took of me and Alex:

After lunch we went and played on a rope swing someone had attached to a nearby tree.

And in case you were wondering...the babies were having fun, too! They were just chillin' out in their strollers and watching all the kids play.

We finally decided it was time to visit the buildings of Grafton. We got to walk in one home that consisted of a bedroom, a kitchen, a main room and a loft above.

The other buildings we could only peer in through the windows. The biggest one we thought was maybe a hotel or something, but it was actually a house.

They also had a schoolhouse/church--like on Little House on the Prairie.

Caleb also found a way to have fun here.

Here's a brief history of Grafton, if you can read the small print.

On the way home we stopped at the Rockville Cemetary where my great-great-great-great grandmother was buried.

One more stop before home brought us to a park in Hurricane so the kids could finish burning off their energy (is that even possible?) I know I was tired!

Halloween Pics

Halloween was fun this year but not as well-planned-out as I'd have liked. I wanted to make a fun spooky dinner like last year, but I just ran out of time! Here's a few pictures from Halloween night.

The boys in their costumes. Caleb was batman and Matthew was a monkey. Alex was a penguin.

Caleb took this next picture of me. It's kind of dark. I was a witch. I added the orange triangles at the bottom of the dress because it was a little short.

Our ward did a trunk-or-treat that night. It was pretty fun. Matthew doesn't remember trick-or-treating last year, so it was fun to watch him figure it out this year. All he knew was that he was getting dressed up in a monkey costume, then we went to the parking lot at the park and he walked around and people gave him candy. You could just see the wheels turning in his head as he was getting the hang of it. It was pretty cute because after he'd get his candy he would tell the people "thank you," but if they didn't hear him because of his soft voice he would stand there and say it over and over again until they'd say "you're welcome," and then he'd move on to the next trunk. Such a sweetie! All my pictures from this point on are of Matt because Caleb found his friend there and they went around together and had a great time, and Alex was asleep.Can you tell his basket is heavy from his load of candy?Digging into the goods.Cute little monkey eating his candy!

Abe Lincoln slept here last night...

and here's the proof!

Carving Pumpkins

Wednesday night we had a blast carving pumpkins with cousins. First all the kids drew their designs on a piece of paper, then with the help of the adults we cleaned out the pumpkins and carved out their jack-o-lanterns. Caleb just about lost his dinner when he smelled the inside of the pumpkin. He has such a sensitive nose and the smell was just a little too much for him. He observed from a distance until it was time for the carving.



The next two pictures are the kids with their jack-o-lanterns. In the second picture the kids tried to make the same face as their pumpkins.


Caleb and his pumpkin.

After we were all done we frosted Halloween cupcakes and ate them. Yum! Lindsey said that it was just like a school party. I think that means she had fun!

Commence Phase I

Well, okay, it's phase 1 out of who knows how many. When we bought our house there was not a green thing anywhere. No grass, no trees, no bushes...nothing! We won't be doing the rest of the stuff for a while, but we finally got some things planted right in the front of our house. It's not much, but it looks so much better to have something growing!

We Love the Zoo!

Last Saturday we had a blast as all of us siblings and our kids gathered together for a great day at the zoo. We missed Carolyn and Henry, but they were catching up on much needed sleep! Here are some pictures from the day.

Taking a break in the shade

We thought this snake looked pretty cozy all wrapped up like this!

What? I don't know where the oreo cookies went...


What does a tiger say?

Who's the real monkey?

Aah... He's so cute!

Two buddies. Matt couldn't see the rhinos without a big boost from his Uncle Russ.

The baby elephant was so cute. She even acted like a little baby. She just kind of toddled around and was really curious.

Matt was a little nervous by this big metal elephant. Eli had to hold him there to keep him from running away.

Alex enjoyed his train ride :) Look at his sweet smile! What a cutie.

The whole group. The kids outnumbered us by a lot...it's no wonder we lost a couple of them! Luckily, with so many pairs of eyes, we found them quickly.

What a great day! Families are the best!