Happy Halloween!

We had a great time this year and of course I packed in as much as possible!  Talmage also wore as many costumes as possible, see if you can count them  :)  We started the season off with several little Halloween parties at the library and fitness center.

The only pics I have of Kait in her Elmo costume, worth it though, isn't she cute!

We enjoyed a great Halloween care package from Aunt Stephy

Went to the Zoo a couple times (including once, this time, where Mom got the Boo at the Zoo date wrong, doh!)

Went and watched Mckayla in her Halloween Parade at school

And well, just plum wore them out  :)

Then Halloween actually came!  :)  A corn maze in Lehi called Cornbelly's (which is SO much fun, TONS of activities for the kids) had a little Pumpkin Princess Pageant that the girls got to participate in.  My mom found Mckayla her dress at the DI and helped her make the leaves that we put all along her waistband (wish you could see them better) and on her headband.  Mckayla did all the beading.
Kaitlyn's wasn't anything exciting, more last minute so she didn't feel left out, just tacked some orange ribbon the bottom of her green velvet dress (thank  you DI again).  They got to go up on stage and have a little paragraph we wrote written about them, it was very cute.  If I can figure out how to get the audio up I will.  A BIG thank you to Grandma Marla for taking them down there until we could be there and keeping the kids overnight so Jer and I could have our own Halloween fun.....

Not that kind, yeesh!  ;)  Jer and I got to run the Halloween Half Marathon together Saturday morning!  So fun!  We would normally race 20 minutes apart -meaning I would have 20 minutes to get ready to cheer for him  :)  but today I wanted to run with him.  I think it was kind of mandatory seeing as our rockin costumes go together well!  We ran a 1:46 which is about 3 minutes better than Jer's time earlier this year at Hobblecreek.  Way to go babe!

Fun race and fun seeing 70% of the 2000+ runners in their costumes!

After our race that morning, then the pageant, we trick or treated at Grammy Allan's work, then went to the house to see Grandpa and Tyler.  It was really cute to see my Dad playing with the kids.

Then we got to rest at home for a couple hours before heading out to trick or treat the neighborhood.  Sorry this is the only pic we got.  The kids were really cute and had a great time till the end where hands were getting pretty cold and bags pretty heavy.  Kate retired to the stroller after about 15 minutes, but that's ok.

When I say their bags/buckets were full, I mean it!  We didn't go crazy and drive around to other neighborhoods (hate that by the way, we saw a few adults hauling little kids around with a car in tow, it's JUST candy people!), just to most of our own, but they filled those buckets to the top!  We enjoyed a movie and popcorn together (where mom and dad fell asleep), and a good nights sleep.  

Let the parental candy tax begin!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

"Oh what do you do in the Summer time...'

So this post is WAY overdue and late, but I couldn't let summer get away from us without summarizing a little bit of it.

We were fortunate enough to get to have Aunt Jamie and Cousin Morgan come out from New York for a few days back in July.  Mckayla just adores Morgan!  She was around her constantly mothering and playing with her.  Talm thought she was pretty cool too, and Kait, she hovered cautiously  :)

We had the opportunity to have my great friend Heidi come and take some impromptu cousin pics for us.  When I say impromptu I mean it.  We took about 15 mintues to do these (and there are more of just Jamie and Morgan too) and she made em work and look great just right up on Jer's mom's porch.

Love their faces in these, Kait's particularly.  In the first one she's just keeping her eye on everyone and questioning why Morgan is getting her siblings attention, and in the second, well, Talm and Kait just remind me of the farmer picture with the husband and wife and pitchfork.  Don't know why, just does  :)

We also got to take Jamie and Morgan to the Zoo!  My mom bought us a membership last year and it was great.  It was a grandparent plus membership that allowed me or her to take the kids, as well as 3 other guests for free.  We just went for probably our last time this past week and it was so quiet and slow, just like we like it.  But I digress.  It was fun with Morgan in July too, we especially loved the train ride.

We went to see Toy Story 3 with Grammy Allan/Grammy Jolene/Grammy with the puppies.  We haven't nailed down a solid name just yet  :)  I know, it's been 6 years, but Grammy Allan always makes me think of my Grandma Allan, and Grandma Jolene just hasn't rung a bell with me either.  We're working on it

I took the kids to a couple small parades this year which was fun.  They've discovered how to run after candy, and don't get too bothered by the loud noises anymore.  The one up in Cottonwood Heights we went to was fun because it had a lot of free kids activities of course including our favorites, bounce houses, face painting, and balloons.

I took the kids up to the Copper Mine for the first time.  Talm thought it was awesome, Mckayla wasn't as amused.  The girl has high expectations, it could have been the heat though.  Talm's big disappointment was that we weren't taken on a personal tour down in the pit to try out the larger-than-a-house dump trucks  :)  It was fun though.  I haven't been there since I was about 12 with my mom, siblings, and Grandpa Joe.  We took a picture in front of this tire then that I hope to find soon. 

Our summer of course had it's fair share of road trips.  I'm not a huge fan, but the kids are getting old enough now that it's fairly doable, and I do love getting out with them.  They're such good sleepers camping too, well except Kait, she still hasn't nailed down the whole falling asleep by herself in the tent thing, so we all end up going down pretty early.

Yes, most of these trips are for races, but I try really hard to make it a family trip with a race as well.  These last couple pictures are from my race at Scofield.  Mckayla wanted to stay home with her Grandma, I was shocked and we missed her, but I guess it's a good thing she has her opinions and choices.....I guess  ;)

This particular race I was shuttled almost 2 miles out into the lake on a boat to start and left a water bottle on board they assured me would get returned.  This wouldn't be so important except for the fact that my wedding ring was inside!  Yeah I forgot to take it off and that's all I could think to do with it, lame I know.  But they assured me they'd return it to me.  So I go to find them after the race and can't...anywhere.   Long story short it did get returned while Talmage was with me.....with something else inside.
Yup, this little guy got put back in the water before we went home while we were playing (above)

The summer also consisted of lots of swimming both open water at the handy little Herriman Pond out by Jer's mom's, as well as the great pool I work at in Kearns.

We even got to go to Classic Waterslides, somewhere I also haven't been since I was a kid.  Talmage our most sqeimish one sometimes, was ironically the daredevil on the slides going down them all in tow with one of us.  Mckayla wanted nothing to do with them (still traumatized from the Snake River tubing we did in July (still gotta post about that) probably), but played in the kiddie area with Kaitlyn.  It was fun anyway though.  I've really had to learn to find the fine balance between letting them do their own thing what they'll have fun with, yet still put our foot down sometimes.  My biggest challenge right now is getting them (Mckayla mostly) to be willing to try experiences or food we deem safe and not poisonous.

Another membership we enjoyed over the last year was our Living Planet Aquarium pass.  It's a good deal if you go more than once in a year as the membership price is the same as if you went twice.  It's small and doesn't have a ton of activities or anything, but I think we probably went 5 or 6 times, and now of course that it's expired Talmage keeps asking to go back.  Not sure whether we'll buy another membership or not to here or the zoo, they all cost money, although I think this money is well spent, better than toys at least.

Sorry for the blotchy pics, they were from my camera phone and it's dark inside, so not the best lighting.

Now that summer is 'dead and gone' (sorry, had to use it) I miss it for sure.  I love spending time with the kids.  I love having picnics in the park, going swimming several times a week, riding bikes around, library story time, camping, trying to find as many super cheap or free activities as possible.  I love that they have school that they enjoy now, but I love the laid back feeling of 'what adventure should we have this week?' type of feeling.  Jer doesn't really get it, my wanting to always be busy with them, but that's ok, maybe it's a dad thing.  That's why God gave them a mommy   :)