When you turn 9....

Apparently, when you turn 9, you should have all your girlfriends over for a night of food, makeup, nails and hair. And if you only have 2 1/2 hours, you won't even get around to doing the hair! We had Rachel's awesome aunt and her friend (who have more nice nailpolish than you can even imagine), come and help out with doing nails and makeup (since mom is neither qualified or able to do 9 girls makeup and nails at once). We had a silly girls night and it was fun!

And my disclaimer would be that they chose ALL their own colors-we just did it for them! BTW Aubrey would NOT be left out of this action-she joined right in. And we had a couple other little sisters who, when they came to pick up party girls, got their nails painted too. Girls!!

Day off school

Took advantage of a mild November day and a day off school-which happened to be the same day!- and went up to Hogle Zoo with some friends. The animals were very playful in the cooler weather and the Polar Bear alone entertained us for 20 minutes! He was being so funny pushing off the glass to swim away and then coming back and doing it over and over.

 So covered in kids you can't see the statues they are sitting on!

 Aubrey on carousel

 Trevor and Jacob on carousel

 Rachel is still not too old for this stuff! (Yay!)

SoJo 5K

In October of 2011, I had run the SoJo half marathon and they had this kids race as part of the event.  (Separate registration) but my kids got a shirt, and a ribbon, and got to eat race food too. This year, they decided that they wanted  a real challenge and so we (Rachel, Trevor and I) signed up for the 5K. We practiced running a few times, but they never made it to the 3 miles so I was a little nervous about it. I knew we could finish if we took our time. We finished in about 45 minutes. My kids both took 1st in their age groups (competition wasn't TOO stiff  =) ) Really proud of them for doing it and doing it well! New tradition? We will see- 1st place winners get free registration into next years race, so why not? When the weathers holds like it did this year, it's a really pleasant race!

Changed forever!

This sweet little smile will never be the same!

October

We always find ways to stay busy in October, especially when the weather is nice! We love to go to Frightmares (at Lagoon).

We also enjoy the Scarecrow Festival, which is even better for us now that it is 2 minutes from home and FREE. Can't beat that for entertainment :) This year was tainted a little by Trevor getting attacked by a tree. He literally turned to run to something and just ran straight into this wicked little broken branch. He didn't let it ruin his day-he was sad for just a little bit and then joined back into the fun.

 Bungee Tramp!

 

 We also usually enjoy a trip to Gardner Village to take some pictures and see the witches. This year we had a little flower, a headless horseman and Captain America.

St George Marathon

A beautiful October weekend had the family traveling down to sunny St George. We enjoyed some swimming and stuff on Friday, but the main event was running the marathon. I was able to finish in 3:46, which was just under my goal time. Very pleased with that. Always nice to have family support! Allison ran too, so did Tam and my sister Sara. We stayed the rest of the weekend and just relaxed!

State Fair 2012

We enjoy going to the state fair each year for a few hours. That big yellow slide is just a tradition that's not going anywhere. One day, Mom won't have to hike that scary staircase anymore, but for  now, I play along and try to hide the panic attack.

This year, they had the bubble balls out! If you haven't seen these, it's pretty funny. The kids (or whoever I guess) get in these balls and then try to control them in this pool of water. But apparently, they are hard to control and you basically slip and slide all over. Water fun without getting wet. Last time, Trevor did not enjoy the claustrophobic feeling in the ball, so we did not encourage him to do it again. But he really wanted to, and ended up having a good time.

 

Then (yes, there's more fun!) this year, they had a concert that Rachel was interested in attending. Her favorite show on Nick is "Victorious" and the star of that show, Victoria Justice, was promoting her new movie by doing a concert tour. Lucky for us SLC was one of the stops! The boys and Aubrey went home and we hitched a ride with Lanae and her girls (who came too!)

T's birthday

Since last Christmas, Trevor has been asking for one thing for his birthday - Skylanders (video game for the Wii). [If you don't know what that is, you must not have a boy in the 5-10 age range.] Wish granted!

Trevor has been playing soccer this season. This game, was actually on his birthday. (He was added late to the team, that's why his yellow is a little different shade).

 

Trevor also got a birthday party this year. Inspired by another party we went to this summer, we rented this blowup water slide and it provided (literally) hours of entertainment. Awesome!

 And he also insisted on the pinata. Batman's head came off nicely after a few good hits!

Labor Day

We like to find a hike for Labor Day-this year my sis in law organized us to going to Ensign Peak up above the State Capitol. It's a great little hike with fantastic views. I didn't lug the big camera so this is all taken with cell phone, so excuse the quality.

The kids at the top (camera facing North-kids are facing toward the valley).

 The family at the top-camera facing out toward the valley.

 Trevor decided to do some extra hiking and went all the way up this hill. He's the little speck at the top left.

 After the hike, we grabbed a picnic lunch and ate at Liberty Park. The kids played for a while and then we wandered over to the pond. They were still doing the paddle boats! We were so excited because it's something that we've wanted to do, but they haven't ever been there when we were (we don't go to Liberty Park that much!). Darren took Aubrey and Trevor.

 I had Rachel. Once we got the hang of controlling it, I let Rachel guide us and paddle for a while.

 The fountain was still open for the kids to play in. It was not by the splash pad where we have typically gone, but a little further south toward the pond. It represents the rivers that form the canyons that run into the Salt Lake Valley. The kids don't care about that, they just care about getting W-E-T! Aubrey is playing with Charlotte.

Brigham City Temple Open House

The last day of "summer" was on a Monday this year since school started on a Tuesday. We headed up to Brigham City to tour the new temple before it was dedicated. Cool too see. Very crowded and we couldn't really take our time, but that's okay. We went up with Robbins' and were able to eat lunch together after. We also found a peach stand and bought "the best peach I have ever tried" (that's what Rachel said). Thank goodness for baby wipes.