From Sand to Snow

We returned from a trip to St. George at 1am last night. Grandpa Bergin warned us about a storm that was coming, so we quickly packed and left at 9:15pm last night instead of driving home today. We woke up this morning to six inches of snow on the ground, so we're glad we left when we did.

While in St. George, we attended the live Nativity at Tuacahn that featured a real camel, horses, sheep, and goats. The kids loved it although the temperatures were frigid. We also toured Brigham Young's winter home and wondered why all the door knobs were so close to the ground. Apparently, almost everyone was 5 feet 6 inches or shorter back then. We also saw firsthand how fabric was woven from cotton that used to be grown in the area. Emma even picked some cotton from the plants growing on the grounds, although she got in trouble for it. Later, in Snow Canyon State Park, Emma picked an armful of what looked like wild rhubarb and asked if we could make a pie out of it. Dad quickly stowed the plants in the cooler hoping that no park ranger had seen what was likely an illegal harvest. We never made the pie and aren't even certain if the stuff was rhubarb.

In Snow Canyon, we took a short hike to a small slot canyon. Luke was tickled and thought the whole place was a giant sand box. Rachel drew pictures in the sand, and her impish giggles echoed up and down the canyon walls. Brooke and I marveled that such a beautiful place was so close to the road -- a perfect spot for our small children.

Halloween

Better late than never, right? Here are pics from our spooky, soggy night. It rained buckets here thus cutting our trick-or-treating short. Luckily, the kids had plenty of candy from trick-or-treating the day before at Dad's work. We were eager to go home, put on our warm PJ's, snuggle together and hand out candy. Something fun that we did BEFORE trick-or-treating that would make a great tradition: eating out at Wendy's with my grandparents. I'm so mad I didn't take a picture! We were all dressed up in our costumes, including me and Ben, and the comments and great looks from others in the restaurant really made it fun. They really should have given us free food for looking so darn good. :) And I didn't have to scramble to cook and clean up dinner so we could head out trick-or-treating! A win-win.

My little Jessie


My sweet princess


My ferocious lizard/dinosaur--what do you think it is??? This costume was borrowed from a good friend, because I ran out of steam to make a cowboy costume for Luke. I felt kinda bad about that, but he is only two and he didn't care a bit.


Family picture. Can you tell what Ben and I are?

(Salt and pepper)

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

PUMPKINS!!! I love them! We took a field trip with friends to Pumpkinland today . The weather was gorgeous!
We picked out several beautiful pumpkins.




Enjoyed the little corn maze--look at this colorful corn!

Admired the animals, fed the goats, and oohed and ahhed over the darling bunnies.

Pretended to be someone else.

I love these ones of Luke--he has the funniest faces!


Here's the whole gang atop some pretty huge pumpkins. What a cute group of kids!

What a FUN way to spend the first day of Fall Break. And now our porch is filled with some orange beauties. Happy fall!

Happy Birthday Luke!

My baby is TWO. Two years old. He is so slender now, it's hard to believe he was once a super chunky ten-pound-baby. I didn't hold any sort of party or get-together for him this year. We kept it low-key since we knew he would mostly want to just play with all his new trucks and cars. He opened all his presents in the morning, some before the girls went to school and the rest when it was just him and me. It was fun to have that one-on-one time with him and all his new toys. That evening, the Familias came over for cake and ice cream and some playtime. He is OBSESSED with any and all vehicles these days. A simple drive in the car is super exciting for him as he points out every single car, truck, police car, tractor, etc. Ben and I got him a big rig and a tractor toy, a few vehicle books, as well as a scooter and a big wheel type toy. He really doesn't care about the scooter and big wheel yet--he just wants to play with his new trucks. He got a lot of different trucks from family and friends too so he is set!

Opening gifts


I love his expression as I'm taking this one--"Mom, I can't get this ribbon off and I want it NOW!!!!!"

He got a super cute "Birthday Boy" T-shirt from my mom and dad. It looks adorable on him! Perfect for the occasion!

My easy-peasy car cake.

The girls happy to "clean off" the frosting on the cake toppers

These cute little boys are just the cutest buddies. They mostly just watch each other play right now but they like to be around each other and I know in another year or so they'll be running around having a ball.

All in all, a great second birthday for my little buddy boy! Some fun stuff about Luke: He loves puzzles, pretzels, milk, fruit, reading, hanging with his sisters (not necessarily interacting with them always, but loving being with them), digging in the sandbox, music, singing "Wheels on the Bus," snuggling, playing dress-up, jumping, and taking walks. I can't imagine life without him!

Autumn

Autumn. By far, my favorite season. I love everything about this time of year: leaves, the warm sun combined with crisp air, cider, pumpkin patches, Halloween decorations, fall colors, cool evenings, open windows, new footie pj's (for the kids, wish I had some for myself though!), pumpkin foods, apple foods, General Conference, soups and stews, tights, Halloween songs and books, looking forward to the many upcoming holidays--I could go on and on. I feel more gratitude in the fall than in any other season for the beauty and blessings in my life.

With that said, we enjoyed a leaf-collecting excursion Saturday morning up in the canyon. We drove around for awhile admiring the rich, gorgeous colors while listening to Conference. At noon, we hopped out of the van and began our exploration. We all had so much fun collecting leaves, throwing rocks into the river, and enjoying nature. The weather was beautiful. We had a picnic surrounded by yellows, oranges, and reds. A most perfect day! How I love my little family.