October 2017

We stopped by Judy's (Gram Graham) house while we were out on a bike ride one morning. She had more pieces of the fairy garden that they all got to put together. My boys have a really good grandma!

 By the beginning of October, Thomas was still not saying more than 5 words. The pediatrition suggested that I get him "assessed". The Speech Pathologist worked with him for about an hour and said he was pretty advanced in every category except oral language. He understands on a 6 year old level. I'll agree. He's advanced in my book.

 One of the fun places we like to visit is Wheeler Farm. The Duncan's joined us this time, cuz it's always a different adventure with different people.

 Remember being a kid and jumping in leaves? My boys are so good at this game! Even with the 2 giant oak trees gone from the neighbors yard this year. We still found enough leaves to play in!

 Kyle came into town for an event at Weber State in October. Just like we usually do when he's around, we made it an occasion to be together. He got us box seats at the Weber State Football game...The "box" we were in was so crowded, so we did our best to make friends with a neighboring box who would allow us to watch the Utah football game.

 

Another fun trip to Gram Graham's house. She always has so many fun decorations for the season.

 Sometimes when you play in the leaves, you just need a helmet.  Never can be too safe.

 I really can't believe how lucky I've been to lug these two around day after day in that tiny bike trailer. They have been such good sports!

 Over Fall Break we decided to try out Witch Fest at Gardner Village. The idea was pretty cool, though, it turns out Fall Break is for ALL OF UTAH. I'm quite sure ALL OF UTAH was there. We had a big group of us, and it was impossible to stay together. I only lost Thomas one time😥.

 After Gardner Village we took a quick trip to Scheels to ride the Ferris Wheel. They were finally willing to allow Thomas on, but they wouldn't let me ride because of my abnormally large belly. The other 3 boys enjoyed the ride with an employee of Scheels.

 Halloween time brings costumes and parties almost every day it seems like! I wanted to visit my Grandpa in costumes. This was the only time Thomas allowed me to put the monkey on him.

 As soon as we got the picture with GGPa, that monkey outfit came right off!

My grandpa took a good spill in October and has been bed ridden since. His mind is still as sharp as ever and he absolutely loves visits from the boys! They love to see him, because they know how much he loves them!

 We went to the annual Halloween Party at South Salt Lake. I feel like it's a really good well kept secret. For $1 a kid, there are unlimited activities and fun for the kids.

 Face painting, pumpkins and balloon animals included!

 This year's annual cookie party was another success! I think I counted over 50 people who stopped by for some sugar. 

 I tried to give the boys a nutritious breakfast because I knew lunch would only be sugar.

 Monday night's is Family Home Evening. When Dean is in charge of the activity, he will often find fun Science Experiments to do with the kids. Those boys have such a good dad!

 Speaking of a good dad, Dean also makes for an amazing husband. After a free trip to Mexico got cancelled because of some Zika mosquitoes and me carrying a baby, Dean found a great deal on airfare to San Francisco. He was such a great sport to take a very pregnant wife to see the bay exactly the way I wanted to. We arrived Wednesday morning, rode the subway to Fisherman's Warf, rented bikes and biked around the city all day. This trip was perfect motivation for me ride my bike every day leading up to the trip. The weather could not have been more perfect and we had a really fun day seeing the city!

 It was so refreshing to have no agenda, and come and go as we felt. We stopped at an outdoor art exhibit.

 Rode along the coast with some amazing views!

 And even stopped on the bridge for some pictures.

 We had lunch in Saucalito on the other side of the bridge, then caught a ferry back to Fisherman's Warf.

 We rode up to Lombard street to check it out. Then we decided to try riding down it. Getting to the top was an extremely steep hike with a bike...How do they make roads that steep? Thinking of the kids at home, I wanted to capture our decent on video. I got it going, and as we started down, I must have hit the stop button, because it didn't record. So, we headed back up the hill with a 25% grade and captured the decent the second time down.

 We took the bikes back and walked around Fisherman's Warf for an hour or so. I think part of that trip has to be visiting the sea lions.

 Then we headed to the beach to watch the sunset. It was a perfect day!

 After the sun had set and we felt like traffic wouldn't be a problem, we headed up the road 100 miles to Windsor California where my good friend Kira lives. She was so nice to host us and give us great tips on where to visit for the next couple of days. Our first stop Thursday morning was Armstrong Woods with some giant redwoods to walk through.

 Then we headed for the coast to see some beaches! We stopped at 4 different beaches that day and drove a lot! There were a lot of slow windy roads, and I was just glad I didn't have any small boys in the back to entertain.

All 4 beaches were very beautiful and didn't have many people. First, we went to Shell Beach. I soaked up the sun on a large rock while Dean collected rocks. Once again, the weather was perfect!

Next we had lunch at Goat Rock Beach. We saw some sea lions, seagulls and a lot of water. I think this is where part of Goonies was filmed.

   Then we headed up the coast to a small town, with another beach. Only this time, the fog had set in and I was less willing to sit and enjoy. It was still a cool beach with some cool arches and Dean found plenty of cool rocks and a bunch of these giant shells!

We ended at Fort Ross where found Glass Beach. The sand had a bunch of glass that had washed up from back in the day when the ocean was used as a landfill. After 4 beaches, Dean had quite the collection of rocks. It was kinda cool to see how different the rocks were from beach to beach. After we had collected all we could, we headed back to Kira's house. Only the sun was setting and the road we had to take to get there was far more crooked than Lombard street which claims to be the "crookedest" street in the world. 

 On Friday, we talked Kira and her son Benson into joining us. They took us to a fish hatchery, then to a cool dam. We headed back for her son to come home from school. 

 That evening Dean and I went to Calistoga. We saw a bunch of vinyards and went to this castle. They were getting ready for a party that night, we just let ourselves in and took a good look around. We went through the winery and almost got some grape juice as a souvenir, but we didn't know how to get it onto the airplane without checking our bags.

 One of the most interesting parts of this ride was driving through the forests where the giant fire had just ended. The fire ate up hundreds of vineyards and thousands of homes and structures. It was interesting to see how the towns were recovering. That night, we headed back to Windsor and had pizza and watched to World Series with Kira.

 Saturday came and it was time to pack up. We headed out and had planned to drive the distance of  Napa Valley and see the thousands of vineyards. We started in Calistoga and found a cool state park. We did a little hike, but didn't have time to finish because we had to get our rental car back to the city before 1. By the time we got back to the car, we realized we didn't have time to drive through Napa Valley, so we went back to the main road and made it back just in time.

 As we approached the Golden Gate Bridge, there was a giant fog settling in over the bridge. I was so glad we had our bike ride a couple of days earlier where the views and weather was perfect. As we crossed the bridge this time, there was just a white wall of fog for the view.

 Once we returned the car, we set out on foot. We had nowhere in particur to be until our flight left at 9:00 that night. So we just walked wherever we wanted. We stopped for lunch at a sports bar to watch the Utah game, but Utah was playing so poorly, we felt like we shouldn't stay past half time. We bought some souveniers for the boys and babysitters, thought about going bowling until we saw it would have been over $65 for the 2 of us to bowl a game, watched some little league hockey and stopped at every cathedral along the way. I was always anxious to take a break and sit down. The air was chilly, so these cathedrals were a welcome break for my wussy body. I think we went to 3 cathedrals and there was a wedding going on at each one. It was kinda fun to sit in and listen/watch. 

 We finally made it back to the airport and home to our sleeping boys by midnight on Saturday night. My mom was there, and she was probably anxious to get out of our space. We had at least 10 people who took a turn watching our boys during the 4 days we were gone...It's now wonder we don't leave them often. I was so glad for the break from monotony and to spend a couple of days with my one and only. It was fun to see the boys again on Sunday morning and to hear about the fun times they had too!

Oliver's school had a small trunk or treat at the end of school on Monday. I absolutely loved his "captain america" costume that was a cape and mask my dad had given him on his birthday last year. 

 We had some neighbors invite us over for pizza and treats before trick-or-treating...I just love our neighborhood!

 Well, then the candy capture began. Sorry to the neighbor who once had a nice, neat pile of leaves. I intended to bring Thomas home after a few doors, but when he saw what he would have been missing, he had no problem keeping up with his brothers. 

 So there they are. Thomas dressed as Thomas with a few lines of face paint. Lincoln dressed as a spider-the best part of his costume is that he loved it. And Oliver dressed as Oliver in a cape and a mask. Happy Halloween for everyone!!!