Out with the girls

I had quite the fun and busy weekend. It started with going with my sister and sisters-in-law to the midnight showing of "Twilight" Thursday night (technically Friday morning). We had a great time getting amped up with caffeine before hand. The movie was good, not great, but then movies made from books rarely hold up to the high expectations set by the book. It was definitely worth seeing though, and we had fun. Friday night we went to Chuck E. Cheese for my nephew's birthday - hadn't been there before, and now I know why - CRAZY! But the kids had a blast. Saturday my sister Ally & I helped my Mom watch my nephews (and my own kids) while everyone else (except my Dad who was working) went to the Utah/BYU game, while we tried to watch the game on TV. (I'll try not to rub it in how awesome it was, and how poorly BYU did since I know there are some BYU fans out there who read this. hee hee) Ally & I then abandoned my Mom with all 7 kids and went to the Coldplay concert. It was totally awesome! (whoa, just went back a decade or two) They are a great live band, great sound, cool lighting, two large screens so those of us in the nose-bleeds could actually see what was going on, etc. The only negative is that it took them forever to come out on stage - 1 hour and 45 minutes from when the concert started. But it was well worth the wait. I enjoyed just hanging out with my sis, just the two of us, it isn't something we do very often. I love being able to get out with the girls and do things without kids or husband sometimes - and appreciate those who allow me to do so!

lions, tigers & bears, oh my...

Ok, so there were no lions, and we couldn't see the tiger, but we did see bears and other creatures at the zoo yesterday. An odd place to go on a Tuesday afternoon in November, but I had been promising Logan all summer that we would go to the zoo and it just never happened. So when I had some time off from work that I needed to use, and the boys had a day off from school (Veteran's Day), I decided it would be a good time to go. It was a little cool, but with jackets we were fine, and luckily there was no rain. And it certainly wasn't crowded, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. Grandma, Aunt Darci, Aunt Kerianne, and cousins Jace, Brighton, Cael, & Bode (and a neighbor girl Aunt Darci was babysitting) all came with us - more kids = more fun. This was Kylie's first time and she absolutely loved it - she loves all animals and enjoys making animal noises all the time. Logan had a good time, but was a little disappointed he didn't see a lion. Trevor was anxious the whole time to get to the reptiles and scorpions (such a boy).

I just tried to keep up, taking pictures in less than ideal conditions (glass and fences don't make for good pictures). All 3 kids fell asleep on the drive back to Grandma's - proof that a good time was had by all.

As a side note, I remembered to post the picture of our house with the new stucco job. We are thrilled with how it turned out. Now if only we could get some landscaping done... maybe next spring.

Krazy Kooks!

Ok, I vow here and now to have a calm and maybe even boring Halloween next year. This year was absolutely crazy - fun, but crazy! We spent most of the day in Bountiful at my parents' house. We drove in the night before - and we didn't have time before we left to even carve a single pumpkin. I got up early and worked for a few hour while Pete took Logan to another dentist appointment (am I just cruel to schedule cavity fillings on Halloween???). The boys didn't have school for Nevada Day (only Nevada would have their statehood granted on Halloween). We then got the kids in their costumes for a family party - this was the fun part of the day. I love it when we get all my nieces and nephews as well as my cousins and their kids together - it is total chaos but always a lot of fun. The kids tolerated having pictures taken, then enjoyed jack-o-lantern pizzas, pumpkin sugar cookies, pumpkin bowling, and just running around in the backyard, then had a mini trick-or-treating session amongst the adults there.

I then packed everything up and waited for Pete to return from running some errands, and waited and waited... The biggest frustration is he didn't have his cell phone with him so I couldn't call to find out when he would be back or to hurry him along. We had originally planned on leaving by 2:30 pm so that Pete could attend a friend's wedding back in Wendover at 5:00 pm (why anyone would choose to get married on Halloween is beyond me). Well we didn't leave until almost 5:00 pm - and then got 15 minutes out and realized we forgot something important and went back (in rush hour traffic no less). By the time we got back to Wendover it was almost 7:30 pm. I quickly got the kids back in their costumes while Pete wrapped the wedding present. I took the kids out trick-or-treating while Pete went to the wedding. After only a half dozen houses Logan started crying that he wasn't feeling good so we went home. Trevor went out with some friends to do a little more, while Logan helped me hand out candy, though we missed the big rush. I got Kylie & Logan to bed and crashed completely exhausted from the crazy day. So we had fun at the family party, but hardly did any trick-or-treating, never carved a pumpkin, and I didn't even get any photos of the kids on our front porch. I'm going to try to do things different next year - I definitely won't split the day between two towns 130 miles apart.