Halloween

Ward Halloween Party

We loved this view from our back porch!

Boys

We have some amazing friends named the Hertzlers.  They have 3 boys and our family loves their family so much.  Yesterday the Hertzlers took Andy and Jonah with them up to SLC to visit several museums and landmarks.  Jennie Hertzler sent me this photo of the boys after they dressed up in one of the museums.  

Video

sam & eden

simple things

I took these two photos through the tiny window in the door at church while Sam was in Nursery.  It was so cute watching him eat his little snacks and drink his water.  He was a tough kid to get use to Nursery.  All of our other kids liked it right off the bat.   But it took Sam a few months.  Now he really likes it. 

Hana at her "Wax Museum" at school.  She was Anna Pavlova, a famous ballerina.  She ate it all up.

Zions National Park

 On Monday we went to Zions National Park.  With the government shutdown going on right now, our Governor struck a deal to pay the US Government a crazy amount of money to keep our parks open.  We were glad we ended up being able to go!  It was such a gorgeous day.  The skies were clear, and it was about 60 degrees.  GORGEOUS.  

 The kids on the bus.  

 They loved how tame the squirrels were.  They even let you touch them.  

 We took 3 hikes.  We did the first part of the Narrows hike first.  

 Charity and Sam were slow and Charity was sick, so Steve and I had to carry them on the hikes on our shoulders.  Which gave us a good workout.  

 The 2nd hike we did was Weeping Rock.

 The last hike we did was Emerald Pools.

 We wished we had had more time there, but we had to head home that day.  

But we were so glad we went.  It was pretty great.  The only problems were poor Charity being sick, and I had run a couple of miles earlier that morning, and then with all the hiking and a baby on my shoulders, my knee was not too happy with me.  But all in all, it was a fantastic vacation!

Fall Break Day 4

Another nice day today.  We drove over to Beaver and went to church there.  We went to all 3 hours because of a talk in Conference last weekend that said that you should always go to all 3 hours of church, even when you're on vacation.  When we have the kids with us we sometimes just go to Sacrament Meeting on vacation because our kids don't like going to classes where they don't know anyone.  But we were all welcomed so nicely and we all enjoyed the meetings.  

 After that we drove to Cove Fort and ate a little picnic lunch that we had packed.  

A nice missionary gave our family a tour around the fort that was interesting.  

 Below is a photo of Andy and Jonah on the wall of the fort.  

Day 3 Southern Utah Vacation

 Today was a lot of fun!  Steve arrived this morning and we went right over to the Frontier Homestead State Park.  We really liked this place.  The kids played and played for about 2 hours and were so upset when we said we needed to leave.  

 They had cool Pioneer buildings and homes to walk through.

 And some Native American stuff too.

 A little bit of mining.

 Sam and Charity playing in a covered wagon.

 Charity wearing the dunce hat at the Deseret School.

 After lunch we drove over to Kolob Canyon.

 It was an absolutely perfectly beautiful day and the park didn't have many people there.  

 We all loved it here!

 Funny story about our van:  I was parked and the sliding door was open.  A few of the kids had gotten out.  This lady walks up to the open door and says "Hi!"  She had luggage in her hands and started to get in, and stopped when she saw our looks of surprise on our faces.  She said "Isn't this the shuttle?"  We laughed!

 We all did a fun hike.  It was awesome.

Then we drove back to the hotel, swam for a while, then got some pizzas for dinner.  Great day!